Book Review: Irene by Frank Billecci and Lauranne B. Fisher

Now Available to Own 
 

Complete Title:
Irene: A Designer from the Golden Age of Hollywood - The MGM Years 1942-1949

Long before the Johnny Stompanato scandal, one of the most popular stories that followed The Postman Always Rings Twice femme fatale Lana Turner around as closely as her own shadow was the old Hollywood legend that the blonde screen star had been first discovered at a drugstore.

Comprised of all the ingredients of an underdog/fish-out-of-water/Cinderella story that's since become synonymous with Hollywood movie-making, the Lana Turner legend has become almost as iconic as the all-white image of her walking into the frame of the dark world of Postman's Film Noir.

Therefore it’s only fitting that the woman responsible for creating the single-hue dominant motif of Turner’s mostly white Postman wardrobe (which led to department stores being unable to keep white garments in stock) was also discovered working in a drugstore two decades earlier herself when future MGM costume department head Irene was spotted by Mack Sennett Studio director F. Richard Jones.

Now that's a coincidence worthy of – if not a Hollywood movie – than at least Hollywood itself!

Having worked since the age of nine in her family’s South Dakota general store before catching a train to Los Angeles eight years later, Irene was a quick study everywhere she went.

Acquiring the skills she would eventually require later on when starting her own successful dress shop, Irene graduated from extra to assistant to lead actress at Sennett Studios before attending Wolfe School of Design which gave her the knowledge and confidence she needed to strike out on her own.

Initially starting out small, Irene’s figure flattering creations soon attracted a long list of private clients including the wife of future boss Louis B. Mayer and A-list actresses who wore Irene’s fashions in some of their onscreen roles without studio permission or credit to the designer.

Inspired by everything from gallery exhibitions to architecture (which she utilized to construct undergarments for Marlene Dietrich) along with the Parisian salons she visited following a personal tragedy, Irene was so successful in her own dressmaking endeavors that she initially turned Mayer down the first time he tried to hire her.

Once World War II depleted the men from the costume department, Mayer’s wife encouraged him to ask her favorite gown designer to reconsider accepting the position which she did. Negotiating a sweetheart deal, Irene was granted everything that had already been put in place by MGM’s previous head designer along with greater freedom to make top-level decisions and approve staff.

With her own loyal employees in tow and the understanding that she would be able to continue to dress her private clientele despite her new job, Irene officially made the move to MGM in 1942. Soon tasked with juggling several projects at once, one of her first big assignments was designing the scandalous costumes for longtime friend Lucille Ball’s newest project DuBarry Was a Lady.

Responsible for overseeing, designing and/or handcrafting thousands of looks throughout her career, Irene’s landmark contributions to the Golden Age of Hollywood costume design easily made her one of the earliest pioneers of the art-form and one on-par with her far more well-known peer and industry rival Edith Head.

Plagued by misfortune, heartbreak and person demons in her private life which began to take their toll on her career near the end of her MGM heyday, authors Frank Billecci and Lauranne B. Fisher (daughter of Irene’s longtime personal friend and artist Virginia Fisher) bring Irene’s legacy to vibrant life in this long-overdue book.

Compiling over one hundred and fifty breathtaking sketches and photos (including many from Virginia Fisher’s own personal collection) to augment this accessible yet well-researched text, Irene gives readers a closer understanding of one of the most unsung artisans of the 1940’s. Furthermore, the work from Schiffer Publishing is filled with insider details from and about those that knew her best.

Articulating the groundbreaking techniques she used in making the color of a costume an opera inspired musical motif for example, we realize that Irene’s efforts enhanced viewer understanding of MGM's masterpieces on a level most are completely unaware. And film fans reading Irene today will undoubtedly be eager to go back and view some of the titles she worked on to see the impact her designs made on the final cut.

Additionally, the authors recount her great friendships with performers loyal to her throughout their careers including Esther Williams and Judy Garland as well as her conflicts with Katharine Hepburn who did everything possible to sabotage the painstaking work done by Irene’s department from covering up the costumes to hide clothes she didn’t like on camera or sitting on the ground.

