To Catch a Prince Grace Kelly Costume Barbie Princess

The Bride, The Movie Star: Grace Kelly Costume Mattel Barbie Doll :

May 1955, Grace Kelly was working on the Alfred Hitchcock movie To Catch a Thief with her costar, Cary Grant. She visited Prince Rainier at his palace in Monaco.

Mattel Grace Kelly
The Romance Silkstone
Barbie Gift Set

The Barbie Doll, Barbara Millicent Roberts, made her debut on March 9, 1959. There is, however a debate about Barbie's birthdate. *More about this below. The Ken Doll, Barbie's boyfriend, was introduced in 1961.

The 60th anniversary of the film is fast approaching. Interest in the film, any of Mr. Hitchcock's films, and of course in the legendary Princess Grace, never wanes. Do you remember where you were when you first saw the film? When you saw the wedding?

This collectible doll wears a gorgeous floral print dress just like the one Miss Kelly wore when she first met her future husband.

Mattel tells us that the dress was from an "easy to sew" pattern the actress modeled for McCall's magazine.

Many of Grace Kelly's signature dresses had a similar simple and very attractive silhouette. This dress features details taken from the actual dress she wore, including a fitted bodice and full skirt that flares out.

As is customary with Mattel's best Barbie dolls, she's further styled as Miss Kelly was on that romantic day. Her hair is just right, her headpiece and navy pumps are just as Grace wore herself. A true lesson in couture, in that 1950s to 1960s, fashion through the decades, costume. How fun this doll will be.

Sometimes we can't afford actual movie memorabilia, actual costumes or props. Maybe we want to add to a collection. I like finding something like this that's pretty and movie-related and will fit in a small space. 

Mattel's Barbie Princess Grace Kelly Bride in Silkstone

Grace Kelly married Prince Rainer III of Monaco on April 19, 1956. Their civil ceremony had been held the previous day.

Another Silkstone Collector Barbie, this doll wears a special replica gown just like the one Grace wore on her wedding day. Details of the real wedding are there:

She carries a small ivory prayer book, the bouquet. Collectors of film memorabilia or bride dolls will both adore this beautiful item. She will be passed down.

There are more pieces of clothing with this doll. A now iconic deep navy blue coat and dress, white, wide-brimmed hat and matching scarf that so many fans saw on theater newsreels, the outfit that Miss Kelly wore as she arrived in Monaco for her wedding to the Prince.

As you'll notice in one of the videos, as she gets off of the boat, she is carrying Oliver, the poodle given to her as a gift from her friend, Cary Grant. The Prince picks up the leash as they get into the car.

The doll is sculpted in Grace Kelly's likeness. Silkstone body. Silkstone, popular among collectors and used for many fashion and celebrity dolls, is made of a very hard plastic that is intended to mimic porcelain. She's a doll to build a dream on.

A crossover collectible as film, celebrity, history and fashion collectors just as a start would love to have her Grace their shelves.





Grace of Monaco, 2014. A film starring Nicole Kidman as Grace Kelly, Tim Roth as Prince Rainier III, Roger Ashton-Griffiths as Alfred Hitchcock.



To Catch a Thief, 1955 Trailer, Grace Kelly, Cary Grant, Jessie Royce Landis. Alfred Hitchcock, director.


Grace Kelly arrives in Monaco, you see the famous hat and coat. She gets off the boat carrying the poodle given to her by Cary Grant. The prince kindly picks up the end of the leash as Grace gets into the car appx 3:10 on video



Exhibition at the Victoria & Albert museum pays homage to the style of Grace Kelly throughout her life and in her films. (Exhibit has now closed.)


Barbie Collector To Catch A Thief Grace Kelly Doll
 
It was during the filming of To Catch a Thief that Kelly would meet her prince, her future husband. 

The Academy Award winning fashion designer Edith Head created Kelly's clothes for the film.

Madame Alexander 16" Jet Set Chic Grace Kelly Doll

How many people knew that Madame Alexander created Grace Kelly dolls? She has different styles, all lovely. 

This is part of the 2009 Grace Kelly Couture Collection.

The Barbie Hollywood Legends Collection
Of course there is the premiere piece, the Jean Harlow FAO Schwarz Silver Screen Barbie Doll By Mattel Exclusive Limited Edition. This one I have featured in my review of the film Reckless. (link below)

Just a sampling of others.... The 1994 introductions to the Hollywood Legends collection were Barbie as Scarlett O’Hara from Gone With the Wind in the Green Drapery and Red dresses. Perfect for this 75th anniversary of Gone With the Wind. 1995 saw more Scarlett O'Hara dolls and the addition of Barbie Doll as Maria in The Sound of Music and Barbie as Dorothy in The Wizard of Oz, a film also having its 75th anniversary in 2014. 

