#FashionSpotlight Edward Stevenson

Edward Stevenson was born in Pocatello, Idaho where he had stayed until leaving for California for chronic respiratory problems at the age of 16. While in Hollywood High School, neighbor Lova Klenowsky (and cousin to silent actress Gloria Swanson) introduced him to costume designer "Andre-Ani." From there he began as a sketch actress for Norma Talmadge Productions while occasionally being able to create his own work, one of his favorites being a gown for Barbara La Marr in "The White Moth" (1924).

Meeting "Andre-Ani" came to his advantage in 1925 when the world famous designer appointed Stevenson as his assistant in designing for Greta Garbo. Then two years after that, Stevenson found himself at Fox then in 1928 at First National by way of actress Louise Fazenda. At First National, he was given an even bigger contract and eventually became the head of the costume department until the studio was bought out by Warner Bros. in 1930. Close to a law suit with the new conjoined studios, Stevenson left after his contract expired having not received screen credit for his work.

For four years, he ended up working Columbia, Hal Roach Studios while also opening Blakely House where stars and locals both could buy his clothes. Towards the end of those years, Stevenson found himself as an assistant for Bernard Newman at RKO, who was already starting to feel the high demanding pressure of designing for Hollywood. Newman left for New York but left a recommendation for his assistant to take over the position and Stevenson was serendipitously promoted.

At RKO for the next 14 years, he would design for classics such as "Citizen Kane" (1941) and "It's a Wonderful Life" (1946) among many others. When his contract expired and still disappointed with how Howard Hughes managed the costume department, Stevenson left RKO in 1950 although occasionally coming back for the next 6 years. After a well deserved break as well as time for cataract surgery, an old friend from RKO came calling to help with her TV show. Stevenson would find himself employed by Lucille Ball until his death in 1968. In 1960, he finally won his Oscar for Ball's "The Facts of Life" and sharing the honor with colleague Edith Head. Edward Stevenson would end up passing away at the age of 62 of a coronary while fabric shopping on La Cienega Boulevard.

Maureen O'Hara in "A Sword's Point" (1952)

Lucille Ball in "I Love Lucy"

Gregory Peck in "David and Bathsheba" (1951)

#FridayShort 1937 Warner Brothers Bloopers

#WomanEmpowermentWednesday Viola Lawrence

• Edited freelance between Universal, First National, Gloria Swanson Productions and Columbia until staying at Columbia and becoming head editor in 1925
• Called "The Lady of Shanghai" (1948) a "jumbled mess" 
• Worked in film since the age of 11 where she worked at Vitagraph Studios in New York as a hand polisher and messenger then title card holder
• Through Harry Cohn, ordered Orson Welles to shoot close ups for "The Lady of Shanghai" (1948)
• Helped Gloria Swanson direct an alternate ending to "Queen Kelly" (1929) when director Erich von Stroheim was fired from production
• Pared down 500,000 feet of exposed film to just 20,000 for "Pepe" (1960)

#ManCrushMonday #MemorableSupportingActors Eugene Pallette

Eugene Pallette's career spanned over an astounding four decades, appearing in 240 both silent and talkie films up until complications with throat cancer in the early '40s. Born in Winfield, Kansas to two long-retired stage actors on July 8th, 1889. It was while in the Culver Military Academy in Culver, Indiana his stage career began and Pallette began to appear in stock company roles. His first credited role was in "The Fugitive" (1913) after a slew of extra and stunt work in even earlier silent films before falling in with Laurel and Hardy as their usual comedic foil.

With talkies on the rise, his deep gravel-y voice was perfect for the new medium. It skyrocketed his career in the '30s and '40s playing patriarchs such as in "My Man Godfrey" (1936) and "The Lady Eve" (1941) but was best known as Friar Tuck in 1938's "The Adventures of Robin Hood." While shooting Otto Preminger's "In the Meantime, Darling" (1944), Preminger often clashed with Pallette, saying the overweight actor was "an admirer of Hitler" and refusing to sit in a kitchen table set with Clarence Muse claiming he "wouldn't sit next to a n*****r." 

