Susan Claassen as Edith Head.
PHOTOGRAPHY COURTESY SUSAN CLAASSEN
A Conversation of Wit, Wisdom, and a Whisper of Gossip With Edith Head stars award-winning actor Susan Claassen. This internationally acclaimed stage production invites the audience into an elaborate period-perfect setting, as though they were visiting the costume designer in her home, and includes accurate re-creations of her most memorable dresses (worn by Bette Davis in All About Eve and Elizabeth Taylor in Summertime), awards, photographs, and prop Oscars.
We spoke with Claassen to learn more about the spectacular show and what it’s like to portray Edith Head.
For those who are not familiar with Edith Head, how would you describe her career?
Edith Head is the most well-known and most well-accomplished costume designer for film in history. Her record of 35 Academy Award nominations, eight Academy Award [wins], and a 60-year career spanning 1,131 films will go unbroken. She has a postage stamp in her honor, a Google Doodle, and also an animated character, Edna Mode, which opens up her legacy and her identity to generations of children growing up and identifying with her wonderful positive message about fashion. There was no one else like her.
Susan Claassen and Bob Mackie.
How did you develop the idea and inspiration to portray Edith Head?
I’m an actor, and an artistic director of a theater, and I had created shows for other people, but I had never created anything for myself. I saw a biopic about Edith Head on the Biography Channel, and I thought, Gosh, I look like her.
The more I watched, the more I realized it was about more than fashion. She was an executive woman before there was such a thing. She was syndicated in 35 magazines, she was on radio, she was on TV, she had a line of patterns, she went out and did celebrity fashion shows, and she put a face on what a costume designer did. So I realized this was an incredible opportunity. We premiered the show in 2002, and I’ve been portraying Edith internationally ever since, for 22 years.
How did Paddy Calistro become involved in the production?
There were three books: Edith Head’s Hollywood; The Dress Doctor, which is how Edith referred to herself; and How to Dress for Success. All three were out of print at that time. Paddy wrote the book Edith Head’s Hollywood. When I got the idea after watching Biography Channel, I dialed 411 and looked her up. I introduced myself and said, “I’m interested in doing the theatrical.” Then I flew over, we met, and we became best friends. We collaborated from the 13 hours of taped interviews that she had for writing the book. I studied those, and much of the script is actually transcribed from those. But we had to create the arc.
What other kinds of research or resources were you able to reference for this performance?
Edith left her estate to the Motion Picture and Television Fund and returned her Oscars to the Academy. You’re not allowed to replicate an Oscar, so we went to legal at the Academy and said we wanted to do a production about Edith Head. But you can’t do an Edith Head play without referencing the Oscars — they’re so important to her golden voice. They agreed and loaned us the prop Oscars that we use on set. The Academy also gave us access to photographs and re-creations of two of the main costumes.
There’s a wonderful library called the Margaret Herrick Library at the Academy where you can go in to research. There were days I would fly over on the first flight out of Tucson into Los Angeles and take the last flight back, spending the day in the library. Edith left her papers there, and when we began researching, it was on microfiche. It wasn’t as easily accessible as it is today! We researched six months before we put anything on paper.
Norman Lear and Susan Claassen.
Your show shifts based on your location. Can you tell us more about that?
We realized we could do the show anywhere because Edith was everywhere! We personalize it to where we are and interact with people in the audience, and that has been amazing fun. Last year during Modernism Week, Bob Mackie, who was a sketch artist for Edith and who was part of our original research, came to the show with his design director, Joe McFate. It was such fun having Bob and Joe in the audience, and Edith was able to refer to Bob as her good friend and sketch artist. So Edith gets to chat with whoever’s in the audience.
What is the post-show meet-and-greet experience like for you as Edith?
Post-show, I stay as Edith because we do photographs after the show. We realized early on that people wanted to get their photograph taken with Edith Head. In Palm Springs last year, this woman came up, and I saw she had her phone, and she said she was from Canada and that her mother who was a seamstress made a prom dress based on one of Edith’s patterns. She had a photograph of the pattern on her cell phone. I happened to have that exact pattern, so I was able to go to my drawer and pull it out! We took a photo to send to her mom who is in her 90s living in Canada.
I constantly research Edith, and after 22 years, I can carry on conversation now. I know I’m not Edith — and people know I’m not — but they want to be transported to that era. Film always provides that escape. Others want to relive memories.
What was the main thing you connected with about Edith during your research?
I connected with her tenacity and journey. I myself have been 49 years at my theater company, which is a long time to be an artistic director of a theater company. In the arts, you have to evolve. That’s what Edith did. She made herself relevant in every generation that came along, and working 60 years, she saw many changes. She invented herself, but she was so smart and so tenacious — it really is an inspiration of following a dream.
Susan Claassen and Tippi Hendren.
What is a remarkable piece of Edith’s work that everyone should know?
I’m getting Google alert after Google alert for top 10 dresses of all time on the red carpet for the Oscars. Edith Head’s dress for Grace Kelly in 1955, when she was nominated for The Country Girl, is always on there. It’s gorgeous, and it was a cover of Life magazine. At that time, it was one of the most expensive dresses ever made for the Oscars. That was magnificent.
Since your performance is during Modernism Week, how do you think Edith Head ties into midcentury or modernism style?
Edith’s work was prominent throughout the films that represented fashion and architecture of the midcentury time. If we look back to some of the really mod looks, Edith probably designed a film reflective of that, and all that fashion is coming back now. Like she said, “Fashion is timeless.”
Do you have a favorite thing about Palm Springs? Is there something about the town that you really love because of your portrayal of Edith?
I love the architecture, and I love the vibe. In Palm Springs, you understand that legacy is respected and taken into the present and into the future. That certainly represents modernism. I feel so privileged and grateful to Modernism Week to be able to do this show here. And the Annenberg Theater is absolutely lovely.
Edith would come to Palm Springs. She was great friends with Bob Hope and the Hollywood community that came here. They would have film premieres in Palm Springs, and she dressed them all. So there’s a great connection.
- READ NEXT: The ultimate guide to Modernism Week 2024.