I'll never forget the amazing Lady Gaga's musical tribute to Julie Andrews and  The Sound of Music at the Academy Awards in 2015.

You'll find James Dean in his famous jacket and jeans from Rebel Without a Cause. There are two Rhett Butler figures. That makes an actor, a costume or a star iconic? There are characters such as the witch from The Wizard of Oz are represented, and Ken as the Tin Man is a favorite. They're characters we can share with generations.


Debate over Barbie's Birth Date: Toy Fair 1959 March vs February

There has been debate as to the date of Barbie's debut.

Some said the doll first went on sale February 13, 1959. Some say Barbara Millicent Roberts made her premiere on March 9, 1959. In either case, what I usually see both times with a claim that it was at the New York Toy Fair.

Going back a few years, the Toy Fair appears to have been held the second week of February. The people at Mattel and Barbie collectors celebrate her birth date as March 9, 1959.

Doesn't seem realistic that the New York Toy Fair of 1959 went on from February 13 - March 9, nearly a month.

A possible answer comes from a sort of contemporary of Barbie and Ken, GI Joe. He turned 50 in 2014.

With G.I. Joe, too there was some controversy as to whether the action figure was introduced in February or March of 1964 at the Toy Fair.

Apparently Hasbro said it was February but fair organizers say it was held in March that year. This was quoted on several blogs and news sources February 2014. No actual quote has been found to date.

If it's true, that could mean that when Barbie was introduced, the New York Toy Fair was held in March in the 1950s and 1960s and the date she went on sale, the date of her premiere could in fact be March 9, 1959 at the New York Toy Fair.

The fair has been going on since about 1903. A history was not very apparent on the web site of The American International Toy Fair. Will check again because it would have some great images.

Related Pages of Interest:

Jean Harlow is Reckless 1935 : Harlow was a Living Doll, First of the Barbie Hollywood Legends Collection

Oliver, a poodle fit for a princess, Cary Grant's wedding gift to Grace Kelly

Wedding Bridal museum shows

Party attitude hair make up quick tips 1920s-30s

Quick Party Tips from the 1920s, 1930s
Make your next party successful and low-stress
Guest List, Attitude, Beauty

Do you have a party coming up? Are you the host/hostess or a guest? Maybe

New Year's Eve Party 1917

you're into vintage beauty, the retro look, whether it's pinup beauty, 1940s fashion, 1930s Hollywood glamor or the 1920s Great Gatsby Flapper look. Is it for just one event or is it your lifestyle year-round? 

Back then like today, it was as much a matter of scheduling and our mindset as it is today. The following pieces of advice, quotes and paraphrases are taken from articles from the style and beauty sections of 1920s-30s film magazines. 

It seems as if there are fewer guides, ideas and rules now but judging by the morning after a party, the 'what not to wear' and 'walk of shame' columns, the lists of what is 'age appropriate,' we realize that there will always be rules out there. We can find help or inspiration in those that move us.

The guest list 

Sylvia Sidney, James Cagney
Blood on the Stone

Have to invite someone you don't like? The boss, the in-laws, the...?

"Sometimes bores are simply unavoidable, and if such a dilemma faced me I'd obviate it by gathering all my bores in one basket and sequestering them at one table, for instance or see to it that they were seated together. 

"The result? Each would believe himself to be the one brilliant member of the party, so they'd all have fun and be subtly flattered besides."
-- Sylvia Sidney 1936

The best personal announcements and invitations will get attention, be saved, remembered and attract guests to actually attend your event. Will you be funny, traditional, choose that old Hollywood theme, add photos?

 Don't skip a party because you think you might want to leave early! Devise a clever get-away plan. Actor Ned Sparks used his bulldog, Betsy as an excuse when he wanted to take off from a dull party, or even if he wanted to refuse the invitation altogether. 

"Oh I don't know what Betsy will think of me I was out last night," Ned will say when he wants to decline an invitation. Or when he wants to leave a party early he will explain, "Don't know what Betsy will say to me, I'm so late!" Not everyone knew just who Betsy was, but it didn't seem to matter.

