Recycled Costume Roundup - July

In 2018 I discovered a blog dedicated to recycled movie and television costumes from the Golden Age of Hollywood up to the present. If a person comes across a costume that was in two or more films they can submit it to this blog and (eventually) the administrator will add it. The first costume I submitted was this striped outfit worn by Jean Harlow in China Seas (1935) and by an extra in Born to Dance (1935) - both MGM. In fact, I noticed it on the extra, posted on Twitter to see if anyone recognized it, had a strong feeling I had seen it on Jean Harlow, and, after some googling, found it! It was quite thrilling! You can see the post on their website here. They have an email address for submissions - I usually just tag them on Twitter but they haven't been seeing them lately. Their handle is @RecycledCostume. 

 

Since then I have begun to notice more and more recycled costumes. I've always noticed costumes and always take screenshots of my favorite ones (the main reason I like watching the WatchTCM app on my iPad. It makes it so easy!). I've taken to scanning the extras in party/crowd scenes when watching an A movie and taking notice of the costumes on the lead actresses in B Pictures. I even take screenshots of distinctive costumes just in case I spot them in another film so I can be prepared. And sometimes I just happen to watch two movies back-to-back with a recycled costume in them (like I did in April, which I shared in my monthly "what I watched" post). If you follow me on Twitter or my blog Facebook page (where I have an album specifically dedicated to this) the recycled costumes I am sharing today will already be familiar to you. I have decided to make this a monthly feature as well. I will use my backlog if I have a month where I don't come across any. I will only be sharing costumes that I personally "discovered." This doesn't mean that someone else hasn't discovered them before me but I think this will be a fun feature!

~♥~♥~♥~

I have had these photos of Joan Fontaine wearing this lovely robe in Alfred Hitchcock's Suspicion (1941) saved on my Pinterest board for a long time. This month I was watching The Falcon in Hollywood (1944) and thought the robe on an extra looked familiar, so I took a couple screenshots (the moment is so fast it was hard to get good ones). Then, while looking through my Pinterest board for something else, I noticed the photos of Joan Fontaine and realized it was the robe I had been thinking of! 

There's a little bit of a catch on this one though. You'll notice the fabric is shiny on one side and flat on the other with the floral design woven in opposite. Whereas the robe is flat with a shiny collar on Fontaine, it looks all shiny on the extra. I can't tell if the collar is flat (which could mean the robe was reversible) or if it is shiny as well, which would mean it's a different robe altogether. I even watched the scene in Suspicion to see if it looked different on film then it did in the photos One thing I AM certain of is that the fabric is the same. The floral design is exactly the same on both robes (I watched the short clip multiple times to confirm). Both films are from RKO. In Suspicion the gowns are credited to Edward Stevenson, while in The Falcon in Hollywood they are credited to Renie. However, I have seen costumes reused and not credited to their original designer several times (even Adrian!).

UPDATE: In this photo the lapels and robe look the same, so maybe it is the same!

~♥~♥~♥~

The next recycled gown I noticed was purely an accident. Again I was looking for something else in both a folder of screenshots and my Pinterest board and spotted Joan Crawford and Doris Day wearing the same lace gown! These shots are from Goodbye, My Fancy (1951) - costumes by Sheila O'Brien - and I'll See You in My Dreams (1952) - costumes by Marjorie Best and Leah Rhodes

Doris Day added a shawl

In some publicity photos of this dress there is a black ribbon on the bodice. 

I don't remember how it appears in the film. 

~♥~♥~♥~

This blue floral-banded ensemble was worn in two separate Jeanette MacDonald/Nelson Eddy films that I watched back-to-back, Sweethearts (1938) and I Married an Angel (1942). I actually took a screenshot of it in color because it looked familiar, so there may be a third wear out there. If I come across it I will add it to this post. 

UPDATE: I came across a third wear, but not one that I would have remembered, so there is probably a fourth wear out there. Here is is on two different guests at a wedding in The Hoodlum Saint (1946). I say two guest because there are two different hats. Either there are two identical dresses - but why would they dress two people in the same dress - or they switched hats and/or actors on the day(s) they filmed the scenes. One guest has a dark hat with light colored (probably blue) frills as the brim, where the other is a dark hat with two large light colored flowers on it.

Esther Williams looks lovely in this early film role.

