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Soon he was
designing airplanes and
buildings, including the
project for which he is best
remembered, the
General Motors Pavilion,
Futurama, at the 1939 New
York Worlds Fair. With
teardrop shaped cars and
super highways he portrayed
the streamlined future world
of 1960.
Products designed by Norman
Bel-Geddes included Toledo
scales, Philco radio
cabinets, typewriters,
cigarette cases, kitchen
stoves (the Oriole), tents
and even battleships.
Others of his clients
included IBM, Ringling
Brothers, Toledo, OH, J.
Walter Thompson Advertising,
Shell Oil and Chrysler.
For the Simmons Company he
designed metal bedroom
furniture that was
introduced in 1932.
The 1946 Nash auto carried a
Bel-Geddes designed
dashboard.
Bel-Geddes was born as
Norman Melancton Geddes. After his 1916 marriage
to writer Helen Belle Sneider of Toledo, Ohio, they
changed their last name to Bel-Geddes. Their daughter
Barbara became a recognized stage and film actress.
Bel-Geddes published
several books, the first in 1932,
Horizons. In 1940 he published
Magic Motorways, about freeways and interstate
highways. Miracle in the Evening,
an autobiography, was published posthumously in 1960.
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