1. Early Life

2. Apprenticeship & Early Career
     Silent Film Work    Warner Brothers/First National    Independence  

3. The RKO Years
     A Second Beginning    The House Designer    A New York Minute  

4. Oscar Nominations

5. Personal life

6. References

7. External links

Early Life

Edward Manson Stevenson was born in Pocatello, Idaho on May 13, 1906 to Jennie Uhland Stevenson (née Dolly) and Andrew Burtner Stevenson. Jennie, a former schoolteacher, had two sons from her first marriage to Frank Uhland, Sr. and was widowed on his death in Denver in 1904^[3]. Andrew worked for the Oregon Shortline Railroad, a subsidiary of Union Pacific, rising from dispatch clerk to division superintendent. He served a term in 1903 as senator from Bannock County in the Idaho state legislature and was the Republican nominee in 1907 for Pocatello mayor. Andrew’s political activity was often limited by the time spent fulfilling his duties with the railroad, including a great deal of travel^[4][5]. Andrew and Jennie married July 23, 1905 and Edward was born the following year.

Stevenson was educated at St. Joseph’s Catholic school and also took correspondence courses in art. He suffered from significant respiratory difficulties, and sometime in 1915, Jennie took him to California in hopes that the change in climate would provide some relief. Evidence shows they stayed in California into the following year, but it is currently unclear when they returned to Idaho.

In December 1919 when he was 13 years old, Stevenson’s father died. By 1922, Stevenson and his mother had again taken up residence in California^[6].

Apprenticeship & Early Career

Sources disagree regarding Stevenson’s entry into the Hollywood film community, though the various stories all relate one of two distinct paths, both involving connections with people in the film industry.

One version asserts that his mother, while traveling on a train between California and Idaho, met the friend of a Hollywood designer, possibly from the Robert Brunton studios. She impressed her new acquaintance so profoundly with some of Stevenson’s artwork that she gained for her son a letter of introduction to the designer^[7]. Through this letter, Stevenson was able to get jobs as a sketch artist during school breaks, impressing those he worked with sufficiently that he was able to begin building his career.

The other story relates that Stevenson and his mother lived next door to Lova Klenowsky, a cousin of Gloria Swanson. Klenowsky became aware of Stevenson's artistic abilities and interest in design, and she introduced him to Clément Henri Andreani, known professionally as André-ani.^[8] The designer was impressed and tutored the young man in costume design for approximately two years.

Silent Film Work

In 1924, Stevenson began working as a sketch artist for Norma Talmadge’s production company, and he was also allowed to submit his own designs. One Stevenson design mentioned in numerous accounts is a silver gown worn by Barbara LaMarr in The White Moth (1924). When Andre-aní was hired to replace Erte at MGM in 1925, he brought in his young protégé to sketch for him. Greta Garbo, Norma Shearer, Louise Fazenda, and Joan Crawford are among the stars for whom Andre-aní designed at that time^[9].

In May 1925 and April 1926, Stevenson executed costumes for stage productions presented at Pocatello High School, allowing him to gain experience designing for an actual production in a low-profile location. The productions were Once in a Blue Moon and Bizet’s Carmen, respectively.^[10]

When Andre-ani and MGM parted ways, Stevenson found work as a sketch artist and occasional designer at Fox. In the 1927 film Seventh Heaven, Janet Gaynor wore a white lace wedding gown of Stevenson’s design, the only known example of a Stevenson design from this period in his career.

Warner Brothers/First National

Stevenson’s first contract as a designer was signed in 1928 with First National Pictures, Inc., then one of the largest theater chains and movie studios in the United States. Warner Brothers had recently gained controlling interest in First National and installed one of their production executives, Hal Wallis, as studio head. It was Wallis’s wife, comic film actress Louise Fazenda whom Stevenson had met while at MGM, who convinced Wallis to give the aspiring designer a chance.

Warner Brothers purchased First National in November of the following year, bringing in their own designer, Earl Luick. There was plenty of work for both of them, but when Stevenson’s contract was up, Orry-Kelly was hired in his stead. Stevenson’s name was also excluded from the credits of many of the Warner/First National films on which he had worked, so after his departure he filed suit on the company.

Independence

From August 1931 through August 1932, Stevenson worked independently, costuming five films for Columbia Pictures and Hotel Continental for Tiffany Pictures. Three of the five Columbia movies were Frank Capra films and included Platinum Blonde (1931) with Jean Harlow and Loretta Young. Stevenson was also brought in to Hal Roach Studios to design clothes for Thelma Todd, whom he had likely met while designing for Broadminded (1931) at Warner Bros./First National^[10].

Stevenson also established his own design salon, Blakely House, creating personal wardrobes for many of Hollywood’s stars and social elite, as well as costumes for studios without their own designers.

