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PRELIMINARY INVENTORY OF THE FRANK BROTHERS RECORDS, 1929-2005
2009.M.19
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Title: Frank Brothers records
Date (inclusive): 1929-2005
Number: 2009.M.19
Creator/Collector:
Frank Brothers
Physical Description:
21.4 linear feet
(23 boxes, 7 flatfile folders)
Repository:
The Getty Research Institute
Special Collections
Research Library
1200 Getty Center Drive, Suite 1100
Los Angeles, California, 90049-1688
(310) 440-7390
http://www.getty.edu/research/conducting_research/library/reference_form.html
Abstract: The Frank Brothers records contain material from the Frank Brothers furniture company, an influential, Long Beach, California-based
organization, active between 1930 and 1982, credited with defining and promoting mid-century modern furniture design on the
West Coast.
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Language: Collection material is in
English.
The Frank family's path toward redefining interior design in America began with a store named Cash Furniture, located at 219
East 4th Street in Long Beach, California, where Louis Frank sold modestly-priced, old and new furniture and resale appliances.
In 1930, he joined forces with his son Maurice and changed the name of the business to L. Frank and Son. It was Louis's younger
son Edward, who saw an opportunity to create a niche in the market by shifting exclusively to contemporary furniture sales,
and when he joined the organization in 1937, Frank Brothers was born.
Ed was the visionary and creative force of the operation, while Maurice handled the business affairs. The initial years of
the company were difficult, as a result of the Great Depression and World War II. As the economy gained strength, however,
Frank Brothers' scope of operations rapidly expanded to include furniture sales, the manufacturing of original furniture designs,
upholstery, drapery, and on-site, interior design services. In 1947, the store moved to 2400 Long Beach Boulevard. The eighty-foot-wide
corner lot featured two hundred feet of large, street-facing display windows. The organization eventually became a full service
interiors company with a two-story showroom, warehouse, and factory all under one roof.
In addition to the retail store, Frank Brothers operated a wholesale company named "Moreddi," a combination of Maurice and
Ed's names. Moreddi imported furniture from Denmark and other Scandinavian countries, supplying the Frank Brothers store and
various retail outlets.
In 1960, Maurice died unexpectedly at the age of 51. His son, Ron Frank, then joined his uncle Ed and further developed the
business. Because he was only thirteen years younger than his uncle, most new customers assumed that the two relatives were
the original "Frank Brothers." In 1965, the business was split between the two partners. Ed took over the Moreddi import business
and Ron led the retail store.
Frank Brothers' critical involvement with
Arts and Architecture magazine launched the company into the international design scene. Ed Frank met the magazine's editor, John Entenza, in the
1940s and eventually became a contributing member of the publication. By providing the furnishings for many of the Case Study
House Program's innovative homes, including all of the carpet and drapery for the Eames House in Pacific Palisades, California,
Frank Brothers became an extremely influential force in shaping the progressive aesthetic of mid-century modern design.
The marketing and promotion of Frank Brothers was exceptional. Their unique and graphically bold advertisements published
in
Arts and Architecture helped to publicize the clean lines of the avant-garde furniture they sold in their store. Popular print advertisement campaigns
and mass mailers announced upcoming sales, in-store exhibitions, and other special events. In order to attract customer traffic
to the store in the late 1960s, Ron Frank curated and designed a furniture exhibition series. Topics included plastic, vinyl,
and inflatable, "see through" furniture, and Italian designs featuring the work of Carlo Scarpa.
The store diversified the audience for modern furnishings. With the advent of the freeway system, Frank Brothers' strategic
and accessible location, midway between Los Angeles and Orange County, allowed the business to cater to a large geographic
area. It also appealed to a broad economic range of customers. Frank Brothers sold "good design at every price." The store
even sold less expensive copies of many of the contemporary designs they stocked, as well as allowing customers to pay for
merchandise with a popular layaway program.
