1962, THE 20TH CENTURY, "FRANK LLOYD WRIGHT" narrated by Walter Cronkite

Water Tribe this is the story of one man battled against what he called America's lust for ugly he was the man who said early in my life I had to choose between honest arrogance and hypocritical humility his name was Frank Lloyd Wright the master architect who helped change the face of America I have been accused of saying I was the greatest architect in the world and if I had said so I don't think it would be very arrogant because I don't believe there are many if any hundred years what we call architecture has been fully in the sense that it was not Nate it wasn't organic it didn't have the character of nature so the building should be natural appropriate to the time appropriate to the place and in all its features belonging to time place and men this is our story Frank Lloyd Wright [Music] what is the natural thing ones that nature new materials even the nature of your client nature of the situation on which the house is built nature of the climate it's all in nature study the building of a house I put a capital N on nature and call at my church said Frank Lloyd Wright here on the rolling Wisconsin farmland Frank Lloyd Wright was born he was buried here almost a century later from the hills of Wisconsin it's from the idea of an organic architecture an architecture that would grow from the earth as trees do [Music] in 1887 eighteen-year-old Frank Lloyd Wright runs off to Chicago soon joins the staff of architect Louis Sullivan form follows function Sullivan teaches his buildings represent a new American architecture and right soon becomes his top draftsman works with him for six years then in 1893 the Columbian Exposition inspires a classical revival which sweeps aside the new movement it is the era of imitation and Victorian gingerbread says right a house must be dedicated to the dignity of man the Winslow houses first Independent Commission leads at the turn of the century to the unveiling of his Prairie houses designed horizontally to hug the ground it's a revolution in interior space one room flowing into another the open plan the Willetts house anticipates the first carport the Robie house a generation ahead of its time for some the prairie house is a misunderstood object of derision but culminating in the coonley house in nineteen eight it heralds for others the emergence of a genius and architecture [Music] the Larkin building is hailed abroad for its use of space and light says one critic it has no equal in your unity temple pioneers poured concrete is an exterior surface but says right the reality of the building is the space within in 1990 runs off with the wife of a client and in Wisconsin builds himself a refuge from notoriety Taliesin shining brow then in 1916 Tokyo's Imperial Hotel has begun its foundations floated in mud to withstand earthquakes after a major one in 1923 he right gets the message hotel stands undamaged as monument of your genius but at home he gets little credit from his peers and lurid publicity leads to a few commissions [Music] architect Henry klom who came from Germany to work with Wright tells about this time after the Imperial Hotel was built by us practically and inactive for seven years except for a few sporadic jobs which were done beyond the Armenian color phone when he was 60 years old we gathered discussed his work and all of a sudden we were sitting alone five of us of a sudden he straightened up he was always straight to begin with he straightened up and a wonderful mission in his eyes and said boys give me ten more years and what could I do right we'll get 30 more years in 1932 his fortunes of low ebb he starts the telling Essen fellowship with his third wife Olga vana at his side from all over the world apprentices come to Wisconsin to absorb the principles of organic architecture by actual doing in a cooperative society dedicated to the unity of life and work inspired by rights eloquent what is fundamental to the architect at heart he has to know the life and he has to know life by studying it and how do you proceed to study life most successful indirectly by living at roots and that's what we're all trying to do and to live the life that goes with being an architect and heart which means the study primarily as I won't tell you again and again and again of nature the nature of whatever is structurally these are the lean years but rights philosophy of work adding tired to tired as it's lighter reward such as the display of their produce of the Country Fair [Music] they learn the way of the seasons with all living things as the Wisconsin summer wanes ahead lies the trip to Arizona to build their winter home in the West [Music] [Applause] over several seasons tell us in west rights winter headquarters near Phoenix will be constructed by the fellowship itself in the Arizona desert they find a new environment with new materials learning the state of becoming is based on change says right continual and aesthetic change don't think when you're in the drafting that's your golden moment because it isn't your golden moon does all the time when you're in service and when you're in action and when you're doing things this is a kind of learning by doing and by doing you'll soon get into the way of being