Eames: The Architect & The Painter Page #4

and then you do several models,

and they don't work,

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and you throw them out.

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And the secret is work and work

and work and work and work.

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FRANCO:
The plywood furniture

was good to go in 1946.

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Charles said of the furniture,

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"We wanted to make the best

for the most for the least."

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That sentiment struck a chord

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with the Herman Miller

furniture company.

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Honest and simple

in its use of materials,

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the plywood furniture was also

affordable for the common man.

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Together, they would become one

of the great success stories

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of the postwar era.

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ALBRECHT:
Charles and Ray Eames

provide much of the furniture

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for a kind of

Upper-middle-class,

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educated audience

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moving to suburbia.

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When the Second World War ended,

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it wasn't just five years

of pent-up demand.

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It was actually almost 15 years,

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because you also have 10 years

of the Depression.

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And people have much more money,

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so if you wanted to sort of

do something

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differentthan your parents,

you boughtthat Eames furniture.

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And itwas promoted that way.

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Everything around the marketing

suggested,

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"Here is something new

for a new society."

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And America was a new society

in '45.

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FRANCO:
In the decades

to follow,

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Charles and Ray scored success

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with line after line

of Eames furniture.

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And their unmistakable designs

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became a ubiquitous part

of American culture,

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right up to today.

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Sold for $900, 232.

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I think the work retains

a real freshness.

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Elements of it still inform

contemporary design today.

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AUCTIONEER:
$700.

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AUCTIONEER:
$2,000.

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$2,100.

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AUCTIONEER:
$2,100.

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AUCTIONEER:
$7,000.

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AUCTIONEER:
Fair warning,

selling... $13,000.

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Are we done?

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Sold for $13,000.

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WRIGHT:
The rightness

of the furniture

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will continue to appeal

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to new generations.

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MAN:
The word "Eames" has now

become a generic word.

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I mean, if you go on eBay,

it always says, "Eames era"

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blah, blah, blah.

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So it's become

a word like "Victorian."

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Maybe it's, in a way, accurate,

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because just like Queen Victoria

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represents an attitude,

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Eames also embodies

a certain approach

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to life and to thinking.

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FRANCO:
By the early '50s,

Charles had grown

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an outsized reputation

as an icon of modernism,

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fighting to inject

an ethical dimension

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into American capitalism.

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At that price,

the customer knows

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exactly what

he's going to get.

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This!

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FRANCO:
In MGM's

"Executive Suite,"

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William Holden stars

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as a curiously

Charles Eames-like

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furniture designer.

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We'll have a line

of low-priced furniture,

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a new and different line,

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as differentfrom anything

we're making today

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as a modern automobile is

different from a covered wagon.

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FRANCO:
In the outside world,

Charles's reputation

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may have grown largerthan life,

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butwithin the Eames Office,

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there was always the lingering

question of credit.

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SUSSMAN:
There are still

some sore issues

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among certain people who feel

they never were recognized

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as much as they should,

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but it's a very delicate issue.

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FRANCO:
The issue came to a head

back in 1946

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at the unveiling

of the original Eames chair

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when the museum of modern art

gave Charles a one-man show.

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ALBRECHT:
MOMA gives the name

Charles Eames,

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and this causes a certain

tension in the Office,

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because it was thought to be

a collaborative effort.

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MAN:
It's not that he's swooping

in or is doing nothing

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and scarfing up all the credit,

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but he is not the only designer

that was involved.

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SUSSMAN:
This happens

all the time.

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A group of young people

co-creating

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and influencing each other

and inspiring each other,

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and then the question is,

"Who did what?"

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One of the last projects

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I worked on was

"Day of the Dead," the film.

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I was down in Mexico

helping with that film,

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