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.