WHEN Alfred Hitchcock Set His Thriller to Catch a Thief on the French
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Photo courtesy of WCFTR, Film Title Stills HEN Alfred Hitchcock set his thriller To Catch a Thief on the French Riviera, that playground for international high society, he sought to capture onscreen a world of luxury and sophistication. He did no less than shoot on location, Wusing the Riviera's own villas, beaches, and serpentine roads as a backdrop for his tale of theft and postwar intrigue. For the romantic leads, he cast the perennially refined and classic Gary Grant and Grace Kelly, pictured above. And to be sure that Kelly, Grant, and all the film's actors looked the part in this story of stolen hearts—and stolen diamonds—the master of suspense turned to the master of Hollywood design, Edith Head. By 1954, the year To Catch a Thief was made. Head had over thirty years' experience in cos tume design for film. She turned artful sketches, like the one on this issue's cover, into elegant designs like the one Grace Kelly wears here. Edith Head brought excellence to all her film projects but recognized later in her career that To Catch a Thief was her favorite. The Wisconsin Genter for Film and Theater Research's Edith Head Gollection, which includes both original sketches and film stills, is featured in an article beginning on page 18. m WISCONSIN Editor J. Kent Calder Managing Editor Kathryn A. Thompson Associate Editor Margaret T. Dwyer Production Manager Deborah T. Johnson Book Review Editor Jonathan Kasparek Research and Editorial Assistants Brett Barker James W. Feldman Joel Heiman Tim Thering Designer Kenneth A. Miller THE WISCONSIN MAGAZINE OF HISTORY, published quarterly, is one of the many benefits of membership in the Wisconsin Historical Society. Individual memberships are $35 per year; senior citizen individual, $25; family, $45; senior citizen family, $35; institutional, $45; supporting, The Strange, Sad Death $100; sustaining, $250; patron, $500; life (one person), of Sergeant Kenney $1,000. To receive the Wisconsin Magazine of History, join the John Evangelist Walsh recounts the tragedy Society! To join or to give a gift membership, send a check to Membership, Wisconsin Historical Society, 816 State surrounding his uncle's death in Street, Madison, Wl 53706-1482, or call the Membership America's first anticommunist crusade. 1 Office at 888-748-7479. You can also join via e-mail, [email protected], or at the Society's Web site, www.wisconsinhistory.org (click on "Become a Member"). Elegance by Design The WMH has been published quarterly since 1917 by the Wisconsin Historical Society (Phone 608-264-6400). Maxine Fleckner Ducey shines the Copyright © 2002 by the State Historical Society of Wis spotlight behind the scenes on a consin. Permission to quote or otherwise reproduce por tions of this copyrighted work may be sought in writing powerful talent. 18 from the publisher at the address above. Communication, inquiries, and manuscript submissions may also be addressed to [email protected]. The magazine is Mining Salt ofthe Earth indexed annually, and cumulative indexes appear every ten years. Articles are abstracted and indexed in America: James J. Lorence reveals the interwoven History and Life, Historical Abstracts, and Index to stories of blacklisted filmmakers and Literature on the American Indian. The Wisconsin Historical Society does not assume oppressed miners. JL O responsibility for statements made by contributors. ISSN 0043-6543. Periodicals postage paid at Madison, Wl 53706-1482. Back issues, if available, are $10 plus As She Knew Them postage. Microfilmed copies are available through Univer sity Microfilms, 300 N. Zeeb Road, Ann Arbor, Ml 48106. Margaret Beattie Bogue revives the words Photographs identified with PH, WHi, or WHS are from the of Juliette Kinzie, a witness to early Society's collections; address inquiries about such photos to the Visual Materials Archivist, 816 State Street, Madi Wisconsin history. T"T" son, Wl 53706-1482. Reviews 58 On the front cover: Sketch courtesy of WCFTR, Edith Head Collection Box 15. Letters from Our Readers 62 Back Matters 64 VOLUME 85, NUMBER 2 / WINTER 2001-2002 The Strange, Sad Death of Sergeant Kenney AZING calmly out mother often told me, Mick of a large photo A Personal Story of Heroism andfough t the Bolsheviks (an early G graph, a sepia-col Loss during America's Russian name for the Gommunists), win ored oval in a plain bronze ning commendations and frame, all during my boyhood Intervention of 1918-19 medals for his bravery. Then on he stared imposingly down on November 11, 1918, came the me from the