they're all here together for a common purpose and you're here and make that common purpose richer as a human experience for everybody but we have your own contribution to it Taliesin West forever growing changing evolving becomes a part of the desert says one critic shaped by a master sculptor it is one of the most colorful most dramatic groups of buildings erected since the passing of the - says right Taliesin West is a look over the rim of the world [Music] by 1936 Frank Lloyd Wright is almost 67 for 30 years yes stood virtually alone against the conformist trend of a whole nation he has lived almost an entire generation as a man rejected and disregarded in his own country considered by the general American public and exhibitionist and eccentric to this he says and only do I intend to be the greatest architect who has yet live I intend to be the greatest of all time then slowly at first the Commission's come in by some members of his profession Wright has been called an impractical visionary now on the drawing boards fles in the battle is joined the long period of isolation and neglect is coming to an end a highly publicized building for the SC Johnson Company in Racine Wisconsin turns the tide [Music] it is a demonstration of space in continuous motion the roof floats independent of the walls on delicately papered mushroom-shaped columns building inspectors doubt the pillars can support the roof but they do the building means rediscovery for Frank Lloyd Wright falling water the Kaufmann house near Pittsburgh becomes world-famous built over a waterfall that is of organic design the organic architecture is a natural architecture the natural architecture know what wouldn't natural architecture be if the thing is successful the architects effort you can't imagine that house anywhere than right where it is it's a part of this environment and it graces its environment rather than disgraces it and years ahead commissions come quickly built in harmony with their sites a house in the woods a house on the prairie house by the sea Wright's buildings invite nature in inside materials taken directly from nature and a poetic arrangement of free-flowing space not the boxes beside boxes we call rooms as right [Music] the self-avowed egotist right puts on a good show overseeing the construction of a house are telling the client who complains of a leaking roof move your chair the architect is a key man in a civilization he says to be treated with respect right seems to where success with arrogance but beneath are the scars of battle still not fully won in 1950 the Taliesin choir heralds the completion of the Unitarian Church in Madison Wisconsin arriving with his wife the man who built it the son of a preacher is to address the congregation [Music] [Applause] there is something that stands much higher than wisdom and what is it it's the highest and the finest kind of morality and what is that beauty now I believe a home is much more a home for being a work of art and I think until it is a work of art it lacks the essential characteristics of the home I think that the teenage trouble the teenager today and all this competent clumped down the back stairs of our social status is largely due to the lack of beauty and environment the lack of the sense of it in the home the lack of it in the church but here the feeling for reverence will never die and the feeling for reverence is something elemental to beauty and to religion here you will see an expression it's best shown to you perhaps by the hands folded this way an expression and a feeling of Prayer subjected an object of Prayer can look at this building from the outside you will see that I don't think I can say much more I need to thank you very much [Music] Taliesin in Wisconsin the vintage year so you cannot restate any of the great poems and ideas which are characterized human civilizations if you wish to be really the creative artist you must from your own observation from your own sense of what is right beautiful burn true make your own state [Music] in the ninth decade of his life but some of his greatest work still ahead Frank Lloyd Wright reaps the rewards of years of struggle surrounded by his fellowship some have remained by a side for many years working with him helping to teach the new students [Music] in tally essence drafting room right calls himself an exemplar not a teacher don't imitate me he tells his apprentices just understand the principle right calls himself an amateur a professionally says is restricted within a mold he is no longer free to learn to grow this idea of learning something is extremely touchy and also to people who didn't realize that I was just thinking the other day one of the things I liked about myself mostly now that I come to my majority isn't I can still learn something new Architects the world over not all of whom approve of his work he is mr. right although he has never been given a US government commission right now in his 80s has more clients seeking him out more buildings to design than ever before I shake them out of my sleeve he says right bully is the machine should be servant to the architect not master as in his opinion are the steel and glass skyscraper cities of post-war America well we noted earlier have you seen these great towers