This post was one of the more difficult ones to put together because I had over 40 screenshots to choose from due to Jean Arthur wearing today's wedding gown for several scenes and the dress itself having so much detail.
We will start with some full-length shots.
It's difficult to know how to describe this gown. There are tiers and ruffles and lace and possibly some beadwork. The skirt is gathered and wonderfully full with beautiful movement.
Jean Arthur appeared on the cover of the September 1940 issue of Arizona Highways wearing the wedding gown (sans veil). There was also a six-page spread about the film. You can view the entire magazine here! Click the download symbol to view a pdf of the magazine. This is the clearest picture of the gown I could find and it also shows the hem and tiers really well. It could easily look too fussy but somehow doesn't.
In this shot we get an excellent view of the waist and bodice detail. Note the lacework "stripes: on the bodice under the collar section, sleeves, and going down the skirt.
This shows the "stripes" on the skirt a little better.
The dress has a scoop neckline with drop shoulders and balloon sleeves.
Another shot. If you're wondering why Jean Arthur doesn't look too happy it's because right after the wedding William Holden has a gunfight scheduled. I have to say, she's taking it much better than I would have ;)
The veil doesn't look historically accurate to me but I love it so much. The lace is exquisite.
She wears it almost as if it were a shawl.
It comes down to a point on the sides.
On most women the bow could look silly but Jean makes it work. Such a pretty curled updo!
Another look at the bow as well as her beaded choker.
Today's wedding gown is worn by Ellen Drew in her disastrous marriage to Glenn Ford in the 1948 film The Man from Colorado.
The film is set just after the Civil War so the gown reflects the fashions of that time with a pleated full skirt and pointed waist, long sleeves that extend past the wrist, and a row of buttons all of the way up to the small pointed collar. It is made of a heavy ivory satin. Notice the glove on her right hand. The long tulle veil (draped over her arm) is attached to a floral headpiece that looks a little more 1940s than 1860s.
Fluttery lace sleeves have been added over the long sleeves for a unique look. There isn't a great view of the back but it looks like it may be similar to a shawl but attached. I wonder if this dress was worn in a previous film sans the lace detail. It would be a great way to recycle the costume while giving it a new look. Note the drop earrings.
This month's Cinema Wedding gown is worn by Anita Louise in Casanova Brown (1944). The costumes were by Muriel King.
A look at the full gown. It is fitted through the hips and appears to have panels (mainly in the back) to give it a fuller look and a very short train. It's difficult to tell how long the veil is, as it goes behind a piece of furniture. It is either chapel or cathedral length.
It appears to be a satiny brocade fabric.
A closer look at the neckline and sleeves. It had a medieval look to it.
I figured for Noirvember we needed a Noir wedding gown ;)
This lavish home wedding hides a secret - the groom (Lawrence Tierney) is in love with the wealthy bride's (Audrey Long) penniless sister (Claire Trevor).
The dominate feature of this gown is its half circles that appear to be thick piping. They are everywhere on the dress. Above you see a fully lined, fitted bodice with small buttons up the front and diaphanous sleeves with the padded shoulder so typical of the 1940s. The large rounded neckline is edges with the piping loops. A simple strand of pearls graces the throat. The veil, which looks a little like a nurse cap, is also trimmed that way, with the center loop being pointed.
In this shot we see how the tulle of the veil is attached to the headpiece. Note the loops adorning the wrist.
A giant sash is draped around the waist of the floor-length gown. Here you can see the sleeves are gathered and puffed to the elbow - with the loop trim inside - where they become fitted to the wrist. The veil appears to be at least floor-length.
The sash is completely trimmed with the loops. As you can see, the bow is extremely large and ends hang far down the back of the dress. You can see the loops in the sheer sleeves well in these shots.
Here is Clair Trevor as the bride's sister and Maid-of-Honor. Like the bridal gown, it too has a large rounded neckline, padded shoulders, and long sleeves, but here the similarities end. There is pleating at the neckline for a perfect fit. The bodice is decorated with sequins or beads. Her elbow-length veil sits atop a crown-shaped hat, also sparling.
The sleeves are looser at the top and fitted at the wrist. The full tulle skirt ends at the calf. A glittering necklace and large round earrings complete the look. I wonder what color it was?