In 1969 Ed sold his ownership of Moreddi and moved to New York, where he served briefly as the company's president. Ron Frank
continued to run the Frank Brothers store until 1982, when he sold the business to the Danica furniture company. He retained
ownership of the architecturally significant building at 2400 Long Beach Blvd., however, until it was burned to the ground
during rioting in 1992.
Open for use by qualified researchers.
Contact
Library Rights and Reproductions .
Frank Brothers records, 1929-2005, Getty Research Institute, Research Library, Accession no. 2009.M.19
Gift of Ron Frank in 2009.
Antonio Beecroft processed the collection in 2010 and made a complete inventory under the supervision of Ann Harrison, who
also devised the arrangement and adapted the descriptive notes from curatorial reports.
Scope and Content of Collection
The Frank Brothers records contain material from the Frank Brothers furniture company, an influential, Long Beach, California-based
organization, active between 1930 and 1982. With its retail store and related services and with its furniture importing company,
Frank Brothers is credited with defining and promoting mid-century modern furniture design on the West Coast. The company
provided, marketed, and sold the furnishings for many of the innovative homes featured in
Arts and Architecture magazine's Case Study House Program. It also launched many of Charles and Ray Eames' revolutionary furniture pieces.
Documentation of the Frank Brothers retail store comprises Series I and forms the bulk of the archive. It covers the entire
range of operations of the retail aspect of the business. This documentation is primarily visual, including photographs, slides,
trade catalogs, scrapbooks and various printed materials. Frank Brothers' committment to design in all its aspects is overwhelmingly
evident, in the furnishings they sold, the ways in which they marketed them, and even in the store itself.
The business enjoyed an especially productive and close relationship with a number of designers. Charles and Ray Eames launched
many of their new chair designs in the Frank showroom, including the 1968 unveiling of the Eames chaise lounge. The archive
includes at least five of Charles Eames' original photographs used for Frank Brothers’ print ads and mailings.
Frank Brothers' "integrated interiors" were pioneering for their asymmetrical arrangement of objects and mix of different
masses and colors. Well-respected in the industry, Ed Frank would travel to Europe to meet with designers and discover new
examples of "West Coast style" contemporary furnishings that were warmer than the austere, Bauhaus machine aesthetic embraced
on the East Coast. These interiors are documented in the archive in images by such leading photographers as Marvin Rand, Todd
Walker and Julius Shulman.
The forty-year collection of advertisements, mailers and exhibition invitations in the archive reveals the evolution of California
modern graphic design. Art Shipman and Steve Madden were the graphic designers behind Frank Brothers’ popular print advertisement
campaigns and mass mailers announcing upcoming sales, in-store exhibitions, and other special events. All of the marketing
copy was written in-house by Ron Frank.
The Frank Brothers store at 2400 Long Beach Boulevard also reflected this commitment to superior design. Edward Killingsworth,
the noted Southern California Modern architect, was a close high school friend of Ed Frank and a supporter of the business.
In 1963, he redesigned a new north entrance and interior for the store, for which extensive documentation is included in the
archive.
Two smaller groups of material round out the archive. Series II contains documentation of Moreddi, the wholesale, import division
of the family business, run by Ed Frank, which supplied furnishings for the Frank Brothers store and other retailers. Personal
material relating to family members, especially Ed and Ron Frank, comprises Series III. Of particular interest is the documentation
of Ed Frank's home, Case Study House #25, designed by Ed Killingsworth.
Arranged in three series:
Series I. Frank Brothers store, 1930-2002;
Series II. Moreddi, 1957-1971;
Series III. Frank family papers, 1929-2005.
Killingsworth, Edward
Advertising layout and typography--United States--20th century
Architect-designed furniture
Architecture, Modern--20th century--California, Southern
Furniture design--exhibitions
Furniture--California--20th century
Graphic arts--California--Los Angeles--20th century
Interior decoration--California--20th century
Modern movement (Architecture)--California
Color slides
Direct mail
Gelatin silver prints--United States--20th century
Photographic prints--20th century
Photographs, Original
Printed ephemera
Scrapbooks
Trade catalogs
Frank, Edward
Frank, Ron