An engrossing and fast-paced read, Irene addresses the highs and lows of life on and off the MGM lot. Yet despite this, true film lovers do long for more in-depth analysis regarding how and why certain key pieces were crafted and the ways in which Irene worked in tandem with the production designers etc. to convey with art a chosen story, mood or theme (as evidenced in the outstanding Postman section).

Nonetheless with so many films to work into the seven year span of her tenure at MGM in a mere one hundred and forty-four pages, Irene’s scribes do an admirable job. And all in all it’s a terrific starting point for those with an interest in greater study on the medium of costume design on film which is currently at an all time high given the success of the nationally touring Hollywood Costume Exhibit.

A gorgeously illustrated and lovingly crafted work penned by the writers in tandem with Virginia Fisher, hopefully Irene will inspire further research into the still influential work of the designer who’s often overlooked in favor of her likewise extraordinarily talented peer Edith Head.

Highly recommended, while Irene makes a perfectly lovely coffee table book for fashion fans, it’s also an inspired title to pluck out of obscurity (much like Lana Turner or Irene herself in a Hollywood drugstore) and add to the holiday gift list for the cineaste in your circle of family and friends.
   

Text ©2014, Film Intuition, LLC; All Rights Reserved. http://www.filmintuition.com Unauthorized Reproduction or Publication Elsewhere is Strictly Prohibited and in violation of the Digital Millennium Copyright Act.  FTC Disclosure: Per standard professional practice, I may have received a review copy of this title in order to evaluate it for my readers, which had no impact whatsoever on whether or not it received a favorable or unfavorable critique.

TV on DVD Review: Here's Lucy - The Complete Series (1968-1974)

Now Available to Own   

In one of the funniest episodes of Here's Lucy, the onscreen children of Lucille Ball's character Lucy Carter (played by her talented offscreen children Lucie Arnaz and Desi Arnaz Jr.) rehearse a school fight song in the living room set of the hit CBS series.

As Desi's Craig drums along the banister, Lucie's Kim practices her cheer routine, singing, "You gotta go, you gotta work, you gotta fight, fight fight," as their mother joins in, dancing along to the delightful hoots and hollers of the live studio audience on her exit out the door.

Yes, the generic lyrics of the catchy fight song may have been written with high school football in mind. However, because they sync up so perfectly with yet another reminder of her mother's knack for physical comedy and her willingness to do anything for a laugh, Arnaz might just as well have been describing one more reason why we love her mother Lucy so much – summing up the work ethic of Ball in a single cheer.

Ball's fourth series following I Love Lucy and its Lucy-Desi Comedy Hour spin-off, Here's Lucy was also her second solo sitcom after her divorce from Arnaz Sr., when she walked away from the smash success of The Lucy Show to venture into this family-centric outing.

Bringing Gale Gordon, who played her previous comedic foil along with her for this entirely new production, Here's Lucy (which was created by Bob O'Brien and Milt Josefsberg and executive produced by her second husband Gary Morton) ran for six successful seasons before wrapping up what would be for Ball roughly twenty-five years of working steadily on broadcast television.

Although Ball's trademark brand of physical comedy with plenty of slapstick remained, this series marked a welcome transition for the star from the far-too broad style of comedy and ditzy character she played on The Lucy Show. In fact, Ball does some of her best and most natural work in Here's Lucy, which was at its strongest the closer it kept to real, identifiable situation based comedy.

Quite experimental at times (especially early on), the series hit a few stumbling blocks with some pretty bizarre plotlines involving everything from spies and accidental diamond smuggling to out-there travel episodes that found our favorite redhead joining the Air Force, marrying an Indian and rafting down the Colorado River.

Fortunately when it found its footing, Here's Lucy turned into a true gem that's usually overlooked in Ball's impressive career. Vastly superior to The Lucy Show which hasn't held up very well at all given the dated humor and Ball's struggle to leave the slapstick world of Lucy Ricardo behind, in this, my first experience with Here's Lucy, I found myself consistently mesmerized by this underrated series.

