Travilla & The Academy Awards

Travilla won the Academy Award for Costume Design with his first nomination for The Adventures of Don Juan (1950). He was nominated again three times for How to Marry a Millionaire (1954), There's No Business Like Show Business (1955), and The Stripper (1964).

Though the Oscars had been televised since 1953, it took decades before "Who are you wearing?" became the standard question on the red carpet. Beginning in the 1960s, a few days before the big event, fashion columnists would print what the female stars were planning to wear to Hollywood's self-congratulatory night of nights. Among those I've managed to locate include:

1961

Usually, Mr. Blackwell and his Worst Dress List badmouthed the poor taste in clothes worn by movie queens at the recent Academy Awards, but this year, Travilla gave his opinion: "They think to be glamorous, they should wear gold lame or brassy sequins. When Greer Garson asked me to design a gown for her appearance on the show, I suggested white chiffon, Grecian draped. She was the only one there who looked the time of year."

Knight arrives at the awards in the dress.

However, he forgot Shirley Knight, nominated for Best Supporting Actress in The Dark at the Top of the Stairs, also wore a Travilla creation. He was photographed holding a sketch (for another dress) while house model Gina Cord wore the finished garment of white silk faille decorated with large roses in varying shades of blue. Silk skirt panels in Capri blue and sapphire draped over the strapless bodice can form a stole. 

However, it wasn't designed specifically for Knight. Mrs. Robert E. Wade wore it first while photographed by the Los Angeles Times on the hood of a Chevrolet Corvair during the November 1960 Los Angeles car show.

1962

Debbie Reynolds presents Best Song in a long-sleeved, criss-cross bolero bodice with crystal and chalk-white beads. The high waistline leads into black chiffon layers, veiling an underskirt of white, flared subtly near the floor.

Accompanied by her husband, Gene Persson, Shirley Knight wore a long gown of floral print ombre chiffon shaded in champagne, smoke, and black. It was boat-necked and sleeveless, with an overskirt of black chiffon and a slight train. MacDonald Carey and Shirley presented the Best visual effects. Like the year before, Travilla pulled from his retail collection.

1963

Lydia Bailey lead and Dreamboat co-star, Anne Francis, wore a sleeveless silk damask formal with an ombre of dark to light stripes and an extended train.

1965

Orignally scheduled to wear a white Balenciaga gown, Greer Garson chose instead to co-present Best Costume Design with Dick Van Dyke wearing a black version of Marilyn Monroe's finale costume from No Business Like Show Business. The embroidered bodice had a slightly higher neckline and small bows at the shoulder—a reported unbelievable five thousand individual discs of tulle draped from the hip to hem. Garson added a blue-white diamond clip at the hip and carried white opera gloves. Regarding her wardrobe change, the fiery redhead told reporters, "Things like this give Miss Head a headache."

Actor Mike Connors escorted his sister Dottie in shocking pink Travilla to the Governor's Ball at the Beverly Hilton Hotel.

1966

The first time, the show would be broadcast in color. While presenting the screenwriting award, Joanne Woodward chose a Travilla of apple green with white lace. Head was confident it would photograph all-white. Woodward's cryptic comment to reporters, "I hope that it makes Joan Crawford happy." dates back to 1958 when the actress was nominated for The Three Faces of Eve. Joanne proudly wore a homemade gown to the ceremony that cost $100 and took two weeks to create and won the award. Joan Crawford lamented to reporters that "Joanne Woodward is setting the cause of Hollywood glamor back twenty years by making her clothes." Crawford also lambasted Marilyn Monroe for her attire in 1953 for a too-tight gown at the Photoplay Awards.

1968

Travilla was in attendance this year, photographed with Valley of the Dolls author Jacqueline Susann and Dolls leading lady Patty Duke. Duke wore a long, flowing, pleated white evening gown from the film.

Anne Baxter in a figure-hugging bias-cut scalloped printed crepe gown in soft shades of yellow, blue, lavender, and green.

For her third ceremony, Greer Garson wore Travilla. This year, it was of yellow chiffon over a white A-line gown.

1970

Linda Harrison Zanuck, the four-month bride of Richard Zanuck, wore a white crepe halter-necked, hyphen-pleated gown.

After the show, Travilla lambasted the ladies to the Los Angeles Times: "All of them belonged somewhere else, not at an event like the Academy Awards. The men came in tuxedos, but the women looked like they were getting ready for a cocktail party. The Oscars are a special occasion like the opera's opening night or a royal command performance for the queen. Candice Bergen looked like she would freak out, and Myrna Loy looked like a hostess for an at-home party. The stars should show some respect for the occasion. I was very disappointed that there were not more formals in the crowd."

