Tag Archives: Mary Wills

DEBBIE REYNOLDS’ VALIANT EFFORT TO SAVE HOLLYWOOD’S PAST

 

Photo by Kirk McKoy
Photo by Kirk McKoy

The death of Debbie Reynolds on December 28, 2016 was a sad loss to classic Hollywood and show business. Her many movies and well-known starring roles in Singing in the Rain,  and the The Unsinkable Molly Brown among others are a lasting legacy. Her personality and bravery were matched to the subject of the latter film, her personal favorite.  Although oft-mentioned, her collecting of movie costumes and memorabilia is usually glossed-over. But this too is one of the sagas of her life, its own roller-coaster of tragedy and triumph. Yet ultimately she never reached her goal, and her loss has also become our loss.

How did Debbie Reynolds begin collecting Hollywood’s treasures and what happened to them? Collecting movie memorabilia really began when MGM auctioned off its fabulous collection of props and costumes in 1970. Before then the studios kept their props and costumes for re-use so there was very little supply and low demand to encourage collecting. The late 60s was a sad period for MGM and the other studios due to shrinking revenues. The new owners of MGM decided that there was more money to be made in selling off its assets than in keeping the studio’s traditions alive. MGM was Debbie Reynolds’ home studio, and she understood the value of the props and costumes as historical objects, not just as accessories of movie-making.  

Debbie was aghast when she learned that the new owners of MGM were going to sell off the back lots with the old standing sets where so many movies had been filmed. And along with these, warehouses full of props and costumes: from antique furniture and carriages to iconic costumes from films like The Wizard of Oz and her own Singing in the Rain. Debbie tried in vain to save the lots by convincing the management to turn them into an amusement park, much like Universal City was to become later on. They wouldn’t hearof it. Then she tried to get a loan to buy the properties herself. She failed. She did manage to get enough money to be prepared when the inevitable MGM auction arrived.

And so Debbie attended the MGM auction every day of its nearly three weeks duration from May 1 through May 18, 1970. And she bought and she bought: Adrian-designed gowns for Norma Shearer from Marie- Antoinette and Romeo and Juliet; an early version of Judy Garland’s Dorothy pinafore from The Wizard of Oz;  Greta Garbo’s velvet gown from Anna Karenina; her own Walter Plunkett designed “Good Morning” flapper dress from Singing in the Rain; Elizabeth Taylor’s riding outfit from National Velvet; Leslie Caron’s peacock-feathered dance dress from An American in Paris, and dozens more. Over time, Debbie bought from the other studios as well while building her collection.With her name and status she had entre to those studios. But Paramount and 20th Century-Fox were also to hold auctions. And she also bought from the underground market in costumes from such sellers as Kent Warner.

 

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Debbie was a discriminating collector and a far-sighted one. It was easy enough to select the wardrobe from award winning pictures, but Debbie also selected several costumes from the same film to give a better representation of the movie. And she went after set props too to enhance the original backdrop, all while envisioning a museum setting. When there were obvious duos, like the costumes from both Romeo and Juliet, she bought both of them. Two bold green-striped “Fit As a Fiddle” costumes worn by Gene Kelly and Donald O’Connor were also bought as a pair. Debbie Reynolds also showed her important connoisseurship by acquiring the costumes that were not just beautiful, but the ones that  became truly significant in defining the leading film character in the role portrayed. So in her collection was the Mildred Pierce coffee-shop waitress uniform worn by Joan Crawford, the rose and white-striped dress worn by Shirley Jones in the memorable “If I Loved You” scene with Gordon MacRae from Carousel, Elizabeth Taylor’s jockey uniform from National Velvet, Leslie Caron’s school-girl outfit from Gigi, Grace Kelly’s rose-colored skirt and white-embroidered sleeveless top from To Catch a Thief, Betty Hutton’s rose-embroidered cowgirl outfit from Annie Get Your Gun, Basil Rathbone’s caped overcoat from The Adventures of Sherlock Holmes, and on and on. 

