Tag Archives: Joan Crawford

PHOTOGRAPHING SILVER SCREEN COUPLES

 

During Hollywood’s Golden Age the movies were marketed through the stars and their fashions. The visual presentation of these alluring features came in colorful posters and glossy photographs, all reproduced in magazines and newspapers. And before the stars’ romance could light up the screen (often continued off-screen), whether in romantic comedies or murder mysteries, they were photographed together in dual portraits.

Tyrone Power and Loretta Young in” Café Metropole,” 1937

 

Loretta Young and Joseph Cotten in “The Farmer’s Daughter,” 1947

 

In those days each studio had its own portrait gallery, where photographers were busy shooting the stars. “Stills” as they were called, were shot of each movie star. These photos were issued to fans and used for publicity and for fashion articles. The portrait photo was the most carefully handled of all stills, an art form crafted by photographers such as George Hurrell, Ernest Bachrach, Clarence Sinclair Bull, Eugene Robert Richee and others. Such portraits not only helped sell the picture, but also sold the star. And when romance was part of the movie, the dual portrait had to convey a strong chemical attraction. The intimacy portrayed in the photo was a signpost to audiences signifying that whatever troubles the plot threw at them, the couple would always share their love.

 

Jean Arthur and Charles Boyer in “History is Made at Night,” 1937,

 

Anne Dvorak and Lyle Talbot in “Three on a Match,” 1933.

 

The dual portrait was tricky business. Each star needed to be prominently shown, with the all-important lighting  capturing each of them individually – while displaying their mutual attraction. The best of these photographs are sublime. Like the film itself, the photo can give the illusion that we are peering into a very private and personal moment, with the photo freezing that image in time. In real life, then as now, the two stars may not have gotten along at all. Getting each of them in for a photo setting, where one or both may have agreements to approve the results before they are issued, added to the complexity of the job. But like the costume designers, the portrait photographers learned to work with each star. And the stars knew the results were important to their careers. Sometimes very opposite personalities worked unexpectedly well, like the light-natured, all-American Jean Arthur with the French romantic, but always serious, lead Charles Boyer, in History is Made at Night. In film plots opposites can often lead to trouble. In the dark pre-code Three on a Match, Ann Dvorak’s well-married character takes up with a small-time hood played by Lyle Talbot. She also turns to drugs and comes to a bad end.

 

Gene Tierney and Cornel Wilde in “Leave Her to Heaven,” 1945

 

In Leave Her to Heaven, a film noir in blazing Technicolor, Cornel Wild falls hard for the siren call and alluring beauty of Gene Tierney. Little does he know that she will become morbidly jealous.

 

Hedy Lamarr and Walter Pidgeon in “White Cargo,” 1942.

 

“My name is Tondelayo” is all Hedy Lamarr had to say in White Cargo to knock adventurer Walter Pidgeon off his feet. Billed by MGM as the most beautiful woman in the world, she didn’t need to do much acting, but don’t underestimate her intelligence.

Since the set-up for the portrait shot was complicated, and the cameras used were bulky, the screen lovers rarely peer into each other’s eyes. Often they seem to stare into the distance – firmly connected – yet dreaming their own dream. The photographer’s art was to capture that moment on photographic film – the double-visioned dream.

 

Alida Valli and Gregory Peck in “The Paradine Case.” 1947

 

Gregory Peck and the Italian actress Valli starred in Alfred Hitchcock’s little known The Paradine Case. Peck’s aquiline features and Valli’s prominent cheekbones give a beautiful symmetry to this photo.

With the classic photo of Bogart and Bergman below we can relive the entire Casablanca film. Here they look off, he seemingly backwards at their time in Paris, she, apprehensive, worried about Laszlo getting caught, or perhaps who it is she will leave with?

Humphrey Bogart and Ingrid Bergman in “Casablanca,” 1942

 

When the screen lovers do stare into each other’s eyes, we can feel the intensity of the moment. It’s the moment before the kiss. These photos were usually taken on the set rather than in the portrait gallery. The set had more room for action, and a drama might soon unfold.

 

Joan Crawford and Clark Gable in “Dancing Lady,” 1933

Joan Crawford and Clark Gable starred in eight movies together, in addition to having been actual lovers. Their early dual portraits usually display real heat. Although they were extras together in The Merry Widow (1925), Dancing Lady is their first starring movie together.

 

Gary Cooper and Barbara Stanwyck in “Ball of Fire,” 1941. Photo by Hurrell

Gary Cooper and Barbara Stanwyck are another example of opposites attracting, at least in the film. In Ball of Fire, he was a straight-laced professor. She was a burlesque dancer. In real life he was 6ft 3. She was 5ft 4.

The classic The Thomas Crown Affair, starred Steve McQueen and Faye Dunaway. The cat and mouse story leads to the two on opposite sides falling in love. Its a classic story that will not doubt lead to another re-make.

 

Steve McQueen and Faye Dunaway in “The Thomas Crown Affair,” 1968.

 

The art and practice of the dual portrait is now largely lost. These images have a haunting beauty that was artfully captured on film. Love is eternal, and these actors in their youthful beauty and the photographers they worked with captured that essential truth.

