Even More Marilyn at the Academy

Who would have thought that a backwoods country singer could unite the world through her love, talent, and infectious joy? That's exactly what Dolly Parton did, and while I plan on doing a tribute post for her, there was just not enough time for me this morning to do it right, so instead, you get more Marilyn Monroe from the Academy exhibit in Los Angeles. Two dresses from one of my very favorite Monroe flicks, “Some Like it Hot” (1959) were on display together.



Designed by Orry-Kelly, they both appear to be original (other than the shoes), based on the nearby placard:

Marilyn Monroe’s work in director Billy Wilder’s “Some Like It Hot” is often cited as her best. The film was controversial for its racy humor and story about two musicians (Tony Curtis and Jack Lemmon) who disguise themselves as women to evade the Mafia. But of equal scandal were the Oscar-winning costumes by Orry-Kelly for Monroe’s Sugar “Kane” Kowalczyk. These two dresses feature carefully placed beading and sequins so that when shot in black and white, Monroe appeared partially nude.



Silk, sequins, and chiffon never looked so good. Here’s a color publicity still showing Monroe in the outfit:



This one is probably my favorite outfit she wears in the film. The amount of detail in the sequins for something that would barely be able to be seen on screen is astonishing.



Marilyn wearing the dress. At the bottom of the photo, you can see my very favorite detail - a heart on her left butt cheek:



I wonder how many people who watched the movie even caught this little detail? While Monroe looked fabulous in black and white, seeing this costume in person in full color gives one an even deeper appreciation for the craftsmanship that went into it.



Monroe and Curtis between takes:



As I approached the legendary “Seven Year Itch” (1955) subway dress, I wondered…could this be the real thing? Well, kind of, but not really.

This replica was made by the original costume designer William Travilla. He often made close copies of his most iconic film looks for publicity purposes. This version has the belt secured in the middle. For the original costume, Monroe tied the belt to the side.



Tied front and center:



As seen in the film (with Tom Ewell), tied to the side. Much better! Good choice, Marilyn!



Final outfit for today is from “Bus Stop” (1956). All original EXCEPT for the shoes, tights, and gloves.

“Bus Stop” marked a turning point in Marilyn Monroe’s career. She had recently formed Marilyn Monroe Productions and signed a new contract with Twentieth Century-Fox that gave her a higher salary and more creative agency. This design by William Travilla supported Monroe’s performance as saloon singer Chérie, who dreams of one day making it big in Hollywood. Monroe learned an Arkansas accent for the role. She asked Travilla to tone down the glamour used for her costumes in previous roles to better suit Chérie.



Monroe wearing this outfit on the larger-than-life marquee in front of Grauman’s on Hollywood Boulevard:



If you haven’t seen it yet, you have until February 28, 2027. Don’t put off for tomorrow what you can do today!

See more Academy Museum photos at my main website.

Mary Poppins at Grauman’s

This image from October 1964 shows Disney’s “Mary Poppins” playing at the famed Grauman’s Chinese Theatre on Hollywood Boulevard. Released on August 27, 1964, the blockbuster hit continues to be a source of revenue for the Disney Corporation. A closeup of the posters on both sides of the theatre:



I could not match the style of the poster shown; the original one-sheet is slightly different from what Grauman’s has in their display case:



This publicity still can be seen in the case, lower right below the poster:



On the right side is a poster highlighting the cast of the film:



A few years back, I was able to see the original neon dragon from Grauman’s at the Museum of Neon Art in Glendale:



