Lillian Russell (1860/61-1922) is a fascinating personality, so it’s really too bad that the only biopic made about her, 1940’s Lillian Russell, is a total snooze! Designer Travis Banton‘s costumes get a lot of praise, but they’re pretty dubious in terms of historical accuracy (a given as this was filmed in 1940).
The real Russell was a famous actress and singer who was known for her beauty, stage presence, and voluptuousness. She got her start singing in comic operas (including many by Gilbert and Sullivan) in 1879, became a massive sensation in the U.S. and London, began to have vocal difficulties around 1904 and switched primarily to acting, and retired from performing around 1919 … when she got involved in the woman’s suffrage movement, wrote newspaper columns, lectured publicly, and contributed to restrictive immigration reform. Her personal life was scandalous: she married four times, including to composer Edward Solomon who turned out to be already married/was arrested for bigamy; and spent 40 years as mistress to businessman “Diamond Jim” Brady.
Unfortunately, the film removes most of the scandal of Russell’s life (Diamond Jim is just a friend/admirer, her first husband dies instead of being arrested for bigamy/divorced). Russell is just a sweet girl/later woman who wants to sing and be loved for who she is, particularly pining for her eventual-fourth-husband, the completely bland and milquetoast Alexander Moore (played by Henry Fonda, who apparently loathed the role, and it shows).
Nonetheless, money was clearly spent on the costumes, which were designed by Travis Banton (1934’s Cleopatra, The Crusades, The Scarlet Empress, The Mark of Zorro, A Song to Remember). According to one source I read, he and lead actress Alice Faye did NOT get along during the production, as she was jealous of his work with Marlene Dietrich. Nonetheless, according to Faye’s biographer,
“Alice found the dresses designed by Travis Banton … helped her portrayal enormously … The costumes for Lillian Russell were … luxurious. ‘Everything was handmade,’ Alice remembered. ‘We used to say that it was a pity that the audience never got to see those undergarments, because they were things of remarkable beauty. I remember one corset I wore in Lillian Russell that was trimmed in the finest lace and really was a work of art. But nobody ever saw it except me and the wardrobe department. Still,’ she added, ‘it made me feel special, and perhaps that was the whole point'” (Alice Faye:Â A Life Beyond the Silver Screen).
The film starts off in the 1870s, with virginal Lillian in bustle gowns and long hair:
Luckily things get more exciting when she goes on the stage, and that’s when all that money comes into play. According to a 1940 movie magazine, some of that money went to
“The $3,900 corset made for her by Madame Rosa Binner. The original was an ivory brocade creation with flexible gold stays, diamond clasps and $700 worth of Belgian lace. It was a gorgeous affair — as corsets go — but when Madame Binner laced Lillian into it she found that it bulged unflatteringly around her customer’s well-rounded thighs. The outcome of this near calamity was the first corset garter, designed to keep the corset down — not to hold the stockings up as we of the two-way stretch era have come to think. Madame Binner is in Hollywood now as the picture’s technical adviser on corsets. She will supervise the reproduction of the $3,900 garment and estimates that its cost will probably run to almost $1,000. Before the production is finished, Mr. Willys DeMond, talented hosiery creator, will present his bill for nearly $3,000. The stockings he is turning out for Alice Faye are identical copies of those worn by Lillian, right down to the hand embroidered butterflies and lace insets. Though DeMond is hitting Fox for $100 a pair, his fee will look like bargain day against the prices paid by the actress who would never have offended her legs by clothing them in anything less costly than $400 a pair … Exclusive of the 27 gowns to be worn by Alice, 800 feminine costumes are being provided by the studio at a cost to them of over $25,000” (Modern Screen).
So, if you’re looking for a good 1890s stage biopic, I’d say pass on Lillian Russell!
What are your thoughts on Travis Banton’s designs for Lillian Russell?
Sacrificed on the altar of the Hays Code…
And Russell’s curvy 1890s glamour seems far closer to Mae West!
I was thinking the same thing re: Mae West! I wonder if any of her plays/films (Diamond Lil, Belle of the Nineties) are at all inspired by Russell?
I’d say “Diamond Lil” was almost certainly based on Lillian Russell– who was West’s mother’s favorite performer.
West didn’t have the figure for what was the prevailing style in the ’20s, so she took her look back to the Nineties, and the play paid off for her handsomely and got her a movie contract.
And this:
“Before the production is finished, Mr. Willys DeMond, talented hosiery creator, will present his bill for nearly $3,000. The stockings he is turning out for Alice Faye are identical copies of those worn by Lillian, right down to the hand embroidered butterflies and lace insets. Though DeMond is hitting Fox for $100 a pair, his fee will look like bargain day against the prices paid by the actress who would never have offended her legs by clothing them in anything less costly than $400 a pair.”
What was with Alice Faye and blinged-out stockings?
According to publicity, she had a “$2,500” pair of “jewel-studded” hose and an “$1,100” pair of “14K gold mesh” hose for her previous movie, IN OLD CHICAGO (1938).
I’m not sure if those were Willys DeMond creations as well.
I’m not sure where Faye got her love for elaborate hosiery from, but fancy, embroidered silk stockings were VERY popular in the 1890’s and 1900’s, especially as hemlines began to creep up and women began to wear pumps and similar shoes more often than boots (particularly for evening outfits).
I’ve read a couple of biographies of “Diamond Jim” Brady, a very interesting character in his own right, and their verdict on his relationship with Lillian Russell is that it was PROBABLY “platonic”, though emotionally quite deep; their favorite pursuit was eating huge meals together, though Russell, who was something of a fitness fanatic by the standards of that day (she did top the scales at 200 pounds when she became a superstar in the early 1890’s but slimmed down more than a little thereafter), introduced him to bicycling; Diamond Jim brought her one of the fanciest bikes ever, a gold-plated affair which she’d ride down Fifth Avenue with her rotund admirer – which must have been quite the sight to behold. For her to have been his mistress for 40 years, also, she’d have had to start VERY young because at the time she came to New York circa 1878, Brady was still in the early stages of his career. It appears they didn’t meet until the 1880’s, and were close friends for some 30 years. He predeceased Russell by 5 years, dying in 1917, by which time she was married to her last husband, Alexander Moore, a Pittsburgh newspaper publisher.