 

Madeleine Stowe and Daniel Day-Lewis in “The Last of the Mohicans,” 1992

 

Although movie posters still advertise new movies, the genre of romantic comedies and romances are largely gone. Some photos are still being taken on the set for advertising purposes but the idea of getting two actors to pose for a series of romantic photos is also unthinkable these days. Even in 1992’s The Last of the Mohicans, the captivating moment on screen was not captured in the photo above, where each actor seems already preparing for their movie trials and tribulations. And in that tribute to classic musicals, La La Land, the romantic couple is shown in set stills or screen grabs, dancing or holding hands. We could be more convinced of the romance with a photo like those that led off this post.

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JOAN CRAWFORD FASHION – DESIGNED BY ADRIAN

 

Joan Crawford was already working at MGM when costume designer Gilbert Adrian arrived with Cecil B. De Mille in 1928. MGM had gone through a succession of designers, including Erte, but it quickly contracted Adrian as the head designer.  Greta Garbo, already a major star, was thereafter dressed by Adrian and became an international fashion influence. Joan Crawford had been at MGM since 1926 and would also  become a major star. Dressed by Adrian, she would become as big a fashion influence as Garbo.

Joan Crawford’s first big starring role came with Our Dancing Daughters in 1928,  the movie that made her a hit with young women.  This film’s costumes had been designed by David Cox. Adrian designed her costumes for the sequel films, Our Modern Maidens,  and  Our Blushing Brides. He designed her next 28 films at MGM, creating her look both on  and off screen. About Adrian Joan Crawford later said, “Dear Adrian, he was the greatest costume designer of them all. There will never be a greater one.”

This post is part of the Joan Crawford Blogathon hosted by In the Good Old Days of Classic Hollywood

 

Joan Crawford Our Blushing Brides

 

Joan realized early the importance of the star-making machinery with costume design as a foundation. Adrian’s talents extended beyond the art of fashion. He understood the needs of the role, and importantly, the psychology of the actress and what it takes to create that extra spark of creativity on the screen. In Joan’s flapper days, such as in Our Dancing Daughters and in Our Blushing Brides, shown above, Joan embodied the notion and look of the flapper. Later, when she played the sophisticated “kept woman” in Mannequin, Adrian dressed her in a completely different style for that role. Joan absorbed these lessons in style and stardom eagerly. She wanted to pattern her stardom after Gloria Swanson, the greatest star from early Hollywood. Gloria Swanson was a fashion icon – always well dressed – always the star – a role played on and off  the lot.

 

Joan Crawford Mannequin
Joan Crawford in Mannequin

 

Adrian found Joan Crawford fascinating. Like Greta Garbo, the MGM star he most loved to dress, Joan presented him with the androgynous beauty that sparked his creativity. She had a beautiful figure with broad shoulders that Adrian admired, a “regular Johnny Weismuller” he said. She had normal hips, not wide as has often been reported, so there was no need to widen her shoulders in order to balance them. Greta Garbo had wide shoulders too and Adrian used wide-shoulder costumes for both of them from 1929 on.  He did this just because he liked a wide-shouldered look on these two powerful women. Indeed, Adrian was always fascinated by polarities, and the contrast between the beautiful yet strong, forceful face of Joan Crawford  illustrates that characteristic.

The costume designed for Joan Crawford that made Adrian famous was the “Letty Lynton” dress, named for the 1932 film of the same title. It has not been publicly screened in decades due to a copyright dispute. The puffed-sleeve (or shoulders) white organdy dress was worn by Joan on a ship’s deck when Robert Montgomery compares her to an angel and asks her to marry him. The dress was knocked-off by many  American designers and sold at every price-point. Parisian couturiers copied it too, as did other costume dessigners. Edith Head stated it was the single most important fashion influence in film history. The Cinema Shop at Macy’s has often been cited as selling 50,000, or even 500,000 copies of the dress, although both figures are gross exaggerations stated at the time for marketing purposes. Versions of the dress can be seen as wedding gowns in every decade since.

 

Letty Lynton 2

The photo below is another gown from Letty Lynton, although it was shot on the set of Grand Hotel.  The gown is made of white crepe and black bugle beads, with one section forming a wrap tied at her hips. The other, forming a true assymetry on her left side. The image itself is a master-work of Hollywood set photography, with Joan forming a crucifix at the swinging art-deco doors of the Grand Hotel.

 

Joan Letty Lynton 2

 

In Grand Hotel, 1932, Joan played a secretary. Adrian dressed her  simply in black dresses. Her predominant costume was the one shown below. Its large white collar emphasized her face, always desirable in film, and its open structure symbolized her vulnerability to the advances of Preysing.

 

Joan-Grand-hotel

 

Greta Garbo also starred in Grand Hotel, although they did not share a scene. Garbo was notoriously reclusive and Joan had never talked with her on the MGM lot, and was rather intimidated by her. One day during the filming of Grand Hotel, Joan ran into Garbo on the stairs of the old MGM dressing rooms. Joan, locked in place and spellbound by Garbo, just said hello. Garbo put her hand to  Joan’s face and said, “What a pity, our first picture together and we don’t work together.  I am so sorry. You have a marvelous face.” Years later in retelling this story Joan said, “If there was ever a time in my life when I might have become a lesbian, that was it.”