standing up there all over the place my fingers they're doing sky the relationship was never thought of every man for himself and Devlin for the hindmost and they're creating condition Deloris deadly my own in harmony with nature is his theme the modern city should be destroyed decentralized the build tall is beautiful he says but the building should stand alone free to cast its shadow on the ground in 1955 right builds his first skyscraper the price tower in Bartlesville Oklahoma a combination of offices and apartments 18 stories high it is structured like a tree its floors and walls supported by a central trunk of poured concrete says right it is a tree that has escaped from a crowded forest for the forests of New York City right designs the Guggenheim Museum its show like shape is an act of defiance against the rectangular city structures surrounding it considered by some a masterpiece of architectural sculpture and by others as bizarre its interior display is a continuous ramp spiraling around a vast light well it is Wright's only building in New York many startling designs remain on paper such as as mile high for Chicago 528 stories the government was never to award a commission to America's most famous of controversial architect but in October 1958 he gives us views on a national cultural center Robert Richmond of the Institute of Contemporary Art asked right if it is architectural if possible to relate such a building to the architecture of the Lincoln Memorial the Lincoln Memorial is related to the toga and the civilization at woried and I think it would be absurd to try and maintain the weaknesses and followers of the old lack of culture now the Lincoln Memorial is not an indication of culture it's an indication of the lack of it the old capital is not an indication of culture although I'm in favor of preserving these old mistakes his old evidences of the old life in order that the new life may shine the brighter yes and so forth you know the story [Applause] three times if you've seen this site I'm sure you have some sort of vision of what that large multiple unit building under one roof would be you could be it could be do you want to project that vision should I ask that question after I've asked whether you think that the selection of an architect for example for the or architect or but that's a very touchy question you know if I would contribute in a non idea of what I'm talking about on paper and I would because I my real aim is not only to get better architects for America but to live there and made some better architecture and I believe I might suggest something that would amount just to that and I would never be paid for it in this world I would have to give [Applause] [Applause] six months later in his 90th year after 70 years in architecture Frank Lloyd Wright is dead here at Taliesin built just below the crest of a hill his work continues here the Taliesin fellowship architects and apprentices dedicate themselves to the completion of his projects and the perpetuation of his principles mrs. Frank Lloyd Wright well period once again together and I feel that they have been together just the same way for 30 years without interruption and I thought here is the line of continuity that everyone dreams so nothing seems to continue except by some principle so I've made me feel happy when I drove over the hill in looking at the same Green Hill Society with mr. I coming here for some 30 years to hear him speak at first and I continued it now above all he decided that he must make men capable of carrying on the line of continuity of a great principle organic architecture now he left men behind and he left me behind with absolute assurance that his work will not die said the architect Eero Saarinen if this were an age like the renaissance frank lloyd wright's would have been honored as the Michelangelo of the 20th century his legacy hundreds of buildings from almost a century of work Testaments to the freedom the spirit the individual dignity of max [Music] architecture is man's sense of himself said Frank Lloyd Wright as integrity is a quality within man so it is in a building to build a man or a building from within is always difficult to do so organic architecture you see takes this from within the nature of the thing mr. profound nature stood it though that'll be more and more realized as it goes along and proves itself as beautiful building after beautiful building gets its so constructed and built there you get to look into it try to find out what the secret was that kept that perennially young and all this working and never and let it die because it couldn't die see product of a principle never dies the colors that practice said do that the principle does but principle never dies [Music] [Applause] [Music] [Applause] [Music]

Channel: OLD FILM PRESERVATION

Views: 5,436

Keywords: 1962, THE 20TH CENTURY, FRANK LLOYD WRIGHT, Walter Cronkite, CBS, Imperial Hotel in Tokyo, Falling Water in Mill Run, Pennsylvania, Winslow House in Illinois, S.C. Johnson Building in Racine, Wisconsin, Price Tower in Bartlesville, Oklahoma, Guggenheim Museum in New York City, Mrs. Frank Lloyd Wright, Robert Richmond of the National Culture Center

Id: 4jeYZZ1kuzY

Length: 25min 12sec (1512 seconds)

Published: Sun Apr 12 2020