The RKO Years

A Second Beginning

1935 marked Stevenson’s return to employment with a major Hollywood studio, though it meant he had to return to sketching other designers' ideas. That year, Walter Plunkett, who later went on to design the costumes for Gone With the Wind (1939) could no longer endure the treatment he was receiving at RKO. Plunkett had been creating costumes and managing wardrobe at RKO and its predecessor, FBO Pictures, since the mid-1920’s. During his ten years there, RKO had sometimes assigned screen credit to designer Max Ree for work Plunkett had done. They had also brought Bernard Newman over from Bergdorf Goodman department store in New York to dress Ginger Rogers, one of their biggest stars. Plunkett and Newman did not get along. Finally, after failing to obtain a contract from RKO that guaranteed him screen credit for the films on which he worked, Plunkett decided to go elsewhere.

Upon Plunkett's departure, Newman was required to deal with the more mundane costuming chores in addition to his exclusive designing assignments and he hired Stevenson to sketch out his ideas. However, Newman soon proved unable to work as quickly as was needed and he decided to return to the retail world. On his way out, Newman convinced the RKO executives that Stevenson should be his replacement and in September of 1936, Stevenson inked his first contract as an exclusive designer with RKO.

The House Designer

Stevenson toiled as the head of RKO's costume and wardrobe department from late 1936 to early 1949, enduring the same difficult conditions as Plunkett had before him. Although he was considered RKO’s house designer, he was frequently passed over for high-profile assignments to satisfy a star performer’s reliance on or preference for a particular designer. For instance, Walter Plunkett’s special relationship with Katherine Hepburn ensured his return to RKO as a guest designer for all three of her films shot in 1936. Ginger Rogers also routinely requested outside designers.

Stevenson’s fortune wasn’t all bad. It was during this time that he forged deeply respectful relationships with budding stars Marueen O'Hara and Lucille Ball, relationships that would prove crucial to his later career. He also dressed the Metropolitan Opera’s star coloratura soprano Lily Pons in the final two of her three films for RKO. Additionally, he was assigned to films destined to become classics, films such as Gunga Din (1939), Love Affair (1939), and Alfred Hitchcock’s Suspicion (1941).

In August 1939, RKO signed 24 year-old Orson Welles to write, direct, and star in his first films. Citizen Kane and The Magnificent Ambersons (1942), two highly influential and respected movies in classic American cinema, were the eventual results of his efforts. Welles chose Stevenson to costume the films. Both pictures required thorough research to accurately represent the periods depicted, though Stevenson faced many difficulties in carrying out his original intentions. In Citizen Kane, he was required to hide Dorothy Comingore’s pregnancy which became increasingly difficult as the pregnancy and filming progressed. He coped by supplying her with a muff to carry and by letting out many of her waistline seams, though both of these solutions compromised the integrity of his designs. Wartime fabric shortages hampered Stevenson’s design efforts for The Magnificent Ambersons, and he was also asked to make modifications to some to make them more glamorous.

A New York Minute

The effect of Welles’s prodigious spending on RKO’s financial health is well documented. By 1942, the stockholders had had enough and a major regime change took place. Stevenson had weathered RKO’s volatile leadership culture for six years and was hungry for something different. He had learned from his predecessors that the ready-to-wear market could potentially provide more security and money so like Plunkett and Newman before him, he left RKO to try his fortunes elsewhere, staying until his contract ended with the completion of filming on Journey Into Fear (1943) in March of 1942. Stevenson was in New York in May, 1942 to participate in Bernard Waldman’s fashion show, an event that adumbrated the first New York fashion "Press Week" the following year^[11]. That effort didn’t bear the fruit Stevenson had hoped for and by January of 1943, he was back at RKO.

Oscar Nominations

All 3 were for Best Costumes.

• 24th Academy Awards-Nominated for The Mudlark (in Black and White Costumes). Nomination shared with Margaret Furse. Lost to A Place in the Sun.
• 24th Academy Awards-Nominated for David and Bathsheba. This was for color costumes. Nomination shared with Charles LeMaire. Lost to An American in Paris.^[12]
• 33rd Academy Awards-The Facts of Life. This was for black and white costumes. Shared with Edith Head. Won.^[13]

Personal life

He was friends with actress Lucille Ball for whom he designed costumes starting in her early days at RKO.

References

External links

• {{IMDb name|id=0828926|name=Edward Stevenson}}

• 1999 Golden Horse Awards
• 1999 Gold Flake Open - Doubles
• 1999 GP Miguel Induráin
• 1999 GP Ouest-France
• 1999 GP Ouest–France
• 1999 Grammy
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• 1999 Grand Prix de Denain
• 1999 Grand Prix de Tennis de Lyon - Doubles
• 1999 Grand Prix de Tennis de Lyon - Singles
• 1999 Grand Prix de Tennis de Toulouse - Doubles
• 1999 Grand Prix de Tennis de Toulouse - Singles
• 1999 Grand Prix Hassan II - Doubles
• 1999 Grand Prix (snooker)
• 1999 Great American Insurance ATP Championships - Doubles
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• 1999 Green Bay Packers
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• 1999 Greenlandic Men's Football Championship
• 1999 Grote Prijs Jef Scherens
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• 1999 Guardian Direct Cup - Doubles
• 1999 Guardian Direct Cup - Singles
• 1999 handover
• 1999 Hawaii Rainbow Warriors football