This one'll be a bit all over the place. Mainly because it's a bit of a
hybrid between a "Guest Who" post and a "Designer Double-Dip" one.
Maybe you'll enjoy the "best of all worlds" content or perhaps you'll
drift asleep (LOL!), but I like to cover any possible bases when I'm
going on (and on) about something. If you're a regular reader, you'll
recall my
recent post about all the stars who popped up on
Chrysler Theatre.
There was one installment I mentioned in the comments, but did not
feature visuals from. The reason for that was the abysmal quality of the
uploaded content rather than any lack of fascination with the people in
it. I would have left well enough alone except that there was a nagging
feeling about the episode and I only now have put two and two
together.
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Regardless of the happy expressions on most of these folks, the episode was titled "Terror Island." Here we meet handsome Donnelly Rhodes, his new bride Carol Lawrence and Rhodes' adoptive mother, Miss Ginger Rogers.
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At the time of filming, Rogers (an Oscar-winner for Kitty Foyle, 1940) was 54 and still in good shape. 1965 would be a rather busy year for her with this installment of Chrysler Theatre, her role in the TV musical Cinderella and the release of her very last feature film, Harlow.
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The eerie goings on at "Terror Island" would be the closest Rogers ever came (and it ain't that close!) to the hag horror genre that so many of her contemporaries took part in during the 1960s. Generally, there was no way was Ginge going to let herself be seen looking anything other than sparkling.
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Anyway, I've tried my best to clear up the visuals of this poorly preserved piece of television. It's rough; blurry, out of tint and framed incorrectly to boot! (The episode may be viewed here for those interested.) My kingdom for a proper release of these once-beautiful television programs!
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Rogers is eager to welcome her adopted son and his new wife. His first wife disappeared under some questionable circumstances years before.
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Rhodes wants to limit his time there to merely one afternoon while Lawrence feels it's important to reconnect with his family while also introducing them to her.
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Rhodes' relationship with Rogers, while not exactly antagositic, in nonetheless fraught with tension and anxiety.
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He's playing a downbeat character here, but I just love Rhodes. It's fun to see him as a young man (getting close to 30 here.)
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Some of you might recall him as Jake the caterer, one of Blanche's kindest, handsomest and most memorable boyfriends on The Golden Girls. This is where I fell for him first.
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Back at Terror Island, Rhodes and Lawrence find themselves staying longer than anticipated.
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But there's more. Rogers has another child; a daughter.
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Said (sullen) daughter is portrayed by Katharine Ross.
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Then close to the dawn of her career, marble-eyed Ross had begun acting on TV in 1962 and proceeded to guest star on many shows from Ben Casey to Wagon Train to The Alfred Hitchcock Hour to The Big Valley. This same year, she made her movie debut in Shenandoah (1965) and within two years landed her most famous role in The Graduate (1967.) She even won an Oscar nomination for that, though it went to Estelle Parsons in Bonnie and Clyde.
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Even though Anne Bancroft was only nine years older than Ross in The Graduate, they seemed utterly believable to me as mother and daughter.
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Somehow it comes off less likely that Rogers would have brought forth Ross...! But I digress.
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Afflicted with a bum leg, Ross' character is unhappy, dour and often unpleasant. The dreary role certainly doesn't bring out her looks, which was generally one of Ross' best gifts as an actress! She would go on to the huge hit The Stepford Wives (1975) and later land on The Colbys, among other things.
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Okay, kittens, we're getting close to the Designer Double-Dip part of this post. Though I wish it had to do with the fur-trimmed robe that Rogers is sporting in this night-time scene, that is not the subject at hand. (If anyone does know where this piece might have been worn before, let me know, please!)
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It's when Rogers goes to embrace her troubled daughter Ross that the robe I'm concerned with makes its presence known.
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There isn't anything particularly special about it, though, right? It's a dark blue robe with white piping. It's somewhat dowdy appearance is a marked contrast from Rogers' fussy get up.
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As the mother and daughter have a set-to, we get a quick glimpse of the body of the garment, with a white-trimmed pocket on the right side. So how 'bout it? Seem at all familiar? Within two years, this robe would pop up on another character with a downbeat air. But that time it would be in a significant box office sensation...