~♥~♥~♥~

Another coincidental sighting was these chorus girl gowns in Broadway Melody of 1938 (1937) and an extra in I Married an Angel (1942). I had actually taken screenshots because I thought I might add them as a Cinema Wedding Gown (they're wearing veils in the dance number) but changed my mind and deleted them. And then of course I spotted one in the other movie... Notice the bodice decoration was removed. 

The gown on the right was worn by Anita Louise in Marie Antoinette (1938) but that's a separate post. I have a 700+ image album with all the recycles from that movie on my blog Facebook page - linked on the sidebar on the right (photo of Carole Lombard). 

UPDATE: Here they are again in Maisie was a Lady (1941)!

Here it is close-up.

AND Everybody Sing (1938)!!

~♥~♥~♥~

The final recycle I am sharing is this unique and eye-catching striped dress worn by Lana Turner in Marriage is a Private Affair (1944) and by Audrey Totter in a publicity photo (with the grouping of flowers at the bust removed). It showed up in a Pinterest search for something else (anyone else getting odd results in their Pinterest searches the past week?). 

And while we're on this movie here's another recycle I noticed a few months ago - Lana Turner in a cameo as herself in DuBarry was a Lady (1943) and Frances Gifford (with Lana Turner) in Marriage is a Private Affair! You will notice a little bit of lace was added for modesty.

"Say, isn't that my dress?"

I found several others (I was on a roll this month) but two of them are wedding gowns (three-peats!) that I am saving for a Cinema Wedding Gowns post and the others contain several from the same movies that I would rather do a separate post on whenever I have a slow recycled costume spotting month.

Do you like this new feature? Have you ever spotted a recycled costume before?

The Homes of Jean Harlow

Movie stars, due to the nature of their work, tend to move around a lot. The same is true of Jean Harlow, our Star of the Month of March.

Harlow was born in turn-of-the century Kansas City, Missouri. Jean's first residence was the second floor of a modest, gray stone house, located on 3344 Olive Street (torn down in the late 1930s). Her father's dentist office took up the ground floor.

When Jean was four, the family moved to 4409 Gillham Road, which had a park nearby. Her father's offices were located in the "Waldheim Building in downtown Kansas City, where he maintained his practice for the next thirty-six years" (Golden, 16). It was here that Jean began "collecting" pets, including ducks, lambs, pigs, and the usual dogs and cats. She spent her summers at her maternal grandparents 25-room country retreat, Red Gables, which overlooked the Kaw River and was located near Bonner Springs.

              

 

The family moved again when Jean was eight, this time to an 18-room red brick house at 1312 East 79th Street. The estate was located on five acres of land, perfect for Jean's growing menagerie.

This is what came up on Google maps. I have no idea if it is the same house, but it's the right color!

In 1921, Jean's parents divorced. Jean and her mother moved to Los Angeles, where her mother once again tried to fulfill her lifelong dream of becoming an actress. During their stay there they lived first in a rented room in a Sunset Blvd. mansion and later at 1302 North La Brea Ave., which was right down the road from the American Academy of Dramatic Arts. Her mother then remarried and since her dreams of becoming a actress were not coming true, they moved back to Missouri.

In 1927, a teenage Jean eloped with wealthy orphan Chuck McGrew. After a honeymoon cruise with his grandparents, the newly-weds headed back to California. They rented a Beverly Hills bungalow  at 618 North Linden Drive, just two doors away from 'It' girl, Clara Bow ( No. 512). Barely giving them time to settle in, Jean's mother and her husband followed, moving in with the young couple.

It didn't take long for Jean to get noticed by Hollywood, and she was soon in the movies that her mother had longed for. This, along with the arrival of Mama Jean, was too much for Chuck, and the two divorced not long after.

Jean and her mother then rented a bungalow at 300 North Maple Drive, Beverly Hills. It was during this time that Jean met MGM exec. Paul Bern.

Jean lived briefly in an apartment at 152 Peck Dr. in 1931.

After Jean began to make it big in the movies, her and Mama Jean moved again, this time at 1353 Club View Drive in West Los Angeles. Mysterious occurrences have happened here.

After Bern and Harlow married in 1932 (in the living room of her Westwood home), they lived in Bern's Bavarian-style house, located at 9820 Easton Drive in Benedict Canyon, Los Angeles. Two months later, Bern committed suicide, causing a huge scandal, as Harlow was suspected of murder. The house is also supposedly haunted. More on that along with lots of photos of the house here.

