Cover Girl

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charliechaplinfan
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Re: Cover Girl

Post by charliechaplinfan »

Talk of the Town is brilliant, altogether different to Only Angels Have Wings.

Kingme, I'm very much looking forward to reading what you have to say, both about Covergirl and the other subjects you post on.
Failure is unimportant. It takes courage to make a fool of yourself - Charlie Chaplin
feaito

Re: Cover Girl

Post by feaito »

Ali, I agree Re. TOTT, a very unique film.
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Rita Hayworth
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Re: Cover Girl

Post by Rita Hayworth »

charliechaplinfan wrote:Talk of the Town is brilliant, altogether different to Only Angels Have Wings.

Kingme, I'm very much looking forward to reading what you have to say, both about Covergirl and the other subjects you post on.
charliechaplinfan - and the rest of the SSO Community

Update - Concerning the two hairdressers and costume assistant that I talked about earlier. These two hairdressers will be traveling to my hometown Seattle to visit me on March 18th and I will be having dinner with them. They are both in their mid-and upper 80's and the costume assistant also agree to come up and I will going to their hotel by the airport to talk about Cover Girl and give me the scoop - They will be sharing their stories and I will try my best to report back to all of you on the following Monday with a totally new thread behind the scenes of Cover Girl. It is easier for me to do it this way; that way I can talk to them - I see them about every other year and they are good friends of mine.

How - I got to know them - is that when I was in California back in 1987 - I went to a Movie Theater and they showed a double bill of Gene Kelly's classics - Cover Girl and Singin in the Rain - for $2.00 and I sat with these two hairdressers and mumble myself - boy the Hairdressers must had a ball doing Rita's hair ... they were fantastic - I blurted out loud and they heard me - so with act of boldness on their part - they invited me to their home of which its 20 minutes away and showed me dozen of rare Rita Hayworth and Gene Kelley memorabilia and I was treated a rare glimpse of two of greatest Hollywood performers in the 40's and the 50's.

I spent the whole night with them, had dinner, and ever since 1987 - we managed to get together every odd year to spend time together - because we both love Gene Kelly and Rita Hayworth.

So be patience my friends - the report will come around the 20th of March.
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charliechaplinfan
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Re: Cover Girl

Post by charliechaplinfan »

What lovely ladies they sound and travelling all the way to Seattle, they must be full of vigour. It sounds like you were in the right place at the right time and your interest in movies was appreciated by them. I hope you enjoy their visit.
Failure is unimportant. It takes courage to make a fool of yourself - Charlie Chaplin
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Rita Hayworth
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Re: Cover Girl

Post by Rita Hayworth »

charliechaplinfan wrote:What lovely ladies they sound and travelling all the way to Seattle, they must be full of vigour. It sounds like you were in the right place at the right time and your interest in movies was appreciated by them. I hope you enjoy their visit.
Update Everyone - I just got an e-mail from them and they are coming up on the 16th of March and hopefully to get all the answers from Moraldo Rubini's post that he shared with us at the beginning of this thread. I'm going to spend 3 days with them and showing the sights and sounds of my hometown and talk about Cover Girl in General. Then, they off to Hawaii on the 20th and I will be spending most of that day getting their notes in order and I will taking Rubini's post and do some fancy editing and answer all the scoop behind Cover Girl. We are going to spend our dinner time talking about it and I will be jotting down some facts that I will be very brief and detailed orientated. It's going to be tough for me to report back to you and I will try my hardest to keep it short and sweet. This report will be posted by the 21st - the first day of Spring. - I will post 3 pictures of Cover Girl (1 post) on my Rita Hayworth - Love Goddess thread to elaborate Moraldo's claim - of a picture of Rita Hayworth in Cover Girl.

