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 thirty-four Oscar nominations in the costume category and had claimed 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 Hollywood picture stories, Bob Willoughby took this likeness of Head at her Beverly Hills home. In it, she tolls an old mission bell installed on a porch.