Phyllis Morris

Phyllis Morris (born October 19, 1925 in Chicago, Illinois; died September 5, 1988 in Los Angeles, California) was an American furniture designer known for her colorful persona, her outspokenness on decorating and her distinctive furniture and interior designs, especially her large and highly decorative beds. She was often referred to by the media as the "designer to the stars." By the time of her death, Morris had left a mark in the world of interior design in each of the four decades since the founding of her company Phyllis Morris Originals in 1953.

While a teenager, Morris' family moved from Chicago to Los Angeles where she pursued art classes at UCLA as well as a brief stint in acting. In 1953 Morris created a lamp whose design was based on one of her primitive figure clay sculptures. The lamp was manufactured by W.J. Sloan's, a Los Angeles department store and became so successful that Morris decided to pursue self-manufacturing of the second lamp design—a poodle lamp modeled after her own pink-dyed poodle Pamela—and set up a factory in nearby Burbank. Three years later in 1956 Morris married Nathan Goller, a prominent Beverly Hills attorney, and together they would have two children, James and Jamie.

The poodle lamp propelled Morris into the limelight and it wasn't long before she became a local celebrity. Often wearing a full-length mink coat and pink pedal pusher slacks, she would drive throughout Los Angeles in a pink Cadillac convertible with its top down and the front and back seats filled with pink poodle lamps and real pink-dyed poodles in the front seat. Not only did the residents of L.A. take note of Morris and her colorful marketing technique, but famed newspaper columnist Walter Winchell would eventually write "Who's the wise guy that said 'beauty and business don't mix?' Meet striking blonde Phyllis Morris. She's been setting this nation's furniture styling for ten years."