Note: They are bringing up another lady with them - She was one of Gene Kelly's errand girls that work on the Production Set of Cover Girl. So, she also will be sharing her thoughts as well. Her thoughts will be on a Separate Post; and again I will try my hardest to keep it short and sweet. She is also going to Hawaii with my three dear friends - and this will be my 1st time I get a chance to meet a lady that once Kelly's errand girls on the set of Cover Girl.
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charliechaplinfan
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Re: Cover Girl

Post by charliechaplinfan »

I can't wait to read it Kingme. Please thank the ladies for letting us read their memories :D
Failure is unimportant. It takes courage to make a fool of yourself - Charlie Chaplin
feaito

Re: Cover Girl

Post by feaito »

Ditto! How lucky you are Kingme
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Rita Hayworth
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Re: Cover Girl

Post by Rita Hayworth »

charliechaplinfan wrote:I can't wait to read it Kingme. Please thank the ladies for letting us read their memories :D
Update, my friends will be arriving in my hometown on Friday AM - they are staying at a hotel near the airport and took Moraldo's post and broke it down into 6-7 parts and we'll be spending a half a day talking about Cover Girl. I will be having Lunch and Dinner with them at the Hotel and staying there until I get all the facts from them before they head off to Hawaii for Vacation on the big island of Hawaii for two weeks before heading back home in Los Angeles.

So, on Saturday - I will take time writing up using Microsoft Word and create 6-7 mini documents to summarized their thoughts about Cover Girl and adding comments from all 4 ladies that day. Then, put them in order based on Moraldo's post and I will be doing some serious workaround with that post taking time to get it all right; then quickly post 6-7 posts on Cover Girl thread in a row - tackling one quote at a time. This way - I can focus the task on hand with better effectiveness.

Also, on Saturday, I will not be posting pictures on my Rita Hayworth - The Love Goddess thread, but here for your own enjoyment - my friends e-mailed me photos that I should used - and ironically - I have the same photos on my machine that I can upload in an instant. I will be posting 3 photos on the Cover Girl thread and a You Tube Clip that they told me about. I thanked them for helping me getting all the information I need to get and it will take me about a hour or two to post all the information that I can. I will be very brief as possible and I will try my best to keep it short. I have no clues what information they will be sharing on Friday, but they told me that they will be writing some information themselves and I will add it to the thread in condensed form.

So, in conclusion - I'm very fortunate to have these ladies as friends - and I will be seeing them again in September because they invited me to a Gene Kelly's Party of where I will be able to meet members of his family and see Singin in the Rain with them. I couldn't believe what I was reading in that e-mail. Oh, boy ... I just can't wait to go.

Stay tuned my dear members.
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charliechaplinfan
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Re: Cover Girl

Post by charliechaplinfan »

If only I could go with you to Gene Kelly's party. His parties were legendary, I hope his family can throw as good a party.
Failure is unimportant. It takes courage to make a fool of yourself - Charlie Chaplin
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Rita Hayworth
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Re: Cover Girl

Post by Rita Hayworth »

Moraldo Rubini wrote:I'm haunted by Cover Girl.

Rita Hayworth is surely a Goddess. Yup, capital "G". And yet I have the feeling that I could approach Rusty Parker. She's a swell gal who just happens to be drop-dead gorgeous. Maybe it's because of her flaws. She's a little flaky; skipping rehearsals (and she needs them, as we see in her opening number), cutting performances to go to a party. Rusty! It must have been great fun for her to play the dual role of Rusty and her turn-of-the-century grandmother.
According to the three ladies – Rita was skipping rehearsals (not all the time – as MR indicated) – She has contractual obligations to attend (i.e.parties) to and attend her ailing (about 3-4 hours a day) mother at the same time. She had nasty (lasted 2-3 days) fever and needed her help. She attended some parties – because of her contractual (that is part of her Cover Girl’s Contract) agreement with Columbia Pictures. She missed something like a ballpark of 30% (time-wise) of her rehearsal time with Gene Kelly and other performers on the set of Cover Girl.

Rita felt bad about it – and she later admitted that she could do better in this film; and regretted that ever since.
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Rita Hayworth
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Re: Cover Girl

Post by Rita Hayworth »

Moraldo Rubini wrote:I'm haunted by Cover Girl

I wish that Rita and Gene were housed at the same studio; I'd like to have seen more of this pairing.
I did a little research through the internet in the past two months and discovered that Harry Cohn gave Gene Kelly total control of the production of Cover Girl – but, Harry secretly blackmailed Gene believing that he will get top billing. Since it’s a Columbia Pictures – Harry gave Rita top billing and this when Gene got bitter and can’t wait to get home – and so forth.

