Helen Rose
Encyclopedia
Helen Rose was an American costume designer
and clothing designer who spent the bulk of her career with Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer
. In the early 40s she spent two years working for 20th Century Fox
, where she designed wardrobe for musical selections. In 1943 MGM hired her in the wake of Adrian
's departure and by the late '40s Rose was promoted to chief designer at the studio.
Rose won two Academy Awards for Best Costume Design
, for The Bad and the Beautiful
in 1952 and for I'll Cry Tomorrow
in 1955. She was nominated a further eight times and was also very well known for designing famous wedding dresses of the era. She designed the famous wedding dress
of Grace Kelly
when she married Prince Rainier of Monaco in 1956. She also designed clothing for Elizabeth Taylor in the movies Father of the Bride
and Cat on a Hot Tin Roof
as well as Elizabeth Taylor
's wedding dress when she married Conrad "Nicky" Hilton
.
In the late 60s, Rose left the studio to open her own design business and continued to provide fancy attire for the famed and the wealthy. She also wrote a fashion column. She wrote two books - her autobiography Just Make Them Beautiful in 1976 and "The Glamorous World of Helen Rose". In the '70s Rose also staged a traveling fashion show featuring some of her MGM-designed costumes that was called "The Helen Rose Show".
Helen was married to Harry V. Rose, whose birth name was Harry Rosenstein (1902–1993), and they had a daughter. She died in Palm Springs, California
in 1985.
Costume Designer
A costume designer or costume mistress/master is a person whose responsibility is to design costumes for a film or stage production. He or she is considered an important part of the "production team", working alongside the director, scenic and lighting designers as well as the sound designer. The...
and clothing designer who spent the bulk of her career with Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer
Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer
Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer Inc. is an American media company, involved primarily in the production and distribution of films and television programs. MGM was founded in 1924 when the entertainment entrepreneur Marcus Loew gained control of Metro Pictures, Goldwyn Pictures Corporation and Louis B. Mayer...
Career
Helen Rose was born on February 2, 1904 to William Bromberg and Ray Bobbs in Chicago, Illinois of German and Russian descent. She attended the Chicago Academy of Fine Arts and then designed nightclub and stage costumes for various acts. She moved to Los Angeles in 1929, designing outfits for the Ice FolliesIce Follies
Shipstads & Johnson Ice Follies was a touring ice show featuring elaborate production numbers, similar in concept to Ice Capades. It was founded in 1937 by Eddie Shipstad, Roy Shipstad, and Oscar Johnson, who also skated in the show. In later years, Olympic skaters such as Donald Jackson, Barbara...
. In the early 40s she spent two years working for 20th Century Fox
20th Century Fox
Twentieth Century Fox Film Corporation — also known as 20th Century Fox, or simply 20th or Fox — is one of the six major American film studios...
, where she designed wardrobe for musical selections. In 1943 MGM hired her in the wake of Adrian
Adrian (costume designer)
Adrian Adolph Greenberg , most widely known as Adrian, was an American costume designer whose most famous costumes were for The Wizard of Oz and other Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer films of the 1930s and 1940s. During his career, he designed costumes for over 250 films and his screen credits usually read as...
's departure and by the late '40s Rose was promoted to chief designer at the studio.
Rose won two Academy Awards for Best Costume Design
Academy Award for Costume Design
The Academy Award for Best Costume Design is one of the Academy Awards of Merit presented annually by the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences for achievement in film costume design....
