:11:01
Designers, cameramen, art directors,
would look at a set through a blue glass,
:11:06
to see how it would photograph
in black and white.
:11:09
But Edith had another reason.
She wanted to be inscrutable.
:11:14
If she wore her really dark blue glasses
in a meeting, no one could see her eyes,
:11:19
so they couldn't tell
what she was thinking.
:11:21
Not only a talented designer,
:11:23
Edith also knew the value
of becoming a household name,
:11:27
I'd landed in the driveway
of some big mansion
:11:28
and appeared often on radio and TV.
:11:30
After she got used to appearing
on the radio, thanks to Art Linkletter,
:11:30
that looked rundown and deserted.
:11:33
At the end of the drive
was a lovely sight.
:11:35
Edith started appearing on other shows,
even shows like "Burns and Allen".
:11:36
A great big empty garage,
just standing there going to waste.
:11:40
And she played the part of Edith Head.
:11:41
If ever there was a place to stash
a car with a hot licence number.
:11:42
She worked hard at having the public
know who she was, and they still know.
:11:47
It had to do with who she really was,
:11:49
but to some extent
it was an invention as well.
:11:52
So when she got to be so famous,
:11:55
There was another
occupant in that garage.
:11:55
the more publicity she got,
the more the press wanted to talk to her.
:11:58
An enormous
foreign-built automobile.
:12:00
This was great for Paramount as it was
a wonderful way of publicising the films.
:12:01
It must've burned up
ten gallons to a mile.
:12:04
It had a 1932 licence. I figured that's
when the owners had moved out.
:12:05
She was probably one of the best
public relations ladies in the business.
:12:11
I couldn't go back to my apartment
now those bloodhounds were on to me.
:12:11
She knew how to talk her way.
:12:14
And she know how to talk to the
actresses,
:12:16
The idea was to stay at Artie Green's
until I could make that bus for Ohio.
:12:18
how to talk to the producer,
how to talk to the director.
:12:21
Once in Dayton,
I'd drop the credit boys a postcard
:12:23
Sometimes, even if she didn't know
exactly what she was doing,
:12:25
telling them
where to pick up the jalopy.
:12:27
she presented herself like she was on
top of the whole thing. She was good.
:12:30
It was a great big
white elephant of a place.
:12:33
Edith was very smart about budgets.
:12:33
The kind crazy movie people
built in the crazy twenties.
:12:35
If the producer
was trying to save money,
:12:37
A neglected house
gets an unhappy look.
:12:38
she'd find ways of re-using costumes
from an earlier film.
:12:41
This one had it in spades.
:12:41
Or use the same pattern
to make two different dresses,
:12:43
It was like that old woman
in "Great Expectations",
:12:45
just changing the collar and the cuffs.
:12:47
that Miss Havisham in her rotting
wedding dress and her torn veil,
:12:48
She wasn't the greatest designer
in Hollywood,
:12:51
but she was one of the smartest.
:12:51
taking it out on the world
because she'd been given the go-by.
:12:53
We remember Edith Head,
20 years after her passing,
:12:56
for a number of reasons.
:12:58
Perhaps the most obvious is that
she was famous for being famous.