According to all four ladies; Rita also showed some prima donna tendencies and so did Gene because they were fighting on the issue of creative (dance routines) control. That’s why I got my facts twisted earlier and I regretted stirring some Gene Kelly’s fans here. I’m truly sorry here. I felt bad about it.

Basically this was actually happen
Harry gave Gene total control


Harry gave Gene total control of this movie – in other words he became Charles Vidor’s right hand man. This angers Charles Vidor – and one point Charles almost quit because of Gene’s constant interferences. Harry also told Rita at the beginning of Cover Girl production to frustrate Gene’s creativity in this movie so that working together will be very stressful for both. If she didn’t do this – she will be fired on the spot. Harry made sure that everyday is a bad day at the office for both Gene Kelly and Rita Hayworth. Harry made life miserable for both Gene and Rita at the same time.

After Cohn’s death – Gene told Rita the truth about Cover Girl and personally apologized to her and told everything about Harry Cohn’s blackmail schemes to make sure that Rita is so miserable at all times in Cover Girl. Rita in good faith accepted his sincere apology and they both wept at a party of many onlookers were concerned what is going on between these two Hollywood legends. Because of this truth – she thanked Gene for his honesty and their friendship grew even greater afterwards.

Rita respected Gene’s work in films, television, and on stage. She considers him to be most electrifying male entertainer of all time and told him that his performance in Singing in the Rain – to be his ultimate best musical ever. My dear friends told me so.

Later On - According to all four ladies Rita and Gene – it’s true that Gene knew that Rita being mistreated at Columbia and he set aside his prima donna attitude and tried his best to get Rita to work for MGM instead and he is willing to make it work. Unfortunately, Gene was doing movies, stage, and television work at the same time – and regretted a chance do another Kelly/Hayworth movie/musical again. Gene truly wanted to do another musical with her; but regretted not being able to do so and felt really bad about it. But, according to them their agents tried to coax both Cohn and Meyers to cooperate once more do another Hayworth/Kelly musical but Cohn and Meyers told both of them to get lost.

I know it is sad to read this ... but this is what actually went on during the production of Cover Girl.
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Rita Hayworth
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Re: Cover Girl

Post by Rita Hayworth »

Moraldo Rubini wrote:I'm haunted by Cover Girl.

How many hairdressers must have worked on this movie? There are so many elaborate, fantasy hairdoos. Even the lowly on-screen receptionist has a sweet updoo that would make a meringue jealous. Why don't the receptionists at my office wear their hair like this (nor dress in silk jersey day dresses and seamed stockings)?
For every lovely ladies – 2 hairdressers for shampoo and dry; 1 for the hair rollers, and 1 to coordinate and multi-task – so there were 32 hairdressers all working for Helen Hunt – Hair Stylist for Columbia Pictures and she always does Rita’s hair in all her movies – because Columbia demands perfection. Helen Hunt supervises all 32 hairdressers.

Note to Everyone – 32 hairdressers in all. I know two of personally – one of them was Helen’s assistant with the Hair Rollers – she spent a lot of time on Rita’s hair and they spent a good 2-3 hours a day during production – and with so many costume changes it was a very, very fast paced environment and everyone works like clockwork. There were additional 6 support personnel that spend another 1-2 hours a day cleaning and drying hundreds and hundreds of hair rollers all color coded for each of the eight lovely ladies. – So therefore 39 people in all. You have to add Helen Hunt into this count.

Special Interest to all Ladies here …

During the production of Cover Girl – these eight (including Rita) lovely ladies went through an average of 2-3 costume changes a day. They all have 30 minutes to undress, shower, shampoo, hair dry w/rollers, makeup, and everything else in between. Everything was fast paced, hectic, and downright into frenzy. Imagine trying on those elaborate outfits, bras, panties, girdles, pantyhose and/or stay up hose, and other pieces of garments in and take showers in 30-35 minutes! The men has only 20-25 minutes (showers too) to do the same – some of the men needed to wear women girdles in order squeeze in those tight fitting trousers – this is pure speculation.
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Rita Hayworth
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Re: Cover Girl

Post by Rita Hayworth »

Cover Girl You Tube Clip

[youtube][/youtube]

Regarding You Tube Clip.

This is a 11 minute clip – just watch the 1st 3:30 and skip the rest.

