The Modern Interior

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commercial and ideological messages and product placements. 35 In the
1930s the idea of Hollywood ‘celebrities’ homes’ acquired media appeal.
Elsie de Wolfe’s decorating firm created several home interiors for movie
stars, including one for Hope Hampton in New York and another for Gary
Cooper in California. The former contained a multitude of luxurious
materials. ‘It’s all white and gold and shimmering’, a journalist explained
in 1938, ‘with a kind of lighthearted dignity about it. The oyster-white
furniture is trimmed with gold, the draperies are white satin; and the
marble floor is quite sumptuous, with its inlay of gray, oyster-white and
yellow. A French window and a scrolled iron gateway lead out to a terrace
for al-fresco dining.’ 36 The glamorous atmosphere of that sumptuous
apartment was mirrored in the countless ‘fantasy’ sets created for
Hollywood films in that decade. In Grand Hotel (1932) the cinematography,
sets, costumes and the slim figures of Greta Garbo and Joan Fontaine
all contributed to a glamorous representation of modernity in which the
‘moderne interior’ played a star role. 37 In Dinner at Eight of the following
year a ‘moderne’ setting was used to represent ‘arrivisme’ and to contrast
with a more ‘tasteful’ classical setting which stood for upper class tradition.
38 A 1929 film, The Kiss, directed by Jacques Feyder and starring
George Davis and Greta Garbo, also wooed its audience through its use
of stylish ‘streamlined moderne’ sets. Film interiors were hugely influential.
A bedroom set in The Kiss reappeared, for instance, in a bedroom
design created by John Wellborn Root which was shown at the Architect
and the Industrial Arts exhibition held in New York’s Metro politan
Museum of Art in the same year the film was released. 39 The level of
spectacle employed in those films, as in many others, evoked high levels
of consumer desire. 40
The idealized modern interior made an impact in many different
contexts and fulfilled a number of different purposes. Through its proximity
to consumers’ everyday lives and its role in helping to form the
concept of ‘lifestyle’ it was able to perform a powerful communicative
function which could only be equalled by dress or food. Providing a level
of familiarity for consumers outside the home, it tapped into their desires
and succeeded in stimulating their dreams and aspirations. Arguably, as
a result, in its idealized and mediated forms, the modern interior was one
of the key drivers of mass consumption in the twentieth century as well
as, in its realized versions, the destination of many of its objects.