 

Greta Garbo in Mata Hari, portrait by Clarence Sinclair Bull
Greta Garbo in Mata Hari, portrait by Clarence Sinclair Bull

 

Adrian used the symbolic power of the modified trench-coat on Joan Crawford, just as he had with Greta Garbo ever since 1928  in A Woman of Affairs. Below Joan is shown in Possessed, 1931. The Coat is only slightly feminized with the bow at the collar and at the belt, which is neutralized by a floppy cloche hat serving as a sort of fedora. She wears this outfit as she stands up to hecklers admitting that she’s the mistress of Clark Gable as the character Mark Whitney. He’s running for governor, she says, but he is an honorable man that once belonged to her but now belongs to the people.

 

Joan-Possessed

 

Joan Crawford, like many young actresses at MGM, had gone through voice class to lose her native twang and regional accent. While Joan had developed a beautiful speaking voice, there was no mistaking that she was a working class girl, and always seemed natural in the many rags to riches roles she played. This was also a factor in her popularity with the many young women moving into the cities and who were entering the workforce in the late 1920s and 30s. Many movie and fan magazines and newspaper articles marketed the fashions she wore in the movies to this demographic. This was a lure to the movies themselves, and  with the implied message that if you wear the right clothes you get the right breaks.

Sadie McKee, has the plot  where Joan starts out as a household maid, then becomes a dancer, and finally the wife of a rich man. This is  not the man she loves, however, played in the film by Gene Raymond.  This was another film where Joan co- starred with a future husband, in this case Franchot Tone. She had previously co-starred with Douglas Fairbanks Jr. in Our Modern Maidens (1929), whom she first married. And then there was Clark Gable, with whom she co-starred in eight films. They never married, although they carried on an affair that lasted many years. They always seemed well paired in their roles together, and their chemistry was always hot. Sadie Mckee features a rare Adrian-designed gown that bares Joan’s shoulders. The sequined halter adds a  lot of dazzle to the long black gown.

 

Sadie McKee (1934) Directed by Clarence Brown Shown: Joan Crawford

 

For I Live My Life (1935) Adrian designed a gown for Joan that let his wide-shouldered look run wild. It is shown below, but at three-quarter view the full effect is not grasped. It was referred to at the time as the “Mutiny on the Bounty” dress because of the sail-like appearance of the bodice – and that the “Mutiny” film had just been released.

 

Joan Crawford #2

 

The film where costume plays its most important role ever, in my opinion, is The Bride Wore Red (1937)directed by Dorothy Arzner and starring Joan Crawford with Franchot Tone and Robert Young. Simply, an aristocrat bets that he can take a tavern singer played by Joan and through a good wardrobe can pass her off as a high-society heiress at an exclusive mountain resort. His theory is that only luck separates the characteristics of the rich from the poor, so change the appearance and you change the person. and thereby ensnare the affections of the Robert Young character who disbelieves this theory. So he gives “Anni” enough money to buy an expensive wardrobe, and she chooses the most eye-popping brilliant-red bugle-beaded gown with matching cape in the store. So in this fractured-Cinderella-fairy-tale she goes off on the train to the Alps, where the postman played by Franchot Tone picks her up in a donkey-cart, her taxi to the resort. The costumes continue to play their significant part in this movie,  not to make the actress feel comfortable in her role, but in this Dorothy Arzner film, to always make her feel like she has chosen the wrong wardrobe for the occasion.

 

Joan Bride Wore Red

 

It’s a bit of an irony that The Bride Wore Red was a black and white film, so who would have known what color the bride was wearing, even though she was not to be the princess bride? The gown was  miraculously preserved and is now in the collection of the Museum of the Fashion Institute of Technology,

The Women was released in 1939, with its complete wardrobe for Norma Shearer, Rosalind Russell, Joan Fontaine, Paulette Goddard, Hedda Hopper, and of course Joan Crawford, including all the other all-female cast including the fashion show models, all designed by Adrian. The years-long rivalry between Norma Shearer and Joan Crawford was paralleled in the plot, and Adrian had to impose a rule that none of the actresses would get to see what the other was wearing before scene-shooting began.  Although the outfit below covers Joan’s navel (necessitated by the censor) its partially exposed mid-riff was still considered risqué at the time.

 

The Women (1939) Directed by George Cukor Shown: Joan Crawford (as Crystal Allen)
Photo courtesy Photofest

 

The roles Joan played after World War II satisfied her less and less. Change was taking place at MGM. Garbo had left, and after that  Adrian. Even her long-time rival Norma Shearer has retired. New stars were getting the choice roles: Katharine Hepburn; Greer Garson; Hedy Lamar; and Lana Turner. After a  long review of her options, Joan had a meeting with Louis B. Mayer and asked to buy out the rest of the time on her contract. So on June 29, 1943, Joan left MGM, her home for eighteen years. Her last task was to clean up her dressing room, not just to pack up her personal belongings, but to physically clean it as well. No farewell party was held to see her off.

