Russel Wright was born in April 3, 1904 and briefly attended Princeton University and later Columbia University.  His career began as a stage designer and later in the 1930’s he started a business designing aluminum cocktail shakers and other accessories for the home that included flatware, mugs and lamps.  His designing career took off in the mid-30s and he started designing bleach blond furniture for Heywood-Wakefield and the Conant Ball Company in Massachusetts.  The late 30’s and early 40s saw the design of ceramic dinnerware made by Steubenville Pottery, the hard plastic Melmac dinnerware was not a hit until the mid-50’s and 60’s.

However Mr. Wright did not just design things and had them produced by the best manufacturers, much like Martha Stewart and others today, he had the presence of mind to market them and sell them through some of the better stores.  His Art Deco furniture designs, called Modern Living, produced by Heywood-Wakefield were sold by Macy’s.  His furniture designs, called American Modern, produced by Conant Ball were sold by Bloomingdales.  By the late 40’s he had sold more than 80 million pieces of his dinnerware and Russel Wright was a household name.  So as you can see, chances are that some of his designs made it into either you parents’ or grandparents’ home.