They had to bring in additional 6 part-time hairdressers to accommodate these lovely ladies on top of the 32 that they already had. Helen Hunt and the 38 hairdressers, 6 support personnel, and Helen Hunt herself had something like 90 minutes to get 14 ladies and one cute Shirley Temple like girl ready for shoot. Harry Cohn told Charles Vidor – you have one crack in getting it all done. He did and it was a success. So, 45 people doing this … its crazy everyone to see what the backstage was like:

According to them – it is a buzz saw of epidemic proportions – and very, very noisy too. Imagine 15 hairdryers, water running, people chatting away, and other things as well in an area about 1/7 of a football field. They even told me that there were 300-400 hair rollers on the floor in all shapes and sizes to pick up after their hair was done.

Can you imagine the scene – 45 workers, 14 supporting cast (in and out of outfits) actresses/models, 1 cute little girl, and host of unknown people working around like honeybees, trying to maintain order, and so forth? It was sheer madness members!
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Rita Hayworth
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Re: Cover Girl

Post by Rita Hayworth »

Moraldo Rubini wrote:I'm haunted by Cover Girl. It's got me.

She's no Cyd Charisse, or is it just that the choreographers didn't put her to use? In the end, none of this matters to me. She's got me. I'm powerless whenever I look at her.
When my dear friends read this sentence – they know that everyone is entitled to their opinion They knew Cyd Charisse personally and Cyd told them that Rita is her screen idol and mentor. It was Rita that gave her the motivation to become a good dancer and Cyd wished that she could do everything that Rita did in terms of the wide variety of dances from Ballroom to Mexican Samba.

In Hollywood Circles – both Rita Hayworth and Ginger Rogers are best of the best – and Cyd and all the rest including Juliet Prowse; and both Fred Astaire and Gene Kelly in their hearts believe that Rita and Ginger are the top dogs in the industry.

Note to Moraldo – My dear friends respect your opinions wholly and completely – but they felt and agreed with Fred Astaire assessment – Rita is the best professional dancer in Hollywood History; and Ginger is the best artistic dancer in Hollywood History. Fred also dances with Cyd too; and he considers her to be too physical, too fluid, and dances one step below the level of both Rita and Ginger. The main problem with Cyd Charisse is that she grips her hands too hard for Fred to lead her and she sometimes she likes to lead; and according to Fred Astaire - its bother him greatly.
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Rita Hayworth
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Re: Cover Girl

Post by Rita Hayworth »

Moraldo Rubini wrote:I'm haunted by Cover Girl. It's got me.

Cinderella. Certainly, there's a certain Cinderella aspect to this film. The irony is that the "before" picture in this make-over is the gorgeous Rita Hayworth. But there's something thrilling about her "magic carpet ride" as they make her over for the cover of Vanity. Who do you suppose those make-up and camera people are? Are they really Columbia make-up personnel making a cameo (like Sidney Guilaroff did in New York New York)? Once the cover's been published, Rusty's colleagues pin up the magazine backstage -- but the prop is wrong! Take a look next time you see this flick; the magazine doesn't match. It doesn't even look like Rita Hayworth, and the pose is different. Then in the close-up it's the "true" cover.
I asked all four of them that MR quote “Once the cover’s been published. Rusty’s colleagues pin up the magazine backstage - - but the prop is wrong! “– According to my four friends – the prop is wrong a big blooper on a part of Columbia Pictures – All the pictures that you see of Rita Hayworth in that movie is in all her glory; but later on they (Columbia Pictures) decided that one’s that in portrait form is the official picture of the Vanity Cover. The one pointed out by MR was ultimately rejected and discarded. Good eye, MR – you spotted a BIG BLOOPER in that movie.

Picture on top is correct image – the official picture of Rita Hayworth in Cover Girl

Picture on bottom is false – incorrect photo; not authorized by Cohn. He left it alone; he knew about it and decided it’s not worth the fuss to re-shoot it and all. That’s according to the woman that assisted Gene Kelly on Cover Girl; it was her colleague noticed the error on Columbia’s part.
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Correct Photo of the Movie - Official Photo
Correct Photo of the Movie - Official Photo
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Prop Picture of the Movie - Incorrect Photo Use
Prop Picture of the Movie - Incorrect Photo Use
Cover2.JPG (23.57 KiB) Viewed 13238 times
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