Her agent Lew Wasserman got her a contract at Warner Brothers., where a new phase of her career began.  She was once again given more serious roles in this new age of film noir. There was Mildred Pierce in 1945 for which she won a Best Actress Oscar. With new clout, she returned to Adrian for her wardrobe, selecting costumes from among his designs at his new  fashion salon in Beverly Hills. Thus did her next two films, Humoresque, and Possessed, get costumed by Adrian. Joan is magnificently  dressed in Humoresque, showing a mature beauty in an elegant and classic wardrobe.  Possessed calls for a simple wardrobe. In the film Adrian used a technique of reversing a white collar on a black dress, having the points of  the collar turned to the back of the dress. The look has been copied many times since.

Joan Crawford went on to a long career, embodying what it was like to be a star in Hollywood’s Golden Age, and beyond. Adrian’s star burned bright while it lasted, but his health failed him. A heart attack forced him to give up his own influential fashion line in 1952, and a planned comeback was stopped by a terminal stroke in 1959. Fortunately we have those many films to see for ourselves on TCM and elsewhere the art that was created in this collaboration and under the talented umbrella of many at the Hollywood dream factories.

This post is part of the Joan Crawford Blogathon hosted by In the Good Old Days of Classic Hollywood

 

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SKIN & BEADS IN FILM AND FASHION

Skin and beads, the name I gave this post, is based on what Marilyn Monroe called her Jean Louis-designed gown from 1962, the one where she sang Happy Birthday Mr. President to John F. Kennedy at Madison Square Garden. Indeed, the main advantage of a dress made of glass bugle beads is that their weight presses against the skin. You either see the skin left exposed, or you clearly see the contours of the wearer since the beads hug the figure with from the gravity of their weight. And the beads not only reflect light, but are themselves translucent, and sewn onto the sheerest of silk chiffons. They are made of cut glass, an can be colored or lined in silver or gold. Marlene Dietrich below knew how to pose in a gown made of bugle beads. This one was designed for her by the costume and fashion designer Irene. Little skin actually shows, yet you feel that all of her is showing.

 

Beads Marlene_Dietrich_Irene

 

The tubular bugle beads can be sewn solidly on a dress, or they can be used sparingly for decoration. Bugle beads shared the same limelight as sequins in the 1920s, when glitter was in favor (did it ever go away?). Sequins don’t let the light through, and they are much lighter in weight, an advantage in cost of production and wearability. But sequins don’t flatter the screen figure like beads do. Below a young Joan Crawford wears a fur wrap and nude souffle (not pronounced soufflay) dress bodice, both decorated in bugle beads and sequins, here in a photo by Ruth Harriet Louise from 1926.

Beads Joan-Ruth Louise 1926 classicfilmheroines

 

With Jean Harlow, Adrian had the perfect figure on which to mold a nightgown made of bugle beads, accented with ostrich plume sleeves. The contrast of the shiny, reptilian skin of the beads, along with the fuzzy-nest sleeves of the nightgown, provided the perfect symbolic duality of the good-bad girl that was Jean Harlow. The photographer Harvey White captured this essence perfectly in the photo below from Dinner at Eight

 

Harlow Dinner at 8

 

While rarely paired on film, Jean Harlow and Clark Gable made a compelling couple in films like Red Dust. The chiaroscuro of black and white photography by Hurrell captures their radiance. The Adrian-designed gown of bugle beads reflects the light as it reflects her figure.The two stars are perfectly comfortable with each other. This type of dual portrait photography is a lost art. The photo below is from Saratoga, her last film.

 

Beads Harlow_Gable
Photo by Photofest

 

Adrian designed another knock-out gown of solid bugle beads for Joan Crawford in The Bride Wore Red, 1937, It was made of red bugle beads, and provided a key role in the plot of the film. Vintage beaded movie gowns rarely survived.  Due to their weight, they would rip apart if left on hangers for long. This one miraculously survived at MGM because a wardrobe lady had placed it in a drawer where it was forgotten for decades. It is now in the collection of  the Museum at the Fashion Institute of Technology.

 

Joan Red Bride

The Bride Wore Red gown in all its red glory is shown below in London at the V&A Museum’s Hollywood Costume Exhibition from 2013. The exhibition went on the road and finished its tour in 2015 at the future site of the Museum of the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences.

 

Hollywood costume V&A Bride Wore Red

 

The photo  below shows Carole Lombard in a beaded gown designed by Robert Kalloch for Brief Moment, 1933, from Columbia Pictures. Travis Banton had designed her Paramount movies and then Irene took over her wardrobe designing until Lombard’s untimely death in 1942. She was always photogenic and looked great whether in glamour or everyday clothes.

 

Beads Lombard - Brief Moment

 

The bugle beads these fabulous gowns were made from were usually silver-lined, which gave them their highly reflective quality. But the beads could be made of colored glass. Jeanette MacDonald below wears an Adrian designed gown of blue bugle beads in the film Sweethearts in 1938. The back of the gown shows just enough skin to be tantalizing, and with Jeanette’s back framed with a yoke and swags of beading, it emphasizes Adrian’s favored V-line silhouette. The front was very close-fitting like Joan Crawford’s red-beaded gown in The Bride Wore Red.

 

Jeanette MacDonald 5 JPG

 

Lana Turner, another platinum blonde, always looked smashing in black. Irene designed her wardrobe after Adrian left MGM, including this black bugle-beaded gown for Slightly Dangerous in in 1942.

