Hello Dolly!: daring dresses and golden gowns
The 1969 film ‘Hello Dolly!’ is one I grew up watching; I have no idea why my parents owned the VHS but I wore it out on rainy days watching dancers leap around turn of the century New York and women wearing beautiful big dresses sing in the streets. It is a vastly underappreciated musical film, particularly for anyone with an interest in history and historical costume. The musical was first performed on Broadway in 1964, with lyrics and music by Jerry German and book by Michael Stewart. It was based on Thornton Wilder’s 1938 farce ‘The Merchant of Yonkers’, which was later retitled ‘The Matchmaker’ in 1955. Set at the turn of the twentieth century, the story follows the headstrong Dolly Levi as she matchmakes her way through life and tries to find a match for local businessman Horace Vandergelder. The plot also follows Vandergelder’s two employees, Cornelius Hackle and Barnaby Tucker, as they visit New York for the first time, see the sights and (spoilers) fall in love with Irene Molloy and Minnie Faye.
Humorous and stunning, this film is filled with iconic songs such as ‘Hello Dolly! (funnily enough), ‘It takes a woman’ and ‘Put on your Sunday clothes’, as well as a few vastly underrated such as ‘Love is only love’ and ‘Dancing’ (the latter of which was one of the very few songs I used to have downloaded onto my MP3 player growing up – no regrets). The film, directed by Gene Kelly, is known and loved for it’s incredible cast, Barbara Streisand of course heading this, the beautiful music and the ‘other-worldly’, escapist nature of the scene it sets. I will be honest and say that when I watched it, I’d make a wish that when I ran upstairs my wardrobe would be full of the costumes that they wear in this film; the luxurious glimmering jewels, the large crinoline skirts and the thick, luxurious materials (again – no regrets). Hence, the focus of this point is costume; notably, Streisand’s.
Irene Sharaff was the costume designer for this film and was nominated for an Academy Award for her work. Speaking of her design process, Sharaff commented, ‘I see everything in blocks of colour…like a painting. If I have a leitmotif, a logo, I suspect it is associated with the colours I prefer: reds, pinks, oranges’.[1] This can certainly be seen just by comparing Streisand’s dresses in the film; gold, red, purple and pink, bold colours to match the confident and striking character of Dolly Levi. Interestingly, the only time she wears a more natural, beige costume is when the camera sees Levi alone in her room, singing ‘Love is only love’, lamenting on her past and present heartache. The soft vulnerability of the moment is mirrored in a pale nightgown in a light material with a flowing drape.
Images taken from my Pinterest https://www.pinterest.co.uk/clairewimbush1/musicals/)
The golden dress worn in the finale of the film has become iconic and tied to Streisand’s name, as opposed to the role of Levi. Originally this dress was red in the original Broadway production; it is said that Streisand requested a colour change here in order to distinguish her from Carol Channing, who was currently playing the role on Broadway. Without a doubt, the gold dress has become even more iconic than its Broadway double. This costume was reported to be one of the most expensive ever made for a motion picture film at this point in time, costing around $10,000 to design and create (though, to gain a sense of the dress’ status and legacy within the musical theatre and costuming world, it sold at auction in 2011 for $123,000!). As it was made for a musical film, as opposed to a theatrical performance in which it would be used between 7-9 times a week, there was space within the budget to be extravagant. It didn’t need to wash particularly well, or endure buckets of sweat night after night; practically, it simply had to allow Streisand to move well and had to look dazzling.
Originally, Sharaff designed the dress was made with a long train designed to drape down the red carpet of ‘The Harmonia Gardens’ as Streisand descended the stairs. However, in dress rehearsals, Streisand herself tripped over the train twice, while dancers around her also stumbled over it during their routine. Sharaff simply suggested that the dance moves be altered. When told that Streisand wasn’t able to kick in the dress due to the weight of the material, Sharaff replied, ‘Is the kick necessary?’.[2] It is clear from Sharaff’s no-nonsense approach that to her, the costumes status superseded that of the choreography, the characters, the plot even. The choreography should be altered to accommodate the costume, as the costume was the epitome of the character; it communicated who the character was and their exact agency in a scene.
Carol Channing in the finale of ‘Hello Dolly!’ on Broadway.
