Edith Head: The Dress Doctor Is In

Edith Head in a Paramount Pictures shot. Undated

"It was summer vacation of 1924 and Edith Head, 27, wanted a new job. She was tired of making peanuts – $1500 a year – teaching French and art at the Hollywood School for Girls. She did have a husband but he was a heavy drinker. If Edith wanted to improve her quality of life, it was up to her to make it happen. However, there were few jobs open to women in the 1920s but secretarial work and teaching, and neither paid much."


"One day, Edith spotted a classified ad in the Los Angeles Times. The Famous Players-Lasky Studio (later, Paramount Pictures) was looking for a sketch artist to create costumes for a new Cecil B. DeMille silent film, “The Golden Bed.” Edith wanted that job. One problem: Edith Head was no artist. She could not draw the human form." (Read More)


Edith Head was awarded eight Oscars and was nominated 35 times for best costume design.

Legendary costume designer Edith Head (1897-1981) displays her 8 Oscar trophies. Originally, she wore blue tinted glasses because it allowed her to view fabrics as they would look in a black-and-white movie. Smoky lenses also made her inscrutable as well as disguising a slightly-crossed right eye. Undated photo

 

Interesting. That article doesn't paint a very pretty picture.

 

"Edith Head is interviewed about how costume design helps a motion picture like Roman Holiday, starring Audrey Hepburn. We see some of the costume tests with Hepburn and Head explains how choices were made."

Edith Head Talks about Audrey Hepburn

 

Edith Head (1978) - From the Videofashion Vault | Videofashion

 

Susan Claassen As Edith Head (2018)

"The play is based on the book “Edith Head’s Hollywood” by Edith Head & Paddy Calistro & continues the legacy of Hollywood’s iconic costume designer."

"As Lucille Ball stated, “Edith knew the figure faults of every top star & she never told. Edith always knew how to keep a secret.” However in this one-woman show some secrets just might be revealed & fashion tips freely given. Edith Head's story is as fascinating as the history of the film industry itself, filled with humor, frustration & above all, glamour."

 

Jerry Lewis is measured by legendary costume designer Edith Head on the set of "Visit to a Small Planet", 1960.

 

Just out of curiosity I tried to find a picture of Miss Head smiling. Would she have a Duchenne smile?

No luck. I finally found a video of her on the Groucho Marx show, You Bet Your Life. Figured, she's bound to smile here.



Figure again.
.
.

 

I noticed that Edith would turn away and hold her hand over her mouth, when she laughed. Maybe she needs some dental work?

 

Before fierce was fierce: A collection of costumes from famed designer Edith Head in Lancaster, Ohio

 

Edith Head and Grace Kelly

 

Edith Head Documentary Film & Interview | MBP (video)

 

Susan Claassen in "A Conversation with Edith Head"

Susan Claassen

"Edith was an executive woman before there was such a thing! It was a boy's club when she started - 1923. Women in the Unites Stated had just recently got ten the vote, if you can imagine. It has been said that Edith had the instincts of a pastry chef and the authority of a factory foreman."

"She herself said, "I knew I was not a creative design genius... I am a better diplomat than I am a designer...I was never going to be the world's greatest costume designer, but there was no reason I could not be the smartest and most celebrated."

 

Edith Head and Alfred Hitchcock on the set of Family Plot (1976). . I wonder how they got along.

 

Edith Head with her husband, set decorator, Wiard Ihnen.