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Long before celebrity stylists became as renowned as t...)
Long before celebrity stylists became as renowned as the Oscar-winning film stars they advise, the legendary costume designer Edith Head was dressing Hollywood's most fashionable women and men, on screen and off, as well as lending her sartorial wisdom to women across the country on radio and television. In 1959, she published a bestselling memoir and style guide, The Dress Doctor, in which she also shared dozens of entertaining anecdotes about Hollywood's A-list with her fans. This special gift editionan alphabetical romp through the art of getting dressed and dressing Hollywoodfeatures Edith Head's best advice and stories, in her own words, along with gorgeous new illustrations.
From entries on Audrey Hepburn to Zooture, The Dress Doctor is filled with Head's timeless tips: her expertise on developing a personal style, dressing to flatter one's figure, building a wardrobe, and judging quality. Here are prescriptions for dressing properly for any activity, be it bowling, housecleaning, roller-skating, or making breakfast. Bil Donovan's stunning re-creations of Head's most famous gowns bring the designer's work vividly to life again, along with Hollywood icons Grace Kelly, Katharine Hepburn, Cary Grant, and many others.
(This book documents an important milestone in American cu...)
This book documents an important milestone in American cultural history, the birth of the animated holiday special-Mr. Magoos Christmas Carol¬¬¬-and its unsung creator, Lee Orgel. It tells the story of the artistically groundbreaking UPA animation studio, its decline and brief rebirth, which forever left its mark on television history. With the intersection of people like Walt Disney, Rodgers and Hammerstein, Jule Styne and Bob Merrill, Looney Tunes, Judy Garland, Robert Goulet, Woody Allen and of course, Mr. Magoo, its a virtual whos who of mid-20th century pop culture. The book recounts the enormous tenacity and effort required to get the special sold and sponsored, let alone produced, and features rare production artwork and even rarer photos from the song recording sessions. Mr. Magoos Christmas Carol was the first animated Christmas special and paved the way for all future animated specials, like A Charlie Brown Christmas, How the Grinch Stole Christmas and Rudolph the Red-Nosed Reindeer.
(Would you like to look younger, prettier, slimmer? Would ...)
Would you like to look younger, prettier, slimmer? Would you like to attract a new man, hold on to the current one? Would you like to get a better job, earn more money? Would you like your husband to move up the ladder of success, attract more friends? Then this is your book. Edith Head, Hollywood designer to the stars, offers no-nonsense, and often hilarious, fashion advice straight from the 1960s. There is still much to learn today from Head's witty style tips and delightful drawings.
Edith Head, original name Edith Claire Posener, was an American motion-picture costume designer.
Background
Edith Head's birthdate was probably October 28, 1897. All records of that time period were destroyed in a courthouse fire, and Head publicly claimed to have been born in 1907 or 1908.
She was born Edith Claire Posener in San Bernardino, California, the daughter of Jewish parents, Max Posener and Anna E. Levy. Her father, born in January 1858, was a naturalized American citizen from Germany, who came to the United States in 1876. Her mother was born in St. Louis, Missouri in 1875, the daughter of an Austrian father and a Bavarian mother. It is not known where Max and Anna met, but they married in 1895, per the 1900 United States Federal Census records. Just before Edith's birth, Max Posener opened a small haberdashery in San Bernardino which failed within a year. In 1905 Anna married mining engineer Frank Spare, from Pennsylvania. The family moved frequently as Spare's jobs moved. The only place Head could later recall living in during her early years was Searchlight, Nevada. Frank and Anna Spare passed Edith off as their mutual child. As Frank Spare was a Catholic, Edith ostensibly became one as well.
Education
She attended the University of California (B. A. ) and Stanford University (M. A. ).
Career
After a time as a schoolteacher and some additional study in Los Angeles at the Otis Institute and the Chouinard Art School, she was hired (1923) by the head designer at Paramount Studios.