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Let's consult the tape and reveal...
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Fretful Grant wears this robe while worrying about what has become of her pop singing brother. A knock at the door brings what may be news.
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Sure enough, a telegram confirms her worst suspicions. He's run off an eloped with a beautiful, curvy chorus girl.
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Katharine Ross was 5'3" while Lee Grant was 5'3-3/4" so fit was no concern. But note the way Grant has splayed the color out to give it a more flared look, showing off more collarbone (and also showing more navy blue fabric inside where the piping is.) You can see around the upper collar where the robe was once creased differently.
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Whereas Ross kept the original neckline, more bundled-in and with the white piping much closer to the edge/crease.
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Though Ross and Grant never acted together on TV or in a movie, they did share two films with one another in addition to this costume piece. They both worked on Voyage of the Damned (1976), an all-star wartime drama. Ross was about the best I've ever seen her in it and Grant was Oscar-nominated (losing to Beatrice Straight in Network.) She'd won the prior year, though, for Shampoo.
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| They were also both in the star-filled disaster flop, The Swarm (1978), again sharing no scenes together. |
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And with that I believe I'll hang it up! Till next time.
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Good eye!
ReplyDeleteAlways found Rhodes easy on the eyes, but whoa when he was young!
Hey Poseidon, Ginger was certainly teased, made up, and dolled up for "Terror Island!" Cheers, Rick
ReplyDeleteHi Poseidon!
ReplyDeleteAnother fascinating bit of skullduggery on your part.
I doubt once the 30's passed and the fashion of tightly coiffed hair went out of style Ginger ever stepped foot out of her house without backcombing her hair!! She seems to have loved that super full look...even unfortunately past the time when it was becoming and she became a frowzy collection of too many feathers, bangles and tinted windshield size glasses! Too bad about the picture quality but based on the color snap of her in the red dress she still had it all pulled together at this point. Sounds like she had a pretty up and down 1965 making the charming Cinderella and one of the two ghastly, insulting supposed "tribute" pictures to Jean Harlow (though like Angela Lansbury in the other abomination also named Harlow starring Carroll Baker, Ginger gave the best performance in the film) within that 12 months.
I remember Donnelly Rhoades from his Golden Girls stint but I think the first time I became aware of him was his time exuding all kinds of Daddy vibes as escaped con Dutch on "Soap". This is the youngest picture I've ever seen of him but considering how attractive he was as he aged it's unsurprising he was studly in his earlier years.
Now to the point of the post, funny how attitude can change a piece of clothing. I'm sure when Katharine donned the robe the idea was a frumpy closed off feeling as someone bitter and resigned would have huddled up at home and that is the look she gives off. But Lee Grant, while never a glamour puss, always carried a certain flair of sophistication and adjusted the fit of the garment to suit her and the character of Miriam. Particularly since the robe appears to be serving as her complete outfit rather than the pajama cover-up it is on Katharine Ross.
You pointing out the fact that the two women appeared in the cast of two of the same movies while never actually acting opposite each other makes me wonder how often that has happened to other performers. During the heyday of the star-studded spectaculars it probably wasn't uncommon in the least.
One thing I always do with your posts is to scroll down slowly and see if I can ID the stars in a photo before I read your caption. I have to admit the first photo in the post threw me, even though I'm familiar with all three.
ReplyDeleteThe closest I got was Ginger Rogers, but because of her facial expression (the eyes), I was hesitating, thinking it *might've* actually been Dorothy Malone! Ginger was definitely still looking good here.
As was Donnelly Rhodes! I'd never managed to find photos from his earlier years, so even though this dark-haired hunk looked incredibly familiar, I couldn't quite place him. I first became aware of him as "Dutch" on SOAP, where he was already showing signs of attractive maturity about a decade before the GOLDEN GIRLS appearance.
Even though I was familiar with Carol Lawrence as a guest performer on variety shows and from album covers, I tend to think of her as a singer rather than an actress. Having her hair covered with a kerchief didn't help.
Also, it's always nice to see Katharine Ross in an early role, even as an unpleasant character with a bad leg. (And I laughed at "marble-eyed"!)
