what's behind your curtain?

Published: Sat, 08/06/16

Last Wednesday a reporter emailed me a series of questions about my growing up with an Oscar winning actress for a mom. The reporter presumed that had to have been "very exciting." And I can assure you it was very NOT.  

This really all came about because next week I'm going to be in Lancaster, Ohio for the wrap up of a very cool costume exhibit devoted to my late godmother, Edith Head. She is still the Academy Award record holder with eight awards (35 nominations from 1100 films) garnered over a 50 year career of designing costumes for some of the biggest stars in Hollywood.

When I found out about the exhibit, I reached out to The Decorative Arts Center that is hosting it and expressed an interest in seeing it. They were delighted; and I suggested that if it would help them generate more awareness for the exhibit and the museum, they were welcome to leverage my visit. (While I'd prefer to go in quietly, see the show and head home, I love to support the arts and this seemed a good opportunity to do so.)

They've now sold out two shows of "Hollywood Legends and Icons" where Randall Thropp, Paramount Pictures Costume Archivist and Curator of Edith Head & Company is going to interview me about mom and Aunt Edie, very fun.
 
Aug 10 and 11 Hollywood Interview
 
When the reporter emailed me questions, I got a little stumped.

She had the same idea that most people have of how I grew up, grand, exciting, and filled with stars, and it's totally not the reality. (Damn it.)

Mom was a single working parent with a big career and that came first. I joke that my sister and I were decorative accessories to a very large life. We did NOT have a butler, a maid, a chauffeur, or a swimming pool much to my great annoyance. (We weren't millionaires, that was The Beverly Hillbillies!)

I did the house cleaning from the time I was 12 and mom paid me to do it. (I was always the neat freak in the family anyway.) I got $5 an hour and had her convinced it took me 5 hours a week, in fact it took me just 2 (I'm fast with vacuuming and laundry.)

(If we let mom do laundry, she hung towels out on a line in the backyard because it was eco-friendly, and they ended up feeling like sandpaper. She didn't use fabric softener, she used Shaklee.)

Trust me, it was so NOT GRAND.

And I think I saw Aunt Edith (my family calls godparents Aunt and Uncle) a total of a dozen times because she was also happily married to her career and it was bigger than mom's. She had a husband (Uncle Bill) but no kids so she spent 80% of her time at the studio working on sets with stars.

It was fun when she provided a handful of costumes for a production I was in in junior high school. And she wrote a letter of recommendation to Pratt Institute, a school in Philadelphia for costume design and fashion. I got accepted, but chickened out as I thought I hadn't gotten in on my own merit (that's about the only regret I have, I occasionally wonder, what if.)

So ultimately, I had to set the record straight with the reporter about what growing up was really like, entirely unglamorous and decidedly not grand.

I think a lot of folks will be surprised in the interviews. Mr. Thropp and I spoke last week and he thinks everyone wants to hear the real deal. I hope so because it's all I know and definitely not tabloid worthy.

In fact, the only time mom appeared in "The National Enquirer" was after her death. They made up an entire story, 80% was untrue and I was mentioned as owning a horse farm nearby (I don't even ride horses, and was working for Radisson in Charlotte, NC at the time.)

Crazy, crazy stuff.

Since I work with clients to bring who they really are into what they do, I figured I might be overdue in dispelling a few myths and illusions and giving you a peek behind any curtain, if there is one.

If you are in the Ohio area, while the interviews are sold out, the show is still up and you can see it until August 14.

Mega Hugs,
Melissa

PS. I'm generally pretty uncomfortable talking about my family background because of the assumptions people make, let me know if you appreciated my sharing this. We are an insanely down to earth bunch and I've got some hilarious stories if I get the feedback you want to hear them.

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