Will Cross, Author

Author & Lecturer on Aristocratic Women & tweets to lament Evan, Lord Tredegar, Angus McBean, Howard Carter, Tom Mitford, Tilly Losch & Ronald Firbank

[Ronald Firbank @RonnieFirbank]

R0NNIE FIRBANK LEFT US 100 YEARS AGO TODAY, 21 MAY 1926

BLESS HIM

@WilliamPCross

[Will Cross, Author @WilliamPCross]

OLD THESPIANS

DEAR NORMAN

[Will Cross, Author @WilliamPCross]

"A BURN AMANG THE GULLIE"

FRAE DAVID ROBB

[Will Cross, Author @WilliamPCross]

FIRBANK 100

“Ronald”

The Blind Bow-Boy

Carl Van Vechten

@RonnieFirbank

[Black Mortadella @BlackMortadella]

@WilliamPCross https://t.co/AkdUEt8Xp1

[.stuff @vintagestuff4]

Franz Wacik

[Tony McK 🏴󠁧󠁢󠁳󠁣󠁴󠁿 ||*|| @oakroyd]

Shipbank Lane at Paddy's Market, #Glasgow 1989. (Chris Doak)

[Corto M. @cortoelmaltese]

Jeanne

[Remnants of the Past @remnantsofpast]

Tennessee Williams and Marlon Brando in New York in 1947, while rehearsing for the Broadway play, A Streetcar Named Desire

[THIERRY D "ardéchois et français" @ThierryTout]

BIARRITZ EN SEPTEMBRE 1928 🇫🇷
Une journée à la plage.
Une autre époque, une autre France...🧐

[PictureThis Scotland @74frankfurt]

The last train from Glasgow Central to Kilmacolm, January 1983.

[Igor @dunnothevitch]

Gaston Paris 📸
L'heure de la fermeture. Paris, 1935.

[Michael Warburton @For_Film_Fans]

The late great PETER O’TOOLE outside one of his favourite watering holes, the famous Coach & Horses — Soho in 1999.

[daily vivien leigh @viviendaily]

Vivien Leigh in “The Doctor’s Dilemma”, photographed by John Vickers, 1942.

[tallulah bankhead archive @bestoftallulah]

Tallulah Bankhead by Alfred Cheney Johnston (1921)

[T. Talin d'Eyzac @Ttalindeyzac]

‘Fernand Léger’,
Willy Maywald, 1949

[The Gay Aesthetic @jmlx_john2]

Charles LeMaire (b. 22 April 1897) was a prolific American costume designer whose career spanned Broadway and Hollywood. He is historically significant for successfully persuading the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences to establish a dedicated Oscar category for Best Costume Design, which was introduced in 1948.

Over his 37-year film career, LeMaire worked on nearly 300 movies, earning three Academy Awards and 13 additional nominations. His wins included All About Eve (1950), The Robe (1953), and Love Is a Many-Splendored Thing (1955). He shared his win for All About Eve with Edith Head — Charles designed the costumes for the supporting players (Anne, Celeste, Thelma, and Marilyn) and Edith designed for the Star. Among his other notable films were The Razor's Edge (1946), Gentleman's Agreement (1947), Miracle On 34th Street (1947), A Letter to Three Wives (1949), David and Bathsheba (1951), The Day the Earth Stood Still (1951), Désirée (1954), Three Coins in the Fountain (1954), Carousel (1956), and Walk on the Wild Side (1962).

As a young man, Lemaire set out to be a vaudeville performer and was briefly half of a song and piano team (his partner Walter Woolf went on to a lengthy career in musical comedy), but finding himself unemployed, he fell back on his artistic talents and began designing dresses. His idea for a hand-painted fabric that simulated embroidery brought him steady work and an opportunity to further study costuming. He submitted some sketches to Ziegfeld and was amazed when the entrepreneur agreed to pay him the then staggering sum of $1,000 to use his designs in the 1921 edition of “Ziegfeld’s Midnight Frolic.” After the show, Ziegfeld introduced the Chicago-born LeMaire to the audience as “my young French discovery ‘Monsieur LeMaire.’ ”

His eventual stage credits ranged from “Artists and Models” for the Shuberts to “Of Thee I Sing” for the Gershwins and “The Coconuts” for the Marx Brothers. He also designed wardrobes for many of the elaborate Broadway theatrical revues popular during the 20s and 30s, including the Ziegfeld Follies (1922—1934), George White’s Scandals (1928—1939), Earl Carroll’s Vanities (1925, 1931), and Strike Up the Band (1930). LeMaire even costumed the extravaganzas of the Ringling Brothers and Barnum & Bailey Circus and staged shows for servicemen during World War II before permanently moving to Hollywood, where he remained for 16 years as executive designer and chief of wardrobe for Zanuck at 20th Century-Fox. At Fox, he directed a powerhouse department and frequently co-designed with other legendary figures like Travilla, Edith Head, and Dorothy Jeakins. He launched his own independent fashion salon in 1949 and retired in 1962, after which he moved to New Mexico and took up painting.

Charles is widely recognized by historians as a gay man who lived during an era of strict heteronormative social expectations. Like many gay men working in Hollywood during its classical era, LeMaire navigated a dual public and private life, entering “lavender marriages”, first with Sandra Hahle (it lasted less than a year) and later with Beatrice Hayman Goetz (a marriage that lasted 40 years until her death in 1978).

Historical accounts from contemporaries—such as the famous French artist and designer Erté—recount LeMaire's interactions within a network of gay designers, including a complicated relationship with the legendary Adrian. They were bitter rivals, with Adrian accusing LeMaire of blocking his professional advancement while they were both working on Broadway. In response, LeMaire scoffed at Adrian's ambition, stating "the trouble is... you don't design what people want. You design to suit yourself." It was also noted that LeMaire appeared to be one of the few gay men in the Hollywood design community impervious to Adrian’s spell.

LeMaire’s design philosophy centered on flattering the individual form over chasing extreme fashion fads and ensuring that the wardrobe served the script rather than overpowering the performer. Charles LeMaire died in Palm Springs of heart failure on June 8, 1985.

[Philip J Taylor @PhilipJTaylor1]

@GreatCentralRly

[Kate Levey @BrophyLevey]

Lovely contrasting colours in local park.

[Bobbie @bo66ie29]

A beautiful film of Edinburgh, Scotland, in the 1930s.