Marilyn poster combines two Travilla costumes
We all know that Mike Kaplan’s startlingly fabulous collection of dance-movie posters, Gotta Dance Too, a redux exhibition after Gotta Dance in 2014, now hangs at Jacob’s Pillow (a slide show of several posters here).
The fetching poster above shows our girl Marilyn, aka Double M, in an interesting amalgam of two looks in which costume man William Travilla dressed her in There’s No Business Like Show Business (Fox, 1954).
The headpiece derives from the good-taste-challenged “After You Get What You Want You Don’t Want It,” in which Marilyn slithers around a nightclub stage, oozing into the audience, in a Jack Cole-cloned number by choreographer Robert Alton. Monroe’s headpiece in the poster comes from this number.
Headpiece: “After You Get What You Want You Don’t Want It”
The dress in the poster is Marilyn’s gown for the movie’s grand finale, the rip-roaring “There’s No Business Like Show Business,” music by Irving Berlin. Again, the dance direction is by Robert Alton.
Dress: “There’s No Business Like Show Business” finale
Have a look at Alton’s work in the video. Herding the cats!
GOTTA DANCE TOO | Jacob’s Pillow | thru Aug 26