1971

Women's Wear Daily reported the usually publicity-shy Jean Peters would attend the awards in a Travilla soft ecru wool suit with 40s flair. Broad, padded shoulders in the jacket over a bias skirt.

1989

Dorothy Lamour wore a sequined gown in eggshell white with a deep slit skirt hemmed in fox. Television audiences got a nice view when Lamour appeared in the "Cocoanut Grove" segment of the twelve-minute opening created by producer Alan Carr.

Travilla & Dorothy Dandridge: From Vegas to London to Palm Springs

Since her early teens, Dorothy Dandridge was a singer and dancer who started as a young teenager at the famed Harlem Cotton Club Harlem in a sister act. From the late 1930s until after the war, Dorothy's film appearances included numerous "Soundies," a few minor ethnic roles, and musical numbers that could be edited out for showings in the South. A failed marriage to one of the Nicholas Brothers resulted in a mentally challenged daughter Dorothy had to support. Her 1951 appearance at West Hollywood's Mocambo nightclub led to her being cast as Melmendi, Queen of the Ashuba, in the latest Tarzan epic. She followed that, playing the wife of a Harlem Globetrotter, and returned to the nightclub circuit until Fox came calling.

Dorothy met Travilla when she stepped onto the studio lot to film Carmen Jones, an all-Black film version of Georges Bizet's opera. Travilla could appreciate Dandridge's beauty and grace as he did Marilyn's. The women were very similar and, in fact, had been friends since 1947. Travilla had worked with Ruby Dandridge at Warner's for 1950's The Daughters of Rosie O'Grady. Fox released Carmen Jones to great acclaim, but despite her Best Actress Academy Award nomination, no offers came in for Dorothy as black leading ladies were not a Hollywood staple.

In November of 1955, Dorothy headed to Las Vegas for a two-week engagement at the Last Frontier Hotel with her accompanist, manager Earl Mills, and a new Travilla wardrobe to wow the crowds. The designer's business and life partner, Bill Sarris, recounted how he and "T" (the designer's pet nickname) headed to Vegas to see his wardrobe in action on stage. They had great seats for incredible Dorothy's performance. Afterward, they met up in her dressing room. Bill bitterly remembered Dandridge refusing their invitation to go to the casino for a drink. She explained to the young Sarris that although she was the headliner, management wouldn't allow her to be seen out front.

The trio decided to go to Dorothy's suite and the trio headed towards the guest elevators just off the main lobby, but were stopped and informed by management. "As registered guests, the gentlemen could use the elevators, but Miss Dandridge would have to take the service elevator." Sarris lit a cigarette and laughed as he remembered Travilla's reaction. "Well, "T" gave that manager such a look that he immediately backed off. We walked to the lobby elevators, pushed the button, and waited. The doors opened, we got in, turned around. I pushed the button for Dorothy's floor, and the doors closed. That was it."

On the last night of her engagement, Dandridge was photographed wearing Travilla in front of a record crowd of twelve hundred patrons. The form-fitting, strapless evening gown was accentuated with a matching back panel starting at her hips and cascading behind her onto the floor.

Dandridge onstage in Havana.

Even though she signed a three-picture deal with Fox, Dandridge's race created casting difficulties, so she went back on the road. According to the Miami Herald, Travilla was given special permission to make the wardrobe for her upcoming April 1956 appearance at the Souci Club in Havana, Cuba, and then at London's Savoy Hotel.

According to Eileen Ascroft of London's Evening Standard, Dandridge arrived with a fifty piece wardrobe, including ten evening gowns. Ascroft described Dorothy's favorite gown, a "full-length sheath gown in fine cream wool that clung to her like a second skin and was glamorised with an Empire strapless top in shocking pink." Another of Dorothy's gowns strongly resembled a design created for Marilyn in The Seven Year Itch. Monroe's entrance dress was a form-fitting white crepe dress with blue polka dots. The front had a slight drape front with a crisscross neckline. Dorothy's was also floor-length with sequins and beads rather than calf-high with polka dots. The rest of the singer's costumes were "a basic white sheath adding touches of startling colour, drapery, and glitter to make them different." according to Ascroft.