living room wall. By John Evangelist Walsh Armistice, ending World War I. A seated figure wearing the By the boatload the victorious khaki uniform of a World War I soldier, arms folded in mar Yanks came home, but not the 339th, which stayed on in Rus tial fashion, proudly he posed at a three-quarters angle (the sia. It was on a cold, dark night in late December, at a little better to display his sergeant's stripes, I thought then). Easy town whose name my mother never could recall, that Bolshe good nature and the promise of ready laughter showed in his vik bullets found Mick. pleasant, almost handsome face, an impression confirmed by "He died on New Year's Eve," my mother would say my mother's fond memories of him—"and a wonderful mournfully, "but by then the war was over! We all thought he dancer!" she'd add. Yet for me the portrait held more sadness was safe. Then in January 1919 came the telegram. It said than joy. Ten years before I was bom, that young soldier had he'd been killed on New Year's Eve. How could that be?" died in the snows of North Russia, cut down by a Bolshevik When eventually I began searching out my uncle's story, I machine gun. As he lay bleeding his life away, the war he'd wondered why the 339th had stayed in Russia and kept on been sent to fight had been over for six long weeks. fighting after the Armistice, why they'd gone there at all. In He was my uncle, my mother's brother. His name was the very first source I checked—an obscure old book written Michael Kenney, "Mick," everyone called him. In 1917 he'd by several ofthe 339th's officers—I found that my mother's come overfrom Gounty Sligo, Ireland, joining two sisters and claims about Mick's heroism were not just sisterly exaggera a brother already here. The sisters were in New York Gity tion. and the brother in Ghicago, but Mick preferred Detroit, Describing a Bolshevik attack on a town called Seletskoe, Michigan, where some cousins lived. That April America the book explained how "for two days and nights the Ameri entered the war, and in September Mick, just turned twenty- cans beat off the attacks, principally through the good work of five, enlisted in the 339th Infantry Regiment, "Detroit's Sgt. Michael Kenney, the gallant soldier who fell at Kodish Own," as it was fondly called. Assigned to K Gompany, Third on New Year's day." A few pages further on the fighting in Battalion, directly out of basic training he was promoted to December at Kodish is pictured, and again Mick is men sergeant and with the 339th promptly sent overseas, to the tioned: "Sergeants Kenney and Grewe of K Gompany gave frozen wastes of North Russia. Soon the 339th had earned for their lives that night in moving courageously among their itself the nickname "The Polar Bears." men."i In battle after battle in the dense, snow-clad forests, as my Often my mother had told us of an indignant letter written to the War Department by her brother in Ghicago, Patrick. Sgt. Michael Kenney of tbe 339tb Infantry, known as tbe "Polar Gomplaining about a mix-up in the notification of Mick's Bears," poses witb bis sister Ann (tbe autbor's mother). Tbepboto was taken in a New York City studio in July 1918, days before tbe death, it also pointedly asked how it was that an American 339tb sbipped out for North Russia. soldier could have died in battle when the war was long over. Courtesy of Ihe aulhor At the National Archives in Washington, some fifty years after This article has been funded in part by an Amy Louise Hunter Fellowship from the Wisconsin Historical Society. WINTER 2001-2002 WISCONSIN MAGAZINE OF HISTORY it was written, I found that original, handwritten letter, neatly tucked into Mick's burial file. Clipped to it was a copy ofthe official typed reply apologiz •f^^4<-.<0,,.&«iS^*i«j^ui.»„w. fl»iU«i,..».iii, •nn.i.i ii*Afcj'*i"'*r-*VT^^f<'*v--*in-iiii-ii«iift><ifif»imtfJtv^'t)^>rMBl»iirV'^^ . ing for the mix-up. About the continued fighting in Russia, nothing is said. I found many other documents detailing my uncle's military service, at the National Archives and also at the University of Michigan's Bentley Histor ical Library and at the Wisconsin Histor ical Society Archives. At the Bentley there turned up an especially valuable item, a diary kept by an officer in Mick's company who knew him well and who was nearby when he died. Several excel lent books on the North Russian campaign gave me the necessary background, so that I now know the full story of my uncle's four-month's service in Russia. He was, it develops, along with hundreds of other young Americans, an unneces sary sacrifice to one ofthe most fumbling foreign policy actions in our history.