MITZI GAYNOR TRIPLE THREAT GLAMOUR GIRL

Mitzi Gaynor does it all, dance, act and sing.  A much loved performer, even now she continues to be a popular favourite.

This is a costume that Mitzi Gaynor wore in her role as “Lotta Crabtree” in the 20^th Century Fox film “Golden Girl” in 1951.

This amazing dance costume was designed by Charles Le Maire.

This was Mitzi’s fourth film and she was only 20 years old.

The gown is an Ivory chiffon dance dress accented with fuchsia and cobalt blue layers on sleeves and underskirt, adorned with gold braided rope and buttons along neckline. 

It comes with the matching ivory rayon cotton briefs accented with layers.   Ivory rayon gloves trimmed in chiffon with gold braid and button accent. 

Both pieces have handwritten label “1-25-1-4101 MITZI GAYNOR A638-55”.  Briefs have additional Mabs Hollywood label 80 M. 

The gloves have handwritten label “FOX A638-55”.

The most amazing part is the underskirt with the layers and layers of fuchsia and cobalt blue you can see more clearly in these photos.

The gown was worn by Mitzi Gaynor as “Lotta Crabtree” during the “When Johnny Comes Marching Home” number in Golden Girl.

Here is the gown in action.

Golden Girl tells the story of Lotta Crabtree who after seeing Lola Montez in a show, wants to become a singer and performer. Not surprisingly her parents don’t approve. There is a love interest along the way as well played by Dale Robertson.

This is just a wonderful costume from the golden years of the Fox Musicals.

Please check out my other Gaynor costume from “Les Girls”!

MITZI GAYNOR THE I DON'T CARE GIRL

Mitzi Gaynor is a much loved musical film, theatre and television performer. She has beautifully acted and danced in a number of film musical classics including my favourites of "There's No Business Like Show Business" in 1954 with Ethel Merman and Marilyn Monroe.

Another one of her film classics is "Les Girls" in which she appeared in 1957 at MGM studios. Directed by George Cukor and starring Gene Kelly and Kay Kendall, it remains up there as one of the great MGM musicals.

This costume appears in Les Girls as worn by Mitzi Gaynor. It is a peach coloured dance leotard with intricate beading and design to the majority of the costume. The costumes for the film was designed by Orry-Kelly.

This is a close up of the design to the bodice.

The costume can be seen not only on screen but in any number of promotional photos as you can see below.

Here is another close up of the design work on the costume.

The costume also appears on the orignal poster art for the film.

To give you an idea of size, her measurements in 1956 around the time of filming "Les Girls" was 36C-21 1/2-36 1/2. The following photos give you clear understanding of the "waists" these performers had!

The costume design is worn by all three leads inluding Kay Kendall and Tania Elg as part of a dance number in the film with Gene Kelly. It's a wonderful dance cosutme and so reminicent of the magic of the MGM musical film and the glamour of 1950's Hollywood.

Gaynor will of course be rememebered best for role as Ensign Nellie Forbush in the film version of Rodgers and Hammerstein's "South Pacific" and for her performance she was nominated for a Golden Globe Award for best actress.

Following her career as a film performer, she went on to perform on stage in a number of concert appearances as well as a series of much loved televsion specials so much so that they gained her a total of 16 Emmy nominations.

This great lady even today continues to tour with her one one-woman show titled "Razzle Dazzle: My Life Behind the Sequins".