 

Slightly Dangerous (1943) Directed by Wesley Ruggles Shown: Lana Turner
Photo by Photofest

 

Things became more colorful in the 1950s, especially when Marilyn Monroe was on the scene. Blonds were still popular, which Marilyn cast in cement for several more decades, especially in Gentlemen Prefer Blondes, 1953. Jane Russel was the brunette serving as contrast. The gowns were designed by Travilla. Marilyn’s gown sold at the Debbie Reynolds auction in 2011  for $1.44 million.

 

Gentlemen Prefer Blondes (1953) Directed by Howard Hawks Shown: Marilyn Monroe (as Lorelei Lee), Jane Russell (as Dorothy Shaw) Song: A Little Girl from Little Rock
Photo by Photofest

 

Marilyn Monroe had some fabulous designers working with her: Charles LeMaire, Travilla, Orry-Kelly, and Jean Louis. The black souffle dress below is decorated with strands of bugle beads. It was designed by Orry-Kelly for her in Some Like it Hot, 1958.

 

Beads Marilyn Orry-Kelly

 

Pictured below is the famous 1962 Happy Birthday Mr. President dress designed by Jean Louis, otherwise known by her as the “skin and beads” dress. Actually it was made of a flesh-colored souffle, and decorated with rhinestones, not beads. But Marilyn’s point was that it was tight enough to be her skin. It sold at auction at Christie’s New York for $1.2 million in 1999.

 

Beads Marilyn birthday dress

 

Glass beads are expensive but ever in style. The famous model Verushka of the 1960s wears this outfit in the legendary film Blow Up, in 1966. In this outfit, which is actually a short nightgown with open sides, Verushka poses for the photographer played by David Hemmings.

Beads Blowup Verushka

The glamour of beaded gowns has moved from the screen to the red carpet in recent years. Two striking examples are shown below.

 

Beads Selena Gomez 2014
Photo courtesy WENN

Selena Gomez wears a gold beaded Pucci at a 2014 Oscars after-party. The Pucci runway gown was modified to add the cutaway at the bust and to reveal more skin along with the beads.

 

Beads Blake-Lively-Beaded-Zuhair-Murad-Couture-Gown
Photo by Tinseltown/Shutterstock

Blake Lively wears a figure-hugging Zuhar Murad Couture nude- colored gown with black bead stripes  at the movie premiere of Savages. The stripes are wild and not many could pull off this look but Blake Lively is one of them.

Glamour never dies, nor does the influence of classic Hollywood costume and fashion design.

 

This post was modified from the 100th post of my former Silver Screen Modiste blog. It’s now my 48th of Silver Screen Modes.

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JOAN CRAWFORD AND ADRIAN

This post is prt of the Summer Under the Stars Post Blogathon hosted by  Journeys in Classic films

Joan Crawford started almost at the birth of MGM, in the silent, show-girl and flapper days of 1925. She even started before she was Joan Crawford. Her film career began under the name of Lucille Le Sueur, but when Louis B. Mayer noticed the vivacious and pretty Charleston dancer, he thought the name Le Sueur sounded too much like sewer, and so had it changed to Joan Crawford.

Joan had her first starring role in Sally, Irene and Mary in 1925, playing fast-living chorus girl Irene along with Sally (Constance Bennett) and Mary (Sally O’Neill). They each have their personalities, loves, and adventures, but it’s Irene that has the tragic end. Her next starring role was as the circus gypsy girl Nanon in The Unknown in 1927. Due to Lon Chaney’s acting it is as intense a silent film as you’re ever likely to see. Joan said she learned how to act from working with Lon Chaney in this film.

And then came Our Dancing Daughters in 1928, Joan’s first big starring role and the movie that made her a hit with young women across the country. Adrian had just been made Head Costume Designer at MGM, having come to the studio with producer Cecil B. DeMille that year. Adrian designed her costumes for the sequel film, Our Modern Maidens,  and her next 28 films at MGM, creating her look on screen and off. About Adrian Joan Crawford later said, “Dear Adrian, he was the greatest costume designer of them all. There will never be a greater one.”

Joan realized early the importance of the star-making machinery, of which costume design was a foundation. Adrian’s talents extended beyond his fashion art, but embedded in his work was his understanding of the needs of the role, and significantly, the psychology of the actress and what it would take her to create that extra spark of creativity on the screen. In Joan’s flapper days, such as in Our Dancing Daughters (designed by David Cox) and in Our Modern Maidens, shown below, Joan embodied the notion of the flapper and was dressed perfectly as one. Later, when she played the sophisticated “kept woman” in Mannequin, Adrian dressed her in a completely different style for that role. And Joan absorbed these lessons in style and stardom eagerly. She wanted to pattern her stardom  after Gloria Swanson, the greatest star from years before. Gloria Swanson was a fashion icon, always well dressed – always the star – a role played on and off  the lot.

