Saturday afternoon, my friend Wendy Bendoni and I met up for a fun girl date. We went to see the one woman show titled A Conversation With Edith Head. The El Portal Theater in North Hollywood was such a perfect location for this intimate play.

While we waited for the performance to start, a gentleman named Stuart Moulton asked for question for Ms. Head from the audience. Moulton served as sort of a moderator during our “conversation” with Edith. He let us know that Ms. Head had been delayed due to some work she was doing on her new film Dead Men Don’t Wear Plaid directed by Carl Reiner which is the last filmed she worked on before her death in 1981.

Susan Claassen’s performance of the business savvy costume designer was so convincing, I caught myself believing this was actually Edith Head. Ms. Head remisced about her stars such as Clara Bow, Marlene Deitrich, Audrey Hepburn, Grace Kelly and Bette Davis. Edith entranced us with her anecdotes of working at Paramount Studios and her genius styling tricks such as how Mae West had to have a board made for her to be propped up on when she was in costume because she couldn’t sit down.

Edith Head was not just a costume designer. She went on to write to style guides – The Dress Doctor and How to Dress For Success. And Claassen had no trouble channeling Edith Head’s brutal honesty when she consistently, but affectionately, poked fun at a man in the front row wearing shorts and sneakers. She did tell him he had good legs though!

The way in which Claassen wove audience questions into the script, seamlessly and with perfect comedic timing, I swear I lost myself. I really felt I was in Edith Head’s presence and I was one of the lucky few who got to hear how much she despised Claudette Colbert and how much she adored Elizabeth Taylor. People came up to her and addressed her as Ms. Head after the show and asked her questions as if she were her. 

The script is based on the autobiography written by the playwright Paddy Calistro and Edith Head herself. So the anecdotes are 100% true, well, according to Edith Head, a self proclaimed liar. Some of my favorite parts in the play are her retelling of how she came up with her signature look of dark glasses, minimal dress, and sleek, dark bangs. “I went from a school teacher to a bohemian”. She also goes into a tirade about Audrey Hepburn’s dress in Sabrina shouting that Hubert de Givenchy did not create that dress. He was Hepburn’s personal designer. 

The set design was a beautiful tribute to Edith Head’s amazing career. Pictures of every Hollywood star she ever worked with were hung on the walls and displayed on antique tables. The stage was flanked by two of Edith Head’s iconic dresses – the sable trimmed satin dress Bette Davis wore in All About Eve and the lovely white dress Elizabeth Taylor wore in A Place In the Sun.

I am planning on buying the autobiography Edith Head’s Hollywood. if the performance comes to your town, I highly encourage you to see it. For ninety minutes, you will lose yourself in the Golden Age of Hollywood and be witness to the next best thing the the design and style legend, Edith Head.

a sketch of Audrey Hepburn’s costume for Roman Holiday
 

Edith Head in a signature print blouse
 
Comedian Rip Taylor was in the house