KPIX S.F. 1953 Dr. Lloyd Luckmam interview with Wright

peterm · Post by **peterm** » Sun Nov 04, 2018 5:00 pm

IÃ¢â‚¬â„¢m not sure if this has been shared already?

Fascinating!

https://diva.sfsu.edu/collections/sfbatv/bundles/191389

SDR · Post by **SDR** » Sun Nov 04, 2018 11:51 pm

I believe that's the closest I've ever come to properly seeing and hearing the man. If his interviewer hadn't been so intent on moving ahead, we might have heard even more . . . !

Delightful. The New York exhibition is running, I guess, so it's 1953. He's still hale and able to put up with, dance with, a local interviewer, one I haven't had much luck finding reference to, so far . . .

SDR

Matt · Post by **Matt** » Mon Nov 05, 2018 9:38 am

In all the analysis of Wright's life, has anyone put together an authoritative list of his media appearances?

I believe there is perhaps a lot of unknown material out there, especially audio used for various radio interviews.

Roderick Grant · Post by **Roderick Grant** » Mon Nov 05, 2018 10:05 am

Sometime during the construction of Guggenheim, FLW encountered a gaggle of reporters outside the Plaza Hotel who interviewed him at length. One journalist recorded the interview, which was mostly the same old same old. But one asked why he disliked modern music, and Wright responded that by the end of the 19th century, acoustic orchestral music had run its course, so all the 20th century music was just a rehash of what had gone before. He suggested that composers start working on electronic music instead. Always a man ahead of his time.

Ginny Kazor had a tape of the encounter, but I don't know what has happened to it.

Matt · Post by **Matt** » Mon Nov 05, 2018 1:18 pm

I believe there were some interviews done for Voice of America as well. I am not sure if any interviewer of the time really knew what they had on their hands. I wish just one would have asked him to describe his design process in detail.

loo tee · Post by **loo tee** » Mon Nov 05, 2018 1:51 pm

The old boy is always good for a few chuckles. Such as saying he can't imagine how his "Butterfly" bridge would ever entail any maintenance costs, and would last forever. What a salesman! Almost as full of it as Trump.

DRN · Post by **DRN** » Mon Nov 05, 2018 1:55 pm

I only had time to see a couple of minutes of this interview...I'll watch the whole of it later, it is great.
My only other exposure to Wright in motion AND sound was video of his 1957 interview with Mike Wallace and a 1956 appearance on "What's My Line?". In this 1953 interview, Wright was considerably more animated and his words came more rapid fire.

Imagine him in 1913, or 1933.

peterm · Post by **peterm** » Tue Nov 06, 2018 7:28 am

ThereÃ¢â‚¬â„¢s this interview (1958) with Hugh Downs, too:

https://youtu.be/mLmDDXFkTWE

DRN · Post by **DRN** » Tue Nov 06, 2018 11:31 am

Do you imagine Olgivanna did an eye roll back and a forehead slap when she saw the first pic offered to FLLW for comment in the Downs interview was of the Cheney house?

peterm · Post by **peterm** » Tue Nov 06, 2018 11:38 am

Hee...
Notice that Wright, while describing the place in his typical poetic manner, handles it so gracefully by failing to mention the name of the client!

Rood · Post by **Rood** » Wed Nov 07, 2018 12:05 pm

Just after 21:00 Mr. Wright appears to state he couldn't see any reason why the bridge couldn't be twice as big .... or something to that effect.

Several years ago, when the plans were being discussed, again, in San Francisco, Aaron Green told me that Mr. Wright's bridge was criticized and rejected for being too small to handle present day traffic ... so I threw out the idea of building two bridges, side-by side. Aaron said, yes ... two separate bridges connected at the middle crossing.

From the first moment Mr. Wright apparently saw far beyond that idea.