With few film roles, Dandridge continued touring with her small revue. One of her frequent stops was Club Chi-Chi's intimate Starlight Room in Palm Springs, a mere two hours outside of Los Angeles. She was always a favorite of both residents and tourists of the desert resort town. In November 1959, two years later, she appeared in 1961 when Dorothy stepped in for Kathryn Grayson, who had pneumonia.

The third week in July 1962, Travilla threw a Greek-themed party for Ann Sheridan with authentic food, a belly dance,r and a band from the Torch Restaurant. Dorothy was among the guests, including Barbara Eden, Shirley Jones, and Jack Lemmon. It was only a short time before they were dancing traditional folk dances. Women's Wear Daily's West Coast reporter/photographer Max Shapiro fondly remembered holding Lemmon's hand while dancing in the circle. According to the local gossip columns, the shindig broke up at 10 am.

In April 1964, Dorothy returned to the Chi-Chi, booked for a nine-day engagement. Press reports and reviews spoke of her "new $10,000 Travilla wardrobe," including both a body-hugging white sheath and a sleeveless evening gown of cerise silk with reverse pleats, a low decolletage and a panel from hip to floor in the back.

Dorothy died of an accidental drug overdose in 1965.

Travilla & Television: Ginger Rogers in "Tonight at 8:30" (1954)

On October 18, 1954, the National Broadcasting Company (NBC) premiered the first episode of Producer's Showcase. Conceived by Hollywood and Broadway agent Leland Hayward, the ambitious television series would present original musicals, plays, Broadway productions, great concert artists, and tribute programs. Each 90-minute show would feature marquee-name talent from both stage and screen, broadcast live and in color on the fourth Monday of each month.

The premiere episode was to have starred Mary Martin, but with Broadway obligations to Peter Pan, Ginger Rogers agreed to step in. Rogers would perform in three one-act Noel Coward plays, Red Peppers, Still Life, and Shadow Play. Her co-stars included Gig Young, Estelle Winwood, Ilka Chase, Trevor Howard, and socialite Gloria Vanderbilt, who is making her dramatic television debut. All would be directed by Otto Preminger. For ninety minutes, the forty-three-year-old former dancer would be required to run between ten sets, with a dozen costume changes, including hair, shoes, and accessories. Travilla’s loan to Preminger by 20th was announced in the September 16 edition of the Hollywood Reporter. Having worked with Rogers in Monkey Business, Dreamboat, and Black Widow in the past two years, Travilla was the perfect choice to create her wardrobe.

 

On October 17, the New York Times published photos of the dress rehearsal, and articles described not only the individual playlets but also the costuming for each.

 

In Red Peppers, as the wife of an old vaudevillian couple, Rogers and her partner first appear in sailor suits near duplicate to those in the Mitzi Gaynor/Ethel Merman duet from No Business Like Show Business. In their dressing room, Rogers strips down to a pair of boxer shorts and a t-shirt before changing into a full-dress suit and topper, all timed to Coward's fast-paced dialogue.

As a middle-aged English housewife in Still Life, in 29 minutes Ginger underwent four costume changes to mark the passing seasons. It begins with her garbed in a simple blue silk faille dress with detachable shoulder straps and built-in net petticoats.

For the 26-minute In Shadow Play, Ginger enters wearing a mink-trimmed green brocade robe. "Play, Orchestra Play," the scene's musical production number, requires she change into a full-sleeved, violet chiffon dance dress. The gown had a hidden breakaway slide fastener that would allow it to be ripped away mid-dance, revealing a white lace costume with a spangled lace stole and a red rose at the throat.

The show clocked in at 1:29:06, according to the (unfortunately) black and white copy held at the Paley Museum in Los Angeles. Reactions were mixed. While audiences liked it, the critics hated it. The Times found "overtones of soap opera" and "a cumbersome farce." Rogers "delivered her lines listlessly, given more to play acting than a valid portrayal.". At the same time, the star "brought an eagerness to please, she failed to grasp the subtleties of Coward's characters." It would be remembered more for socialite Gloria Vanderbilt's television debut.

Fortunately, the series' future thirty-six episodes would feature more successful fare, including Mary Martin in Peter Pan, Humphrey Bogart, Lauren Bacall, Henry Fonda in Petrified Forrest, and Margot Fontaine in Cinderella.

Travilla's professional relationship with Rogers continued into the next decade. In June 1966 Rogers would celebrate her 1000th performance as the lead in Broadway's Hello Dolly. Ginger arrived at Sardi's wearing Travilla, where a party was being thrown for her that night. The next day, Rogers donned the designer again while co-hosting the Tony Awards held at the Rainbow Room atop Rockefeller Center.