Switching gears to a very hot topic in the Disney community: the recently unveiled Walt Disney animatronic figure. The DSNY Newscast is one of many fan outlets that have released a video from the highly anticipated media preview. Kudos to Jack from DSNY for doing a great review of the figure and the show. It was much less dramatic and peppered with more thoughtful feedback than the Disney fan community usually gets. I read USA Today’s review and wondered if they had been sniffing glue beforehand, it was so over-the-top enthusiastic. Disney Imagineers created a slightly-walking-talking Walt Disney robot. It is apparent that there was a lot of work put into this figure, but it still does not transcend the creepy factor. More Stepford Wives than Walt Disney, the all-too-youthful sounding voice does not match the cigarette-scarred voice of the real man at the time of his life that this animatronic is supposed to represent. Had they let the animatronic smoke, I would have REALLY been impressed! Videos of Walt also show his motions as being much quicker than what the robot is capable of doing. I won’t pan the efforts as hard as what most Disney fans seem to be doing out there; when you attempt to re-create an iconic real person such as Walt Disney, the expectations are going to be higher than for someone like Abe Lincoln, for which none of us have ever seen in person. You are basically fighting a losing battle. I also want to applaud the efforts of Imagineers for making an attempt to keep the Man behind the Mouse in front of the public, so that he is able to stay “alive” and relevant for future generations.



I was really anxious to go to the Park to see this show in person (which debuts to the public tomorrow, July 17), but after seeing the video, the chances of that happening any time soon have been dampened. Hopefully the figure can be upgraded and the likeness of the face can be improved with time and feedback. We shall see…

See more Grauman’s Chinese Theatre photos at my main website.

Temple Tuesday: Name That Dress!

It was one of those Shirley mysteries that has haunted us (meaning me and Melissa, aka “The Colonel”) for years. What did she wear underneath her René Hubert designed cap, coat, and capelet at the Grauman’s Chinese Theatre ceremony on March 14, 1935? The one publicity shot that I owned from the evening (above) shows absolutely nothing, other than cement artist Jean “Mr. Footprint” Klossner pushing Shirley’s tiny little hand into the wet concrete slab. Recently, I added this alternate shot to my library, and the mystery began to unravel!



From the publicity caption:

“Love to the world,” in solid concrete. On the floor of the Chinese Theatre forecourt in Hollywood went the famous handwriting of the world’s greatest baby film star, Shirley Temple. “The Little Colonel,” her latest Fox Film production, opened at the famous Hollywood theatre, and Shirley left her name, her footprints and hand-prints in the concrete for future generations to see.

The wardrobe shot below shows Shirley wearing the beret, white ermine cape, and wool coat without any clue as to the garment underneath. Melissa had previously told me that she thought this coat and hat were created for “Our Little Girl” (1935), but either never used or part of a scene that was deleted before release.



Many have surmised that the dress Shirley wore under the Grauman’s coat was the same one she wore to the Oscars on February 27, 1935 (seen below with Claudette Colbert).



This theory came about because of this porcelain Shirley Temple doll released by the Danbury Mint, which was a recreation of the Grauman’s ceremony…



and came with the Oscar dress underneath. Shirley herself authorized this doll, so it was assumed that the two went together.



Back to my recent photo acquisition: I zoomed in to see if the edge of the dress underneath showed at all, and sure enough: I saw what appeared to be a stripe in the fabric! 



The dress also appeared to have a bit of a sheen to it. Two clues! I sent the pics to Melissa and immediately called her.



In the game of “Name that dress in 20 pixels or less…” Melissa succeeded brilliantly. Within seconds she said, “Well, that could be the pom-pom dress from ‘Our Little Girl.’” Yup. Houston, we had a match.



Shirley fan Connie M. weighed in with a few photos from her archives, such as the wardrobe shot below for “Our Little Girl,” showing the pom-pom dress.



For confirmation, I reached out to the great Rita D., Shirley expert supreme. Not only did she confirm, but she also dropped another nugget of gold. The coat worn at Grauman’s was also used in a number of publicity photos, minus the ermine cape. Why had I never noticed this before?





From Rita:

I checked everything I have on the coat and the negative numbers line up to the filming of “Our Little Girl” (production dates according to the AFI Catalog database for the film were February 11 – March 23, 1935; retakes/added scenes: April 1935). I’m sure the coat was intended for “Our Little Girl” as well, since it was designed by René Hubert, the designer for the film. The shots above are the same coat without the ermine cape but with an added bonnet, used just in time for Easter 1935 and “Heaven’s Gate” (the original title of “Our Little Girl”) publicity. This may have been the way it was going to be used in the film. Here’s an example of a birthday layout from Photoplay, May 1935, using one of the alternate coat photos when the production was still called “Heaven’s Gate.”