Much like the Ball's work in Yours, Mine and Ours (which preceded the series), Here's Lucy illustrates her growing talent as an actress vs. a stereotypical comedienne best known for pratfalls and funny faces.

Digitally remastered and lovingly transferred to DVD in a series spanning box set collection of twenty-four discs, the recent MPI Home Video release includes a treasure trove of television museum worthy behind-the-scenes footage, interviews, episode introductions, featurettes and commentary tracks.

While Here's Lucy took some of its cues from the tried-and-true I Love Lucy formula playbook by filling its seasons with big name guest stars, movie star cameos and multiple musical numbers which proved that the Arnaz children had inherited their father's talents for song and dance, overall Here's Lucy is a first-rate family sitcom.

From the first standout episode "Lucy, the Process Server" up through the sixth season ensemble British stage comedy approach utilized in "Lucy is N.G. as an R.N." Here's Lucy remains consistently good.

Admittedly, even her children would be the first to admit that at the beginning they weren't given much to work with in terms of their characters whom Desi Jr. (who left after three seasons) likened to more comedic, broad versions of themselves.

However both grow more at ease in front of the camera as the series progresses, stealing several scenes away from A-list guest stars as well as their mother in one of several "Let's Put on a Show" style set-ups that were devised in its 144 episode run.

Yet as delightful as the variety show-like episodes are, I was particularly taken in by the unbelievable hilarity that the staff writers and series actors derived from the most deceptively simple premises.

And this is on display throughout, as evidenced in one memorable first season outing when an attempt to fix a lamp accidentally destroys an entire wall in "Lucy, the Fixer" that reminded me of a similar cat-in-the-wall gag used on It's Always Sunny in Philadelphia.

Taking one idea and then running with it to the extreme (similar to way that gags were built on top of gags in some of I Love Lucy's most famous episodes) spins what could've been a predictable plotline into Here's Lucy comedy gold.

Whether it's when Kim teams up with Uncle Harry (Gordon) to try and scare off Lucy's questionable boyfriend in "Lucy's Punctured Romance" or in any number of misunderstanding based episodes, the ingenuity of the core cast and crew is on full display when humor is mined from universally identifiable situations.

Obviously for fans of another series for which Ball paved the way, the annual visits from Carol Burnett are a comedic thrill and Burnett contributes to this collection by providing commentary to bring us behind-the-scenes of the top ten ratings hit.

Likewise I Love Lucy devotees are sure to enjoy the rare but welcome appearance of Vivian Vance who guest-starred roughly once a season after generating huge laughs from her series debut as a prospective date for Harry in "Lucy, the Matchmaker" which found staff writers addressing the contemporary idea of computer dating in an attempt to change with the times.

The last successful series starring Ball whose mid-80s return to television (along with a then-retired Gale Gordon) in Life With Lucy failed to find an audience, Here's Lucy, which has since achieved something of cult status after appealing to new generations of fans on Nick at Nite is also one of the icon's best.

Undoubtedly crafted in 1968 as a television love letter to her children, Here's Lucy is fittingly served up to audiences forty years after its final episode aired in 1974 in this gorgeous presentation by Ball's children as a DVD love letter to their talented mother.

For whatever her last name was from Ricardo to Carmichael or Carter, Lucy's ever-growing fanbase will now be able to continue loving Lucy for years to come, making the hardworking woman whose legacy lives on in the characters she played something to cheer for once again.

Text ©2014, Film Intuition, LLC; All Rights Reserved. http://www.filmintuition.com Unauthorized Reproduction or Publication Elsewhere is Strictly Prohibited and in violation of the Digital Millennium Copyright Act.  FTC Disclosure: Per standard professional practice, I may have received a review copy of this title in order to evaluate it for my readers, which had no impact whatsoever on whether or not it received a favorable or unfavorable critique.