This month's wedding gown comes from H.M. Pulham, Esq. (1941) starring Robert Young, Hedy Lamarr, and Ruth Hussey. The film has several flashbacks, one being the wedding between Young and Hussey. Being that the PRESENT is probably 1941, we have another historically incorrect gown, as the wedding would have taken place in the late 20s and this is decidedly 40s.
This is all we get to see of the silk gown. It has a wrap-front bodice and what looks to be long sleeves. The shoulders are padded. Hussey wears a strand of graduated pearls and carries a bouquet of roses, orange blossoms, and baby's breath (?)
The veil is gathered tulle attached to a pointed wire tiara covered in wax flowers. I like how we get to see the back of the frame.
White kid gloves. Isn't it neat how the ring finger can come off without removing the entire glove? Notice that the groom is also wearing gloves.
One of the guests is wearing Judy Garland's dress from Strike Up the Band (1940). I only noticed this because I have a four-cd set of Judy's (Mickey & Judy) with this picture on the front. Notice the ruffle on the sleeves has been tucked under.
This poster proudly heralds the film as "THE CHOICE for the Royal Film Performance."
The fourth Royal Film Performance, which took place at the Odeon Cinema in Marble Arch, London on November 17, 1949, was attended by the King, Queen, and the Princesses Elizabeth and Margaret (Elizabeth had missed the last two events due to her wedding in 1947 and the birth of Prince Charles in 1948. The following day she would leave to join Philip in Malta, where he was stationed).
Shown this year was the American film, That Forsyte Woman (released in the UK as The Forsyte Saga) starring Greer Garson and Errol Flynn. It was based on the first book of the the popular series by John Galsworthy.
Errol Flynn shared stories about That Forsyte Woman in his autobiography My Wicked, Wicked Ways:
I worked hard for this role in That Forsyte Woman. Now I had the opportunity to show maybe that I could do something else. And it was a joy and a delight to have Greer playing opposite of me. I think that that picture is one of the few worth-while vehicles in which I played (256).
The picture was "...a great success and landed us a command performance in England."
Janet Leigh recalls in her autobiography There Really Was a Hollywood meeting Flynn for the first time:
I actually gasped. He was as beautiful as I could possibly have imagined, and as charming, and as lovable, and as naughty. When I looked at him, I saw Robin Hood and Captain Blood and Essex, and I remembered the nights I had gone home from the theatre and dreamed of him. He was such a gentleman—except when he played his practical jokes (84).
The evening, like in previous years, was a great success and attended by, aside from the Royals, thirty-one movie stars and a crowd 10,000 strong.
The London Times reported:
After the white lights and the cheerful din outside, the waiting auditorium was decorously dim until their Majesties appeared, when floodlights in the proscenium wall suddenly illuminated the front of the balcony, the company rose and clapped, and the band played the National Anthem. It was an affair that delighted the audience, and would have seemed heaven to the eager and fascinating throng outside. It was announced that some £30,000 had been raised for the trade charity.
According to A Rose For Mrs. Miniver: The Life of Greer Garson, the "screening was followed by an elaborate live performance by a stellar array of MGM and British celebrities, including Jean Simmons, Richard Attenborough, Moira Lister, Sir Ralph Richardson, Jack Hulbert, Ann Sothern, George Murphy, Michael Wilding, Gregory Peck, and John Mills. Greer appeared with Walter Wanger in a comic version of The Miniver Story'' (231).
The "throng" that appeared outside the theatre to see the Royals and the stars numbered about 10,000, according to this news article in The Daily News:
The article notes that Greer Garson wore "a dress of heavy
silver satin embroidered at the bodice with pearl and diamond drops.
CLICK HERE to see a three minute video of the stars and Royals arriving. I'm obsessed with Margaret Lockwood's glittering ensemble (insert heart eyes)!
AND HERE is a fifteen minute video. I love the glimpse of the program and outside of the theatre at the beginning of the video! It has nice, long looks at the stars as they arrive. You can see Greer's gown well starting at the 5:14 mark.
