Melanie Kahane

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Melanie Kahane (1910–1988) was an American interior designer and 1985 inductee of the Interior Design Hall of Fame. She was first recognized in the design world as the pioneer of one of the first colored kitchen appliances: a shiny red stove. This move kick-started her reputation as a designer of boldly colored rooms, although she spotted early the possibilities of television for promoting design. Throughout her career she became one of the most notable high-end designers in New York City. She was most influential as a designer from the 1940s to the 1960s, although her career lasted half a century. [1]

New York City Largest city in the United States

The City of New York, usually called either New York City (NYC) or simply New York (NY), is the most populous city in the United States. With an estimated 2017 population of 8,622,698 distributed over a land area of about 302.6 square miles (784 km2), New York is also the most densely populated major city in the United States. Located at the southern tip of the state of New York, the city is the center of the New York metropolitan area, the largest metropolitan area in the world by urban landmass and one of the world's most populous megacities, with an estimated 20,320,876 people in its 2017 Metropolitan Statistical Area and 23,876,155 residents in its Combined Statistical Area. A global power city, New York City has been described as the cultural, financial, and media capital of the world, and exerts a significant impact upon commerce, entertainment, research, technology, education, politics, tourism, art, fashion, and sports. The city's fast pace has inspired the term New York minute. Home to the headquarters of the United Nations, New York is an important center for international diplomacy.

Contents

Personal life

Melanie Kahane was born in Manhattan in 1910. Shortly after, her family moved to Sioux Falls, South Dakota. [2] This is where the majority of her upbringing took place. She attended high school in Hackettstown, New Jersey. She then attended Parsons School of Design in 1928, where she studied fashion design and illustration. She graduated in 1931. After graduation, she spent a year as an illustrator at an advertising agency, followed by a brief period in Paris and with Lord & Taylor. She married her first husband, Theodore Ebenstein, in 1934. By 1945 she and Ebenstein had one daughter, and divorced shortly thereafter. At this time, she was on her way to transitioning from a fashion illustrator to an interior designer. Her former husband leased her office space to use for her interior design firm. By the early 1950s, another marriage had come and gone, and she met her third husband, Ben Grauer, a prominent radio commentator on NBC. Kahane and Grauer hosted a radio show called Decorating Wavelengths. This show combined design and media commitments in order to inform the public on current news and advice. In this time period, she was called “New York’s most photogenic decorator,” it was also said that “she had a sophisticated design flair and was exceptionally good with the details of a room,” by Wynn Hershey of Mike Bell Antiques. [3]

Manhattan Borough in New York City and county in New York, United States

Manhattan, often referred to locally as the City, is the most densely populated of the five boroughs of New York City and its economic and administrative center, cultural identifier, and historical birthplace. The borough is coextensive with New York County, one of the original counties of the U.S. state of New York. The borough consists mostly of Manhattan Island, bounded by the Hudson, East, and Harlem rivers; several small adjacent islands; and Marble Hill, a small neighborhood now on the U.S. mainland, physically connected to the Bronx and separated from the rest of Manhattan by the Harlem River. Manhattan Island is divided into three informally bounded components, each aligned with the borough's long axis: Lower, Midtown, and Upper Manhattan.

South Dakota State of the United States of America

South Dakota is a U.S. state in the Midwestern region of the United States. It is named after the Lakota and Dakota Sioux Native American tribes, who compose a large portion of the population and historically dominated the territory. South Dakota is the seventeenth largest by area, but the fifth smallest by population and the 5th least densely populated of the 50 United States. As the southern part of the former Dakota Territory, South Dakota became a state on November 2, 1889, simultaneously with North Dakota. Pierre is the state capital and Sioux Falls, with a population of about 187,200, is South Dakota's largest city.

New Jersey State of the United States of America

New Jersey is a state in the Mid-Atlantic and Northeastern regions of the United States. It is located on a peninsula, bordered on the north and east by the state of New York, particularly along the extent of the length of New York City on its western edge; on the east, southeast, and south by the Atlantic Ocean; on the west by the Delaware River and Pennsylvania; and on the southwest by the Delaware Bay and Delaware. New Jersey is the fourth-smallest state by area but the 11th-most populous, with 9 million residents as of 2017, and the most densely populated of the 50 U.S. states; its biggest city is Newark. New Jersey lies completely within the combined statistical areas of New York City and Philadelphia. New Jersey was the second-wealthiest U.S. state by median household income as of 2017.