Flappers Joan 1

Adrian found Joan Crawford fascinating. Like the MGM star he loved most to dress, Greta Garbo, Joan presented him with the androgynous beauty that sparked his creativity. She had a beautiful figure with broad shoulders that Adrian admired, a “regular Johnny Weismuller” he reportedly said. She had normal hips, not wide as has often been reported, so there was no need to widen her shoulders in order to balance them out. Greta Garbo had wide shoulders too and Adrian used wide-shoulder costumes for both of them from 1929 on, just because he liked a wide-shouldered look on these two powerful women. Indeed, Adrian was always fascinated by polarities, and the contrast between the beautiful yet strong, almost dominant face of Joan Crawford below illustrates that characteristic.

 

Joan Crawford

The costume designed for Joan Crawford that made Adrian famous was the “Letty Lynton” dress, named for the 1932 film of the same title. It has not been seen in decades due to a copyright dispute, but the puffed-sleeve (or shoulders) white organdy dress was worn by Joan on a ship’s deck when Robert Montgomery compares her to an angel and asks her to marry him. The dress was knocked-off by  American designers and sold at every price-point. Parisian designed copied it too, as did other costume dessigners. Edith Head stated it was the single most important fashion influence in film history. The Cinema Shop at Macy has often been cited as selling 50,000, or even 500,000 copies of the dress, although both figures are gross exaggerations done for marketing reasons. Versions of the dress can still be seen as wedding gowns.

 

Letty Lynton 2

The photo below is another gown from Letty Lynton, although it was shot on the set of Grand Hotel.  The gown is made of white crepe and black bugle beads, with one section forming a wrap tied at her hips. The other, forming a true assymetry on her left side. The image itself is a master-work of Hollywood set photography, with Joan forming a crucifix at the swinging art-deco doors of the Grand Hotel.

 

011

In Grand Hotel, 1932, Joan played a secretary. Adrian dressed her  simply in black dresses. Her predominant costume was the one shown below. Its large white collar emphasized her face, and its open structure showed her vulnerability to the advances of Preysing.

Greta Garbo also starred in Grand Hotel, although they did not share a scene. Garbo was notoriously reclusive and Joan had never talked with her on the MGM lot, and was rather intimidated by her. One day during the filming of Grand Hotel, Joan ran into Garbo on the stairs of the old MGM dressing rooms. Joan, locked in place and spellbound by Garbo, just said hello. Garbo put her hand to  Joan’s face and said, “What a pity, our first picture together and we don’t work together.  I am so sorry. You have a marvelous face.” Years later in retelling this story Joan said, “If there was ever a time in my life when I might have become a lesbian, that was it.”

Joan Grand hotel

Adrian used the symbolic power of the modified trench-coat on Joan Crawford, just as he had with Greta Garbo since 1928. Below Joan is shown in Possessed, 1931. The Coat is only slightly feminized with the bow at the collar and at the belt, which is neutralized by a floppy cloche hat serving as a sort of fedora. She wears this outfit as she stands up to hecklers admitting that she’s the mistress of Clark Gable/ the character Mark Whitney, running for governor, but that he is an honorable man that once belonged to her but that now belongs to the people.

Joan Possessed

Joan Crawford, like many young actresses at MGM, had gone through voice class to lose her native twang and regional accent. While Joan had developed a beautiful speaking voice, there was no mistaking that she was a working class girl, and always seemed natural in the many rags to riches roles she played. It was also a factor in her popularity with the many young women moving into the cities and who were entering the workforce in the late 1920s and 30s.

TCM’s Summer Under the Stars is also playing Sadie McKee, a story where Joan starts out as a household maid, then becomes a dancer, and finally the wife of a rich man, though not the man she loves, played in the film by Gene Raymond.  This was another film where Joan co- starred with a future husband, in this case Franchot Tone. She had previously co-starred with Douglas Fairbanks Jr. in Our Modern Maidens (1929), whom she first married. And then of course there was Clark Gable, with whom she co-starred in eight films. They never married, although they carried on an affair that lasted many years. They always seemed well paired in their roles together, and their chemistry was always hot.

Joan & Gable 2
Joan Crawford and Clark Gable in Dancing Lady

 

Sadie Mckee features a rare Adrian-designed gown that bares Joan’s shoulders. The sequined halter adds a  lot of dazzle to the long black gown.

Sadie McKee (1934) Directed by Clarence Brown Shown: Joan Crawford
Sadie McKee. Photo courtesy Photofest

Probably the film where costume plays its most important role ever is The Bride Wore Red (1937)directed by Dorothy Arzner and starring Joan Crawford with Franchot Tone and Robert Young. Simply, an aristocrat character bets that he can take a tavern singer played by Joan and through a good wardrobe can pass her off as a high-society heiress at an exclusive mountain resort. His theory is that only luck separates the characteristics of the rich from the poor, so change the appearance and you change the person. and there ensnare the affections of the Robert Young character who disbelieves this theory. So he gives “Anni” enough money to buy an expensive wardrobe, and she chooses the most eye-popping brilliant-red bugle-beaded gown with matching cape in the store. So in this fractured-Cinderella-fairy-tale she goes off on the train to the Alps, where the postman played by Franchot Tone picks her up in a donkey-cart, her taxi to the resort. The costumes continue to play their significant part in this movie,  not to make the actress feel comfortable in her role, but in this Dorothy Arzner film, to always feel like she has chosen the wrong wardrobe for the occasion.