For Greer Garson, who had recently married Texan cattleman, wildcatter, and lawyer Buddy Fogelson and was in England filming The Miniver Story, the premiere was:
...the most rewarding one she had ever attended. Indeed, it was one of the proudest moments of her career, for the picture was to be honored as a Command Performance... Besides the king and queen, a great number of celebrities from British and American theater and motion pictures would be present. Her escort was Errol Flynn, who had arrived from location work in India for MGM's production of Rudyard Kipling's Kim (A Rose for Mrs. Miniver,230).
Stars who attended were given a sterling silver commemorative coin with an engraving of the King and Queen on the front and personalized with their name on the back. Here is Rosalind Russell's coin.
Rosalind Russell recalled her unique encounter with the Queen in her 1977 autobiography Life is a Banquet (173-175):
In 1949 I was summoned to a command performance before King George VI and Queen Elizabeth (now the Queen Mother of England). It wasn't too long after the war, and things were still very grim in Great Britain. ... I wore a metal scull cap [you can see it at the 2:40 mark in the fifteen minute video linked above]. Hundreds of years earlier, a Viking queen had worn that cap to be married in. ... It was light as a feather, and there were little Viking wings on the sides, over each ear, and a split in the back for a bridal veil to come through, and a little chain. It was enchanting.
At a rehearsal for the command performance, I asked an equerry if it would be suitable to wear something on one's head when meeting the King and Queen. "Of course," he said. "When women are presented at Court, they wear the feathers, the three plumes."
I couldn't wait for the big evening. It came. I dressed, adjusted my silver helmet, told myself, "This'll kill the people," went onstage and launched into one of the Cockney songs Cary Grant had taught me.
Later, being presented to the Queen, I curtsied, and she smiled sweetly. "Where did you learn that song?"
I told her about Cary's coaching.
"It's a long time since I heard that," she said, "and you sang it very amusingly.
We actors were being presented in alphabetical order, so Walter Pidgeon had gone before me [actually Ralph Richardson was between them], and Jean Simmons was to come after me. As the Queen started toward Jean Simmons, King George approached and I went into another curtsey. All of a sudden the Queen was back, gesturing to me. I came up out of a half crouch, leaving the King standing there. "Yes, ma'am?" I said.
"Excuse me," said the Queen, "but what is that wonderful thing you have on your head?"
I never think of that moment without delight. It was like "Where did you buy the hat?" or "Is that diamond necklace real?"; it was such a marvelous, feminine thing.
The chapter was titled: "A Queen May Look at a Cap." Watching the video footage (11:20), it doesn't seem to appear to happen just as Russell described, but it's a marvelous story!
It looks like Russell may have worn her helmet to a charity auction as well.
I came across this picture in the September 1949 issue of Photoplay.
George Murphy recalled in a 1988 interview (recounted in Tap! The Greatest Tap Dance Stars and Their Stories, 1900-1955 by Rusty E. Frank):
In the 1940s, I was part of a royal command performance in London. I was kind of the leader of the group. There was Ann Sothern, Errol Flynn, two or three others. In any event, I was the first one on the stage. And I looked down as I came down the stairs; they had carpeted the stage! I said, "Your Majesty. I’ve had some success as a Soft Shoe dancer. But they’ve carpeted the stage. So with your Majesty’s permission, you will see the softest Soft Shoe dance that’s ever been done.” And they had the big BBC orchestra, forty men in the pit. I doubt they could hear any taps. But I could have danced all night.
I've been revisiting a lot of "non-Loy" William Powell movies that I haven't seen in about six years and spotted this wedding gown in The Hoodlum Saint (1946). Esther Williams, who would have been 100 on August 8th, is a guest who is kissed by wedding-crasher Powell looking to find himself a job among the wealthy business men in attendance.
While the movie begins in 1919, with Powell coming home from fighting oversees, the bride's dress is definitely 1946...
This shot shows the voluminous skirt, with what looks like just a small bit of train. The veil is probably the same length or just a bit longer than the dress.
The veil appears to be a lace cap with the tulle attached. White roses tied with a wide ribbon bow make up the bouquet (white roses plays a part in the film). The bride is played by Karin Booth.
The bodice is very snug with a high-to-low waist. There are long, snug fitting sleeves and lace applique on the bust extending above the Queen Anne neckline of the gown. A simple necklace of graduated pearls completes the bridal look.
