Shirley Ritts (October 28, 1920 – February 24, 2008) was an American

interior designer Interior design is the art and science of enhancing the interior of a building to achieve a healthier and more aesthetically pleasing environment for the people using the space. An interior designer is someone who plans, researches, coordina ...

whose company helped to popularize rattan furniture in the United States during the

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."Los Angeles Times Archives. March 1, 2008. Retrieved November 24, 2021. Ritts was the mother of photographer and music video director, Herb Ritts (August 13, 1952 – December 26, 2002)."Shirley Ritts (L), mother of the late fashion photographer Herb Ritts, blows the crowd a good-bye kiss as actor Patrick Swayze watches during a ceremony honoring fashion photographers Ritts and Mario Testino with the Rodeo Drive Walk of Style Award in Beverly Hills, California March 20, 2005."
www.alamy.com. Retrieved May 22, 2022.

Early life

Shirley Ritts was born in

Baltimore, Maryland Baltimore ( , locally: or ) is the List of municipalities in Maryland, most populous city in the U.S. state of Maryland, fourth most populous city in the Mid-Atlantic (United States), Mid-Atlantic, and List of United States cities by popula ...

on October 28, 1920. Her father was an ophthalmologist. She married her husband Herb Ritts, Sr. in 1950, who happened to own a furniture company at the time.

The Ritts Company

The Ritts Company benefited from the popularity of

rattan Rattan, also spelled ratan, is the name for roughly 600 species of Old World climbing palms belonging to subfamily Calamoideae. The greatest diversity of rattan palm species and genera are in the closed- canopy old-growth tropical fores ...

furniture during the

post-World War II The aftermath of World War II was the beginning of a new era started in late 1945 (when World War II ended) for all countries involved, defined by the decline of all colonial empires and simultaneous rise of two superpowers; the Soviet Union (US ...

era. Herb Ritts acted as the company's furniture designer, and Shirley was in charge of sales and marketing. The couple had four children whom they raised in a 27-room, Spanish-style house in Brentwood, California. Ritts assisted with the set design on

Elvis Presley Elvis Aaron Presley (January 8, 1935 – August 16, 1977), or simply Elvis, was an American singer and actor. Dubbed the "Honorific nicknames in popular music, King of Rock and Roll", he is regarded as Cultural impact of Elvis Presley, one ...

's 1961 film '' Blue Hawaii'', in which she used rattan furniture and Polynesian design. Ritts often traveled extensively once her company introduced a line of

high-end In economics, a luxury good (or upmarket good) is a good for which demand increases more than what is proportional as income rises, so that expenditures on the good become a greater proportion of overall spending. Luxury goods are in contrast t ...

Lucite Poly(methyl methacrylate) (PMMA) belongs to a group of materials called engineering plastics. It is a transparent thermoplastic. PMMA is also known as acrylic, acrylic glass, as well as by the trade names and brands Crylux, Plexiglas, Acrylite ...

furniture."Ritts Co. \ Shirley & Herb Ritts: American." (Vintage (Lucite) furniture created by Shirley and Herb Ritts.)
www.incollect.com. Retrieved May 22, 2022."Lucite furniture from the Ritts Company."
www.tenondesign.com. Retrieved May 22, 2022.

Personal life

Ritts and her husband Herb divorced during the late 1970s. They remarried in the 1990s. She was also known for introducing

Cindy Crawford Cynthia Ann Crawford (born February 20, 1966) is an American model, actress and television personality. During the 1980s and 1990s, she was among the most popular supermodels and a ubiquitous presence on magazine covers, runways, as well as fash ...

and

Richard Gere Richard Tiffany Gere ( ; born August 31, 1949) is an American actor. He began in films in the 1970s, playing a supporting role in '' Looking for Mr. Goodbar'' (1977) and a starring role in ''Days of Heaven'' (1978). He came to prominence with ...

to each other.Avins, Mimi
"Welcome to Her Matriarchy."

Los Angeles Times The ''Los Angeles Times'' (abbreviated as ''LA Times'') is a daily newspaper that started publishing in Los Angeles in 1881. Based in the LA-adjacent suburb of El Segundo since 2018, it is the sixth-largest newspaper by circulation in the U ...

, September 26, 1999. Retrieved May 22, 2022. Shirley Ritts died of emphysema at her home in Brentwood, California on February 24, 2008 at the age of 87.

Popular culture

In the first installment of ''Lethal Weapon'' film series, the Ritts Co. store can be seen from a rooftop where

Mel Gibson Mel Columcille Gerard Gibson (born January 3, 1956) is an American actor, film director, and producer. He is best known for his action hero roles, particularly his breakout role as Max Rockatansky in the first three films of the post-apoca ...

's character

Martin Riggs Martin Riggs is a fictional character from the ''Lethal Weapon'' film series created by Shane Black. Riggs was originally played by actor Mel Gibson in all four films from 1987 to 1998, and later by Clayne Crawford in the Fox television serie ...

is trying to subdue a suspect.

References

External links

"Vintage Rattan Set – a Tiki – Tastic Addition to the Hacienda."
Retro Road Map with Mod Betty (features photographs of Ritts Co. Rattan furniture.)
" A 1970s Astrolite Lucite Fish by Shirley Ritts."
American interior designers 1920 births 2008 deaths American women interior designers Artists from Los Angeles Artists from Baltimore Businesspeople from Los Angeles 20th-century American businesspeople 20th-century American businesswomen 21st-century American women {{US-business-bio-1920s-stub