Joan Red Bride

It’s a bit of an irony that The Bride Wore Red was a black and white film, so who would have known what color the bride was wearing, even though she was not to be the princess bride. The photo below shows the gown as it looks today, miraculously preserved and in the collection of the Museum of the Fashion Institute of Technology, although here shown at the Hollywood Costume exhibition at the V&A Museum in London.

Hollywood costume V&A Bride Wore Red

The roles Joan played after World War II satisfied her less and less. Change was taking place at MGM. Garbo had left, and after that  Adrian. Even her long-time rival Norma Shearer has retired. New stars were getting the choice roles: Katharine Hepburn; Greer Garson; Hedy Lamar; and Lana Turner. After a  long review of her options, Joan had a meeting with Louis B. Mayer and asked to buy out the rest of the time on her contract. So on June 29, 1943, Joan left MGM, her home for eighteen years. Her last task was to clean up her dressing room, not just to pack up her personal belongings, but to physically clean it as well. No farewell party was held to see her off.

Her agent Lew Wasserman got her a contract at Warner Brothers., where a new phase of her career began.  She was once again given more serious roles in this new age of film noir. There was Mildred Pierce in 1945 for which she won a Best Actress Oscar. With new clout, she returned to Adrian for her wardrobe, selecting costumes from among his designs at his new  fashion salon in Beverly Hills. Thus did her next two films, Humoresque, and Possessed, get costumed by Adrian. Joan is magnificently  dressed in Humoresque, showing a mature beauty in an elegant and classic wardrobe.  Possessed calls for a simple wardrobe. In the film Adrian used a technique of reversing a white collar on a black dress, having the points of  the collar turned to the back of the dress. The look has been copied many times since.

Joan Crawford went on to a long career, embodying what it was like to be a star in Hollywood’s Golden Age, and beyond. Adrian’s star burned bright while it lasted, but his health failed him. A heart attack forced him to give up his own influential fashion line in 1952, and a planned comeback was stopped by a terminal stroke in 1959. Fortunately we have those many films to see for ourselves on TCM and elsewhere the art that was created in this collaboration and under the talented umbrella of many at in the Hollywood dream factories.

 

 

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WHEN FASHION SOLD THE MOVIES: 1930-1940

 

In the beginning of Hollywood’s Golden Age in the 1930s, movie marketing was already an old trade, but one of its newest tools was selling the movies based on the fashions that would be worn by the stars that appeared in them. Unlike recent times, it was the women that decided what movies a couple would see, and women stars dominated the screen. In the late 1920s,  exotic costumes or bold flapper looks were already drawing attention. But with the arrival of the 1930s, the studios planned methodical campaigns to attract women to the new releases by placing fashion images of the stars from the upcoming movies in magazines and newspapers. For this marketing to work, the stars’ costumes would have to be the best and most appealing fashions, and so the studios hired the best designers they could find.

Fashion in Movies ClaudetteColbert_Bluebeard'sEighthWife
Claudette Colbert in “Bluebeard’s Eighth Wife,” designed by Travis Banton, 1938. The publicity emphasized the “minaret silhouette” and the tulle fabric dotted with gold and black sequins, with the large tulle bow.

And the studios publicized their designers almost as much as their movie stars, and they became household names during the heyday of the 1930s. Newspapers regularly covered film fashion as part of the publicity for a film: what the stars wore; and which costume designer was responsible, all as part of a film’s publicity. Fan magazines like Photoplay, Screenland, Movie Mirror, and others regularly carried articles and photographs about what film fashions and costumes the stars would be wearing and what tips on dressing the costume designers had for the average woman. In the 1930s through the 1950s, print media was the dominant form of advertizing and promotion, and the combination of print and still photography was used to sell movies by promoting the look of the movie stars. This meant an emphasis on fashion and costumes, and since the female audience had been found to make most of the decisions on which movie showings to attend, this well into the 1940s, women were specifically targeted by emphasizing the importance of costuming in film. This was at the very peak of film attendance in U.S. history. This period was also one where women entered the workforce in large quantities. There was a shift from rural to  urban living, and one where young women were influenced by the dress of the young female stars on the screen, often playing roles that echoed their own lives. Realistic or not, the message often was, “with the right clothes you get the right breaks.”

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The smiling face of Wendy Barrie is shown wearing white faile blouse with a tiered collar and pronounced peplum as publicity for Columbia’s “Feather in Her Cap, 1935.
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Fay Wray models a “lip-stick red” velvet evening gown designed by Walter Plunkett at RKO for the film, “The Richest Girl in the World.” It has an interesting cowl neckline.

The contemporary movies, those depicting the times when the movie was released, were those where the studios could produce the most publicity about the fashions worn by the stars on-screen. Accordingly, male and female actors wore the fashions of the day, at least of the day when the movie was made. Since fashion trends change so quickly, classic Hollywood always had a potential problem with its contemporary movies. Even in the heyday of the studio factory system, it took a number of months between the time costumes were designed and when the film was released. During those months a new style could be launched, or a current style could become passé. This happened in 1929 when the popular irregular-length, handkerchief-hemmed dress was suddenly demode when Jean Patou introduced the long skirt. Movies featuring the former looked out of fashion, and some had to be re-edited with actresses filmed from the waist up. This happened relatively early in Hollywood’s history, but from then on the studio moguls decided they would employ the best costume designers they could find, and would emphasize a classic Hollywood style of fashion, and one that took full advantage of the sex appeal of their roster of stars and starlets.

