Before audiences remember the dialogue, they remember the silhouette. A sweeping gown, a red candy striped blazer, or fabulously beaded dress become as recognizable as the actors who wore them on the silver screen. Now, over 60 costume pieces from the MGM backlots are housed and cared for by the Culver City Historical Society. This collection contains the work of some of the most recognizable designers from the Golden Age of Hollywood, and other pieces contain an element of mystery and mystique with them to this day.
Following a series of auctions from 1970-1971 held by MGM in association with the David Weisz Company, the studio put thousands of props, furniture, and stars’ wardrobes up for auction. Now, because the studios did not anticipate a large market for film and television memorabilia, many details of the items, including which stars wore the items and what films they appeared in, got mired with time. Not all the MGM costume items sold. In 1973, 65 of these items were given to the City of Culver City, which currently make up the MGM collection. Founding president Cathy Zermeno and Lupe Smith brought them to the newly formed Historical Society, in varied states of condition.
Now over fifty years later, the work of preserving these costumes continues. Due to the conditions they were accessioned in, much work has been done to conserve and properly document each costume. Out of the costumes in the collection, about 25 remain unidentifiable. Recently, Historical Society member Annette Tossounian has identified a swimsuit costume worn by Shirley MacLaine in the 1964 film, The Yellow Rolls Royce, previously thought to have been a piece worn by Esther Williams. Using the recently rediscovered auction catalogs from MGM and the help of members like you, we hope to continue solving the mysteries of our beloved MGM costume collection.
During my time volunteering at the Historical Society, I spent hours familiarizing myself with the costumes. I then took a different approach to identify the mystery costumes.
We recently rediscovered early 70s catalogs from the MGM auctions. After digitizing over 100 pages of auction items, I began the work of matching our costumes to catalog descriptions. This was a challenge, as there were no photographs in the catalog. The descriptions consisted of only two sentences describing each garment.
This task required substantial knowledge in garment construction, historical fashion trends, and our collection’s costumes. I was thrilled to identify a garment in the catalog from a film called The Pirate. It was described as “pearl grey marquisette over silk taffeta, edging and latticework of grey silk satin, appliqués of crocheted and silk ribbon flowers.”
This was a perfect match to a gown in our collection! We were lucky to have a star’s name, Gladys Cooper, handwritten on the garment. Gladys Cooper appears in The Pirate in a scene with Judy Garland, wearing our mystery costume as a nightgown.
While this process can be tedious, using the catalogs as a tool to identify a costume’s shapes and attributes can serve as a great guide to identifying many more costumes in our collection.
— Nicole Tovar