However, as amusing as the idea of a "costume connection" between these two is, I'm not sure the robe is the same one in both productions.
For one thing, it's a popular basic design-- navy blue with white piping-- that you can still find available online with a Google search. Unlike that glamorous robe Ginger Rogers wore, this robe was most likely an item bought "off the rack" along with other items of wardrobe for the episode.
Second of all, CHRYSLER THEATER was an NBC show shot at Universal Studios, while VALLEY OF THE DOLLS was 20th Century-Fox; while it's true that some costume items wind up in rental places like Western Costume, this robe is so basic that it was more likely either something Fox had in their costume department or bought "off the rack" for the film.
But most importantly, if you look closely, the piping around the collar doesn't seem quite the same on both robes.
Ross' robe seems to have wider piping around the collar in closeups than Grant's, and the shape of the collar and lapel points seems rounder on Ross' robe.
Additionally, on Grant's robe, the spot where the collar and lapel meet seems to extend into a point, like an intersection of two cut pieces of piping. On Ross' robe, this same spot is more rounded, like one continuous piece of piping making a curved turn as it goes down from collar to lapel.
OTOH, we're looking at smudgy framecaps from a video of a TV show versus much better framecaps from a movie-- so who knows?
Anyway, thanks for yet another fun post and for everything you do, Poseidon! Love to all and be safe and well, everyone!
Miss Grant could not only make a film better but make clothes look like you'd want to answer phone in them.
ReplyDeleteAnother entertaining post, Poseidon - no surprise there! As others have mentioned, my first intro to Donnelly was as the humpy, hunky Dutch on Soap - Hubba Hubba Zing Zing, baby he's got everything (Rose Nylund, though referring to a different character than Rhodes' Jake on GG)! He was also Katherine Chancellor's husband, Phillip II on the Young and the Restless, which I ran home from high school to watch every day, though I didn't make that connection until more recently...I need to look up some reruns of him in that role
ReplyDeleteAnd Katherine Ross, always a favorite, also ended up with another Hubba Hubba fellow, Sam Elliott...lucky gal...and lucky for him, too!
Thanks again for providing so much enjoyment!
normadesmond, in looking at some info in him, he apparently did some mid-'60s TV with no shirt on, but all I could find were shoulder shots. He was so hunky! :-)
ReplyDeleteRick, she does have one less than glitzy bit near the end, but I didn't show it. And remember, Bette also had plenty of hair and makeup when she filmed "Baby Jane." Ha ha hahhh!
joel65913, you cracked me up with the "tinted windshield size glasses" thing!! Ha ha! As a kid, that was how I was introduced to Ms. Rogers! I had to discover her in reverse from that launching point. I couldn't figure it out, but in this ep of "Chrysler Theater," something weird was going on with her TEETH. They just seemed strange. But I don't know what it was. And, yes, there are probably all sorts of people who were in the same (big!) movies, yet who never even met. Thanks!
hsc, glad you liked the "marble-eyed" comment. That's what came to mind! I can concede that the two robes may not be the very same garment passed between the gals. Perhaps *very* similar styles with some minor pattern differences (though Grant is wearing hers in a whole different way, as I say, with the collar spread apart and the sleeves turned up.) In any event, the look is so close that I'm still gonna leave it here as an example of two performers sharing a nearly identical costume piece. And, yes, it would help if we weren't gazing upon a truly heinous print of the "Chrysler" show. Thanks!
MrRipley76! Glad you share my feelings about the one and only Lee Grant! ;-)
jobj69, I have watched some vintage Y&R, actually looking for early Katherine and then landing on Donnelly (if only!) by default. He was so appealing and ought to have had a more significant career. When I AT LONG LAST got to see the elusive "The Neptune Factor" and saw his name in the credits I was elated, but even then he just wasn't put to good enough use. He needed to be changing into a wet-suit every few minutes. LOL
Donnelly Rhodes was so handsome, so sexy and so casually at ease on camera that he ALWAYS made me swoon. He really should have been a much bigger star. I wonder why he never really broke out into the ‘big time’? Was it his height? I wish there were more photos of him as a young beauty.
ReplyDelete