The Rise of the Costume Designer: a Critical History of Costume on the New York Stage from 1934 to 1950
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Louisiana State University LSU Digital Commons LSU Historical Dissertations and Theses Graduate School 1968 The Rise of the Costume Designer: a Critical History of Costume on the New York Stage From 1934 to 1950. Eelin Stewart Harrison Louisiana State University and Agricultural & Mechanical College Follow this and additional works at: https://digitalcommons.lsu.edu/gradschool_disstheses Recommended Citation Harrison, Eelin Stewart, "The Rise of the Costume Designer: a Critical History of Costume on the New York Stage From 1934 to 1950." (1968). LSU Historical Dissertations and Theses. 1444. https://digitalcommons.lsu.edu/gradschool_disstheses/1444 This Dissertation is brought to you for free and open access by the Graduate School at LSU Digital Commons. It has been accepted for inclusion in LSU Historical Dissertations and Theses by an authorized administrator of LSU Digital Commons. For more information, please contact [email protected]. This dissertation has been microfilmed exactly as received 68-16,312 HARRISON, Eelin Stewart, 1915- THE RISE OF THE COSTUME DESIGNER: A CRITICAL HISTORY OF COSTUME ON THE NEW YORK STAGE F R O M 1934 TO 1950. Louisiana State University and Agricultural and Mechanical College, Ph.D., 1968 Speech-Theater University Microfilms, Inc., Ann Arbor, Michigan Co) EELIN STEWART HARRISON 1968 ALL RIGHTS RESERVED THE RISE OF THE COSTUME DESIGNER: A CRITICAL HISTORY OF COSTUME ON THE NEW YORK STAGE FROM 1934 TO 1950 A Dissertation Submitted to the Graduate Faculty of the Louisiana State University and Agricultural and Mechanical College in partial fulfillment of the requirements for the degree of Doctor of Philosophy in The Department of Speech by Eelin Stewart Harrison B.A., Brooklyn College, 1945 M.A., Louisiana State University, 1946 May, 1968 , ACKNOWLEDGMENTS The author wishes to express gratitude to all those who have so graciously given of their time and skill in the accomplishment of this task: To my esteemed professor, Claude L. Shaver, for faith and encouragement. To members of the committees Waldo W. Braden, Clinton Bradford, Harold Mixon, and W. John Olive, for guidance. To the late George Freedley, and to Paul Myers and the staff of the New York Public Library Theatre Collection at Lincoln Center: Dorothy Swerdlove, Crawford Wright, and good friend Maxwell Silver man, for thoughtful and creative cooperation. To Gillian Graham Harrison and George Jackson Harrison III, willing and ever more capable research assistants. To the memory of my mother and father who looked for this long ere now. TABLE OF CONTENTS PAGE ACKNOWLEDGMENTS........................................ ii ABSTRACT .................... ......................... iv INTRODUCTION................... 1 CHAPTER I. HISTORY........................................ 13 II. KINDS OF DESIGNERS . ....................... 61 III. THE DESIGNER AS A PROFESSIONAL.............. 116 IV. THE CRITICS................................... 141 V. KINDS OF CRITICISM........................... 182 VI. EVALUATION AND SUMMATION..................... 294 BIBLIOGRAPHY............ 304 VITA ................................................... 312 ABSTRACT The purpose of this study is a critical survey of costume design on the New York stage during the sixteen years from 1934-35 to 1949-50. Primary sources were com mercial programmes for musicals and plays produced during those theatrical seasons, and regular journalistic theat rical seasons, and regular journalistic theatrical reviews in the several daily papers published during the period. Programmes provided information about billing of designers, recognition of technical assistants, and crediting of costume construction. The first chapter presents an historical background prognosticating the trends and practices in theatre produc tion which led to the development of the costume designer. The second chapter identifies the job of costume designing and defines the duties and privileges of the various artists in costume design by citing programme billings and observing working relationships with producers, actors, and set designers. The third chapter describes the newly emergent costume design specialist as a professional by considering his qualifications and training, his self-evaluation, his goals and ideals, his union affiliation, and his public recognition. The fourth chapter computes the relative amount of costume criticism proferred by various critics and traces the growing significance of its placement in the review throughout the period. The fifth chapter measures the growing awareness and increasing knowledgeability of costume design and designers on the part of the critics by analyzing and cataloguing examples of