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Re: History and the Movies -- another reason to attend SAA



Our collection is intended for exactly this kind of thing ("Titanic" used us
for decor and costume, but not makeup -- nobody in 1912 would have DREAMED
of that shade of lipstick).  Of course, we like to say that in showbiz
research there are two answers to a given question: the accurate answer, and
the look the director wants.

But accuracy has been getting more popular lately!  World War II is back in
style -- the designers for the upcoming Pearl Harbor spent lots of time and
took lots of laser copies.  The costumer for a new version of Bridge on the
River Kwai was enchanted with our material on Japanese hot-weather uniforms
(we unfortunately didn't have much in the way of Japanese prison camp
interiors for the Art Dept.) and commented that she has to make 60 uniforms
from scratch.  I asked her if she couldn't use costumes from the earlier
production (since the costume houses do keep old ones) and she said
"Absolutely not! They got them all wrong!"  Meanwhile, the remake of South
Pacific asked for, among other things, 1940s Navy stethoscopes and a
particular type of toiletry bags the nurses used.  Now to see how much of
this actually makes it to the screen....

Misha Schutt
Warner Research Collection
Burbank Public Library

-----Original Message-----
From: Kate Bowers [mailto:kate_bowers@HARVARD.EDU]
Sent: Thursday, June 29, 2000 2:47 PM
To: ARCHIVES@LISTSERV.MUOHIO.EDU
Subject: History and the Movies -- another reason to attend SAA

....  The facts might change,
but Hollywood can get rather interested in the look-and-feel nowadays.
(Compare Bette Davis' world as Queen Elizabeth in "Elizabeth and Essex"
with Cate Blachett's world as Queen Elizabeth in "Elizabeth.")...

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