How Ray's "Splint" Sculpture Got Broken When I was hired to work at the Eames Office back in 1953, I had no official title. Everyone in those days did a little bit of everything, and I was known as a "jack of all trades". I started out working on furniture prototypes, but as Charles became interested in film-making, I followed along - setting up lights, cameras, propping and building the sets, etc. It was all very "learn as you go". In the early 60's we had built a set to showcase a new line of tandem shell seating for the Herman Miller catalog. One of the props we used was a sculpture that Ray had made years earlier from a blank plywood leg splint. She had cut out the "splint" on a jigsaw in the workshop. I think it was one of three she made-Lucia (Eames Demetrios) has one and the other one disappeared from the Office. Each sculpture had different cut-outs. Anyway, the sculpture was hanging on the wall of the set. All of a sudden, without warning, a 4 x 4 post came crashing onto the set-hitting the sculpture and breaking it. (Fortunately, Charles did not witness this catastrophe.) Ray and I took it back to the workshop where we tried to put it back together. She glued it and I put a clamp on it. After it dried, she painted it flat black. In the end, we decided not to use it as a prop after all. When Charles asked about where it was, Ray simply told him that she didn't think that it worked for the shot. Charles turned his attention back to finishing the shot. Years later, when I told Ray that I liked the sculpture, she let me have it. I think it amused her to see it hanging on the wall of my Venice loft among all my odd collections of things. Parke Meek, December 15, 1998

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