Recycled Costume Roundup - July

Long time no see!! Spotted several recycled costumes this month so I finally sat down and put together a post. 

The Movies! channel had a commercial for Ida Lupino movies they were airing this month and I instantly recognized this unique gown from The Man I Love (1946) as one I had saved on pinterest on another actress.

Here it is seen in a publicity photo on Alexis Smith. I wonder if she wore it in a movie? She was five inches taller than Lupino so if she did it may not have been shown full length. 

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First up, I was skipping through The Merry Andrew (1958) to take screenshots of a wedding gown and, in doing so, happened to spot two Esther Williams costumes!

This swim cover-up cape from Bathing Beauty (1944) is one of my favorite film costumes, so I instantly recognized it on a rack of circus costumes!

The bright pink and black and white striped costume looks familiar too...

In the wedding gown scene, I spotted this red sparkly bathing costume from Million Dollar Mermaid (1952) on an extra. 

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Whenever I watch an RKO movie I keep an extra sharp eye out for recycled costumes, so when I watched Maisie was a Lady (1941) I was rewarded with five!

First was this extra in a very short scene wearing one of Jeanette MacDonald's gowns from Sweethearts (1938). I was actually surprised I spotted this one!

In the same scene, I recognized this gown as being the same worn by Joan Crawford in Susan and God (1940). As I was looking on pinterest for a picture of it to share on Twitter, I was reminded of other costumes in the movie, which I then also spotted in Maisie was a Lady. 

They both appeared in a breakfast scene. There was another dress of Crawford's:

And one worn by Rita Hayworth:

The last one was a set of matching gowns worn originally in Broadway Melody of 1938 (1937), which I shared in my very first Recycled Costume Roundup (a year ago!). I updated that post (scroll almost to the bottom of the post).

I hope you enjoyed this post! Have you spotted any recycled costumes this month?

Recycled Costumes from "The Fallen Sparrow" (1943)

This month we have a special feature on recycled costumes originally worn by Maureen O'Hara in The Fallen Sparrow (1943) - apologies for the lack of recycled costume posts lately. I started a new job where I'm on the computer all day so the last thing I want to do in my free time is stare at a computer...

These stunning outfits were created by Edward Stevenson, head designer for RKO.

Worn by the hotel proprietress in The Falcon in Mexico (1944).

Worn by Jean Brooks in The Falcon in Hollywood (1944).

Worn by Jean Brooks (center) in Two O'Clock Courage (1945) and 

for a publicity portrait of Anne Jeffreys. I absolutely love this gown!

Worn by Laraine Day in Bride by Mistake (1944), a remake of The Richest Girl in the World (1934). 

Recycled Costumes: Marie Antoinette (1938) - Part 1

This series will look at the sumptuous costumes designed by Adrain for the epic Norma Shearer film Marie Antoinette (1938) and the films in which they were recycled. I thought about going "in order" but decided to just choose them at random. 

This month's costume is a green velvet and gold lace gown worn by Shearer in the scene where the mob storms the palace. 

The gown in full.

A closer look at the bodice.

Detail of the gold lace sleeves. Note the green tulle inserted between the layers.

Detail of the design on the skirt

So far I have spotted the gown in two other films: on the left in Two Sisters From Boston (1946) and on the right in The Black Castle (1952).

UPDATE: It looks like it also appears in Monsieur Beaucaire (1946) starring Bob Hope. I have not watched the movie yet but will update with screenshots when I get the chance to watch a clear copy. Sadly, it is also in black and white.

Photos of costume in color are from here. Post will be updated if I spot the gown in more films.

Recycled Costume Roundup - November

I have basically been watching more hour-long "B" movies lately in hopes of spotting recycled costumes. So far not too many but I have lots of screenshots in case they pop up in the future ;)

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Our first recycle today is a coat I first spotted earlier this year on Barbara Stanwyck in Breakfast for Two (1937). I took a screenshot of it just because it was interesting. I then spotted it again while skipping through Go Chase Yourself (1938) trying to find Jack Carson (I tried to watch the film but I could tell the lead was going to get on my nerves and, since Carson was uncredited as a radio announcer, I went looking for his scene only - he's one of the movie stars I try to watch everything of). I spotted the coat on a passenger on the train. The hats are different.

Notice the waistband.

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Once again browsing through my new Marsha Hunt book, I recognized another gown I had first seen on Barbara Hale The Falcon in Hollywood (1944). It was originally worn by Hunt in Irene (1940).

The gown was a "fairy-tale gown" designed by Edward Stevenson of "miles and miles tulle, black over flesh, to give an iridescence to this superb ball gown." On Hale the ruffles look a bit crushed from four years of storage and it seems sequins or some other sparkly element was added. It looks like it might have been shortened a tiny bit as well. 

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I've seen Pollyanna (1960) more times than I can count (not by choice - there was a time when I could't stand hearing it from another room) so when I saw this photo of Dorothy McGuire from Summer Magic (1963) I recognized the delicately crocheted top as the one worn by Jane Wyman in the earlier Disney film. McGuire wears it under a tan jacket in the film (I'm not sure if she takes it off). 

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Lastly, my sister was watching The Bells of St. Mary’s (1945) yesterday and I happened to recognize the striped suit worn by Martha Sleeper as Patsy's (Joan Carroll) mother. It was worn twice by Madge Meredith in 1946, as I shared in my August Roundup.

