‘All About Eve’ in Oklahoma City

All About Eve is showing at 2 pm and 5 pm tomorrow, August 17, at the Oklahoma City Museum of Art, as part of an ongoing retrospective for the legendary Edith Head, who designed a wardrobe for leading lady Bette Davis at her request, and won the second of eight Academy Awards jointly with Charles LeMaire, who made the other gowns (including Marilyn’s.)

While you’re at the museum, don’t miss out on the accompanying exhibition, Edith Head: Hollywood’s Costume Designer, on display until September 29. Author and film historian April VeVea has posted a selection of photos from the exhibition – including Head’s original creations for Double Indemnity, Sunset Boulevard, Rear Window, Vertigo and more – here.

“Edith Head thought that Marilyn was ‘entirely too voluptuous,’ but that she had a perfect nose. The two knew each other socially and every time they met the conversation would turn to clothes. Head was surprised how knowledgeable Marilyn was about fabric and fit. Marilyn always wanted to make her legs look better. Marilyn’s legs were far from chubby but they were not perfect, and she always strived for perfection. Head suggested that shaded hosiery would make her legs look longer and more attractive. Head wanted to design for Marilyn but she never got the call. She worked every Hollywood contact she had but to no avail. Marilyn was always friendly to Head but continued to use other designers. In Edith Head’s Hollywood, she was quoted as saying: ‘I never thought Marilyn looked especially comfortable in what she wore, and she once told a reporter that she didn’t feel comfortable in clothes. Naturally the press made a big production of the sexual angle of the remark, but I think she really meant it seriously. Every designer who worked with her cinched her and harnessed her. Marilyn was a free spirit who should have been dressed in a way that she would be able to forget about her clothes. When a woman is sexy, she knows it and doesn’t need clothes that constantly remind her. Marilyn should have been a star in the late 1960s – she could have been devastating as a sensual flower child. I hated the hippie look, but Marilyn would have loved it.'”

– Les Harding, They Knew Marilyn Monroe: Famous Persons in the Life of the Hollywood Icon (2012)