Career

Melanie Kahane came into the spotlight in 1946 when she designed one of the first colored kitchen appliances: a shiny red stove. In the course of her long career, she designed everything from light bulbs to hotels, theaters, and studio apartments. Her clients admired her for her glamorous designs, as well as for her charming and energetic personality. She produced many of her famous works in the home she shared with Grauer. Besides her work in the United States, she also was on the design team for the 1958 World's Fair in Brussels and did work for NBC in the Soviet Union. [4]

United States Federal republic in North America

The United States of America (USA), commonly known as the United States or America, is a country comprising 50 states, a federal district, five major self-governing territories, and various possessions. At 3.8 million square miles, the United States is the world's third or fourth largest country by total area and is slightly smaller than the entire continent of Europe's 3.9 million square miles. With a population of over 327 million people, the U.S. is the third most populous country. The capital is Washington, D.C., and the largest city by population is New York City. Forty-eight states and the capital's federal district are contiguous in North America between Canada and Mexico. The State of Alaska is in the northwest corner of North America, bordered by Canada to the east and across the Bering Strait from Russia to the west. The State of Hawaii is an archipelago in the mid-Pacific Ocean. The U.S. territories are scattered about the Pacific Ocean and the Caribbean Sea, stretching across nine official time zones. The extremely diverse geography, climate, and wildlife of the United States make it one of the world's 17 megadiverse countries.

Brussels Capital region of Belgium

Brussels, officially the Brussels-Capital Region, is a region of Belgium comprising 19 municipalities, including the City of Brussels, which is the capital of Belgium. The Brussels-Capital Region is located in the central portion of the country and is a part of both the French Community of Belgium and the Flemish Community, but is separate from the Flemish Region and the Walloon Region. Brussels is the most densely populated and the richest region in Belgium in terms of GDP per capita. It covers 161 km2 (62 sq mi), a relatively small area compared to the two other regions, and has a population of 1.2 million. The metropolitan area of Brussels counts over 2.1 million people, which makes it the largest in Belgium. It is also part of a large conurbation extending towards Ghent, Antwerp, Leuven and Walloon Brabant, home to over 5 million people.

Soviet Union 1922–1991 country in Europe and Asia

The Soviet Union, officially the Union of Soviet Socialist Republics (USSR), was a socialist state in Eurasia that existed from 1922 to 1991. Nominally a union of multiple national Soviet republics, its government and economy were highly centralized. The country was a one-party state, governed by the Communist Party with Moscow as its capital in its largest republic, the Russian Soviet Federative Socialist Republic. Other major urban centres were Leningrad, Kiev, Minsk, Alma-Ata, and Novosibirsk. It spanned over 10,000 kilometres east to west across 11 time zones, and over 7,200 kilometres north to south. It had five climate zones: tundra, taiga, steppes, desert and mountains.

In 1985, she was inducted into the Interior Design Hall of Fame. [5] In her half a century working as an interior designer, she designed for such celebrities as Alan King, Eli Wallach, and John Chancellor. Houses she designed include Billy Rose’s William G. Loew mansion on East Ninety-Third Street, and one for producer Joseph E. Levine, Amon Carter, W. T. Grant and Anne Tandy. Other notable projects include the design of Shubert theaters in Boston, Chicago, and New York, beauty salons throughout the United States for Charles of the Ritz and the headquarters for the First National Bank of Fort Worth. Kahane died of lung cancer in her home in December of 1988. [6] In the same year, Parsons School of Design hosted a dinner in her honor, and established a student scholarship in her name. The school applauded her business acumen and her design abilities. Jeremiah Goodman expressed that, “Melanie was a true professional and was very good about finances, but it wasn’t just business with her. Decorating was a passion.” [7]

Alan King American actor and comedian

Alan King was an American actor and comedian known for his biting wit and often angry humorous rants. King became well known as a Jewish comedian and satirist. He was also a serious actor who appeared in a number of movies and television shows. King wrote several books, produced films, and appeared in plays. In later years, he helped many philanthropic causes.

Eli Wallach American film, television and stage actor

Eli Herschel Wallach was an American film, television and stage actor whose career spanned more than six decades, beginning in the late 1940s. Trained in stage acting, which he enjoyed doing most, he became "one of the greatest 'character actors' ever to appear on stage and screen", with over 90 film credits. On stage, he often co-starred with his wife, Anne Jackson, becoming one of the best-known acting couples in the American theater. As a stage and screen character actor, Wallach had one of the longest ever careers in show business, spanning 62 years from his Broadway debut to his last major Hollywood studio movie.

John Chancellor American journalist

John William Chancellor was an American journalist who spent most of his career with NBC News. He served as anchor of the NBC Nightly News from 1970 to 1982 and continued to do editorials and commentaries for NBC Nightly News with Tom Brokaw until 1993.

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References

  1. ↑ Jennifer Boles, “Design Legend Melanie Kahane.” House Beautiful, January 22, 2009.
  2. ↑ John Siddeley, “Designer’s choice: Melanie Kahane”, The Connoisseur, 1981.
  3. ↑ Bernadine Morris, “Fashions Aid Bond Drive,” The New York Times, May 14, 1982.
  4. ↑ John Corry, The New York Times, November 30, 1079.
  5. ↑ “Melanie Kahane: 1985 Hall of Fame Inductee.” Interior Design, May 31, 2014.
  6. ↑ Susan Heller Anderson, “Melanie Kahane, 78, a Designer Known for Colorful rooms, Dies.” The New York Times, December 24, 1988.
  7. ↑ S. Stephens, “Evolution of a classic.” Architectural Digest, 1989. Vol. 46, Issue 11.

Additional references

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