Preminger immediately took this to Fox head Darryl Zanuck and Pallette was immediately fired although with incomplete scenes in the currently shooting film. 9 years later, it is documented that Pallette was one of the attendees to a banquet honoring "The Birth of the Nation" (1915) costar Madame Sul-Te-Wan. During this time, Pallette would stick to the fact of his ailing health that would eventually become throat cancer. His final film made was "Suspense" (1946). Throat cancer would end up killing him in September 3, 1954 at the age of 65, his remains interred in an unmarked grave behind his parents' monument in Grenola, Kansas.

7 More of the Coolest Hollywood Friendships

Laurence Olivier and Noel Coward

Barbara Stanwyck and Zeppo Marx
(with Marion Marx)

Gary Cooper and Jimmy Stewart 

Joan Crawford and Marlene Dietrich

Leslie Howard and David Niven

Bette Davis and Joan Blondell

Irene Dunne and Fred MacMurray

Remake This: Smilin' Through (1932)

Pairing 1931's Best Actor (Frederic March for "Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde") and Actress (Norma Shearer for "The Divorcee") would prove great things for Sidney Franklin's "Smilin' Through." The film would gross a overall total of $2,033,000 ($1,004,000 from the United States and Canada and $1,029,000 internationally) and making a profit of $529,000. To make matters even better, "Smilin' Through" would be nominated for the 1934 Academy Award for Outstanding Production and Irving Thalberg, who cast Frederic March with his wife in the first place, won the Medal of Honor at the 1933 Photoplay Awards.

Tom Hiddleston as Sir John Carteret

Carey Mulligan as Kathleen/Moonyeen

Ricky Whittle as Kenneth Wayne/Jeremy Wayne

#FridayShort Hollywood 1920s travelog newsreel compilation - streets, theaters, studios

#WomanEmpowermentWednesday Mary Astor and the Surprise Studio Head Meeting on August 8, 1936

Mary Astor's last day on "Dodsworth" (1936) was still during her very long divorce turned child custody trial to Doctor Franklyn Thorpe. By this point, Thorpe already had unleashed the facts of her diaries which chronicled her adulterous relationships with playwright George Kaufman along with many others. The media and some less than desirable journalists had already took advantage of the supposedly racy documents already used in court and had created passages far more scandalized than the originals. Regardless, it was a surprise when she was asked up to the already terminally ill Sam Goldwyn's office on that Saturday in August.

As it turned out, all of the studio heads from Louis B. Mayer to Jack Warner to Carl Laemmle, along with their lawyers, were sent copies of the forged diary complete with "sexual performance scorecards and steamy passages." ("JOSEPH EGAN TALKS ABOUT MARY ASTOR AND THE PURPLE DIARIES - The Purple Diaries") They actually believed this was the real diary and had a mission to convince Astor to settle her trial as well as by extension, give up her daughter to the already unfaithful Thorpe. It also did not help that Astor's lawyer Roland Woolley was also present and didn't even warn her about this meeting. Irving Thalberg came down hard on her and if Mary did not settle, there was a possibility of the government intervening in their already strict censorship laws. It would also not help the facade Hollywood attempted to mask from the public and would surely destroy her career as well as the industry itself.

Astor deemed this whole meeting ridiculous since she was the writer of the original diaries and would remember if she had written anything pornographic. "All I could say was that it just wasn't true and if there were such pages, they had to be a forgery" Astor would later recount in her autobiography. But Thalberg believed it would be best advisable to settle the trial out of court but with a quick shake of Woolley's head to his client, even that wouldn't happen. "I'm sorry gentlemen, but I will proceed with the case as my lawyer has just advised me" and with that, Astor got up from the conference table and left the room.

#ManCrushMonday Conrad Veidt in "Dark Journey" (1937)

Veidt has never been as swoon-y than as German soldier and spy Baron Karl von Marwitz. It may seem on the outside that he has left the army for war injuries, many would like to believe that he is a deserter when in reality, he might be onto a Swiss female spy (Vivien Leigh) living in Sweden. The problem is now as an expatriate in Stockholm, he may have found her and is currently falling in love with her.