Audio Interview with Edith Head
Interview conducted by Tony Macklin. Audio interview originally published on March 16, 2009 @ tonymacklin.net.
Listen to the audio interview with Edith Head (MP3 format, approximately 38 minutes).
"You look like a layer cake."
Edith Head had me stand on a platform in her office and assessed my look.
I was wearing a tie-dyed blue Levi jacket. I thought I looked kind of cool. She obviously thought I looked baked. Or half-baked.
Of course she had dressed Cary Grant, Paul Newman and Sean Connery. And John Wayne. Grant, Newman, Connery, Wayne, and Macklin. What a fashion brigade!
It turned out to be a fun interview. I kept pushing her for examples, which is my wont.
"Why do I give you a chance to ask questions like that?" she groused.
Edith shot down one of my assumptions when she said, the divine Ava Gardner didn't drink hard liquor, only wine. Ava as a wine drinker was an image I didn't expect.
But I was pleased with the interview. According to Edith Head, I was many layered.
The following is the introduction to the interview as it appeared in Voices from the Set: The Film Heritage Interviews (2000).
Born in Los Angeles, California. Edith Head did the costume design for more than 350 films during her career. Nominated for thirty-five Academy Awards, Head won eight for best costume design: she won for The Heiress, All About Eve, Samson and Delilah, A Place in the Sun, Roman Holiday, Sabrina, The Facts of Life, and The Sting.
The Head interview was in her office at Universal Studios, California, in December of 1975.