Poster advertising the film, with Streisand wearing the famous golden dress. [3]
To appreciate the full materiality of the costume, I would argue you need to see the film, or at least clips of it, because in truth Streisand, and her movements and gestures, bring them to life. It’s odd to me to see static images of the costumes without her breathing character into them; they really do seem like museum artefacts. Costumes such as these are made for movement; if not movement, then at least to be lived in and this here raises the issue that museums find themselves facing. Costumes (and all aspects of performance; notably dance) are not made to be archived or displayed \This short clip (https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3a5n9QdySzA) gives an idea of the weight to the dress that can be seen in its drape, which isn’t surprising considering that is made with around 20 pounds of solid gold thread and beadwork.
Below you can see some of the fabulous dresses – including Streisand’s red costume from the opening number – creating beautiful, visceral movement in a dress rehearsal for ‘Put on Your Sunday Clothes’. I read ‘Feeling for dancing hidden in the archives of the dead’ from McGillivray’s Scrapbooks, Snapshots and Memorabilia: Hidden Archives of Performance at the beginning of my MA, in preparation for studying performance and it’s ephemera academically. This text explores the difficulty of preserving the act of dance - apart from film, how can one preserve a dance? [4] Even in filming a performance, it is impossible to entirely capture the atmosphere of witnessing a dance first-hand, itself an original act every night. This can be argued for all types of theatre and performance, though dance exists in that nuanced and liminal space in which very little physical material remains. If material culture is used in an inter-disciplinary manner, studying costume through material remains, photography and film, it is possible to capture an essence of dance and to, in a sense, archive movement of the past. For example, if we imagine this image without these particular costumes, especially the central costume, the sense of movement and grandeur is lost. If we are to capture dance through video and photography, costume goes a long way towards aiding this method, taking us one step closer to the original act.
Streisand and the company of ‘Hello Dolly!’ in rehearsals.[5]
How dance is displayed in museums is another topic entirely, but an interesting one. With advancing technology, there are numerous ways utilised in museums globally attempting to capture the essence of dance in galleries and exhibitions. I question though whether VR and complex technology is the way to do this, or if taking a step back and simplifying the approach may be just as effective. For instance, were you to enter a gallery space with dimmed lighting and numerous life-sized, blown up images of action shots – such as the above – situated in a way that forced you to walk amongst them, hearing recordings of music from the film/dance played – you may feel just as immersed, perhaps more so due to the physicality, in the world of performance than through use of technology such as VR.
I’ll end with a rather epic picture of Streisand reclining in her dressing room trailer, fluffy white dog in her lap, fully dolled up in costume. Here you can fully appreciate the drape of this costume; the skirts material looks to be as thick as curtain fabric almost! Though she rarely sits in the film, this dress lends itself to this positioning. What is more, you get a glimpse at her beautiful shoes, rarely seen in the film. There are of course hundreds, if not thousands of costumes in the film not mentioned in this piece; together they accumulate to create a glorious 146 minutes of beautiful escapism. There are many shoes, many bags, many costumes not seen from a certain angle and all of that is reserved solely for those who were there. Which, sadly, we never will be. But on a miserable, rainy day, you can put on your Sunday clothes and imagine you are by saying ‘Hello Dolly!’.
P.S Too much cheese? If you made it this far, you probably really like musicals – like, a lot - and so it probably wasn’t too cheesy for you.
P.P.S After I’d written this blog post I found that this https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=HEn1nPLrGk0 video had already been made so check it out if you are very interested in the golden dress in particular!
Bibliography:
1. McGillivray, Glen. Scrapbooks, Snapshots and Memorabilia : Hidden Archives of Performance, Peter Lang GmbH, Internationaler Verlag der Wissenschaften, 2011. ProQuest Ebook Central, https://ebookcentral.proquest.com/lib/rcauk/detail.action?docID=1055770.
3. Life Magazine, February 4th, 1969, http://barbra-archives.com/bjs_library/60s/life_1969.html
[1] http://barbra-archives.com/films/hello_dolly_5_sharaff.html?fbclid=IwAR2YmLZmp4q01eSmrvVnUAlEufZ5nfKTJUaVBrD7yJlFtVsSDm79ryHnHtY [2] Life Magazine, February 4th, 1969, http://barbra-archives.com/bjs_library/60s/life_1969.html [3] http://barbra-archives.com/films/hello_dolly_streisand.html [4] McGillivray, Glen. Scrapbooks, Snapshots and Memorabilia : Hidden Archives of Performance, Peter Lang GmbH, Internationaler Verlag der Wissenschaften, 2011. ProQuest Ebook Central, https://ebookcentral.proquest.com/lib/rcauk/detail.action?docID=1055770. [5] http://barbra-archives.com/films/hello_dolly_3_streisand.html
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