Eames: The Architect & The Painter Page #2

The Eames Office was born

from the marriage

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of Ray Kaiser...

a painter who rarely painted...

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and Charles Eames...

an architecture school dropout

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who never got his license.

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"Eventually, everything

connects," Charles said.

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Furniture, toys, architecture,

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exhibitions, photography,

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and film were all connected

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in the wild, whimsical world

of the Eames Office.

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MAN:
Charles and Ray Eames

wanted to bring

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the most magnificent experiences

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that you could have

with your eyes

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to the largest number of people.

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I don't think there's anything

more important

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for an artist to want to do.

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FRANCO:
It was a career

that defined

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what it means to be a designer.

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And it all began with a chair.

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MAN:
Charles, where did the

classic Eames chair come from?

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Did it come to you

in a flash,

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as you were shaving

one morning?

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It sort of came to me

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in a 30-year flash,

if you want.

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FRANCO:
iTIME/i magazine called it

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"the greatest design

ofthe 20th century."

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But it didn't start out

that way.

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It began as a failure.

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Responding to a competition

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at the museum of modern art

in 1940,

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two unknown young architects...

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Charles Eames and his friend,

Eero Saarinen,

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set out to reinvent

the very idea of the chair.

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MAN:
The goal is to create

an inexpensive,

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mass-produced chair

which is well designed,

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and which is molded to the body,

because it doesn't need a lot

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of upholstery, which is,

"a," old-fashioned,

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and "b," expensive.

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Upholstery is what

Louis XIV did.

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FRANCO:
Working at the Cranbrook

Academy of Art near Detroit,

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Eames and Saarinen thought they

could mold

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the new miracle material,

plywood,

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into two directions at once

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to make a comfortable,

form-fitting shell.

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WOMAN:
The critical point

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is where that back

becomes the seat.

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ALBRECHT:
The glues aren't good

enough, and the chair splinters,

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which means,

when you'd sit on it,

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it would be a little

uncomfortable.

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So they have to upholster it.

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FRANCO:
Despite failing

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at their goal of creating

a single-piece plywood shell,

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Charles and Eero

won the competition.

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WOMAN:
The irony is that

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the chair that

Eames and Saarinen designed,

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they couldn't really

manufacture.

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FRANCO:
Even with the upholstery

to cover the cracked surface,

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no existing machine could

successfully mold the plywood

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into the shape of the chair.

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MAN:
It couldn't be made

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in the way that they claimed

it could be made.

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They had designed

the look of it

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without designing

the substance of it.

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FRANCO:
After many unsuccessful

attempts,

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Eero Saarinen scrapped

the project.

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But Charles wasn't ready

to give up...

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this time, with a new partner.

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At Cranbrook, he had become

friendly with Ray Kaiser,

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At Cranbrook, he had become

friendly with Ray Kaiser,

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a talented young artistwho had

helped with the chair project.

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MARILYN NEUHART:

I said to Ray one day,

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"How did you and Charles

get together?"

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"Oh! I can't talk about it."

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I said, "Well, why not?"

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"Well, we just did."

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DEMETRIOS:
They sparked, and

the rest is literally history.

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And I think in Ray,

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he really found his complement.

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FRANCO:
But there was a problem.

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Charles was already married.

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He had moved up to Cranbrook

from St. Louis

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with his wife, Catherine,

and his young daughter, Lucia.

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KIRKHAM:
The love letters are

Charles's letters to Ray,

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because the letters that Ray

wrote back to Charles,

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Charles destroyed,

because he was married.

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They show Charles madly in love

with her.

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There's no doubt about that.

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He talks about walking past

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the building

that she used to live in

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and looking up at her window,

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and they are very moving.

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These letters are talking about

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a joined future

as artists together.

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I think

his decision feels made.

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