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Adrian turned Joan Crawford from a former flapper into a sophisticated dresser in “Mannequin,” in 1938.

Thus in the 1930s, MGM had Adrian, who created the looks for Greta Garbo, Joan Crawford,  Jean Harlow, Jeanette MacDonald, and many others.  At Paramount there was Howard Greer followed by Travis Banton and then Edith Head. Warner Brothers had Orry-Kelly and Milo Anderson.  RKO had Walter Plunkett, Bernard Newman and Edward Stevenson. Fox, later the merged 20th Century-Fox had several designers come and go until Charles LeMaire became the Head Designer. Irene, working out of Bullock’s Wilshire, designed the wardrobe for major stars at several studios.

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Lily Pons in a silver lame wedding gown. Miss Pons, an opera diva, and this gown from “That Girl from Paris”was photographed by George Hurrell in full color for Photoplay

Samuel Goldwyn wanted to capitalize on fashion for his movies, going to France and the Haute Couture for a designer, where he found Chanel. He thought he could get both publicity and the avoidance of the problems of changing hemlines and styles by going direct to Paris. He hired her in 1931 to design the costumes for his film The Greeks Had a Word for It. Chanel also designed the costumes for Gloria Swanson in Tonight or Never in 1931. But Chanel and Swanson never got along , or were able able to establish a working relationship. Chanel was in Hollywood to take her measurements but then went back to Paris. By the time the costumes were made Gloria was pregnant and they no longer fit. And while the costumes were chic, they seemed to fall flat on the screen. In any event the film never did well and Chanel never came back to work as a costume designer.

Fashion in Movies Gloria Swanson
Gloria Swanson in “Tonight or Never” designed by Coco Chanel

It was in the 1930s that the iconic look of Hollywood glamour was developed by costume designers Adrian, Travis Banton, Irene, and others. This was done out of a need for that timeless style, but using a combination of new couture techniques of bias-cut dressmaking with luxurious fabrics like silk satin for form-fitting gowns worn by stars like Jean Harlow ,Joan Crawford, Claudette Colbert, and Carole Lombard. And the costume designers not only designed the look of glamour, but the simple-but-elegant styles that women aspired to, as well as the casual outdoor styles and bathing suits popular in California. During Hollywood’s Golden Age, American woman looked to movies for their fashion cues, and women across the world did too.

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Loretta Young in “Second Honeymoon,” designed by Gwen Wakeling

The imagery and glamour of Golden Age Hollywood was developed in synchronicity with the tools to sell the movies through fashion. The Studio Portrait Gallery and its skilled photographers were put to use in taking glamour photos of the stars in their stunning gowns and beautiful dresses, all costumes they would be wearing in their upcoming movies. These ravishing images would be placed in fan magazine glossies and would still look good in newspapers. The most expensive of the movie  magazines, Photoplay, cost 25 cents in the 1930s. Vogue cost 35 cents while Harpers Bazaar cost 50 cents. The cost of a movie ticket was 25 cents in 1936.

Fashion in Movies Kitty Carlile_Here Is My Heart_1934
Kitty Carlisle in “Here is My Heart,” 1934, designed by Travis Banton

In the January 1932 issue, Photoplay had the article, “Let Screen Clothes be Your Guide to Wearable Fashions,” with a photo-spread of stars in current movies including Joan Crawford in Possessed. and Norma Shearer in Private Lives, both designed by Adrian.  Photoplay  magazine also had the leading studio costume designers give the “Fashion Forecast” for the seasons. Kalloch wrote  his forecast article for early Fall, 1935, outlining fabrics, furs, skirt lengths and other design elements, all accompanied with photos of the stars he designed for in their coming films. Travis Banton did the same for Photoplay for Autumn 1935, the article including some of his costume sketches. Banton stated there would be return to the era of elegance, with rich fabrics, furs, gold and silver brocades.   And with the current emphasis on the draped silhouette, chiffon would still be useful even in winter. The studios had been successful beyond their dreams in selling movies through fashion. The very image of the stars had usually been created by the studio’s costume designer, often paired with the star over many years. Sometimes the studios would also license a designer’s name to a fashion line, or otherwise publicize their creations as part of the film. This marketing arrangement worked very well through the 1930s up until the beginning of World War II. A variety of things happened to place this system in limbo. With the late 1950s it made a brief comeback but then disappeared with the demise of the studio system.  Only its relics and memorabilia remain today, although the films made during the period show – not the marketing – but that the emperor really did have clothes, and beautiful ones at that.   SONY DSC The photo above shows Joan Crawford wearing the famous “Letty Lynton” dress from the movie of the same title, 1932, designed by Adrian. It was knocked off by designers everywhere including by Parisian couturiers. The Macy’s Cinema Shop reportedly (but with much exaggeration) sold 50,000 copies of it.

This blog post is part of the   Classic Movie History Project Blogathon, hosted by Movies Silently, Once Upon a Screen, and Silver Screenings

 

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