Posted on 10/25/2012 8:11:20 PM PDT by smokingfrog
AUSTIN (AP) — It turns out there will be another day for Scarlett O'Hara's green curtain dress. Many of them.
The iconic dress and Scarlett's burgundy ball gown from the 1939 film "Gone With the Wind" have been saved from deterioration by a $30,000 conservation effort by the Harry Ransom Center at the University of Texas.
The dresses worn by actress Vivien Leigh are now on display for the first time in nearly 30 years at London's Victoria and Albert Museum as part of a Hollywood costume exhibit.
Ransom Center officials announced the project in 2010, noting the dresses were in danger of falling apart from age.
The dresses were made of heavy fabric and were not built to last. Weakened stitching and sagging waistlines had to be repaired and conservators also had to remove some previous alternation work and additions, such as feathers placed on the burgundy gown.
"All of those areas would have gotten worse. All the vulnerable parts have been stabilized," said Jill Morena, the Ransom Center's assistant curator for costumes and personal effects. "It has been a success. We would not be able to display them without this effort."
(Excerpt) Read more at kxan.com ...
Great comedians on her old show.
That is one of the funniest comedy skits ever!
"St. Martins Lane" (1938)
A.K.A "Sidewalks Of London"
Why don’t we pitch in and buy the dress for
Chrissy Matthews. Where do I send my dollar?
Years ago when the Costume Institute first opened an exhibition in the downstairs of the Met Museum in NYC, they had the most incredible exhibit I’ve ever seen. Never seen anything like it since.
The curtain dress was there with many others from the movie, but also the black and white dress from My Fair Lady (C’mon Dover, move your..!), the costumes from Top Hat, including Ginger Rogers ostrich feather dress (It was light blue!) and Fred’s impossibly tiny tux (he was only about 145 lbs at the time, I heard), the ballet costumes from the original Midsummer’s Night Dream (they were nude leotards with strings of crystals) Marie Antoinette, Marlene Dietrich, It Happened One Night, etc.
I was young then but loved movies. If I saw it now I would have known so many more of the clothes.
Midsummer’s night dream costumes-
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=l4S-eNAWitE
Olivia de Havilland, who was in “Gone With The Wind,” is actually still alive. Hard to believe.
How did they ever keep a straight face? Beyond hilarious!
I always have though Vivien Leigh was just exquisite - the perfect Scarlett.
Not to disparage a classic film but would that money be better spent doing something else than this? If it was a private donation, I’m okay with that but if this money is from government coffers, I’m a bit offended at their waste.
I thought she was dead.
No, that belongs to Michelle Obama.
I believe it’s funded through private donations.
http://www.hrc.utexas.edu/contribute/endowments/opportunities/costumes/
Great ‘special effects’ -LOL!
They usually didn’t. They laughed all the time on that show, especially Harvey Korman and Tim Conway. What a great show.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=O_gG3ajNc4s
I heard that sometimes they held back their best lines at rehearsal so they could spring them during the live performance to try to break each other up.
Her sis, Joan Fontaine, is still living too.
Not too many 1930s-era actors/actresses still left. Besides the aforementioned, I can think of Deanna Durbin, Luise Rainer, Marsha Hunt, Mickey Rooney, Mary Carlisle, Adrian Booth, Marjorie Lord, Shirley Temple, probably a tiny handful more.
Incredibly, Olivia de Havilland’s one-year-younger sister, actress Joan Fontaine, also is still alive.
“Fiddle Dee Dee!’’ Seriously though I think Chrissie really needs a life-time supply of’’ Summers Eve’’.(My apologies to the ladies.)
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