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But as most of us know, The most amazing collection of historic Hollywood movie costumes ever assembled will never become the core of an American museum. Try as she might, Debbie Reynolds failed at building a museum based on her collection of costumes and treasures spanning the history of Hollywood movies. One would think it could not be so hard with someone of her talent, name, and resources. She tried first by incorporating a small museum within the Debbie Reynolds Hotel and Casino. But that Las Vegas venture ultimately failed. She was even forced to have an auction of some 400 lots from her collection in 2003 at the Julien Auction House. Lots included costumes from Marilyn Monroe, Gloria Swanson, Judy Garland, Fred Astaire, and many other stars. Then she tried developing a museum within the new Hollywood and Highland complex in Hollywood. This failed effort also placed her in debt. (along with her last marriage). And finally, she tried to open a museum at Dollywood in Pigeon Forge Tennessee, another money-losing plan. All of these plans left her in deep debt with no alternative but to auction off her treasured collection. All along the way she had approached the Academy of Motion Pictures Arts and Sciences with the idea of starting a museum and offering her collection at a then reasonable price. The CEO at the time was uninterested.

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Gene Kelly and Donald O’Connor’s “Fit as a Fiddle” costumes from “Singing in the Rain. The suits have hand-painted stripes. Debbie bought both as a pair, alas they were bought by separate buyers at auction

So on June 11, 2011 the first of a scheduled three auctions held by Profiles in History was held at the Paley Center in Beverly Hills to disburse the legacy of Golden Age Hollywood, from Charley Chaplin’s bowler hat to Elizabeth Taylor’s Cleopatra headress to Marilyn Monroe’s subway dress and hundreds of other costume icons. In the auction catalog Debbie wrote, “I used to spend my spare time in the wardrobe department, watching the most talented people create costumes for the actors. I loved everything that went into the process – the sketches, the fabrics, the construction.”

Weeks before the event a publicty campaign had placed stories in broadcast news and print media everywhere. The Paley Center had displayed many items in Debbie’s collection for the public to see two weeks prior to the auction. A line formed before opening on auction day. Debbie Reynolds was beside herself. She was accompanied by Carrie Fisher and Todd, along with her grandchildren.  Inside, Carrie was vaping what was then the new electronic cigarette. Profiles in History President Joe Maddalena introduced Debbie to the audience of bidders.  Debbie put her best face on the event, joking with the audience and prodding the bidders, all in the long tradition of “the show must go on.” But she choked up in her opening remarks, and indeed it was a melancholy day for Los Angeles and the rest of the country. We will never see the likes of this collection again.

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Bids came from phone callers and the Internet as well as the audience. I sat behind a Korean gentleman that seemed to bid and win most of the choice items. During a break Debbie herself asked for his card in a friendly manner. He said he didn’t have one and wouldn’t give his name.

Other items sold like Judy Garland’s screen-tested gingham dress from The Wizard of Oz, and a version of the Ruby Slippers. They were rumored to be destined for Saudi Arabia. The audience held its breath and then clapped when the Dorothy dress was hammered down for $920,000. We knew it was going to be a big day when item number 2 in the auction, Rudolph Valentino’s matador costume from Blood and Sand went for $200,000.(prices without premiums and taxes).

 

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It was no surprise that the biggest items in the auction were worn by Marilyn Monroe. What was shocking though was their hammer prices: Marilyn’s William Travilla-designed cream rayon “subway” dress from Seven Year Itch, $4.6 million. At this point Debbie knew she was doing well financially and started buying back a few of her sentimental favorites like Harpo Marx’s hat with its wig. When one lady was biding against her she asked her to stop and the woman did. Then more big prices came in: Marilyn’s Travilla-designed red-sequined gown shown above from Gentlemen Prefer Blondes, $1.2 million. And there were two more, including the stunning Travilla-designed “Tropical Heat Wave” costume from There’s No Business Like Show Business, a mere $500,000It is shown below. But the second most expensive item in the auction was not a Marilyn Monroe costume but rather Audrey Hepburn’s Ascot gown from My Fair Lady. It was hammered down for $3.7 million. By that point Debbie couldn’t stand it and had gone home but was following the auction on the computer.  “Holy shit,” she texted Todd.