In the 1933 Alice in Wonderland with Charlotte Henry, Cary Grant, Gary Cooper and W. C. Fields and Edward Everett Horton Ned Sparks was
The Caterpillar.

Billie Burke de-stresses before the party
Gloria's Romance 1916

Pump up your party attitude 
Before we consider hair, make-up or clothes "here is a personality point worth more than a big bouquet of orchids or an ermine wrap. This is the business of getting yourself into a party mood. Work up the spirit of expectancy. 

"Deliberately plan to enjoy yourself, no matter what and see that others enjoy themselves. This is practically a failure proof plan for a lovely evening. Though you may secretly long to walk off with the handsomest man of the evening and be the whole pivot of attention submerge it in the idea of a good time for all and see what happens."

One article proclaimed, "If you don't have a good time it's your own fault. Join in games even if you know you're a dub at them and laugh at your own mistakes but don't make any more than you can help. If it's an informal party offer to help your hostess serve if you know her well, but don't use it as an excuse to show off your housewifely skill to prospective husbands. Men see through that sort of thing."


New Gadgets Developed for Cocktail Hour 1935 Universal Newsreel; Offer them a cool adult beverage

"You perhaps think about yourself a great deal and in time that leads to under valuation. But don't communicate that viewpoint to others. It's fatal to popularity. If you find yourself growing self conscious jerk your thoughts away quickly and ask your partner something about himself.

"A good way to overcome shyness is to seek out other bashful men and women and try to put them at ease."

It was on a season of The Next Food Network Star, that I first heard someone use the term, resting bitch face.  
 
It's along the same lines of the old standby, "If you're having such a good time why don't you tell your face?"

Joan Crawford 1927

Your facial manners

A 1930s article by Joan Crawford talked about facial manners, how to be aware of how our expressions and the way dwelling on something can be bad in more ways than one.


Joan Crawford was very conscientious in studying her own face on the screen. Too often we rely on make-up to accent our faces and make them come alive. ... Most bad facial manners are unconscious of course.

"I will wager that if you will glance at your face in any passing mirror you will hurriedly change your expression to a pleasanter one! 

"Here are the commonest bad facial manners. Frowning, squinting, screwing up any part of the face are not only ugly in themselves but leave unlovely lines in their wake. Sulking is bad manners, social as well as facial and will spoil the loveliest face.

"Pouting distorts the mouth.  Watch for these things yourself in your mirror. Don't copy the little grimaces of your friends. .... 

"Be careful of the thoughts you think. As sure as you're alive they will be written on your face. And you can't cheat at this. Your social manners may be perfect. You may say pleasant things to your hostess while thinking what a dull time you had. But you cannot think hard, cross thoughts over a long period of time and not keep a record of them in your face."

Bebe Daniels in the bath 1920

Beauty for a party 

Bette Davis sprays
eau du Cologne onto
her hair

"No matter how elaborate or informal a party is it's always loads of fun for the girl who knows how to pretty up for it. 

"The wall-flowers at any party are the ones who didn't take the trouble to make themselves extra-attractive for the big occasion. Don't be like that!"

(Pretty up! This reminds me of Barney's saying Suit up! on How I Met Your Mother.)

"Be smart with your party preparations and you'll be a sensation not a wall-flower. Accent your eyes so they won't fade out wearily under the electric lights."



Vintage style updo tutorial
"Tint your cheeks with a new rouge.

Besame Vintage-Inspired
Cosmetics

"Treat your eyes before you make them up, removing any bloodshot traces.
 
"Flatter yourself with a facial before starting to make-up.

"Most girls use a scent of some kind if only a mild sachet powder rubbed right on the skin. 

"Perfume your whole body by sloshing a perfumed cologne over yourself or by patting it on with a square of cotton after you step from the tub."


Actress Constance Bennett prepares for an evening out in the 1930s

Marie Wilson Up-do Hairstyles

"Slenderize your fingers by wearing your nails long? Over foundation of colorless polish wear a coat of salon-type polish to harmonize or contrast with your gown making your nails sparkle like jewels.

"Curl the ends of your hair and pile them high on your head for one of those pre-war coiffures.

"Pin those high-piled curls in place with springy bobby pins, choose some that will hold their shape and are practically invisible once they're in place.

"If you wear your hair nice and straight like Bette Davis with the ends only slightly fluffed have you ever tried eau du Cologne to make them curl? Bette finds it works beautifully when sprayed on. 

