The Mike Wallace interview have long been available for purchase, now they are available for viewing on the web. Mike Wallace donated tapes of his interviews to the Harry Ransom Center at the University of Texas at Austin and 65 of them, including the two-part interview with Wright can be viewed on the website. Subtitles have been added, and transcripts of the entire exchange are also available.

WALLACE: You said many years ago, that you would some day would be the greatest architect of the twentieth century. Have you reached your goal?

WRIGHT: Well, now I think I never said it.

WALLACE: Well, I’ve done a considerable amount of reading…

WRIGHT: (LAUGHING) I know.

WALLACE: by you and about you, this week. And I don’t think there is a good deal of doubt about the fact that over the years, you have said it not once, but many times. Maybe not… maybe not in that specific form.

WRIGHT: You know, I may not have said it, but I may have felt it.

WALLACE: Uh-huh. You do feel it?

WRIGHT: But it is so unbecoming to say it that I should have been careful about it. I’m not as crude as I am generally reported to be. I believe, like this matter of arrogance. Now what is arrogance?

WALLACE: What is arrogance?

WRIGHT: Arrogance is something a man possesses on the surface to defend the fact that he hasn’t got the thing that he pretends to have.

Carra’s hour-long film, which is unfortunately rather muddled in its effort to draw together too many threads, shows the tragic decline of Wright’s hotel over the years, until it is hardly recognizable as a Wright building either inside or out. Plastered with signs, chopped up inside, Wright’s hotel eventually played host to go-go dancers. Music Man Square may remind people of Willson’s famous song about moral turpitude — we’ve got “trouble with a capital T, and that rhymes with P and that stands for pool” — but Wright’s neglected hotel lived the whole sorry drama of decay.

Actually, the writer spends almost the whole article talking about things only tangentially related to the film, and, though he mentions the restoration of the Park Inn, it’s unclear if the current work on the hotel renders the film pointless.

A positive review on IMDB reads:

From 1909 to 2008, The Park Inn witnessed alterations and downgrading, while Mason City dealt with a Dillinger Bank robbery in the 1930s, an economic downturn in the 1960s, and the label ‘Porn City’ in the 1970s. While the city struggled to fund renovations of The Park Inn in the 1990s in an effort at heritage tourism, it also attempted an economic revival with a 20 million dollar tribute to the musical comedy, ‘The Music Man,’ based on Meredith Willson’s boyhood in Mason City.As a last resort, the city decided to place the Park Inn on Ebay. Through an intoxicating blend of rare archival footage, period music and a first look at stunning Wright masterpieces in the Midwest and Japan, THE LAST WRIGHT offers a provocative, ironic tapestry of an American century

Sakamoto says he has a “critical” way of looking at buildings. He comes away “appreciating what it does successfully,” while also examining “the deficiencies which are often overlooked in history books.” He reflects on his visit to Racine, ”I think overall, I was very impressed with the Great Workroom, but being an architect (I like) to look at buildings in a way they are not normally photographed, looking for ways in which the building does not function the way it is supposed to function. “The main room, the main office space and lily pad columns are very impressive, having seen pictures over the years, because looking at pictures is never the same as being there. What I noticed is that even though it is said the columns are very slender and stand by themselves, only a handful stand independently. The lily pads on the rest are kind of encased one half to three-quarters around. I don’t think it necessarily takes away from the general impression. It’s a sleight of hand you would never know unless you went there. Wright is a master at manipulating our experiences and expectations.”

Sakamoto is working with the FLW Preservation Trust in Oak Park, Illinois, and will release a DVD on Wright’s Home & Studio in May.

 

Luckily for you — and your friend — the Newsblog is here in your darkest hour of yule-time need. The First Annual Frank Lloyd Wright Newsblog Christmas Gift Guide is here. By the way, I’m giving you permission to pick up something nice for yourself too.

Books

I don’t care for coffee table books. They’re unwieldy, expensive, and contribute to an un-Wrightian clutter in your house. That’s why I was surprised when I flipped through one of Alan Hess and Alan Weintraub’s books (Frank Lloyd Wright The Houses, Frank Lloyd Wright Prairie Houses and Frank Lloyd Wright Mid-Century Modern) and discovered I loved them. Not only are the images gorgeous, but the detail shots are taken with an eye for the telling detail — the little, perfect touches characteristic of a Wright design that we all love to discover when we tour a house. Each book also has contributions by noted Wright scholars (Kathryn Smith, Bruce Brooks Pfeiffer and Thomas S. Hines). Assuming the giftee has reinforced books shelves and a hefty coffee table, these books are a good choice.