various kinds of journalistic costume criticism. The study concludes that costume itself among the visual arts of fhe theatre reached new prominence and developed an importance it had not achieved before this time. In this period costume designing produced both a profession and a specialist— the job and the man. The influence of journalistic criticism was vital to the development of cos tume design as a specialization. Critics of the New York area daily newspapers reflected the growth of costume design- as an entity and recognized the existence and quality of the emerging designer. Not only the technical practice of cos tuming but also the art of costume design, and its professors, achieved recognition, became credited customarily in pro grammes and billing, was granted criticism regularly as a prime element of production, and was honoured by prizes and awards. v INTRODUCTION Each of you, when his turn comes, must go down to the general underground abode, and get the habit of seeing in the dark. When you have acquired the habit, you will see ten thousand times better than the inhabitants of the den, and you will know what the several images are, and what they represent, because you have seen the beautiful and just and good in their truth. Plato At the beginning the confines of this study were . - tentatively blocked out as covering the theatrical seasons ' of 1934-1935 to 1944-1945, but as the data were observed and recorded two points became apparent. Trends and move ments in costume were still inconclusive by 1945, so the time span was extended to 1950. Also an increasing concern of critics with costume criticism and with the new costume designer came to light, warranting a closer attention to journalistic reviewing. So, the purpose of the study was formulated as a critical survey of costume design in the New York theatre from 1934 until 1950. Three previous dissertations on costume in the American theatre had been written, a study by Genevieve Richardson of wardrobe practice and costume style during the 1 first one hundred and fifty years of the American stage,1 Janet Loring's treatment of costuming from 1895 to 1915 emphasizing as typical of the time practices in Charles o Frohman's companies, and Josephine Paterek's excellent survey of costuming procedures on the commercial stage from 1914 to 1934.3 The primary sources upon which this study is based are the actual dramatic productions on the Broadway stage during the theatrical seasons of 1934-1935 to 1949-1950, as recorded in the several yearbooks compiled by Burns Mantle and continued after his death by John Chapman. Two main sources of information about these productions were tapped: the commercial programmes for the plays as held by the Theatre Collection of the New York Public Library and regular journalistic theatrical reviews in the several daily papers published during the period. Additional information was found in souvenir programmes held also by the Theatre Collection, in newspaper and magazine articles in contempo rary' periodicals, and from the only too few biographies and 1Genevieve Richardson, "Costuming on the American Stage, 1751-1901" (unpublished doctoral dissertation, Univer sity of Illinois, 1953). ^Janet Loring, "Costuming on the New York Stage from 1895 to 1915, with Particular Emphasis on Charles Frohman's Companies" (unpublished doctoral dissertation, University of Iowa, 1960). 3Josephine D. Paterek, "A Survey of Costuming on the New York Commercial Stage: 1914-1934" (unpublished doctoral dissertation, University of Minnesota, 1962). books on theatre of the time. A valuable resource proved to be direct information from acquaintances who had practiced in the theatre of the period. The starting point for the study was in the several yearbooks of the theatre edited by Burns Mantle for the seasons of 1934-1935 through 1947-1948 and by John Chapman for the seasons of 1948-1949 and 1949-1950.^ Listed in these annuals are short descriptions of the productions presented on Broadway during each theatre year. Circuses, vaudeville, and ice shows were not included because production methods were generally different, as was the personnel. A consideration of the ballet was left out for much the same reason, although there had been great discussion in theatrical circles about that very point. The ballet both in America and abroad had engaged many easel painters to do the designing of settings and costumes. Designs had been supplied by Picasso Matisse, Dali, Roualt, Chagall, Braque, Dufy, and Utrillo among others. But because of antagonism in the profession, and the union regulation that an artist had to pass the entrance examination and be admitted to the union before he could have his settings and costumes executed, ^The Best Plays of 1934-35 and the Year Book of the Drama in America, ed. Burns Mantle (New York, 1935),