"Ida Lupino does a patch-up job on unruly curls by setting her hair with cologne. She dampens her hair with cologne and rolls it up into a pin curl. It will dry in a few moments.

Art Deco Hair:
Hairstyles from the 1920s-1930s (Vintage Living)
5 Star Customer Rating

What will you wear??

If you sew cleverly, you can make a gown that might have come straight from a Hollywood designer then you don't need any advice about party clothes. But cheap materials and amateur dressmaking show up more quickly in formal clothes than in everyday garments. ... Wear something appropriate to the event and something that represents you. 

Tallulah Bankhead Feather Headdress
Ziegfeld Follies Girl Photo Pinup Cheney Johnston
Art Deco

"And I beg you don't choose party clothes for their practicality ... A dashing becoming gown, good grooming and poise are your best introductions to strangers. 

"At a big affair it is a good thing to be identified as 'the girl in the red dress,' or 'that stunning blonde in the black and white.' The main thing is to be noticed and remembered favorably. Names are sometimes forgotten at first meetings but visual impressions remain."
 

A fashion show at a chic nightclub 1933

"Even if your escort isn't exactly the Prince Charming of your dreams pretend he is for that evening and it will make you both happier. Let him think he is helping to provide a wonderful time for you. That will encourage him to do his utmost to make it so. There aren't any rules for having a good time at parties or anywhere else."

Find some great music from the era.


Have a good time at your party! Fats Waller - Ain't Misbehavin' - Stormy Weather (1943)


What do you think of the advice dolled out to the ladies in the 1920s and 30s? Then, as now columnists and pundits disagreed and trends changed.


Related pages of interest:

Group games for parties, holidays for young people and adults

Hollywood hosts, hostesses party, decor menu 1930s

Dressing Male Stars of the 1930s and 1940s



Sources include articles, interviews, snippets from magazines:
Hollywood September 1938
New Movie Magazine July 1924
Photoplay December 1930
Screenland March 1935, November 1938

Shower in your clothes 1960s

Take a bath in your best clothes
Swinging '60s

In 1963 Cary Grant and Audrey Hepburn starred in the film Charade, directed by Stanley Donen. Grant was apparently ahead of his time beginning the trend of showering with your clothes on. Once it was trending, he probably gave up the habit?

  

Let him (or you) choose a gift: From a selection of Bath Kits for Men

In I Was a Male War Bride his character got into a bathtub without any water at all. You never know what he's apt to do. Cary Grant is the TCM Star of the month for December 2014.

Bath In Your Best Clothes! This couple wasn't interested in taking a shower with their clothes on. British Pathe is one source of some of the best old films on YouTube. Here from 1966, we see a demonstration of a new fabric treatment. "This stay in stay shape process gives a permanent shape to clothes."




If you asked who Bert and Ernie were you were apt to have someone respond, "Characters in It's a Wonderful Life." Nowadays, they're more apt to say "Characters on Sesame Street."




Perhaps one of his funniest shaving scenes is actually in a Hitchcock movie, North by Northwest when he has to use a tiny razor? But don't forget that he feels "like a hairy ape" before his shave in My Favorite Wife. What's your favorite Cary Grant movie? He made over seventy pictures.

Related Pages of Interest:

Shop and Wrap Gifts with old Hollywood stars 1920s, 1930s : William Powell bought a wide array of things including bath items

Men in the Bath, Have a personal film festival with the likes of Clifton Webb, John Lennon, Tony Curtis, Edward G. Robinson, Clint Eastwood and David Bowie

Have a Charade Watching Party, Being Cary Grant or Audrey Hepburn

Dinner & A Movie: Eat along with your favorite movie or What to serve at your next Movie Party

Errol Flynn Custom Tights Record Seams

Was he tight? How tight is too tight? 
The question of tights and Dressing a Hollywood Actor

To Rosalind Russell as ex-wife Hildy: "I still claim I was tight the night I proposed to you. If you had been a gentleman, you would have forgotten all about it. But not you!"
-- Cary Grant, His Girl Friday 1940
 

Adventures of Don Juan
Errol Flynn Photo

It's December 1947 and Errol Flynn has just popped a new record in the annals of film history. This is part of my series on clothes, costume and vintage film actors.  

The record? He's busted the seams on more pairs of tights than any other actor in motion pictures. Three hundred twenty-four pairs Errol has reduced to shreds and this movie isn't even over yet. 

When Mr. Flynn retired to his dressing room to change his pants they cornered the guy who gets "the headaches from Errol's record," Willys of Hollywood.

