HOLLYWOOD AND HISTORY

Mary Wills design

Hollywood and History was the title of a wonderful exhibition curated by Edward Maeder at the Los Angeles County Museum of Art back in 1986-87, for which my dear friend Satch La Valley was a big inspiration. I borrowed the title for this new post of the Silver Screen Modiste, which is but a hint at Hollywood's contribution to the popular perception of history. Costume design has played a significant role in bringing historical dramas to life. While the costumes have not always been historically acurate, in the better productions they have been true to the spirit of the times they portray. And more significantly, they provide the actors, and the audiences, with the sense that they are part of those long-ago times. In the golden age of the Hollywood studio sytem, the major studios had the costume designers as well as the skilled talent to hand fabricate all the individual garments. Any period costume needed could be made by expert pattern-makers, beaders, embroiderers, seamstresses, milliners, leather-workers, cobblers, and others, with all the rich textiles the studios could buy. The costume design sketch shown above was done by the very talented and Oscar-winning Mary Wills for Bette Davis in The Virgin Queen, 1955.

A young Joan Collins played Beth Throgmorton, Lady in Waiting to Bette Davis's Queen Elizabeth in The Virgin Queen. Her costume was also designed by Mary Wills, as were the others. One of these costume sketches is shown above. Ms. Wills had a wonderful sense of style in designing costumes for dance, folk characters, and historical periods. This in no way lessened her abilities with designing contemporary fashion, for which she was equally adept. She was nominated for a costume Oscar for Virgin Queen, but didn't win. She received six nominations during her career and won her Oscar for The Wonderful World of the Brothers Grimm. The above is just a hint at her amazing talent, which we plan to show more of here.

Costume designer Rene Hubert was also a great designer of historical films. This costume sketch is for Jean Simmons for her role as Desiree in the film by the same title, where she co-starred with Marlon Brando in 1954. Among Hubert's many costume design credits were Forever Amber (1947), Centennial Summer (1946), Jane Eyre (1944), That Hamilton Woman (1941), The Flame of New Orleans (1941), and Quality Street with Marion Davies in 1927. Rene Hubert did his own costume sketches and had a very distinctive style of illustration. Gloria Swanson is said to have brought him over from Paris to design for her, where he had previously designed for Jean Patou.

The costumes of the Biblical movies merit their own book, and stretch back to the earliest days of epic-making production in Hollywood. Usually because of the sheer number of costumes involved, numerous costume designers were involved in a production. English costume designer Elizabeth Haffenden chiefly designed the classic 1959 version of Ben Hur. The costume design above was done by Haffenden for Haya Harareet in her role as Esther. Haffenden won a costume design Oscar for Ben Hur. Costume sketches are especially interesting when they show fabric swatches as well as the designer's notes.

This photo shows actress Rosamond Pinchot costumed as Queen Anne for the RKO version of The Three Musketeers from 1935. Pinchot rests on a "leaning board" as a wardrobe mistress attends to her costume. The Three Musketeers was designed by Walter Plunkett, with the costume fabrication supervised by Marie Ree Danjou.

Here Inez Schroedt at MGM works on the hem of one of the gowns from Marie Antoinette (1938). Some 2500 costume were made for the film. 

Here is another gown designed by Adrian for the film Marie Antoinette. The photo shows Anita Louise playing the role of the Princess de Lamballe. Prior to designing for the movie, Adrian travelled to Europe to bring back antique laces, embroidery, brocade, buttons, and gold brocade. MGM already had a warehouse full of antique furniture for the sets.

One of the loveliest photos from a Hollywood set is this one of Greer Garson in Pride and Prejudice from 1940. This historical gown was also designed by Adrian, although he changed the time period of the novel's costumes from the Empire style to that of the 1830s. Artistic license, but who can argue with this picture?

Historical films are still popular today, and by-and-large win most of the Best Costume Oscar Awards. The costumes are no longer fabricated at the studios where the films are made, however, and the skilled trades-people that made the costumes no longer work there.

But we can still rejoice in the quality of the designs, the fabrication of costumes , and the roles of the actors that are still being created today - all in the very spirit of creating historical drama.