 

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Photo by Christian Esquevin

The auction at the Paley Center was packed, with a small auditorium and a separate hall used for the occasion. There was also a row of phone-bid handlers, two on-line auction handlers, absentee bids, floor bidders, and an auctioneer that masterfully handled the whole operation. Bidding began just after noon. It didn’t finish until after 1:00am. The audience consisted of devoted classic movie fans, the curious, some serious collectors and those representing institutions or having a professional interest. Several long-time costume devotees were there, including noted costume collector Larry McQueen, and costume designer-turned UCLA Copley Center for Costume Design director Deborah Nadoolman Landis. I had waited in line with author Virginia Postrel.

An early auction indication that the prices were reaching the stratosphere was demonstrated in Judy Garland’s Adrian-designed pinafore from The Wizard of Oz, hammered down for $920,000. And this was for an early wardrobe test version that was never worn in the film.    

    

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Photo by Christian Esquevin

A result of seeing the costumes up close is a heightened  appreciation for the skill of the dressmaking and tailoring. The costumes were fabricated to provide a 360 degree view of the garment. Exact camera angles were unknown in advance, and most every costume had to be ready for a possible close-up.  And the gowns themselves are in vivid color, like the one Norma Shearer wore in Romeo and Juliet, also designed by Adrian,  shown below. This was the case even when the movie was filmed in black and white. The detailing on the bodice is incredible, with gold embroidery and cascades of tiny silver sequins

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Photo by Christian Esquevin
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Photo by Christian Esquevin

Evidence of the high quality of the film costumes is shown above in the coronation robe designed by Rene Hubert for Merle Oberon as Empress Josephine in Desiree. The silk gown is embroidered with gold floral decorations. The red velvet train is also embroidered and trimmed in ermine. Debbie began her collection with the MGM auction of 1970. Most of the studio’s wardrobe at that time consisted of period costumes, which is by and large reflected in the strength of Debbie’s collection. That MGM had many years earlier dumped many costumes in its wardrobe collection is little known. Due to the small value that was ascribed to contemporary fashion of the day, and the lack of its re-usability in later films, many crown jewels of costume were destroyed. By the time of the 1970 MGM auction, many of those late 1920s and 1930s costumes were already gone. These had been the costumes that created the very image of glamorous Hollywood movie-stars, and that started fashion trends around the world.  The Adrian-designed gowns worn by Jean Harlow, Greta Garbo, and Joan Crawford that defined the look of glamour were mostly discarded. It is informative to consider the sale of Debbie’s collection as reflecting the earlier MGM auction and the even earlier destruction of those movie costumes.

The costume below was designed by Mary Wills for Joan Collins playing Beth Throgmorton in The Virgin Queen. The costume sketch  some others designed by Mary Wills from the movie are shown on my blog post The Costume Sketches of Mary Wills

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Photo by Christian Esquevin

Coming in second place in price to Marilyn Monroe’s Seven Year Itch dress was Audrey Hepburn’s Ascot gown from My Fair Lady. It was hammered down for $3.7 million. Having the huge original hat along with the gown added much to the value of the ensemble.

Debbie also liked the costumes from classic Rome and Egypt, and who wouldn’t when they were worn by the likes of Elizabeth Taylor and Charlton Heston. The breast plate below is from Ben HurWith the big-budget movies of that era, the costumes were works of art. The one below is hand-hammered metal. It was one of many such costumes and props in Debbie’s collection

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Photo by Christian Esquevin

The second of the three planned auctions of the famed Debbie Reynolds collection of Hollywood film costumes and props was held on Saturday December 3, 2011 by the  Profiles in History auction house. While the auction didn’t have the same frenzy as the first one in June, there was still plenty of competition for the iconic costumes of Hollywood’s Golden Age

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As was the case with the first auction, the Marilyn Monroe worn items fetched the most money. The gown above was designed by Dorothy Jeakins for Marilyn Monroe in Let’s Make Love, (1960). It is made of a pale green pleated silk decorated with rhinestones at the bust and at the Empire waist. It was hammered down for $240,000. Marilyn’s green show-girl leotard designed by William Travilla for Bus Stop, (1956), decorated with black sequins and beaded fringe, went down for $230,000. In addition, Marilyn’s pale-green suit from Niagara sold for $210,000, and her embroidered gown and bolero jacket from Gentlemen Prefer Blondes designed by Travilla sold for $260,000. These were among the top five big ticket items of the sale.