"His main business is turning out stockings, padded and plain, for movie queens. He also makes tights. But after the affair of the popped seams, he's liable to stick to thigh high socks."

Errol Flynn's Measurements
"'First I measured Mr. Flynn,' began the tights man. 'He has the best male shape in town. Ankle 9 1/2. Calf 13 1/2. Thigh 20 1/2. Waist 32. Hips 38. Most actors have knobby legs. But Mr. Flynn's are beautiful.'



The Adventure of Don Juan film clip with subtitles

"Willys for ten days fixed the machines at his shop so they'd knit tights to exactly fit Mr. Flynn. The Willys of Hollywood establishment then paused all other work while the machines clacked out 324 pairs of fancy silk tights.

"'He has 27 changes of costume,' explained Willys. 'I made 12 pairs for each change, so he'd have plenty for rehearsal and plenty for takes.'

"They were different colors, too. The movie Warners' The Adventure of Don Juan, is in Technicolor. But the cameraman didn't like the colors of the tights. So the studio dyed them over again. The seams, shuddered, Willys, came out white. The Adventures of Don Juan DVD/Streaming.
 
"'They used silk dye,' he snapped. 'The seams were sewn with nylon thread.

Janet Blair
at Willy's of Hollywood

The picture was held up until I got out there to see what was the matter.'
 
"Willys re-dyed the pants with nylon dye. At last the picture was rolling with Flynn be-tighted in one color. But Flynn was rolling too, his tights.
 
"'He wanted his tights very tight,' sighed their maker. 'Every time he put them on he pulled and rolled them around his waist. Like the way women roll stockings that are baggy.'
 
"This, he added causes runs to pop in Mr. Flynn's silk tights. He also came apart when he twice ran onto the sharp point of somebody's sword.
 
"Errol as the nimble Don Juan, was called upon to leap out of beds, across castle moats, over walls and under cover. Flynn further did a great deal of bending over.


Errol Flynn Outtakes, Bloopers


Outtakes from the movie Robin Hood 1938

Pants Part Often
 
"This often left Mr. Flynn with parted pants and the picture would have to wait while he rushed to his dressing room and wriggled into new tights. He could scarcely wear mended ones. So the old pairs were exiled into dust rags for the studio cleaning women.

"Errol currently is working on other scenes while Mr. Willys whips out more tights.
 
"'I made tights for circus performers, Broadway actors and ballet dancers in New York before I came to Hollywood,' Willys told us.
 
"'The first picture actor who wore my tights was John Barrymore. I padded the legs because his were so skinny.'

"'I made a $3,500 pair of sequined tights for Alice Faye to wear in In Old Chicago, and gold ones for Marlene Dietrich. And tights for Cary Grant, Melvyn Douglas, Jack Benny and Vic Mature. All custom made so they don't wrinkle.
 
"'But I never made so many as I did for Mr. Flynn. He sure wore those out.'"
Newspaper wire service article December 1947




The Adventures of Don Juan was released in the United States on December first, 1948. Wonder how Flynn would've done with a Star Wars lightsaber?

"All the world's a stage, and all the men and women merely players: they have their exits and their entrances...." So says Jaques in Shakespeare's As You Like It. Innumerable male actors, dancers and other performers have worn tights on stage and in film over the years.

Question: Who remembers films that featured a be-tighted Cary Grant, Melvyn Douglas, Jack Benny and/or Victor Mature??

The story makes me think of a favorite show, Project Runway. Tim Gunn would say, "Make it work," and that's what they had to do. 

Great tip about dying clothes: Find out if the thread used is the same material as the fabric overall. You don't want white seams.

Willys has a long history with many films, creating the best for Hollywood stars and other dignitaries. They prepared the stockings worn by Princess Elizabeth for her wedding. Seed pearls were sewn on by hand. The stockings were "gossamer sheer nylon, fragile."  

It was a hush-hush job. The stockings were seamless so the princess wouldn't need to worry if her seams were straight as she heads to the altar. 

The design included a cascade of tiny seed pearls sprinkling down the ankles. He said, "It was like gluing gems onto cobwebs, but the results were worth it."