Another excellent, wonderfully photographed book is Hometown Architect: The Complete Buildings of Frank Lloyd Wright in Oak Park And River Forest, Illinois, produced by the Frank Lloyd Wright Preservation Trust (text by Patrick Cannon, photographs by James Caulfield ) covers every Wright building in Oak Park and River Forest, and includes stories and histories of the commissions. With 90 photographs, most of buildings that are never open to the public, the claim that the book is a virtual tour is not hyperbole. Also consider Mark Hertzberg’s Wright in Racine, (wrap this with some good cheese and brats and it’s like giving a homesick Badger a Wisconsin vacation)

Also a good idea, is the book dedicated to a single house. Hertzberg’s Frank Lloyd Wright’s Hardy House or Greg Hildebrand’s Frank Lloyd Wright’s Palmer House and Frank Lloyd Wright’s Rosenbaum House: The Birth And Rebirth of an American Treasure are excellent examples. Prairie Skyscraper: Frank Lloyd Wright’s Price Tower is (reportedly, I don’t own it) another excellent choice. If the giftee lives near a Wright building, public or not, a book on that particular building might be a good idea. The Home & Studio has a good list of single-building books here.

If you know someone just beginning to discover Wright, you could pair Robert McCarter’s Frank Lloyd Wright with Thomas Hienz’s Frank Lloyd Wright Field Guide: Includes All United States and International Sites. The first is an excellent, and brisk biography that looks at Wright’s ideas and architecture without spending much time on the salacious or scandalous. The second is a first-rate guide to all of Wright’s extant work, with directions and maps so you can seek out even the most obscure structure.

If you are buying for a long-time fan with a lot of books, consider the brand-new Frank Lloyd Wright in New York or, slightly off-topic, Building a Century of Progress: The Architecture of Chicago’s 1933-34 World’s Fair.

If you are looking for cheap and easy, the discount bookseller Daedalus Books has Frank Lloyd Wright at a discount. A 2008 Fallingwater calendar for $4.98, The Drawings of Frank Lloyd Wright for $4.98 and a mini-calendar featuring Wright’s graphic designs for $2.98

Videos

Avoid the Ken Burns documentary Frank Lloyd Wright. The film has its place, but it isn’t what I would want to find under my tree; it’s kind of a downer (unless you are buying for a Phillip Johnson fan — but in that case, you’ve got bigger problems).

Household Items

Motawi Tileworks (just up the road from me in Ann Arbor) had a phenomenal collection even before they added a Frank Lloyd Wright line of tiles. If you don’t like a mass produced, find-it-in-every-Target kind of gift, visit the website.

Also with great stuff is Prairie Arts. They recently made a splash with their Teco line of pottery, but their other stuff is cool too (especially these). You have got to take a look at their Louis Sullivan ornamental pieces. If you are involved in one of those escalating gift-wars, this stuff will guarantee battlefield supremacy for a good two or three years.

The above doesn’t scratch the surface (I haven’t mentioned the ties, notecards, furniture, ornaments, posters, . . .) but it’s a start. If I’ve missed anything, send an e-mail, or leave a comment — don’t keep the ideas to yourself.

(Watch the end of the video of a glimpse of William Allin Storrer dressed as Wright).

The 52-minute documentary, Sacred Spaces: The Houses of Worship Designed by Frank Lloyd Wright, profiles the exteriors and interiors of the structures features a classical music soundtrack.

Also included are interviews with people associated with the buildings.

Some sites included in the film are the Unity Temple in Oak Park, Illinois, the Beth Sholom Synagogue in Elkins Park, Pennsylvania and the Pilgrim Congregational Church in Redding, California.

“You really do feel like you’ve visited these sites,” said Mary Nicely, program coordinator for the Kennedy-Douglass Center.

That’s an unqualified recommendation, just in case you were wondering.

There’s a lot to like about this movie, and not much to complain about. A quick pace, great images and a good cubic mile of stuff you didn’t already know. I gained new perspective on Frank Lloyd Wright’s work — all of it, not just the buildings in Japan. And, an added bonus, you’ll meet Arata Endo, possibly the most likable, engaging character you’ll ever meet in a historical documentary.

