Sunday, June 27, 2010

Haven't I Seen You Somewhere Before?

So I was goofing around on Youtube and came across a trailer for the movie Three Little Words starring Fred Astaire.  Actually this trailer was part of the newsreel where Ginger presented Fred with his Oscar.

Back to Three Little Words.  Besides Fred (and Red Skelton and Vera Ellen) there was a young lady in the cast that I recognized.


Yup thats Gale Robbins aka Shirlene from Barkleys.  But its not her appearance that got me as much as that dress. I recognized it from somewhere. It took me a few minutes but then I realized its this dress....




The dress Ann Miller wore in Easter Parade for "The Girl on The Magazine Cover" and "It Only Happens When I Dance With You".

No luck finding if Gale was the same height as Annie or they had to adjust the dress.

Maybe Fred liked dancing with girls in that dress???


Anybody else know of costumes that can be found in more than one movie?

5 comments:

  1. Awesome find! I think it's so fascinating that they recycled costumes like that. The one I know if isn't very original because I read about it; I didn't find it myself. But the outfit Dolores del Rio wears in Flying Down to Rio is worn by Betty Grable in The Gay Divorcee.

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  2. More proof that Sandrich liked to recycle clothes - but we all know Ginger prevented that! ;)

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  3. ...anyone care to dig up the 'Ginger in Rio' dress vs. 'Ginger in GoldDiggers' dress? Probably not...
    Interesting they did use the same dress - but remember, back then, a fan could not 'rewind' one movie to compare with another - so it was a BIT easier to 'pull the wool over the fans eyes' regarding multiple use of costumes.
    But Ginger was not a big fan of the practice, which of course resulted in the feather dress in lieu of one she previously wore in Gay Divorcee...

    KIG in the SOG

    VKMfan
    ---

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  4. Wow, I've seen dresses that are similar but I don't think I have seen the exact same dress. I need to pay closer attention to these movies :) I have actually seen both of those movies. Good catch SG!

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  5. WOW! OGRE strikes again. Great find!

    Maybe it's the photography, but it looks to me that Annie is thinner than Gale Robbins, substantially so. Anybody think the same? It must be the same dress or the design would be different. From the picture, though, it would appear necessary that it be let out a lot. If so, I'm surprised there would be enough material in the seams.

    Correct me if I'm wrong but Mark Sandrich only tried to force Ginger into a recycled dress because Fred couldn't handle a little feather attack. As far as I know, Sandrich didn't try that any other time. I really applaud Ginger's gumption on standing her ground. The critics might have been kindler, gentler back then but I still think they would have panned her for wearing the same dress in movies released in successive years. Maybe guys like Huey would have had their focus on other things :D but we women and the critics would have recognized the dress.

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