There might have been a planned (and squashed) Easter scene in “Our Little Girl,” since there are a few photos of Shirley in the bolero dress with an Easter egg candy container, bunnies and a basket tagged for the film (photo below). It would make sense with this coat/bonnet outfit and those props, if so. It could also have been advance Easter publicity since the film was released in May, after the holiday.



At the 2015 Theriault’s ‘Love, Shirley Temple’ auction, the coat, beret, and ermine cape came up for sale. I was able to see them at the Santa Monica History Museum beforehand:



The pom-pom dress also came up for auction:



From the catalog description:

SHIRLEY TEMPLE'S SILK POM-POM DRESS FROM THE 1935 FILM "OUR LITTLE GIRL" Lot Number: 264. Of robin's egg blue and ivory silk crepe, the simply cut dress has alternate panels, softly draping short sleeves, and is trimmed by blue woolen knit pom-poms. Generally excellent. The dress has the original studio inventory tag "4753". Included with the doll are two vintage photographs of Shirley wearing the costume in her role of Molly in “Our Little Girl.” The dress is worn by Molly (Shirley) in the scene where she admits to her mother that she told Rolf that "we don't like him" and "we want him to go away and never come back".

In an amazing case of serendipity, luck, good fortune, you name it…the same person just happened to buy both the coat set AND the pom-pom dress…without knowing that they went together that historic evening at Grauman’s. Melissa immediately notified her and she was thrilled with the information!

And there you have yet another Shirley mystery solved by the trio of Daveland, The Colonel, and Rita D!

See more Shirley Temple photos at my main website.

Robert Conrad Heavenly Birthday Tribute

On what would have been his 88th birthday, Daveland is celebrating actor Robert Conrad. Devastatingly handsome, the Chicago born actor charmed the ladies, despite his diminutive height of 5'8". Who says size matters?

According to Conrad in an interview, his resemblance to the late James Dean kickstarted his career:

I did a show after the filming of “Giant” and because of my resemblance they wanted publicity to publicize the show. They didn’t think that it would draw an audience because of the death of the young star, so they wanted some hype. They had a man on the street interview. I had seen the show and I raved about how good the show was and then they did the resemblance thing and I was on the show every night for a week.

A vintage shot of Grauman’s in Hollywood stands-in for the theater in Chicago that Conrad worked at.



Dean played a part again when Conrad visited his grave:

People in Indiana saw [the show in Chicago] and they wanted to do “The James Dean Story” and they contacted me and invited me down to Fairmont, Indiana. Nick Adams was touring with some kind of Nick Adams film; I forget the name of it now. He was in Fairmont Indiana, so we met at the James Dean gravesite.



We were two young guys. He was looking at me and I was looking at him. He invited me to his room at his hotel and we had a couple of drinks together and he told me if I ever came to Hollywood that I was to look him up. He gave me his exchange. I didn’t know what the hell that was, back in the day. But he wrote it out for me and I kept it and went to New York to get a break in acting. When that didn’t work out I went back to Hollywood and called Nick and we hooked up the day I arrived in Hollywood, August 17, 1957. We were friends for the 13 years until his death.

Here’s Adams with Doris Day and Lee Patrick in “Pillow Talk” (1959). 



As his film career began Conrad posed for the typical beefcake shots:



Feel free to write your own caption for these shots with Van Williams (“The Green Hornet”):





Conrad’s first real bout with fame came with the Warner Bros. TV show “Hawaiian Eye” (1959-1963).



This gave the hunky star plenty of reasons to be shirtless for the audience. Here he is on the Warner lot:



After “Hawaiian Eye,” Conrad moved onto even greater success with his role of James West in “The Wild Wild West” (1965-1969), a wacky combination of western, science fiction, and espionage. Michael Garrison, the creator of the show, called it “James Bond on horseback.” Conrad was the perfect fit for the lead, and did almost all of his own stunts.

