Edith Head (1897-1981)
Edith Head knew nothing about clothing design when she became a part-time sketch artist in Paramount movie studio's costume department in 1923. All she wanted out of this new job was a supplement to her slender salary from teaching high school French and art. But she had a natural flair for costume design, and what began as a financial stopgap measure soon turned into a full-time profession. Limited in her early years to doing the costuming for B movies, she received ever choicer assignments, and by the early 1940s, she was the most admired designer in Hollywood. By the end of her career, she had claimed thirty-four Oscar nominations in the costume category and won eight Oscars. Among the many stars she dressed were Gloria Swanson in Sunset Boulevard, Elizabeth Taylor in A Place in the Sun, and Grace Kelly in To Catch a Thief.
A photographer who specialized in doing Hollywood picture stories, Bob Willoughby took this likeness of Head her Beverly Hills home. In it, she tolls an old mission bell installed on a porch
Bob Willoughby (born 1927)
Gelatin silver print, 1984 print from 1960 negative
National Portrait Gallery, Smithsonian Institution;
gift of Mr. and Mrs. Bob Willoughby
© Bob Willoughby