Never Face Facts: Your fitting is tomorrow.

Elsa Lanchester and the Oscar-winning actress Ruth Gordon were good chums. Both noted their first meeting in their memoirs. Of Ruth, Elsa said,"We got to know her very well and very quickly." And Ruth reported,"The Laughtons liked me and I liked them. Was it based on admiration? Mine for them was boundless". 

What did the two have in common? Both actresses, both unconventionally attractive, witty, a bit scandalous (Ruth was having an affair with Jed Harris, the married producer), both partied with the intelligentsia of the day, and both were clothes horses.

As a girl, Ruth's mother's sewing skills kept her in style. Never mind that she wasn't even quite five feet tall. Ruth managed to impress with her fashion sense, even as a struggling young actress, and as an older woman she could tell you what she wore to almost every important event in her life. Read her memoirs; she's a hoot.

Elsa grew up with even less money than Ruth, and an "advanced" mother who wouldn't have had the time or inclination to sew.  Elsa was pretty much on her own. She learned to make sandals and tunics from Raymond Duncan, Isadora's brother, continuing to wear them long after her stint as an Isadora-ble. When she opened the underground Cave of Harmony nightclub in London, she built her own costumes out of crepe paper and sometimes wore tuxedo jackets and top hats, ages before Marlene Dietrich. 

Early in their relationship, Elsa said that Charles was nervous that her somewhat shabby clothes would make a bad impression on his smartly-dressed mother.  So he took her to an expensive dressmaker, chose her outfits, and thereafter supervised her wardrobe! Years after his death, Elsa said she was still influenced  by Charles's wonderful, if controlling, sense of style.

When Ruth (not Elsa) got a screen-test to audition for the Widow Judson in "Ruggles of Red Gap" opposite Charles, he talked her up to the studio bigwigs.  He even chose her audition wardrobe--hair and makeup included! She didn't get the job, but she got other films afterwards, based on Charles's glowing recommendations.  "God damn it! Why can't I do that for Elsa?" he grumbled.  I'm sure Elsa and Ruth thought the very same thing.

Elsa's advice for a happy life included: "Keep each person separate in your heart.  Don't have two sex patterns going at the same time. And don't ever join a conversation about something you know nothing about."

In her books, Ruth also imparts wisdom. Her favorite refrain is "Never face facts".  Another  bit of advice is "Live each day as if you have a fitting tomorrow" (my paraphrase). From photos of young Elsa Lanchester, it looks as though she lived by that rule. She remained slim and fashion-conscious well into her fifties, appearing in period gowns that enhanced her hourglass figure, and then at the Turnabout Theatre, where she changed into three costumes an evening--one for each featured song.

Later, when Elsa went on tour with "Elsa Lanchester Herself", her private music hall, she changed costumes six times a night. These fabulous costumes are described in the review below from 1960--and they take up almost as much room as the critique of her show! 

In my version of Elsa's cabaret act, Elsa Lanchester: SHE'S ALIVE!, she tells her life story through song--and can't changE costumes because her dresser has jumped ship.  Not to face facts, but--I don't have Charles's bank account, I don't have a dresser, AND--I have certainly NOT been living as if I have a fitting tomorrow!

I DID have a fitting earlier this week, however, with a wonderful costumer named Kelly Neuls. She is amazing--she made a silk purse out of, well, out of ME and a second-hand gown from the 1990's.  It looks like something Elsa would've actually worn in her shows! I'm almost inspired to start eating for tomorrow's fittings again. . .like I did 20 years and 20 pounds ago.

I can just hear Elsa and Ruth saying it's high time!  

PS: Here's Kelly. If you're in the Chicago area and need a costume wizard--look no further: ​
fb.watch/mQwxwcz4jW/
AND: below is the glowing review about Elsa's cabaret act and her fabulous costumes! With gratitude to author MJ Simpson, whose Elsa bio is slated for a Spring '24 release.

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