Tuesday, June 28, 2011

Circus Cameos #13

Under its agreement with Ringling, Paramount had to provide the costumes worn by its actors. (Does anyone know if Paramount had these costumes made by Brooks, which made all of Ringling’s 1951 costumes, or by its own wardrobe department?)
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Posted by Buckles at 6/28/2011 05:43:00 AM

4 comments:

Anonymous said...

All of the circus costumes worn by the stars were indeed made by Brooks Costume Co.
The costumes I have in my collection all have the Brooks label in them along with the stars name.
DeMille had many of the costumes constructed very early so they could be shipped to Sarasota and then to Hollywood for the filming. Paramount paid for all the stars costumes and the shipping.
Ringling usually had the costumes finished just prior to the Garden opening. The show people would go to Brooks for final fittings once the show reached New York.
With a few exceptions, the costumes were exact duplicates of what the performers wore. One exception is the wigs worn by Lamour,Grahame and Hutton for Picnic in the Park. They were very high and elaborate. Lamour's wig was so high with the hat that she had to hold it so her head wouldn't tip over.
Also on Lamour's Moonlight Melodies costume, they added small crystal dangles on the pearl loops . These were not on the original.
Perhaps the biggest change was to Holly's feathered cape. Her cape was very heavy on feathers. I guess DeMille wanted his star to be the real Bird of Paradise. Pinito Del Oro's cape wasn't quite that heavy on the feathers.
I have some video of Pinito in Madison Square Garden and her feathers look pretty meager compared to Hutton's.
Dom

28 June, 2011 09:07
Chic Silber said...

Brooks started out as a uniform

builder & went through quite a

few transitions over the years

After becoming a "costume" company

at 1 point they bought Van Horn

Costumes from Philly & became

Brooks-Van Horn & years later

merged with Eaves Costumes &

then were known as Eaves-Brooks

The whole shooting match was

bought by the Dodger Theatricals

who is still a general management

& theatrical producing company

& renamed it Dodger Costumes

It became the spoils of financial

troubles some years back & was

liquidated to settle debts

Now there are many more smaller

shops that filled the void

28 June, 2011 10:13
JACKIE said...

From what I understand, Brooks made all the costumes, atctors and doubles also. Jackie LeClaire

28 June, 2011 11:55
Roger Smith said...

Phyllis tries in vain to score a hot dog from the Grease Joint, while poor Sebastian sits in the b.g. on his Spec horse, looking like a blow-dried poodle.

29 June, 2011 18:12

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