 

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Photo by Christian Esquevin

 

Above is a fabulous show-girl costume designed by Adrian and worn by Eve Arden in Ziegfeld Girl, (1941). The gown is made of a silver lame with silver sequin stars embroidered on to a nude chiffon. The silver lame has tarnished to appear a golden color. The gown was sold for $5,500.

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Photo by Christian Esquevin

 

This striking dress was also designed by Charles LeMaire for Katharine Hepburn in Desk Set, (1957). It is a wool dress of black, gray, and cream-colored stripes with red accents. It sold for $6500.

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Photo by Christian Esquevin

One would definitely say that the costume above was designed for a star. Indeed it was, Donald Brooks designed it for Julie Andrews in Star! (1968). The coat is black velvet adorned with plastic silver stars. A silver lame top and pants were worn underneath, also decorated with stars. I should add that the Studio system was no longer in place when this costume was made. By 1968, the stars on the costume were no longer being made of sequins, fastidiously sewn onto the garment – the stars were now plastic. The famous line from The Graduate, “Plastic!” seems to have already  grabbed hold in the wardrobe department. The three piece costume sold for $7000.

Debbie Reynolds never realized her dream of a Hollywood memorabilia museum. A new movie museum organized by the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences is now being constructed. Alas, Debbie’s fabulous and historic costumes and props collection won’t be part of it. And probably harder to bear, the costumes, including sets from a single movie, have been scattered. One Internet bidder seems to have won many of of the choice costumes. It would be great if it was for a local collection or institution. More likely, these will go overseas along with the cream of Debbie’s first auction held last June. The Unsinkable Debbie Reynolds was vindicated by the very high prices her collection got. She was for several years free of debt and could make her children comfortable. If only Hollywood and Los Angeles had cared as much about its history as she had.

Thank you for inspiring the rest of us Debbie .RIP

 

 

COSTUME DESIGN SKETCHES BY MARY WILLS

 

The late Oscar-winning costume designer Mary Wills created  wonderful movie costumes as well as exuberant and beautiful costume sketches in the process. That her work is largely forgotten today is unfitting for such a great artist and costume designer. This especially and for someone who made so many  contributions to significant movies in Hollywood history. Posted here are some of the costume design sketches that show her amazing talent for the notable films that she designed.

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Mary Wills was the first  woman admitted to the Yale Art and Drama School, where she earned a Master’s Degree. She was born in Prescott Arizona, and moved to Los Angeles after receiving her Master’s degree. She started designing costumes in 1944 at RKO with Belle of the Yukon. She then designed Song of the South for  Walt Disney. She then began working for Samuel Goldwyn in 1948, where she designed costumes for Enchantment starring Teresa Wright and David Niven. Soon she was being referred to as The Fabulous Miss Wills at the Goldwyn Studio. The above sketch is for another film, and shows a smart linen travelling suit she designed. She was equally at ease designing contemporary or historical costumes, and for men as well as women.  The first big production that Ms. Wills worked on at Goldwyn, and a critical success, was Our Very Own, released in 1950. The film starred Ann Blyth, Jane Wyatt, Farley Granger,  Ann Dvorak, and a young Natalie Wood. A costume sketch for Jane Wyatt is shown below.

 

Mary Wills - Our Very Own, 1950

The costume sketch below is a design for a swim suit for Ann Blyth in the same movie.

 

Mary Wills - Our Very Own

 

One of Miss Will’s most memorable films was Hans Christian Andersen.  For this film she designed the costumes for Danny Kaye and the rest of the cast, excepting the ballet costumes. Shown below is a costume design sketch for Danny Kaye in the leading role. Using her artistic talent, Mary Wills was able to add subtle background scenery to many of her sketches, presenting a vignette for the context of the costume.

