Lillian Oppenheimer

At a family meeting c. 1950,[lower-alpha 3] Kruskal was introduced to origami by the stepfather of her son Martin's wife, who showed them the Flapping Bird,[3] an origami model which flapped its wings when its tail was pulled.[7] Kruskal asked him how to make one, but he said he lacked the capacity to teach her. In 1953, Kruskal was invited by her cousin-in-law Judy Oppenheimer to attend one of the adult education classes at The New School for Social Research for something to do after her husband's death.[3][7] Judy had just married the son of Harry Centennial Oppenheimer (1889–1962), one of the directors.[3][8]

They attended a class where they used salvaged materials to create handicrafts. After their teacher showed them how to make the Flapping Bird, Kruskal asked her to teach her more pieces. She thought that another student named Frieda Lourie would be better suited to help. Although Lourie was unable to teach Kruskal anything more, together, they began finding new models and teaching them to others, with the help of Kruskal's copy of Fun with Paperfolding. Kruskal taught origami to her family and friends, including Temko, who went on to be a prolific author of paper folding books. Her family also grew to love origami. She sent Fun with Paperfolding to William's son, Tom, after he folded fifty paper cups for his friends.[3]

In 1954, she married Harry Oppenheimer,[3] by whom she had four stepsons, Peter, Jack, Phillip and Herbert.[4] The two moved to a penthouse apartment at the Hotel Irving in Gramercy Park, New York City. Harry was the president and founder of Brand & Oppenheimer, Inc., a leading textile business, and a civic leader. His first wife had died the same year. Harry was supportive of Lillian's activities and they had many shared interests, including music. She accompanied him when he traveled for frequent business-related meetings. She found origami a convenient pastime while waiting.[3][8]

For Lillian Oppenheimer and Frieda Lourie, origami was only a personal hobby. At the start of 1957, Oppenheimer received a copy of Robert Harbin's Paper Magic (1956) from her son William. The book contained clear instructions for the models known in the West. It also included an introduction which provided a lengthy history of the art form in Europe and Japan, an analysis of common techniques and a bibliography. Harbin had conducted extensive research; Gershon Legman informed him of the Japanese and Spanish paper folding traditions, where more inventive models were being created than in the West. The British origami historian David Lister considered Paper Magic the "first time that anyone had written about paperfolding in such a comprehensive way."[3] It was a systematic treatment of origami that viewed it as a form of art rather than a children's game.[7]

Lister, who knew Oppenheimer personally, wrote that Paper Magic changed her perception of origami from a solitary pastime to an active and connected minor art form and movement. In the summer of 1957, she went to Great Britain to meet with its author, Harbin. Although she could not meet Legman in France because he was away from home, she began to correspond with him and other notable paper folders, including Akira Yoshizawa of Japan and Ligia Montoya of Argentina.[6][3]

Oppenheimer later adopted origami (折り紙, lit. 'to fold paper'), the accepted Japanese term for recreational paper folding, instead of the English paper folding to refer to her art form. She thought that the English term paper folding was "uninteresting" and too easily confused with other paper crafts. She also considered the Mandarin term (折纸, Pinyin: zhé zhǐ) but ultimately found it unappealing and difficult to pronounce. Before this, origami had only been used in the English language in several English-language books from Japan. Her efforts, as well as her later establishment of the Origami Center, led to origami being established as the name for the art form not only in English but in many other languages as well, including most European ones. Nick Robinson, the president of the British Origami Society, wrote that origami has been established in English since 1958.[3][6][7]

Oppenheimer was interested in origami for recreation. She would acquaint herself with other practitioners and steadily learned more about the art. In contrast, her paper folding partner Lourie, a therapist at Bellevue Hospital, used it for her patients. On Lourie's suggestion, the two began teaching origami to those who were interested—from groups at the Red Cross, Boy Scouts and Girl Scouts to nursing home residents—and they started doing origami professionally. Lourie acquired a studio where she could live and hold lessons at the Hotel Irving, where the Oppenheimers lived.[3]

Although Lourie wanted to seek out publicity by approaching newspapers and museums, Oppenheimer believed that public attention would come in due course. Lourie was able to get three articles in Hokubei Shimpo, an English-language newspaper for Japanese expatriates in New York, but they attracted little attention. The concert pianist Sylvia Rabinof, one of Oppenheimer's closest friends, knew the journalist Meyer Berger, who wrote the popular column "About New York" for The New York Times. While Oppenheimer was initially reluctant, she allowed Rabinof to send the Hokubei Shimpo articles to him.[3]