The chief designer, Howard Greer, was greatly impressed by the variety of work in Head's portfolio-everything from fashion designs to interior decoration plans. It was only after she had taken the job, which paid $50 per week (double her teacher's salary), that Head confessed she had "borrowed" this work from other art school students. By then, however, Greer had decided that Head's own work was good enough for her to stay on at Paramount-where she remained until 1967 following sale of the studio, moving for her final career years to Universal Studios. Became First Woman Design Head at Major Studio The year after Head joined Paramount, Travis Banton was added to the design staff. He and Greer became notorious for their wild lifestyles, and in 1927 Greer left Paramount to open an exclusive shop on what is now Rodeo Drive. Banton became Head's mentor, and he began to give her the sole responsibility for designing costumes when he was too busy to do the work himself, or when he did not particularly like the actress. Head was assigned the designs for Lupe Velez in Wolf Song (1929), but her first major project was to create gowns for Mae West in She Done Him Wrong (1933), while Banton was busy with a Paris buying spree. The tight-fitting outfits designed by Head probably contributed to the film's huge success. Afterward, West frequently requested that Head design her costumes, noting that she loved the "insinuendo" in them. When West made her film comeback in Myra Breckinridge (1970), she insisted that her contract specify Head as her designer. Another notable Head design of the 1930s was a clinging sarong made for Dorothy Lamour in The Jungle Princess (1936). This creation became an instant fashion hit among women of all shapes and sizes. By the late 19306 Head's popularity was increasing, and her success was almost guaranteed when she began to outfit Barbara Stanwyck (a reportedly difficult-to-fit actress handed down to Head by Benton). Head became Stanwyck's confidante (a role she replayed with many other actresses over the years), and Stanwyck insisted that Head be written into all of her contracts, even outside of Paramount. Head's mentor Benton decided to leave Paramount for Universal Studios in 1938, and Head was selected as his successor to run the design department-a first for a woman at a major film studio. As a reward, Paramount sent Head on a trip to Europe (her first, despite her French language background and 15 years at the studio). By that time she was designing costumes for as many as 50 films per year, and routinely worked 16-hour days. Second Husband Became Lifelong Companion. In the early 1930s Head met the Paramount art director Wiard (Bill) Ihnen, himself the winner of two Academy Awards. In turn, by then Head had adopted her unusual trademark appearance: large-framed dark glasses, inconspicuous tailored suits, and long bangs on her forehead. However, according to her entry in The Annual Obituary, Head admitted that at night she wore "wild colors and evening pants, anything I want, but when I'm at the studio, I'm always little Edith in the dark glasses and the beige suit. That's how I survived. " Ihnen and Head shared the remainder of their lives together, most of it living at a Los Angeles hacienda named Casa Ladera, which Ihnen decorated in bright Mexican style. Head had a separate bedroom, furnished in the French Provincial style that she had used in her previous home. She and Ihnen maintained a companionable relationship until he died in 1979, at the age of 91. Won Eight Academy Awards The Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences decided to institute a "best costume" Oscar for films released in 1948. Head arrived at the award ceremonies, assuming that she would receive the award for the elegant costumes she had created for The Emperor Waltz. She was stunned when the award went instead to the designers for Joan of Arc. However, Head made up for this defeat, winning four Oscars in the following three years. Head won the 1949 Oscar for Olivia De Haviland's mid-19th century costumes in the black-and-white film The Heiress. In 1950 Head won two Oscars: one for Cecil B. DeMille's color biblical spectacle, Samson and Delilah (a project she had thoroughly detested because DeMille insisted that costumes be approved by a group of designers); and the other for the black-and-white film All About Eve, for which she had designed Bette Davis's costumes. The 1951 Oscar for best black-and-white costume design went to Head for outfitting Elizabeth Taylor in A Place in the Sun. A strapless bouffant dress worn by Taylor in the film became an immensely popular outfit when it was sold to the public under the Edith Head label. (This film also marked the beginning of a long friendship between Head and Taylor, who reportedly lived with Head and Ihnen when her marriage to Richard Burton was in trouble). In 1953 Head won another Oscar for the film Roman Holiday, in which Head worked with the rising star Audrey Hepburn. The following year Head won another Oscar for a Hepburn film, Sabrina. This award led to controversy over who actually designed some of the costumes. Hepburn had chosen to wear several costumes created by the