       

With all the money Harlow was making, Mama Jean began building herself a mansion at 214 South Beverly Glen Blvd. in Holmby Hills. The house was two stories and had four bedrooms. It had a Gregorian façade, French interior, and outdoor pool with two dressing rooms. She spent $25,000 furnishing it with such things as a walk-in fridge, polar bear rug, a portrait of herself, ermine covered toilet seats, and for her Baby, an ermine covered headboard for her bed.

 

In 1933, Jean married another MGM man, Hal Rosson. The two were friends, but it was really a studio marriage to help Jean avoid a scandal. After they were married, they moved to adjoining third-floor suites at the Chateau Marmont hotel on Sunset Blvd. Seven months later, they divorced. Shortly after, she met fellow actor William Powell. She switched between "her" home on Beverly Glen Blvd. and Powell's Beverly Hills home at 809 North Hillcrest Road, which he joked was a "combination of Regency, Beverly Hills Gothic, and early Chester A. Arthur." Jean helped decorate the newly remodeled home, which contained a lot of gadgets. This post goes into more detail.

Powell's pool

Harlow's last residence was 512 North Palm Drive, located between Sunset Blvd. and Wilshire. She leased it for $300 a month. The house was 4,400 sq. feet and has 5 bedrooms and 5 baths. Two doors down, at No. 508, is the 1950s residence of Marilyn Monroe, where she lived with Joe DiMaggio.

The house as it looked in 1937, the year Jean Harlow died. Source.

 

source

Sources:
Golden, Eve. Platinum Girl: The Life and Legends of Jean Harlow. 1991.
Stenn, David. Bombshell: The Life and Death of Jean Harlow. 1993.
Artunian, Judy & Mike Oldham. Movie Star Homes: The Famous to the Forgotten. 2004.

Online Sources:
The Platinum Blog - "Today" photos of Club View home
Paradise Leased - An Afternoon in Harlow Heaven - lots of 'then' and 'now' photos
Haunted Houses - Harlow's Westwood Home
House Crazy - Benedict Canyon home
And...scene! - William Powell's Beverly Hills Home
Dear Mr. Gable - final home
LA Bartender - The Original Platinum Blonde - final home
Seeing Stars - final home
Classic Movie Favorites - Jean Harlow's Homes (of course I didn't come across this one till I was nearly done with my post)

                 

Behind the Dress: Jean Harlow & the Bias-Cut

Today's Behind the Dress post doesn't actually cover just one dress, but all the white satin, bias-cut gowns that Jean Harlow wore. Yes, she wore them, they never wore her.

In Edith Head's Hollywood by Edith Head and Paddy Calistro, Head claims that it was she who put Jean Harlow in bias-cut satin for the first time. The film was Saturday Night Kid (1929) starring Clara Bow in her second talkie. In Head's own words:

She was Jean Harlow, a second-stringer in those days, but once Howard Hughes convinced her to bleach her hair [it was a honey-blonde color at the time] she became a star within a year. Of course, when I worked with her I just thought of her as another actress, but I was impressed with her sensuous body and I made the most of it with white satin, cut on the bias. I was afraid of how Clara would react, since Jean really upstaged her in that slinky white gown. Most stars would have resented sharing a big scene with such a sizzling, voluptuous creature as Harlow. Not Clara. She was simply fascinated by her. I won't take credit for Harlow's screen image, but I think I'm entitled to say that what she wore in those scenes inspired others to take a second look and realize her knockout potential.

Calistro adds a little more backstory: "The dress that Edith made for Harlow was actually an adaptation of French couturiere Madeleine Vionnet's latest design. No one had used the sexy bias cut in an entire gown before Vionnet, but it took Hollywood to turn the look into a classic - the slip dress. Harlow wore it, Lombard popularized Banton's version, and Dietrich slinked around in on. It became the uniform of the sex symbols. The gown, with its bodice styled exactly like the top of an underslip, complete with thin little straps, was especially alluring because it was worn with no undergarments. Since fabric cut on the bias - diagonally across the weave - has a gentle, inherent stretch quality, the slip dress clung to every curve and crevice of a woman's body" (16).

That was the only time Head costumed Jean but it set the tone for her following film roles. A Jean Harlow film just isn't complete without a clinging satin gown of some kind.

A fictionalized account of Edith and Harlow's meeting is included in the recently published book Platinum Doll by Anne Girard (which I will be reviewing later this month). It mentions that the dress is grey. This is probably so it would photograph white. A white dress would have too much glare under the strong lights on the set.

To end, here are some photos of Jean throughout her career wearing her signature slinky gown. Just click on the photos to enlarge. Enjoy!