Picture Play Magazine (Mar-Jul 1929)

32 Old Clotkes! Old Clotkes! 55 ditional action is required. In that case there is no panic. The cast is recalled, and the costume of each player is in readiness. Not until there is no possibility of immediate need for a particular gown or suit of clothes, is it relegated to the racks of the general storerooms. Nothing, however, is ever completely standardized in the movies — not even wardrobe systems. _ Seldom do you find executives in every studio of one mind on any subject. At the Metro-Gold wyn studio, they disbelieve completely in the idea of keeping every costume indefi big studios to draw on. There are several plants in Hollywood which cater to the producer who releases through a large concern, but does not use its studio. Such a producer procures the costumes he requires from professional costuming firms, who have thriving businesses. At a moment's notice these companies supply him with costumes of any era, in whatever quantity he desires. Seldom, however, is his star or featured players clothed for their roles by the costumer. That service is all right for the members of his mob, but the high nitely. They do, however, preserve a certain number of priced players must have new clothes of exclusive deeach year's styles to meet emergencies, and in case such modes are wanted for future productions, the required costumes are made. The old ones are utilized only as models. The fate of most costumes offers an interesting example of the movie folks' ingenuity. On the M.-G.-M. lot, the costume department works in close cooperation with the property room. Although each dress knows only one season of use, it is never destroyed or sold. Instead it is turned over to the property room, where another set of seamstresses appraise its worth. Then it is cut up, and eventually finds its place again before the cameras. It is no longer a dress, however, but part of the furnishings of a living room or bedroom. Thus a satin frock worn by Norma Shearer in her last picture does not end its professional career, but is likely to appear as a sofa pillow in Ramon Novarro's next picture. Josephine Dunn's black-velvet dress is likely to turn up as part of a futuristic boudoir rug, or Marion Davies' negligee may be made over into window draperies. The movies, so often accused of extravagance, can be taken as a model of economy by even the average housekeeper. If women showed the same resourcefulness in their homes, there would appear many bright, new decorations at negligible cost. The next time you see a Metro-Goldwyn picture, be sure to notice the lamps. In films coming from that studio, all lamp shades are reincarnated costumes. Almost every woman has a friend who knows the fundamentals: of lamp-shade making, and with a couple of lessons and a little practice, she can learn from the movies how to utilize old clothing which she now casts aside as worthless. As you probably know, many pictures are produced by independent units which do not have the resources of Lilyan Tashman's gown, fashioned expressly for her by First National, will eventually be remade for use by a lesser player. That is why the independent units allow the star a certain sum of money to buy the seven or eight gowns she will wear during the development of the story. At the end of the picture she has an option on the purchase of the dresses she likes, at a substantial reduction. Those she does not wish to buy are usually auctioned off to minor players. Often an evening wrap, in which the producer has invested as much as four hundred and . fifty dollars, is disposed of for seventy-five or a hundred. No wonder there are so many chic women on Hollywood Boulevard. Sometimes varied usesare made of costumes that have served their day before the cameras. Many of those gorgeous ones made for period pictures are preserved for exploitation purposes. That is, when the production plays in your home town, the star's costumes may be sent to the largest drygoods store, and placed on display in a window. This often happens to Norma Talmadge's gowns. Those dainty, hoop-skirt dresses, all lace and rosebuds, that Norma wore in "Smilin' Thru" and "Secrets," were afterward utilized in this manner. So were those sumptuous brocades worn by Dolores Costello, in "When a Man Loves," designed especially for her by that accomplished artist, Sophie Wachner, who to-day is the head of the wardrobe at the Fox studio, although she has costumed many big pictures for Warner Brothers, Metro-Goldwyn, and others. Sentiment often motivates the stars to keep certain of their professional regalias as heirlooms. Douglas Fairbanks has most of his, including the ones he wore in "The Three Musketeers," "Robin Hood," "The Thief of Bagdad," "Don O," and "The Gaucho." Al Jolson has Continued on page 109