Don Juan John Barrymore preview above 1926 silent film, Vitaphone synchronized sound effects, Mary Astor

Errol Flynn's birthday party ends in brawl Includes: Flynn is the winner of a 1942 magazine poll: Errol Flynn was chosen as having The Best Male Figure in Hollywood (Kind of like today's Sexiest man alive, People Magazine issues)

Classic Film actors talk jobs, clothes, tools of the trade incl the designing of Marlon Brando's t-shirt and very tight jeans in A Streetcar Named Desire

1930s Dressing Rathbone, Clark Gable, Marlene Dietrich

Hollywood Glamour Boys, Errol Flynn, Douglas Fairbanks Jr, John Barrymore, Humphrey Bogart 

'Tis Herself: An Autobiography by Maureen O'Hara




"Swashbuckling leader of a desperate horde, devil-may-care philanderer and reckless adventurer: Errol Flynn is Captain Blood. Experts discuss the complexities of the fencing scene that was filmed in Three Arch Bay." from description.
Clip features Robert Osborne Film Historian/Author/TCM Host; Tim Weske, Sword Master/Choreographer.
Good discussion. We've seen fight scenes in plays on stage and it's very difficult to choreograph.

Hollywood Hostesses party dress decor menu 1930s

Hosting your own party?
Consider a making it a buffet

William Haines, his sister
and Edmund Lowe

A holiday buffet can be a smart choice for the host and hostess. Mr. and Mrs. Edmund Lowe were known to present one of the most interesting and beautifully arranged evenings in Hollywood.  What did she wear? How about centerpieces and tablescapes?

Their dining room seated 12 guests but when more than that were invited Mrs. Lowe "resorts to the hostess' greatest boon, the informal camaraderie of the buffet supper."

Mrs. Lowe is Lilyan Tashman and is famous as a hostess. Add to that her hobby of collecting exquisite china and silver which was used at her parties.

The table against the wall held the most marvelous array of dishes and the guests helped themselves. Groups gathered about small tables or in corners to eat.

Want to emulate hostess Jeanette MacDonald? Nice idea for table covers. One tip, she says, "I have an adorable organdy cloth with lace inserts. I use silk rayon undercloths in any color that appeals to me and it's all too-too for words. But the organdy napkins are horrible to use!" Check out vintage stores, auctions, even thrift shops and you may find things from the era.

Lucky enough to be dining at the home of Maureen O'Sullivan? Let's say it's Thanksgiving-time 1935. Maybe your hostess will point out that she painted the mailbox herself.  

"I'm one of those women who adores a paintbrush." There are big fountains splashing in a courtyard outside the windows. She lives in a Spanish style building in the upstairs apartment. 

Her living room is spacious. It's done in autumn shades with a deep couch drawn up before the fireplace not too much furniture. It's easily cleared away for dancing and games. 

John Farrow's portrait (John is Maureen's fiance) holds a place of honor.  Sometime during your visit, you're apt to get in on a game of ping pong. O'Sullivan and Farrow will have seven children including well-known actress Mia Farrow.



Columbia Pictures stars of the 1930s include:
Bebe Daniels, Pola Negri, Mack Sennett, Laura La Plante
George Bancroft rushes into the ocean to save someone
Joe E. Brown's baseball team 
Harold Lloyd attends a Bathing Beauty contest 
Ricardo Cortez and Barbara Stanwyck play a little golf
The homes of Charles Chaplin, Norma Shearer, Marlene Dietrich 

What are the ladies wearing, hostesses and guests?

Lilyan Tashman Lowe is
ready for her guests

"Dolores del Rio who doesn't go out a great deal was there with Larry Kent. She looked very lovely in a frock of apricot colored satin, made with a skirt of three long ruffles. It was noticeable that every woman in the room wore the new popular long skirts. 

"William Haines brought his sister who is a young southern matron spending the winter in Hollywood. She had on a gown of heavy black net and costume jewelry with crystal. Mr. and Mrs. Allan Dwan were also among the guests, Mrs. Dwan wearing a powder blue dress recently purchased in Paris, France."

For those of you planning to host a holiday dinner, here is how Lilyan Tashman/Mrs. Lowe's attire was described:

She wore "a new model which might be entitled the hostess' delight, so exactly suited was it to the needs of looking perfectly at home and still formally gowned. Of sheer black chiffon, the dress followed the natural contour of her figure. 

"The skirt just cleared the floor. The sleeves reached from the shoulder to wrist and then extended down the back in long flowing wings that trailed off for several feet on the floor."

Bésame Cosmetics has a make-up tutorial by decade! Flapper or Bombshell? Louise Brooks or Jean Harlow, Vivien Leigh or Grace Kelly? Once you've learned how to apply the cosmetics, what would look best on your face, choose from the vintage inspired items on their site. Love the pretty packaging.