Oppenheimer was surprised to receive a prompt call from Berger, but was able to take advantage of the opportunity. Berger saw her that night. On June 27, 1958, The New York Times printed his column on Oppenheimer. The article outlined the history of origami and described some of her favorite action models, including the Flapping Bird. The public reaction was unexpected. Letters and calls came from across and outside New York, including requests for origami lessons. After she was interviewed on Tonight Starring Jack Paar, talk shows started vying to have her on and she appeared on radio and television. Origami had suddenly acquired massive popularity in the United States.[3][4]

Oppenheimer used the newfound publicity to organize monthly origami lessons at Manhattan's Japan Society. Twenty-five people attended the first lesson on October 6, many of whom would become members of what she dubbed "the Origami Center", including Temko and Lourie. The lessons soon came into such demand—aided by another mention in Berger's column—that Oppenheimer started additional weekly lessons on Tuesdays and extended their run. She also started a newsletter for the Center called The Origamian. After the Society became unavailable, Oppenheimer held the monthly lessons in a nearby church and weekly lessons in her apartment until they ended in March 1959.[3] Robinson later wrote that, for the first time, origami had its own "centre of activity".[6]

The same day, Lillian and Harry Oppenheimer set out on a world tour. After traveling extensively in Europe, Lillian went to Japan to see Akira Yoshizawa,[3] considered "the preeminent folder of his time".[9] Their meeting attracted journalistic attention and the two appeared on Japanese television. However, Lillian and Harry caught the next flight back to New York City after being informed of her brother's death. When they returned to the Hotel Irving, they found that Lourie had died that morning after falling off the building. Lillian Oppenheimer contributed to the May 1959 origami exhibit at Cooper Union Museum, "Plane Geometry and Fancy Figures".[3] It was the first origami exhibit in the United States.[10] While Yoshizawa's art was the focus, it also featured the work of American folders who had been discovered by Oppenheimer and contained material on the history and mathematical aspects of origami, which helped it gain approval in both artistic and academic circles. The Art of Origami (1961) by Sam Randlett, another important work on the subject, also gave more prominence to Oppenheimer.[3][6]

Oppenheimer's husband died on March 7, 1962.[8] His will dictated that she would received one third of his estate and the associated income for life through a trust fund.[11] She moved to the Manhattan neighborhood of Greenwich Village afterwards.[12]

According to Lister, the Origami Center quickly became the focus of a new school of origami in America which included figures like George Rhoads, James Sakoda, Robert Neale, and Randlett, all of whom were among Oppenheimer's acquaintances. It continued as an informal organization held together by Oppenheimer. According to Robinson, "[to] be Lillian's friend was to automatically be a member." She accumulated a large origami collection and began a business for origami books. Michael Shall and Alice Gray proposed a formal sister organization, and so Oppenheimer, Shall, Gray, and their colleagues established the non-profit The Friends of The Origami Center of America. It was incorporated in 1980 or April 1981. When Gray retired, the Friends were able to continue using her office at the American Museum of Natural History and they slowly subsumed the Center's functions. They purchased Lillian's supplies business in 1987.[3][6][13]

During her second marriage, Oppenheimer befriended the puppeteer Shari Lewis, who inspired her to take up amateur ventriloquism and puppetry. Three books were published with the two as co-writers, but Lewis wrote while Oppenheimer merely supplied the models; Giuseppe Baggi also contributed models to Folding Paper Masks. The books helped Oppenheimer gain further publicity for her origami activities. After her husband's death, Oppenheimer held frequent puppetry meetings in her apartment, where she built a puppet theater. She was a founding member of the Puppetry Guild of Greater New York,[12] and active in the Storytelling Center of New York. She sometimes combined her three interests and told stories with origami puppets.[4]

• Lewis, Shari; Oppenheimer, Lillian (1962). Folding Paper Puppets. New York: Stein and Day. ASIN B000NWKJ24.
• Lewis, Shari; Oppenheimer, Lillian (1963). Folding Paper Toys. Lanham, Md.: Scarborough House. ISBN 0-812819-53-5.
• Lewis, Shari; Oppenheimer, Lillian (1965). Folding Paper Masks. New York: E. P. Dutton. ASIN B000K6G2BK.

• Oppenheimer, Lillian; Epstein, Natalie (1980). Decorative Napkin Folding for Beginners. Mineaola, N.Y.: Dover Publications. ISBN 0-486237-97-4.
• Oppenheimer, Lillian; Epstein, Natalie (1984). More Decorative Napkin Folding. Mineaola, N.Y.: Dover Publications. ISBN 9780486246734.

• Oppenheimer, Lillian (1959). "Introduction". How to Make Origami: The Art of Paper Folding. McDowell, Obolensky.
• Oppenheimer, Lillian (1983). "Introduction". Origami for Christmas. Kodansha International. ISBN 9780870115288.