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Since filming took place on a Hollywood sound stage, her colorful and realistic costumes for the market scene in Copenhagen helps bring to life the sights and sounds of the old city. Shown below is a costume design sketch for a flower seller and her daughter. Miss Wills’ sketches give the appearance of living characters, as if she had actually painted them seated at an easel in the market square. The film was nominated for a Best Costume Oscar in 1953.

 

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And another pair of  characters bringing their milk and goat to market.

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Mary Wills was also a skilled designer of historical costumes for film. After moving to 20th Century-Fox, she began working on a  major historical costume film.The sketch below is for a costume worn by Joan Collins in the role of Beth Throgmorton in the 1955 film The Virgin Queen, starring Bette Davis. The fabric swatches selected for the costume are still attached to the sketch. Mary Wills received a Best Costume design nomination for this film, as did Charles Le Maire who headed costume design at 20th Century-Fox.

 

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Below is a remarkable costume sketch for Bette Davis as Queen Elizabeth in the same film.

 

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Mary Wills also designed the  Rogers and Hammerstein musical film Carousel, from 1956. The costume sketch below is the design that Shirley Jones wore in her first scene with  Gordon MacRae when they each sang “If I Loved You.”

 

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Below is the deign for Shirley Jones’ friend Carrie played by Barbara Ruick, also from the first scene where they go to the circus and meet Billy Bigelow ( Gordon MacRae ).

 

Costume sketch by Mary Wills of Barbara Ruick as Carrie

And a design for one of the many characters in the movie.

 

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Mary Wills won her costume design Oscar for the 1961 film The Wonderful World of the Brothers Grimm. This was a Cinerama production starring Yvette Mimieux, Russ Tamblyn, Laurence Harvey, Claire Bloom and many others. The costume sketch shown below was created for Yvette Mimieux in the Dancing Princess sequence. Miss Wills had a flair for designing dance and folk costumes, a talent she used later in her career designing for the Shipstad & Johnston Ice Follies

 

Mary Wills for Yvette Mimieux in The Brothers Grimm

 

Also below is another sketch for Yvette Mimieux as the Gypsy.

 

Mary Wills Yvette Mimieux in The Wonderful World of the Brothers Grimm

 

And Mary Wills could also design costumes for films that had a darker side, such as the first Cape Fear, and The Diary of Anne Frank. The costume sketch below is for Polly Bergin in Cape Fear, co-starring Gregory Peck and Robert Mitchum.

 

Mary Wills Polly Bergen Cape Fear

Mary Wills worked on two major films that she didn’t get film credit for; Funny Girl and Camelot. In Funny Girl, she designed the spectacular Ziegfeld show-girl Brides costumes and the costumes for Omar Shariff . Her last film work was for The Passover Plot in 1976, for which she also received an Academy Award nomination.

 

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Funny Girl Ziegfeld Follies February Brides

 

Before her final retirement to Sedona, Arizona in the mid-1980s, she designed costumes for special productions such as the The New Buffalo Bill Wild West Show and The Nutcracker on Ice. Mary Wills died on February 11,1997 in Sedona Arizona. Her work lives on in film, and her name should live on too. She brought a high level of artistic talent and integrity to her creations, breathing life into the costumes she designed.

 

Mary Wills at the Samuel Goldwyn Studio circa 1948

Thanks to Marri Champie for these sketches.

 

CAROUSEL: ROGERS AND HAMMERSTEIN’S CLASSIC

 

In the happy world of 1950s movie musicals came one where the protagonist dies after a failed mugging, leaving his pregnant wife behind. This was Rogers and Hammerstein’s Carousel. The movie was based on the Broadway musical from 1945, itself based on an older play Liliom, by Ferenc Molnar, and made into several films prior to Carousel. Molnar’s basic theme was kept but a few changes were made to the story, and notably setting it to music, which Molnar was only convinced to allow after Rogers and Hammerstein took him to see Oklahoma!  The story’s setting was shifted to 1870s sea-coastal New England. The 1956 movie of Carousel, like its Broadway predecessor,  is considered one of Rogers and Hammerstein’s most seriously themed musicals, and well it should. Like  Sunset Blvd, its protagonist leads off the movie dead, having been killed attempting a robbery.