Conrad died in 2004 at the age of 84. See more Robert Conrad photos at my main website.

Temple Tuesday: Shirley, John, John, Allan, Lucy, and Sid

Shirley gently caresses the chin of her then-husband, John Agar, in this 1949 image taken on the set of “The Sands of Iwo Jima,” released by Republic Pictures on December 14, 1949. John Wayne was the star of the film. He had previously costarred with both John and Shirley in “Fort Apache” (1948):



“Iwo Jima” was directed by Allan Dwan, who also directed Shirley in “Heidi” (1937), “Rebecca of Sunnybrook Farm” (1938), and “Young People” (1940). Dwan is seen standing behind actress Helen Westley during the filming of “Rebecca” just out of the view of the camera:



John Wayne received his first Academy Award nomination for Best Actor for “The Sands of Iwo Jima.” Although he lost to Broderick Crawford (“All The King’s Men”), he DID get his footprints and handprints placed at Grauman’s Chinese Theatre in conjunction with the opening of the film there. 



From the John Wayne Facebook page I found the above shot along with this info:

Duke is hoisted up by a Marine to his right and Sid Grauman, owner of TCL Chinese Theatres​ ( Grauman’s Chinese Theatre) as he imprints his foot in the courtyard of the Hollywood landmark #onthisday in 1950 [January 25]. Duke’s performance in Sands of Iwo Jima (1949) earned him this piece of immortality, and the role remains a favorite of fans and critics alike. The cement was mixed with sand from the beaches of Iwo Jima.

Here’s Shirley getting her own piece of immortality at Grauman’s fifteen years before Wayne:



One of the most famous episodes of “I Love Lucy” dealt with Lucy stealing Wayne’s cement slab from Grauman’s so that she could take it home as a souvenir. In a two-episode arc, it originally aired on October 3, 1955 (“Lucy Visits Grauman’s”) and October 10 (“Lucy & John Wayne”).

 

Watching the episode, you can tell that a soundstage set stood in for the real Grauman’s, and that a prop was created in place of using the actual cement slab. The prop came up for sale at Heritage Auctions in 2016.



From the auction listing:

A John Wayne Prop 'Grauman's Chinese Theatre' Signature/Footprint Slab from "I Love Lucy." CBS Television, 1951-1957. Made of Styrofoam and fiberglass, painted gray to simulate concrete, with text reading "John Wayne" (though funnily enough, not the star's real signature) above boot footprints, with purposeful distressing on the surface and around all edges, with a cracked upper right corner; used in the hysterical 1st and 2nd Episodes of Season 5 -- titled 'Lucy Visits Grauman's' and 'Lucy & John Wayne,' original air dates October 3 and 10, 1955 -- when the Red Head steals the Duke's footprints from Grauman's only to have wackiness ensue; a number of these props were made for the two-parter, four of which are actually seen at the end of Episode 2 when Wayne walks in to the "Ricardo's" hotel room carrying what appears to be this exact one! (Please note this piece is dirtied and somewhat stained due to age.) 24" x 36".  PROVENANCE: The current owner, Ardis Lichtgarn, obtained this piece directly from Wayne's publicist, Beverly Barnett, who gave it to her at the 1955 wrap party for this two-part episode which took place at Desilu Studios. Barnett had invited Lichtgarn to the party specifically so she could meet Wayne, but the star left early so she missed him. As a consolation, Barnett gave her this prop which he said was meant for Wayne, but because he was gone, she got it instead! Included is a signed letter from Lichtgarn outlining how she obtained this piece 61 years ago. 

The prop sold for $22,500. That’s an expensive piece of styrofoam! Here’s a vintage closeup of the actual cement slab at Grauman’s from the Calisphere site:



In this previously posted shot, Wayne has a chuckle during this reunion with Shirley in 1976. George Burns and a dentally-challenged Shelley Winters are on the left.



Here’s an image of the Grauman’s entrance that I snapped in 2014:



See more Shirley Temple photos at my main website.