The Wright height

SDR · Post by **SDR** » Tue Sep 15, 2015 5:04 pm

I'll find it. Do you recall who is the other person in the photo ?

In the meantime . . .

SDR

JimM · Post by **JimM** » Tue Sep 15, 2015 5:24 pm

Sorry about the quality...from a photo on back of a Newsletter.

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JimM · Post by **JimM** » Tue Sep 15, 2015 5:27 pm

Here's a little better resolution...

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SDR · Post by **SDR** » Tue Sep 15, 2015 6:00 pm

Well, I get c. 5'-8" -- in his shoes. How about you ?

I think my method is sound: Transfer the known height of the chair, using the vanishing point established in the photo,
to the centerline of Wright's figure; apply the known measurement; using the same scale, determine the remaining height of the figure.

Of course, there are variables which could seriously diminish the hoped-for accuracy. For instance, if the figure is leaning toward the camera
it could easily add, say, a half inch or more Wright's height, by this method.

Mr Williams seems to be lifting the chair he's holding, off the floor. Are they discussing the furniture ?

SDR

DavidC · Post by **DavidC** » Tue Sep 15, 2015 8:12 pm

It's also quite possible that Wright wore lifts/heels most-or-all of the time, too.

David

SDR · Post by **SDR** » Tue Sep 15, 2015 8:52 pm

Oh, I believe that is the case. So, if he was 5'-8 1/2" -- as he claimed to be in his autobiography -- in heels and lifts, his actual height may have been 5'-6" or 5'-6 1/2". . . ?

Hard to see what he has on his feet in this photo -- but there could be lifts in them as well:

Iowegian63 · Post by **Iowegian63** » Tue Sep 15, 2015 10:26 pm

In Brendan Gill's biography of Wright he says Frank was 5'6 and wore lifts in his shoes to appear taller. So Wright's claim in The Natural House would be with the lifts in his shoes....

SDR · Post by **SDR** » Tue Sep 15, 2015 10:39 pm

Sure. You can't imagine him being quite that revealing, can you . . . ?

In the photo immediately above, Wright's face is unlike that in any other image I've seen of him. It could easily be another person altogether -- to my eye.

SDR

ozwrightfan · Post by **ozwrightfan** » Tue Sep 15, 2015 11:19 pm

Mr Wright had dentures, so if they were renewed at some stage pehaps that changed the shape of his mouth. His face around the mouth in this picture, for me, reminds me of photos of him as a very young man.

Roderick Grant · Post by **Roderick Grant** » Wed Sep 16, 2015 12:23 pm

In the photo with Paul Williams, FLW measures 5'8" per SDR's accurate measurement. The heels of FLW's shoes look standard, which add about 1/2" to one's height. The photo was probably taken in 1954, when the 60 Years show was at Barnsdall, making FLW 87. If he was indeed 5'7.5" or even 5'6.5" with lifts at that time, that would indicate that in his youth he may well have been 5'8.5" as he insisted. Fudge an inch or so either way. (Do not take anything Brendon Gill wrote in his novel as authoritative.)

Roderick Grant · Post by **Roderick Grant** » Wed Sep 16, 2015 12:24 pm

In the above photo with FLW holding his knee, he resembles actor Ray Walston of "My Favorite Martian" fame.

SpringGreen · Post by **SpringGreen** » Wed Sep 16, 2015 4:11 pm

There was a photograph from the Frank Lloyd Wright Quarterly in the summer of 2014 (p. 11). Wright is seen standing at a stone pier at Taliesin, and his head was right underneath the bottom of a stone. I ran at the next day with a tape measure, and darnnit! the bottom of that stone was 5'8". Couldn't believe it!

Although the photograph showed him shadowed & you can't see details of his back, so I figure it's possible he was wearing the Cuban heels you can see in some photos.

DavidC · Post by **DavidC** » Mon Sep 21, 2015 8:31 am

I was watching the Steelcase DVD on the rehab/reconstruction of the Meyer May House the other day and Vince Scully mentions that he believes that Wright purposely had shorter windows and trim installed to fit Mr. May's diminutive height.

David

Roderick Grant · Post by **Roderick Grant** » Mon Sep 21, 2015 9:53 am

Spring Green, is that photo of FLW by the stone pier the one that was published in the November 1955 issue of HB on page 240? In the "vivid" blue suit? That's one of my favorite photos of him.

David, FLW did design the beds for the master bedroom to fit the diminutive stature of the Mays. There is in some of the first floor windows a transom that crosses below the full height of the windows which may have had something to do with the stature of the Mays. Not sure. The effect of the spaces in the house is of a superb scale throughout, however he manipulated the fenestration.

JimM · Post by **JimM** » Mon Sep 21, 2015 2:49 pm

Taken on his 86th birthday...

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