Sally Eilers welcomes her guests

It's holiday time 1935 and Sally Eilers is hosting a buffet dinner. She makes her own special salad and prepares graciously to greet her guests in the dining room where a buffet supper is ready to be served. On this particular evening, Sally is wearing a cocktail gown consisting of a long black skirt and pale pink top. 

There are white flowers all over the room. The centerpiece includes a silver candelabra with tall white candles. You'll serve yourself in the dining room and eat in the sunroom where four white tables have been set up for guests. Tonight she is serving mixed grill, cold turkey, bacon and a little pig. 

Your dinner party doesn't have to be Hollywood themed or have any theme at all. It can be a wedding rehearsal dinner, for Christmas or Thanksgiving, family reunion or when friends can't sit in the dining room. You're together to watch Cary Grant movies on TV. He's the December 2014 SOTM star of the month on TCM. :)

Sally is part of a cooking club with Mrs. Mervyn LeRoy, Mrs. Ricardo Cortez and

Irene Dunne, Charles Boyer
Original 8x10" Photo

Mrs. Pandro Berman. They meet each Thursday night at one of their homes. It was Sally's idea.

Irene Dunne has hit on a warm evening in 1936. She'll be wearing "a turquoise dinner gown with a feather trim, most becoming in shade and silhouette." 

Features of the gown are said to complement the red-gold of her hair and warm the blue of her eyes. 

"She likes to plan own dinner party menus. She places violet corsages at every feminine guest's place. .... 

"'See what I'm using for the corsages,' she said picking up a cluster of pale lavender-and-white violets. 'I had never seen the variegated flowers before and I thought my guests would like them.' ...

"'If this dinner were being given in New York, I should probably make it more elaborate, but here in Hollywood where everyone either diets or keeps a wary eye on the figure, I find that a three or four course dinner is appreciated.'" 

Are you giving any little gifts to your guests at their place settings? Something with their names inscribed? How about something to keep the kids occupied?



For an informal summer buffet on the terrace, Irene Dunne suggests that we consider including some cold beer for your guests. It can be refreshing.

In 1929, Bebe Daniels and Ben Lyon gave a buffet holiday party. Ms. Daniels' favorite salad recipe was given.

A number of card tables were set up in the big studio drawing room very festive with little embroidered cloths over them and tiny silver candlesticks with bright red candles in the middle. 

Bebe Daniels and
Ben Lyon prepare
to greet their guests

The guests marched around the table and filled their plates and then selected their own small tables. There is a big bowl of combination salad. 

Bebe Daniels' cook makes the salad by first rubbing the bowl with garlic then pouring french dressing over lettuce, tomatoes, onions, cucumbers and green chile peppers. It's promised to be quite the best you ever tasted. 

"In the center of the table was a huge circular plate with little fitted dishes [find one for your party] and in these were all kinds of fresh vegetables for Hollywood knows its dietetics nowadays. Carrots sliced thin, young onions, radishes and all kinds of olives." 



Dancing on a Rainbow from Stage Mother 1933

Maureen O'Sullivan starred with Alice Brady, Franchot Tone, Phillips Holmes, Ted Healy and Ben Alexander 

 

Vintage actress auctions clothes for charity-designer on Titanic

Clara Kimball Young donates Lucile gown off her back
Lady Duff Gordon, Mme Lucile, Titanic Survivor 

Clara Kimball Young
Shirley Kate 1918

"Clara Kimball Young with the aid of her manager Harry Garson put the punch into the big bazaar at the Lasky Studio Hollywood, Cal, Saturday night for the benefit of soldiers families by auctioning off her clothes each piece that she wore one thing at a time to the highest bidder. 

"Miss Young disrobed on a platform in a crowd of several thousand people behind a large screen. Her novel and original method of creating renewed stimulus toward large monetary returns for the benefit caused the keenest interest and highest bidding. 

"Never before in the history of Los Angeles has any one sold the clothes they were wearing for a benefit and onlookers were quick to recognize and appreciate the spirit of true American patriotism. 

Photographic Print of Gowns That Express Poetic Ideas Costumes from the house of Madame Lucile, reviving the idea that the hair should accord with the colour-schemes of modern dress. 1920s fashion, hair styles and colors.

