Uploaded February 2016 | Updated September 2026, 1 day ago
“Any man who really has faith in himself will be dubbed arrogant by his fellows” - Frank Lloyd Wright in 1957, as told to Mike Wallace
Hear more outtakes and watch the full interview @ blankonblank.org/frank-lloyd-wright
If you’ve ever been to Illinois, you’ll know all about the defining features of its landscape - namely, that it’s pretty much flat. But architect Frank Lloyd Wright did something new when he made buildings that somehow became one with the prairie. Long, low lines, and interiors that brought the light and space of the outside in. With the same approach, he built homes in the woods around waterfalls, on high bluffs that take in the stretch and space of the land below. If you’ve ever visited one of his houses, you’ll know how they manage to make you understand more about exactly where you live.
As part of our special series, The Experimenters, where we’re uncovering interviews with the icons of science, technology, and innovation, we found this 1957 interview with Frank Lloyd Wright. It’s part of a collection at the Harry Ransom Center at the University of Texas at Austin celebrating The Mike Wallace Interview, a TV program that ran back in the late ‘50s. Frank Lloyd Wright’s designs and style seem very nice, very clean now, but at the time, he was a controversial personality. And like most famous architects, his work was as much hated as respected. And that’s what Mike Wallace wanted to talk about.
Here’s the tape.
Additional support from PRX and The Alfred P. Sloan Foundation
Watch Sally Ride on the dumb questions the media asked her: blankonblank.org/sally-ride
More Experimenters coming soon: Temple Grandin, Carl Sagan, Dame Stephanie Shirley, Jane Goodall, Richard Feynman, and Buckminster Fuller
Subscribe for new episodes of Blank on Blank every other Tuesday... it's free:
youtube.com/subscription_center?add_user=blankonblank
More Blank on Blank episodes: blankonblank.org/pbs
Executive Producer David Gerlach
Director Drew Christie drewchristie.com
Series Producer Amy Drozdowska
Assistant Producer Jessie Wright-Mendoza
MUSIC
Chris Zabriskie
"Prelude No. 17"
Kai Engel
"Remedy for Melancholy"
"Sunset"
IMAGES
The Frank Lloyd Wright Foundation
The Library of Congress
Historic American Buildings Survey
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Help us caption & translate this video!
amara.org/v/Q8FH
“Any man who really has faith in himself will be dubbed arrogant by his fellows” - Frank Lloyd Wright in 1957, as told to Mike Wallace
Hear more outtakes and watch the full interview @ blankonblank.org/frank-lloyd-wright
If you’ve ever been to Illinois, you’ll know all about the defining features of its landscape - namely, that it’s pretty much flat. But architect Frank Lloyd Wright did something new when he made buildings that somehow became one with the prairie. Long, low lines, and interiors that brought the light and space of the outside in. With the same approach, he built homes in the woods around waterfalls, on high bluffs that take in the stretch and space of the land below. If you’ve ever visited one of his houses, you’ll know how they manage to make you understand more about exactly where you live.
As part of our special series, The Experimenters, where we’re uncovering interviews with the icons of science, technology, and innovation, we found this 1957 interview with Frank Lloyd Wright. It’s part of a collection at the Harry Ransom Center at the University of Texas at Austin celebrating The Mike Wallace Interview, a TV program that ran back in the late ‘50s. Frank Lloyd Wright’s designs and style seem very nice, very clean now, but at the time, he was a controversial personality. And like most famous architects, his work was as much hated as respected. And that’s what Mike Wallace wanted to talk about.
Here’s the tape.
Additional support from PRX and The Alfred P. Sloan Foundation
Watch Sally Ride on the dumb questions the media asked her: blankonblank.org/sally-ride
More Experimenters coming soon: Temple Grandin, Carl Sagan, Dame Stephanie Shirley, Jane Goodall, Richard Feynman, and Buckminster Fuller
Subscribe for new episodes of Blank on Blank every other Tuesday... it's free:
youtube.com/subscription_center?add_user=blankonblank
More Blank on Blank episodes: blankonblank.org/pbs
Executive Producer David Gerlach
Director Drew Christie drewchristie.com
Series Producer Amy Drozdowska
Assistant Producer Jessie Wright-Mendoza
MUSIC
Chris Zabriskie
"Prelude No. 17"
Kai Engel
"Remedy for Melancholy"
"Sunset"
IMAGES
The Frank Lloyd Wright Foundation
The Library of Congress
Historic American Buildings Survey
More Blank on Blanks:
Kurt Vonnegut on Man-Eating Lampreys
youtube.com/watch?v=DzWMHIiGgWU
Nina Simone on Shock
youtube.com/watch?v=PQFhQ7_7BA4
Bill Murray on Being Obnoxious
youtube.com/watch?v=YE6MQ56_yyg
Patty Hearst on Reasonable Doubt
youtube.com/watch?v=3bsi2wZROSc
Tom Waits on Everything and Nothing
youtube.com/watch?v=SyrDfCSZJmI
Hunter S. Thompson on Outlaws
youtube.com/watch?v=P3QoKqEHS8s
BB King on The Blues
youtube.com/watch?v=-tIphqWYu_s
Elliott Smith on Freaks
youtube.com/watch?v=pAP3sYaaBv4
Robin Williams on Masks
youtube.com/watch?v=2PHGmIAv4Dc
Wayne Coyne on Living with Death
youtube.com/watch?v=OJXU7f0hI30
Maya Angelou on Con Men
youtube.com/watch?v=VybIJEA41yk
Bette Davis on The Sexes
youtube.com/watch?v=RNnTUyrxzWY
Michael Jackson on Godliness
youtube.com/watch?v=YoCa3Po7M_8
Jimi Hendrix on The Experience
youtube.com/watch?v=nK2lfs_uiwk
Meryl Streep on Beauty
youtube.com/watch?v=OG_T5dwnJuM
Philip Seymour Hoffman on Happiness
youtube.com/watch?v=Osn8rjkPyYM
David Bowie on Stardust
youtu.be/lFIDXXDsxAo
Gene Wilder on The Truth
youtube.com/watch?v=8PUW2POEjX4
John Lennon on Love
youtu.be/DmvmnYEy9NY
Johnny Cash on The Gospel
youtu.be/ALGi0tcFCcw
Heath Ledger on Role Playing
youtu.be/qDRUzbAa6lI
Tupac on Life and Death
youtube.com/watch?v=6x2FqX2YZws
Kurt Cobain on Identity
youtu.be/C1Z2BkZaOQc
Janis Joplin on Rejection
youtube.com/watch?v=VdF4b1_LQnQ
Help us caption & translate this video!
amara.org/v/Q8FH