young Paris designer, Hubert de Givenchy, rather than let Head design everything. Givenchy was shocked to see that he received no credit in the final film; and, when Head received her award for the film, she did not mention him. In fact, she repeatedly claimed that she had designed dresses actually made by Givenchy. After Sabrina, Head did not receive another Oscar until 1960, for The Facts of Life. Her eighth and final Oscar came after she had switched to Universal Studios, for The Sting (1973), the first film for which she received an award for outfitting male stars, Paul Newman and Robert Redford. Head has won more Academy Awards than any other woman. Actress Arlene Dahl stated in Vanity Fair that Head "referred to her Oscars as 'my children. '" In addition to these award-winning films, Head worked on hundreds of other films, earning a total of 35 Academy Award nominations. One of her most notable partnerships was with Alfred Hitchcock, with whom she worked on 11 films. These included designs for Grace Kelly's costumes in Rear Window and To Catch a Thief, and for Kim Novak's in Vertigo. Head considered Kelly and To Catch a Thief her favorite star and film. Remained Active While Elderly During the 1950s Head became a fashion commentator on the Art Linkletter television show, House Party. "She was my dress doctor, " recalled Linkletter in the Vanity Fair piece. "The first time Edith was on she was so introverted. .. . Then I coached her until she felt comfortable . .. It was remarkable to see this shy, retiring designer suddenly become a national personality!" By the late 1950s, Hollywood had moved away from elaborate costume dramas, and Head was working on only a few films per year. She used some of her time to move into new areas. In 1959, she wrote The Dress Doctor, a retelling of her career that became an instant best-seller. However, some details of the book remain questionable. According to Vanity Fair, it is even acknowledged now that the sketches in the book, attributed to Head, were drawn by her assistant, Grace Sprague. After she moved to Universal Studios in the late 1960s, Head's film work was further reduced. She began new work, such as writing a syndicated fashion column and serving as president of the Costume Designers Guild for three years (1966 - 1969). With her friend June Van Dyke, Head began to hold costume fashion shows, supposedly with original costumes from films. However, numerous sources insisted that many of these costumes were reproductions, and that some were not even Head's designs. In 1970 Head was diagnosed with a rare bone marrow disease and her husband also was in poor health. However, Head continued to work through the following decade. Her final film work was for Dead Men Don't Wear Plaid, which was released in 1982 after her death. Head's husband died in 1979, and Head herself finally succumbed to her illness on October 24, 1981. Her funeral was attended by crowds of Hollywood stars, as well as costume fitters and studio guards. Bette Davis (who kept a Head gown from All About Eve on permanent display in her home) gave the eulogy, calling Head "the queen of her profession. "
Achievements
She was an American costume designer who won a record eight Academy Awards for Best Costume Design, starting with The Heiress (1949) and ending with The Sting (1973).
Edith Head's star on the Hollywood Walk of Fame is located at 6504 Hollywood Boulevard.
An Edith Head costume collection from the Paramount Pictures Archive left Hollywood—for just the second time—to be shown exclusively at the Decorative Arts Center of Ohio in Lancaster in "Designing Woman: Edith Head at Paramount 1924-1967" as presented by the Fox Foundation from June 7 through August 17, 2014.
(This book documents an important milestone in American cu...)
Views
Quotations:
"A dress should be tight enough to show you're a woman and loose enough to prove you're a lady. "
"You can have anything you want in life if you dress for it. "
"Fashion is a language. Some know it, some learn it, some never will - like an instinct. "
"Building a proper wardrobe is like building a home. Indeed, you should think of it like a home, because it is something you're going to live in. It must be comfortable and suit all your needs. "
"I assure you that even the most beautiful women are not pretty all over. They have merely learned to use clothes deftly enough to give
others the impression that they are. "
"You can lead a horse to water and you can even make it drink, but you can't make actresses wear what they don't want to wear. "
"What a costume designer does is a cross between magic and camouflage. We create the illusion of changing the actors into what they are not. We ask the public to believe that every time they see a performer on the screen he's become a different person. "
Connections
On July 25, 1923, she married Charles Head, the brother of one of her Chouinard classmates, Betty Head. Although the marriage ended in divorce in 1936 after a number of years of separation, she continued to be known professionally as Edith Head until her death.
Head's marriage to set designer Wiard Ihnen, on September 8, 1940, lasted until his death from prostate cancer in 1979.
