Stimulating lecture at Bowie Library on John Vassos hosted by Art Deco Society of Washington DC!

Big thanks to the Art Deco Society of Washington DC and especially Jim Linz, President Emeritus, and Steve Knight, President, for inviting me to speak at the Bowie Library today followed by a tour of the National Capital Radio and Television Museum (also a sponsor). Jim brought not one but two Vassos-designed RCA Victor Specials from his collection which illustrated perfectly my point that Vassos used modernistic shapes and new materials in his quest to bring modern design to RCA. Jim also brought along a teardrop phonograph player which is not designed by Vassos (he didn't like to use extreme streamlined shapes). The audience included not one but two former employees of RCA, one was an engineer who worked for many years for RCA Limited in Montreal and the other was also an engineer and an RCA employee in Camden, NJ where John Vassos had an office for many years. Other audience members included a graphic designer who fell in love with Vassos's graphic illustrations and members of the Art Deco Society of Washington DC. They asked amazing questions like what was one surprising thing that I found out about Vassos during my research? How did the book Phobia influence his industrial design work? What were his other books? Was he a mentor to other artists and designers? What languages did he speak? The event was so stimulating to me and enjoyable for the audience too, based on the feedback I received. After the talk, we headed to the National Capital Radio and Television Museum for a tour of their excellent collection providing an overview of radio and television history.  I was happy that their collection included a recently acquired Vassos-designed TRK-12 television. I loved seeing the early, crystal radio sets brought to life by their wonderful docents and the 1920s radios like the rare piano shaped radio - backing up a main point in my talk that radio had no concrete shape or form and could go in any direction. There was no consensus about what it should look like. My other favorite in their collection was the art deco radio that doubled as a bar.