The terms of the contest called for the winning objects to go into mass production, and the Eames-Saarinen chairs were set to be made by Haskelite and Heywood-Wakefield. But the technology for the chairs turned out to be too unrealistic, and the plan was abandoned, although prototypes were made. On the other hand, Eames and Saarinen’s winning cabinets and stands were produced by the Red Lyon company in 1941—1942. Manufacture stopped, however, when, with the onset of war, plywood could no longer be obtained.
The show at the Museum of Modern Art, it should be noted, was the first collaboration between Charles Eames and his future wife and lifelong design partner, Ray Kaiser. Ray designed the Organic Design in Home Furnishings show.
Ray Kaiser, a native of Sacramento, Calif., had moved to New York in 1933 to study painting with abstract expressionist Hans Hofmann. Her work was included in a pioneering show of abstract expressionist art in 1937. Ray matriculated at Cranbrook in 1940.