"Miss Young's dress, an exquisite Lucile gown was the first article sold. It was bought by Mr. Tally or Tally's Theatre, Los Angeles. Cecil De Mille after much spirited bidding, received her stockings and garters. Elliot Dexter, her corsets; William S. Hart her slippers and Douglas Fairbanks a most sheer and shimmery

Clara Kimball Young
1917 Kromo Gravure
Movie Star Trading Card

bit of negligee.

"The last garment which was auctioned off caused most spirited bidding between De Mille, Fairbanks, Charlie Chaplin and Hart. Chaplin got them for one hundred and eighty five dollars.

"Miss Young's royal contribution to the bazaar was heartily applauded and more especially as it has been announced that she will return East in a few weeks immediately after the completion of her new picture The Savage Woman upon which she is now spending her entire time and energy."

The above is text of a 1918 press release sent out by the manager of actress/producer Clara Kimball Young. It was published in magazines of the time. I couldn't find the price paid for the Lucile gown.

The editor of one magazine added this note at the end:

"The fact that no riot was reported following the completion of the auction is a tribute to the efficiency of Hollywood's police department. Just what Chaplin got for his $185 is left to the imagination by the wily press agent."

The best I can come up with with the help of online converters is that $185 would be worth about $3,400 today but do not quote me on this. Maybe there are some blinged out undies, diamonds of course that are pretty expensive these days?



Poet Alex Gildzen reads Charlie Chaplin Purchases Clara Kimball Young's Undies in Cleveland.

Despite this patriotic scene, something was brewing in Hollywood, changes were happening to the motion picture industry. Certain folks didn't care for this sort of behavior by movie people on or off the screen. Hmmmmm.  

James Bond/Daniel Craig's Swim Trunks
You may remember a Christie's James Bond themed charity auction from October 2012. Actress Judi Dench played the character of M in 007 Bond films including Casino Royale alongside Daniel Craig. She was there to introduce and help auction off a famous pair of sexy blue swim trunks that Craig wore when he played James Bond in that movie. 

"All I’m going to tell you is they’re unwashed," she joked.  At the auction in London, the trunks sold for nearly $72,000, according to the BBC.

Dame Judi Dench also appeared with Daniel Craig as his boss, M, in Quantum of Solace and most recently, Skyfall. She appeared in GoldenEye, Die Another Day, The World is Not Enough and Tomorrow Never Dies with Pierce Brosnan. 

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Dress designer and British couturier Madame Lucile made glorious costumes and gowns for the Ziegfeld Follies, Hollywood stars and films in the early days. They were said to be quite expensive but worth it. If her gowns were used in a picture the fact may be advertised as well as being credited on screen.

She had been one of the passengers on the Titanic April 1912. Lucile, Lady Duff Gordon was traveling to do business in America. 

She described the panic breaking out by the time her lifeboat was lowered. "Everyone seemed to be rushing for that boat. A few men who crowded in were turned back at the point of Captain Smith’s revolver and several of them were felled before order was restored. I recall being pushed towards one of the boats and being helped in." From The Mirror. 

In 1932, she wrote her autobiography Discretions & Indiscretions under the name, Lucy Duff Gordon. It has been reissued with a new title, A Woman of Temperament with the centenary of the Titanic disaster in 2012. She's billed as a Single mother, Fashion pioneer and Titanic survivor.  

In the 1997 film Titanic, Rosalind Ayres played what was called a "dramatized version" of Lady Duff-Gordon.

Passengers on RMS Titanic
Buy posters framed, unframed, choice of sizes

Includes Madame Lucile, The Personal Side of the Titanic Disaster


Related Pages, Books of Interest:

10 Woman Film Producers of the 1910s

Movie Censorship around the world, Japan 1920s, France & US 1950s, Monty Python, Cary Grant...

Dirty Business, Film Censorship in the 1900s, 1910s, 1920s

There's a skeleton in my love story: silent movies, later screwball comedies, Adam's Rib 1923, Elliot Dexter, Pauline Garon; Bringing Up Baby 1938, Cary Grant, Katharine Hepburn 

Killer Shoes to Wing Shoes, Gadgets, TV Shoes James Bond Dagger Shoes, Maxwell Smart ... 

Academy Awards, Hollywood Memorabilia, Auctioning, Buying, Selling, Returning

Hollywood Before Glamour: Fashion in American Silent Film Popular book paper and digital; Includes styles for many types of characters, costumes and gowns, WWI and American design in fashion/film, The Birth of Hollywood Glamour

It's All A Movie by Alex Gildzen. The Arrow That is Hollywood Pierces the Soul That is Me was completed and you may be able to find it.