Obviously, the whole point of Magnificent Obsession is the visuals. The movie delivers just what a Wright fan wants: lots of drawings, historic photos and architectural models. Though it doesn’t lack for scene-setting cityscapes or photos of the main actors, architectural images occupy the majority of the screen time (take that, Ken Burns!).

And this historical documentary puts architecture before biography. Details of Frank Lloyd Wright’s life aren’t ignored, but focus of the film is true to the subtitle: Frank Lloyd Wright’s Buildings and Legacy in Japan — the filmmakers aren’t concerned with Wright’s character flaws or scandals beyond how they affect his work and life in Japan (in fact, there’s a story of a bit of surprising post-war generosity on Wright’s part that contradicts the popular image of a spoiled spendthrift). There is no sugarcoating of Wright, but the film is focused on Wright and Japan.

The film doesn’t end when Wright leaves Japan. He served as a mentor to a number of young Japanese architects, and their work reflected his influence, through, and after World War II. The film follows their work, and the fate of Wright’s buildings through to the present day (be warned, the footage of wrecking balls taking down the Imperial Hotel is agonizing to watch — there’s no V-chip for architectural desecration).

What I like best about the film — what makes it stand out as a valuable documentary — is the context it wraps around Wright’s work in Japan. We see Japan begin to emulate European styles (and we get a glimpse of just how grotesquely out of place they were); we see Wright arrive with new ideas, new techniques, and an enthusiasm that fires a generation of young architects; those same architects develop Wright’s ideas and create their own remarkable buildings and, eventually, play a role in preserving Wright’s own additions to Japan’s built environment.

So, simply, the film is great; it’s beautiful, polished and thrillingly educational. It isn’t meant only for Wright groupies, architecture fanboys or building nerds; it’s an actual, honest-to-goodness great documentary: quickly paced, lots of character and full of interesting sights and ideas. So even your non-fanatical housemate/spouse/companion will enjoy it.

The webiste for the film has some great background information, a trailer and a guide to further reading (if you’ve already seen the movie, note that the website has information on the musicians who contributed)

The film has its own legacy — The Wrightian Architectural Archives Japan, a non-profit dedicated to preserving Frank Lloyd Wright’s buildings and legacy in Japan and a site worth exploring.

There is both an audio(’http://64.71.145.107/online/play.php?xml=morn/MS20071016.xml&template=radio_blank’,386,452); and a video version, but go with the video, it has both images of Jankowski’s art and pictures of the Zimmerman House.

Last week there was an AP story on the Zimmerman House that I didn’t post because there wasn’t any news in it, just a short history, but if you are interested, here it is.

I’m often guilty forgetting that Frank Lloyd Wright’s architecture is magnificent. I sometimes stuff it all into bins labeled “Usonian”, “Prairie” and “Other”.

“Oh, look: an L-shaped Usonian. Seen it before.”

Yep, I’m a philistine.

But that is why I enjoyed the FSC campus tour DVD so much – the buildings are surprising and magnificent and wonderful and the DVD captures that nicely — particularly a few shots that show the Annie Pfeiffer Chapel in the golden cast of a setting tropical sun.

The production is polished; this wasn’t shot by some dude with a borrowed digicam.. Screen-time is devoted to the details a Wright fan wants to see: textile block designs, repeating motifs and colored glass. Wright’s inevitable, surprising (and inevitably surprising) touches are picked out and parallels between buildings are highlighted. We all know that the campus needs restoration, but the footage avoids any depressing tableaus — you see the FSC campus as it should be seen; even the Waterdome, not yet turned on, is represented by an artist’s rendistion.This DVD won’t replace a tour, but if you are unlikely to find yourself in Florida soon, it will serve as a good introduction this remarkable collection of buildings.

Of course, every Wright fan will have the same criticism: it isn’t long enough (like Wright, we don’t really give a damn about budgets). The DVD is short, but efficient — no time is spent on recapping Wright’s career or mentioning his other buildings. It is Florida Southern and nothing but Florida Southern. Exactly as it should be.

The DVD can be purchased from the creator. I have the contact information — if anyone would like a copy (or two — Christmas is coming), I’ll happily provide it. Send me an e-mail by the Contact link above, or use: this link