Ginger Rogers at Volo

So anyway thanks to Jen, I went to the Volo Antique malls in Volo, Illinois over the weekend. I was there with my aunt and we stumbled upon a case that had a booklet about Ginger Rogers written by her mother, a milk bottle supplied by her ranch, a pair of gloves, and a skirt. The clothes were supposed to be hers, and both items looked very pretty and weren't too expensive so I decided to get them. I also got the booklet too. My aunt and I left the milk bottle in there and finished looking around at the rest of the mall (which is the size of a village) while the other items were on hold. When we came back to purchase the items, my aunt felt too sad to leave the milk bottle all alone in the case so she decided to buy it.

When we got back to the hotel room we examined all the items. We looked at the gloves, but there was no label, only a size number. In the skirt there WAS a label, but neither of us could read that. 'That... sort of looks like a G...' 'And maybe that's an I? Or an E?' We could read that it was custom made, and since the skirt is vertically striped we could tell it was well-made because the stripes lined up at the seams.

When my mother heard I bought these items, the first thing she said was 'how do you know they were hers? The seller probably said, oh look a milk bottle, let's display this with a booklet and grab two totally unrelated items and put them together.'

So we brought everything home and I put the skirt on the modeling form to display it. Neither my aunt nor I thought of asking my mother (a fashion designer) so inspect the label. Well she finally got curious and was looking all over for it and finally found it. She stared at the label hard for a few moments then said, 'OH MY GOD... Is this ADRIAN?' I whipped my head around and said 'What???' So my mother and I raced to our computers to search for what an Adrian label looked like. (If you aren't familiar with Adrian you can check out this info on Wikipedia - http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Gilbert_Adrian. He designed the ruby slippers in The Wizard of Oz (1939) among other items for Hollywood.)
So we couldn't find any pictures on Google, so I went to eBay to see what I could find. I found a magazine advertisement for his clothes:

Sure enough that was the same signature as the one on my newly purchased skirt. My mom was sitting there saying, 'I cannot believe it! Oh my god.' My aunt and I were shocked yet laughing at the same time. WHAT ARE THE ODDS OF THAT? I'm still shocked. So if this ISN'T Ginger's skirt, we know it had to have belonged to some old Hollywood star because those are the people Adrian worked with, and the average person would not be purchasing something custom-made by him.

I do have some pictures out of the Ginger booklet I wanted to share, but I will probably post those on my other blog, and later because I have to scan it. I'm not in the mood for scanning but hopefully I will get to it soon, preferably tomorrow!!

Cinecon and Eddie Brandt's

TWO places one should go to if they are looking for classic movies, postcards, magazines, posters, lobby cards... basically movies and all paper items that have to do with classic film and actors. I haven't posted in a while so I'm filling this space with pictures of some things I purchased at Cinecon (and the laserdisk of The Gay Divorcee is from Eddie Brandt's).

Some notes first: if you are interested in learning a little about Cinecon, here's the website - http://www.cinecon.org/
Eddie Brandt's is a video store in North Hollywood, California that carries a ton of movies for sale or for rent. There's a $15 lifetime membership fee, but they get a lot of donations by people who have recorded movies otherwise unavailable, so the membership may be worth it if you like searching out the old, rare films. They also have paper items for sale such as lobby cards and posters. If you go there, check out the walls. And also thank you so much to the person who told me about this store!










This is my original lobby card! The first one I've ever purchased. I thought this photo was adorable, and I couldn't resist.

Sadness Today

In attempts to dye a few garments black, I mixed some black dye and used the washing machine method. My aunt then took over to set the washing settings. Somehow she decided that we didn't need to put the clothes in a laundry bag (these are vintage clothes keep in mind). Oddly enough, the thin Edwardian blouse turned out just fine while my 1930s jacket ripped to shreds. :( It is a very sad day. BUT, I think this has garnered enough sympathy within my mother to help me make a new one that looks just like it. Until then, however, I will remain sad. :(

New Background and Other Photos

(Click to enlarge.)
My favourite thing about Macs is how glossy the screen looks, making the backgrounds seem much more brilliant than on my PC.
But seriously, none of the programs I used on my PC (besides the basics) work on a mac so it's been difficult trying to find alternate programs. The reasons why I like the mac are all little seemingly unimportant things (like being able to play, pause, and skip songs without having to be in the iTunes window) but those are the changes that fascinate me the most, the small "how/why did they think of that?"

Here are a couple other photos (from Lady in the Dark and Follow the Fleet, respectively):

Super Swing Time

I saw Swing Time on the big screen yesterday, and it was beyond amazing. I've never felt such a huge lump of excitement in my stomach before in my life. Playing the movie on the big screen illuminated the details that are lost in a smaller print. The bigger the better in this case! Fred Astaire's tapping in Bojangles seemed much more thrilling. The kiss scene was fantastic! Everyone was laughing the moment Ginger Rogers looked as if she'd seen a ghost in preparation to kiss Fred.
Another advantage of the big screen was being able to get a better look at the clothing. the texture of the garments was more prominent as well as the details in Ginger's dresses, like the shape of the sleeves and design in the back of the Pick Yourself Up dress. Seeing the silkiness of the Never Gonna Dance dress reaffirmed my desire to have that dress! I could more clearly see the way it was sewn together. So gorgeous! Talk about 'sheer heaven'! I could also study Ginger's often intricate hairstyles. And we mustn't forget her legs, either, which looked great on the big screen. I am very jealous.
It was so wonderful to sit with an audience that clapped and laughed... and had discussions about Ginger Rogers afterward! When Fred prepared for his Bojangles number, I heard a few murmurs, probably in response to the black face. In my opinion, I don't find it terribly offensive since I believe Fred was honouring Bill Robinson, not mocking him.
Never Gonna Dance... I was leaning forward in my seat for the duration of that number. When the two ascended the stairs and the camera panned to the side and zoomed in, I thought I would explode from amazement and jubilance. That dance is so mesmerizing on that huge screen! Not that it isn't anyway, but I felt enveloped by the dance. When Ginger began her 'super spins' (as I like to call them) near the end of the dance, and audience member exclaimed, "Oh my! Holy Jesus!" That was pretty funny and made me smile.
I also saw Bachelor Mother, which was unbelievably thrilling because I could experience Ginger's priceless facial expressions very up close. I could tell other audience members were appreciating her genius as well. David Niven's impression of Ginger dancing squeezed a ton of laughs out of the audience. The New Year's Eve dinner scene was fairly successful as well.

Overall, I think it was worth my time and money to travel and see this. I loved it. I loved the whole experience. I loved the organ player who emerged from below the stage in between acts. I wonder what he did in the meantime to occupy himself while the picture was running? Anyhow, here are some videos:
*For some reason one of the videos refused to upload, which is why "Organist 3" is missing. But I will get that one up somehow, as it is a snippet of 'The Way You Look Tonight' and I'm not giving up on that without a fight.






My camera ran out of memory space at this point :(

Okay hope this works! Organist 3!



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My picture taking was limited to outside, but here are a few photos:






Lauren

PS I also overheard some people debating when Ginger was at her skinniest. I think she was pretty thin in Swing Time, but there are some 50s movies where she looks quite slim! What do you think?