Arthur Elrod
{{Short description|American interior designer (1924–1974)}}
{{Infobox person
| name = Arthur Elrod
| image =
| image_size =
| caption =
| birth_name = Arthur Dea Elrod, Jr.
| birth_date = {{birth date|1924|8|8}}
| birth_place = Anderson, South Carolina, U.S.
| death_date = {{death date and age|1974|2|18|1924|8|8}}
| death_place = Palm Springs, California, U.S.
| resting_place =
| known_for =
| education =
| alma mater = {{ubl|Clemson University|Chouinard Art Institute}}
| occupation = Interior designer
}}
Arthur Dea Elrod, Jr. (August 8, 1924 – February 18, 1974) was an American interior designer, perhaps best known for the Elrod House his home in Palm Springs, California, which he designed in collaboration with architect John Lautner in 1968.{{Cite web |title=Palm Springs LGBTQ+ History |url=https://visitpalmsprings.com/palm-springs-gay-history/ |access-date=2024-11-12 |website=Visit Palm Springs |publisher=Palm Springs Bureau of Tourism}}
Early life
Elrod was born in Anderson, South Carolina, grew up on a farm, and studied design at South Carolina's Clemson University, before attending the Chouinard Art Institute in Los Angeles.{{cite book |first=Adèle |last=Cygelman |title=Palm Springs Modern |url=http://www.becksondesign.com/pdf/books/1999-palm_springs_modern.pdf |publisher=Rizzoli |year=2015 |page=168 |isbn=978-0847844104 |access-date=2017-01-29 |archive-date=2017-02-02 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20170202040833/http://www.becksondesign.com/pdf/books/1999-palm_springs_modern.pdf |url-status=live }}
Career
In 1954, Elrod and Harold "Hal" Broderick started Arthur Elrod and Associates, an interior design firm on Palm Canyon Drive in Palm Springs, and went on to hire William C. Raiser, Steve Chase, and others. According to the Palm Springs Bureau of Tourism, Elrod's innovative midcentury modern style "became a hallmark of the Palm Springs aesthetic" and helped solidify the city's reputation as a center of modernist design.
In 1968, Elrod designed his Palm Springs home, now known as Elrod House, built by architect John Lautner.
Personal life
The parties he held at the Elrod House were "legendary", Bill Blass held a fashion show, Playboy did a November 1971 feature, Pleasure on the Rocks, and the house was used as Willard Whyte's mansion in the 1971 James Bond film, Diamonds Are Forever. The house has been described as the "ultimate bachelor pad", and it has been noted that increasing numbers of the "pads" in Playboy in the 1970s belonged to out gay men like Elrod.{{cite journal |url=https://www.griffith.edu.au/__data/assets/pdf_file/0019/531523/S02_03_Sewell_Opening-the-Boundaries.pdf |title=Opening the Boundaries of Architectural History: Popular Culture, Imaginary Buildings, and the Influence of the Bachelor Pad |first=Jessica |last=Sewell |journal=Proceedings of the Society of Architectural Historians, Australia and New Zealand: 30, Open |publisher=Society of Architectural Historians, Australia and New Zealand |volume=1 |pages=67–79 |date=July 2–5, 2013 |isbn=978-0-9876055-0-4 |access-date=2016-05-03 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20160507193722/https://www.griffith.edu.au/__data/assets/pdf_file/0019/531523/S02_03_Sewell_Opening-the-Boundaries.pdf |archive-date=2016-05-07 |url-status=dead }}
Elrod was a close friend of Bob Hope and his wife Dolores.{{cite news |url=http://archives.chicagotribune.com/1974/02/22/page/42/article/friends-shocked-by-elrods-death |title=Friends Shocked by Elrod's Death |first=Norma Lee |last=Browning |newspaper=Chicago Tribune |page=12 |date=February 22, 1974 |access-date=May 2, 2016 |archive-date=July 1, 2016 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20160701225639/http://archives.chicagotribune.com/1974/02/22/page/42/article/friends-shocked-by-elrods-death/ |url-status=live }}
Elrod and his associate, William Raiser, died in a traffic accident on February 18, 1974, when their Fiat sportscar was hit by a drunk teenage driver. Elrod was 49 years old.{{cite news |url=https://www.nytimes.com/1974/02/20/archives/arthur-elrod-killed-in-crash-interior-designer-was-49.html?_r=0 |title=Arthur Elrod Killed in Crash; Interior Designer Was 49 |newspaper=The New York Times |page=40 |date=February 20, 1974 |access-date=February 14, 2017 |archive-date=December 7, 2019 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20191207225519/https://www.nytimes.com/1974/02/20/archives/arthur-elrod-killed-in-crash-interior-designer-was-49.html?_r=0 |url-status=live }}{{cite news |url=http://cdnc.ucr.edu/cgi-bin/cdnc?a=d&d=DS19740218.2.3 |title=Famous Designer Elrod Killed in Car Collision |newspaper=The Desert Sun |page=1 |date=February 18, 1974 |access-date=May 2, 2016 |archive-date=June 3, 2016 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20160603192847/http://cdnc.ucr.edu/cgi-bin/cdnc?a=d&d=DS19740218.2.3 |url-status=live }}
References
{{Reflist}}
"Arthur Elrod: Desert Modern Design" by Adele Cygelman (Gibbs Smith, 2019)
External links
- [http://sfciviccenter.blogspot.co.uk/2011/11/arthur-elrod-1-350-via-lola.html Civic Center: Arthur Elrod 1: 350 Via Lola]
- [http://ronslog.typepad.com/ronslog/2012/02/elrod-house.html Ron's Log: Elrod House]
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{{DEFAULTSORT:Elrod, Arthur}}
Category:American interior designers
Category:Chouinard Art Institute alumni
Category:Clemson University alumni
Category:People from Palm Springs, California