Note how the diagonal stripes continue on the skirt.

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Not a costume but I happened to watch two movies back-to-back that used the same mansion interior:

Recycled Costume Roundup - October

Last month I shared costumes that were worn twice by the same actress in different films. I did not share the other two recycles I had noticed, so I will be sharing them today. I only noticed one other recycle at the beginning of the month so I had to try to find some more so this post wouldn't be too small ;)

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First up is Eleanor Parker in a cameo appearance for The Hollywood Canteen (1944) wearing Bette Davis' red butterfly cape from Now, Voyager (1942). 

Source for photo on left

Here are a couple of gifs of Davis that show the cape in action:

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I was looking through my screenshots for something else and stumbled across this recycle. The one on the left I took in 2018 and is worn by Frances Drake in The Affairs of Martha (1942). The one on the right is Laraine Day in Fingers at the Window (1942). I watched it in March of this year. I love the unique way this coat fastens!

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Here is a three-peat! This gold Adrian gown dazzled audiences when it was first worn by Joan Crawford in The Women (1939). It also appeared briefly on an extra in Sky Murder (1940) and thirdly on Carol Hughes in I'll Wait for You (1941). Who knew it was such a great dress to dance in!!

Check out that voluminous skirt! I would imagine it would take a great deal of energy to cause it to twirl so well, as it looks quite heavy. I wish I could have made a gif of it.

The skirt, top, and belt of the costume became separated. The top is part of the Gene London Hollywood Collection.

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We close the post with two Marsha Hunt related recycles ( the theme of this post seems to be Marsha Hunt and Laraine Day).

I recently purchased a copy of Hunt's book, "The Way We Wore: Styles of the 1930s and '40s and Our World Since Then." I had been wanting it for a long time, especially after watching her documentary Marsha Hunt's Sweet Adversity (2014) on TCM. But after it aired a LOT of people wanted it and the few copies available were out of my price range ($70+). So when I noticed a couple weeks ago that TCM was showing the documentary again I quickly checked Ebay and found a copy for $35 (combined with a sale that got me $10 off)! 

I started flipping through it to see if I noticed any recycles. When I got to this page I noticed the lace from this gown in The Human Comedy (1943) was very familiar...

A dinner dress to make any lady look lovelier is Irene's filmy white lace  

that goes over a pale nude crepe slip. Sheer white mousseline de soie 

cascades down the cutaway skirt to form a full underskirt; it ruffles softly 

at the wrists in quaint contrast to the sleek princess lines of the dress.

It was made with a remnant of lace left over from Norma Shearer's lace robe in Marie Antoinette (1938)!!! I wish I could tell Marsha. I feel like she would find that as interesting as I did!

This exquisite creation is still with us!

The lace has a floral and foliate pattern and is embellished with hand sewn artificial pearls and scattered celluloid sequins of varying sizes with scalloped edges. The cape is worn by the newlywed Marie Antoinette during the ceremonial blessing of the bed. Costume design by Adrian. Center Back length, 75 inches; Bottom width, approximately 313 inches. Winning bid $4,000.

I was then looking at photos of Laraine Day, to see if I could spot any more recycles and discovered that she wore the Hunt gown in a publicity photo! 

Does anyone know if this is from a film, and if so, which one?

The second recycle I noticed while looking through Hunt's book was this "creamy-white wool" jacket trimmed in black, worn by Hunt in Irene (1940).

Hunt describes the trim as "pagoda-like."

It was the same jacket worn in The Falcon in Hollywood (1944). Notice that the lapels have been modified: the points were removed and black and metallic (?) trim were added down the front. The buttons were changed from white to black. 

You can view Hunt's book for FREE on the Internet Archive, with an account. If you've never checked out the Internet Archive, it's a treasure trove for Classic Movie fans. You can look at the old copies of Photoplay magazine without an account (see my Movie Magazine Archives tab at the top of my blog). 

Be sure to check out August's roundup again. I found another wear of Olivia de Havilland's Government Girl gown!

Recycled Costume Roundup - September

This month I'm highlighting costumes worn by the same actress in two separate movies. One of the things I share on my blog Facebook page is screenshots of Eve Arden's costumes. A few months ago I shared her costumes in Tea For Two (1950). Then,  a couple weeks ago, I was skipping through The Lady Takes a Sailor (1949) to take screenshots of her outfits (I'd already seen the movie twice previously) and recognized the pajamas she wore. I revisited my FB album and was reminded of all the outfits she wore. As I continued to watch the movie, I noticed two more! That's three costumes that showed up on Eve Arden in two films.

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The next two are costumes I've spotted previously, both worn by Patricia Neal. She makes a cameo as herself in It's a Great Feeling (1949) wearing her costume from The Fountainhead (1949). 

The gown also had a matching, fur-lined cloak!

This next one is a wedding gown recycle. I will do a full post on it for my Cinema Wedding Gowns series sometime in the future. Here is Neal in Bright Leaf (1950) and Raton Pass (1951) wearing the same exact gown and veil. The scene is pretty short in Bright Leaf so they probably thought no one would notice.

Lastly, make sure you check out last month's post again. I found a third recycle of Olivia de Havilland's It's Love I'm After gown!