This blog post will feature original costume design sketches by Academy Award winner Mary Wills, who designed the costumes for Carousel.

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Costume sketch by Mary Wills of Shirley Jones as Julie

 

Costume sketch by Mary Wills of Barbara Ruick as Carrie
Costume sketch by Mary Wills of Barbara Ruick as Carrie

 

Costume sketch for Gene Lockheart as the Starkeeper
Costume sketch for Gene Lockheart as the Starkeeper

Yes, Billy Bigelow played by Gordon MacRae is dead. But he inhabits the lowest rung of Heaven, where he has lingered for years. He is told that things are not going well for the family he left behind. The Starkeeper tells him everyone in his station can have one day on earth to redeem their wrongs, which prompts the re-telling/flashback of Billy’s life. The scene opens to the cheerful music of The Carousel Waltz.  He was  a carousel barker, a braggart and ne’er-do-well, but handsome, and a magnet for the young ladies wherever the travelling show would take him. One day he flirts too seriously with the pretty Julie Jordan, played by Shirley Jones. His lady boss gets jealous and she sends Julie and her girlfriend Carrie packing. He gets lippy with his boss and gets fired. Billy and Julie end up spending the evening together, even after she is questioned by her own boss, a Mill owner, and then by a police officer, for hanging around with a good-for-nothing like Billy, and missing her curfew for which she’ll be fired. Even Billy asks her why. In musicals, the strongest emotions can only be expressed in song, and so she sings one of the musical’s most moving songs, the heart rending “If I Loved You,” which leads a few minutes later into his own singing of the same song.

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If I Loved You

But somehow I can see
Just exactly how I’d be-

If I loved you,
Time and again I would try to say
All I’d want you to know.
If I loved you,
Words wouldn’t come in an easy way
Round in circles I’d go!
Longin’ to tell you,
But afraid and shy,
I’d let my golden chances pass me by!
Soon you’d leave me,
Off you would go in the mist of day,
Never, never to know how I loved you
If I loved you.

The song’s lyrics foretell the problem that Billy and Julie have throughout most of the film, and they never do tell each other “I love you.” during his lifetime.

But Billy and Julie marry, and Julie takes a job waiting tables at her cousin’s restaurant. Billy has no job, however, and he’s too much a smart-mouth to take the one that’s offered to him by Carrie’s fiance on his fishing boat. Instead his considers  taking an offer by his old boss, Mrs. Mullins, to rejoin the Carousel. But he learns that Julie’s pregnant, and in a moment of joy, he decides he has to to stay and provide for her. On the beach he reflects about becoming a father, singing his  “Soliloquy.” His vision is of a boy, but then he comes the ponder the thoughts of a girl. Either way he must provide for them, and he then decides to take up the offer of a sailor acquaintance, Jigger to rob the mill owner Mr. Bascombe.

Costume sketch by Mary Wills for Cameron Mitchell as Jigger
Costume sketch by Mary Wills for Cameron Mitchell as Jigger

 

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Fisherman dancer

 

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Costume sketch of Barbara Ruick as Carrie

All the town-folk and the local sailors are excited about preparations for the annual “clambake” at the nearby island, cause for celebratory singing and dancing to “June is Bustin’ Out All Over.”  After the merriment everybody sets sail for the clambake.

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Fisherman dancer

 

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Dancer

 

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After everybody is sated from eating, Jigger makes advances on the now engaged Carrie, and then he and Billy row back to the mainland unseen, while everone else has a treasure hunt. The two lay in wait for Brancombe, Billy with a knife that Jigger persuaded him to carry. When they finally confront Bascombe, he pulls a gun and fires.  Jigger runs away. Policemen show up and Billy runs up some crates rather than get arrested. He falls back down and lands on his knife, which mortally wounds him. Then everybody comes parading back still in a festive mood, only to discover that it’s Billy lying on the ground dying. Julie runs over to him and cradles him, finally telling him that she loves him, only now its too late. Seeing this scene back with the Starkeeper, Billy is still unrepentant, until the Starkeeper shows him the next scene of his daughter, now 15, a loner that the other students tease because of her late father’s reputation as a thief.

