Historical Excerpt – “Women in Scenic Art,” Lillian Gaestner

This is the next line in the article that I started yesterday on women in scenic art:

“The work of Lillian Gaestner in the New Ziegfield and Gladys Calthrop in the Eva LaGallienne Company may, as a matter of opinion, be as unlike each other as you please, but it is real work.”

I want to put their nameswith faces and look at the various accomplishments of each woman.

The first mentioned is Lillian Gaestner. They actually misspelled her name in the article as it is Gaertner! She was one difficult woman to track down. She was a fire that burned brightly and then was quietly snuffed out by either circumstances or her husband.

Lillian V. Gaertner (July 5, 1906-?) was a painter, muralist, illustrator, decorator, scenic designer and costume designer, primarily working in New York City during the 1920s and early 1930s.

She is wearing high heels on that beam!

She was born in Manhattan Assembly District 9, New York City, in 1906 to immigrants Rudolph Gaertner (b.1874) and his wife Ida (b. 1878). Various publications list different countries for their origin -Germany, Bohemia, and Austria. Lillian had one sibling – Edward. Lillian’s talent as an artist were immediately recognized by Joseph Urban at the age of 14 yrs. old. At that time she was only eight years younger than Urban’s own daughter Gretl! Some even consider Lillian as his protégé. Regardless, Urban sent Lillian to study art in Paris and Vienna, under the direction of Josef Hoffmann (a Bauhaus designer who worked with Urban on other theatrical projects) and Ferdinand Schmutzer. Back in the New York, she studied with Urban and Emeline Clark Roche (1902-1995). Clark is fascinating in her own right and primarily worked as both a scenic and costume designer.

Lillian was commissioned to paint numerous murals at hotels, restaurants, clubs, office buildings, and other public spaces. In 1927, she even created a massive artwork for the Ziegfield Theater. Other notable murals were created for the Montmatre Club at Palm Beach, the Persian Room murals at the Plaza Hotel, the Maritime Exchange Building, the Hotel Pennsylvania, and the Essex House. As a scenic and costume designer, Lillian worked for Carnegie Hall and the Metropolitan Opera.

               

A side note regarding her mural created for the Ziegfield theatre: Some of her mural artwork from this demolished building appeared in 2006. Ziegfeld opened this theater on 6th Avenue and 54th Street, where it became home of the “Ziegfeld Follies.” Designed by Joseph Urban, it was situated well out of the theater district and featured a unique “egg-shaped” auditorium. Lillian painted the 24’ wide by 14’ high mural (designed by Urban who titled it “The Joy of Life”). Her painting originally covered the walls and ceiling in the main auditorium and included brightly colored depictions of eastern hunts, banquets, and characters from literature, history and mythology. The theater was demolished in 1966 to make way for an office tower that now occupies the same spot. In 2006, an immense section of the original painted mural resurfaced. The link for this discovery is: http://www.prweb.com/releases/2007/01/prweb499705.htm

Lillian’s career continually soared throughout the 1920s. On January 18, 1930, Lillian married Harold B. Palmedo (1898-1983). Little is know of him and Harold certainly wasn’t a shooting star. Born in New York to Alrich (a stockbroker) and Emma Palmedo, he shared his childhood and early adulthood with two other had two siblings, Roland and Eleanore. Palmedo’s career is sketchy at best and his brother Roland was the great success of the family. The 1920 census listed Harold as living at home with his parents and working as a chemist in a manufacturing facility.

In 1931 the couple celebrated the birth of their first and only child. On January 27^th, 1931, Lillian was born to the Palmedos, then living at 240 East 79^th Street in New York.

Lillian continued her artistic career and mural painting. By 1934 she was celebrated for her murals in the Persian Room at the Plaza Hotel. Strangely, this same year, she moves to Milford, Conn. and starts showing dogs – Boxers.

It is at this point that the name “Lillian Gaertner Palmedo” starts to disappear. During this time, her husband becomes and early founder and first President of the American Boxer Club and she fills a space as a board member. Lillian’s mother Ida is the designated Treasurer. The greatest function that Lillian and Ida initially fill at the club is translating the German Standard and Austrian Standard for the dogs.

By 1939 the Palmedo’s win best of breed (Ch. Biene v. Elbe-Bogen se Sumbula). All their dogs were campaigned extensively by Harry Harnett, with Biene finishing her career with four Best in Show and still winning best of breed from the Veteran’s Class in 1941 – also a first. Also in 1939, The AKC Gazette column notes Lillian’s new role on the new Publicity and Promotions Committee.

By 1940, her daughter is living with grandmother Ida Gaertner in Mount Vernon City, Westchester, NY. In 1940, newspapers note that Lillian was living in New Milford, Connecticut. At this point in her life she constantly travels across the country appearing in various newspapers, showing their dogs and promoting her new clothing design (clothing created for owners to match their dogs). At this point, she is solely known as a clothing designer and dog fancier. Her painting career is no longer mentioned at all.

By 1942, she divorced Harold and appears to have faded from all printed record. The last mention of her in print that I could locate were divorce notifications in both New York and Reno, Nevada. No census records, death notice, memorial – nothing.

This is one of the more tragic tales. A woman with so much drive and potential gradually faded behind her husband’s name. Initially listed as Lillian Gaertner, then Lillian Gartner Palmedo, she eventually became Mrs. H. B. Palmedo. Lillian was redefined in from “Lillian Gaertner, one of New York’s most promising young artists” in the 1920s to “Mrs. H. B. Palmedo, clothing designer and dog fancier” in the 1940s.

I sincerely hope that she found much joy with activities at the American Boxing Club and attending dog shows. Wishing that she gladly abandoned all of her hard work, training, and artistic potential and left a promising career as a theatre artist and muralist. Maybe she continued to paint in any spare time that she could find and all of her works have yet to surface. It would be tragic to think that her husband’s passion for boxers, or marriage in general, caused Lillian to abandon her artistic career.