He next sees his daughter Louise, played by Susan Luckey, as the Starlight Carnival comes to town, and a handsome dancer, played by Jacques d’Damboise, takes her in hand for for a dance. She is flattered by his attention, but Billy from above quickly recognizes his type (he should know), and the dancer leaves her just as quickly as he picked her up.

Jacques d’Damboise center. Photo courtesy Photofest

All this makes her again the butt of laughter from the other school girls and she runs home in tears. Billy makes himself visible to Louise and offers her a star to console her.  Thinking him a stranger and frightened she turns away, Billy in frustration slaps her hand. Louise runs to her mother, who senses Billy’s presense, but all Louise can say is that the slap felt like a kiss. Billy now invisible again, sings to Julie, and she picks up the star.

The next scene is the high school graduation ceremony, where Louise and the other girls and boys are gathered. The school principal is played by Gene Lockheart, who played the Starkeeper. His speech to the graduating class is that they need to become their own persons, and not let the faults and failures of their parents haunt them.  At this time Billy, invisible,  stands beside Louise and whispers for her to listen to the principal. He then goes over to where Julie is seated. As Dr. Selden, the School Principal, leads them into the song, “You’ll Never Walk Alone,” Louise puts her arm around a school mate, who does the same, and Billy tells Julie he loves her. Julie  and the chorus all sing as Billy is seen walking to the horizon.

When you walk through a storm
Keep your chin up high
And don’t be afraid of the dark.
At he end of the storm
Is a golden sky
And the sweet silver song of a lark.

Walk on through the wind,
Walk on through the rain,
Tho’ your dreams be tossed and blown.Walk on, walk on
With hope in your heart
And you’ll never walk alone,
You’ll never walk alone.

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PRODUCTION: The title of of the film is Rogers and Hammerstein’s Carousel, which was produced by Henry Ephron and directed by Henry King. It was made at 20th Century-Fox and thus had excellent production values including art direction by Lyle Wheeler, Charles Clarke as cinematographer, and the wonderful costumes of Mary Wills. She had designed Hans Christian Andersen, The Virgin Queen, The Diary of Anne Frank, Cape Fear, and the Wonderful World of the Brothers Grimm, for which she won a costume design Oscar, among many other films she designed.

Carousel was filmed in CinemaScope55, a 55mm film stock. which gave high definition and relief to the screen image. Since this was the first use of this process, each scene was filmed twice, in both 35 mm and the 55mm film as a precaution. Frank Sinatra was first cast as Billy but he walked off the set saying he wasn’t being paid for making two movies. As it turned out, the double filming was soon abandoned. The filming was done on location in Booth Bay Harbor, Maine.

CRITIQUE: As a musical, Carousel is one of the masterpieces of the American theater. The film stays very close to the stage musical, although with one critical differance, in the stage version Billy kills himself rather than be arrested for robbery. The film has gotten less high critical praise, but it is still one of the great movie musicals, and certainly one of the fabulous films of the 1950s. With the singing duo  of Shirley Jones and Gordon MacRae, it could only be a winner. It was released only a few months after Oklahoma! and it suffered in critical esteem in its wake. And yet Carousel sags in the middle – during the clambake scene the actions seem forced and somewhat ponderous. Yet unlike, Oklahoma! its theme of redemption gives it an uplifting kick at the film’s end that was totally in keeping with the story, and must no doubt have pleased Mr. Molnar, the song and lyrics to “You’ll Never Walk Alone” helped propel that wonderful finale.

I first saw Carousel as a child, in the company of my parents, one of my early film-going experiences. My recollections of the movie were one of utter boredom. It was thus a revelation when I saw the movie as an adult, not so many years ago, at a TCM Classic Film Festival. Its music and scenes are now unforgetable to me. Perhaps others will discover or rediscover this classic film, this fabulous film of the 50s.