, for The Bad and the Beautiful
The Bad and the Beautiful
The Bad and the Beautiful is a 1952 MGM melodramatic film that tells the story of a film producer who alienates all around him. It was directed by Vincente Minelli and stars Lana Turner, Kirk Douglas, Walter Pidgeon, Dick Powell, Barry Sullivan, Gloria Grahame and Gilbert Roland. The film was...
in 1952 and for I'll Cry Tomorrow
I'll Cry Tomorrow
I'll Cry Tomorrow is a biopic which tells the story of Lillian Roth, a Broadway star who rebels against the pressure of her domineering mother and reacts to the death of her fiancé by becoming an alcoholic...
in 1955. She was nominated a further eight times and was also very well known for designing famous wedding dresses of the era. She designed the famous wedding dress
Wedding dress of Grace Kelly
The wedding dress of Grace Kelly was worn by Grace Kelly in her wedding to Prince Rainer III of Monaco on 19 April 1956. The dress is cited as one of the most elegant and best-remembered bridal gowns of all time, and one of the most famous since the mid 20th century...
of Grace Kelly
Grace Kelly
Grace Patricia Kelly was an American actress who, in April 1956, married Rainier III, Prince of Monaco, to become Princess consort of Monaco, styled as Her Serene Highness The Princess of Monaco, and commonly referred to as Princess Grace.After embarking on an acting career in 1950, at the age of...
when she married Prince Rainier of Monaco in 1956. She also designed clothing for Elizabeth Taylor in the movies Father of the Bride
Father of the Bride (1950 film)
Father of the Bride is a 1950 American comedy film about a man trying to cope with preparations for his daughter's upcoming wedding. The movie stars Spencer Tracy in the titular role, Joan Bennett, Elizabeth Taylor, Don Taylor, Billie Burke, and Leo G. Carroll. It was adapted by Frances Goodrich...
and Cat on a Hot Tin Roof
Cat on a Hot Tin Roof
Cat on a Hot Tin Roof is a play by Tennessee Williams. One of Williams's best-known works and his personal favorite, the play won the Pulitzer Prize for Drama in 1955...
as well as Elizabeth Taylor
Elizabeth Taylor
Dame Elizabeth Rosemond "Liz" Taylor, DBE was a British-American actress. From her early years as a child star with MGM, she became one of the great screen actresses of Hollywood's Golden Age...
's wedding dress when she married Conrad "Nicky" Hilton
Conrad Hilton, Jr.
Conrad Nicholson "Nicky" Hilton, Jr. was an American socialite, hotel heir, businessman, and TWA director. He was one of the sons of Conrad Hilton .-Early life:...
.
In the late 60s, Rose left the studio to open her own design business and continued to provide fancy attire for the famed and the wealthy. She also wrote a fashion column. She wrote two books - her autobiography Just Make Them Beautiful in 1976 and "The Glamorous World of Helen Rose". In the '70s Rose also staged a traveling fashion show featuring some of her MGM-designed costumes that was called "The Helen Rose Show".
Helen was married to Harry V. Rose, whose birth name was Harry Rosenstein (1902–1993), and they had a daughter. She died in Palm Springs, California
Palm Springs, California
Palm Springs is a desert city in Riverside County, California, within the Coachella Valley. It is located approximately 37 miles east of San Bernardino, 111 miles east of Los Angeles and 136 miles northeast of San Diego...
in 1985.
Actresses Designed For
- Betty GrableBetty GrableElizabeth Ruth "Betty" Grable was an American actress, dancer and singer.Her iconic bathing suit photo made her the number-one pin-up girl of the World War II era. It was later included in the LIFE magazine project "100 Photos that Changed the World"...
in Coney IslandConey IslandConey Island is a peninsula and beach on the Atlantic Ocean in southern Brooklyn, New York, United States. The site was formerly an outer barrier island, but became partially connected to the mainland by landfill....
, 1943 - Lena HorneLena HorneLena Mary Calhoun Horne was an American singer, actress, civil rights activist and dancer.Horne joined the chorus of the Cotton Club at the age of sixteen and became a nightclub performer before moving to Hollywood, where she had small parts in numerous movies, and more substantial parts in the...
in Stormy WeatherStormy Weather (1943 film)Stormy Weather is a 1943 American musical film produced and released by 20th Century Fox. The film is one of two major Hollywood musicals produced in 1943 with primarily African-American casts, the other being MGM's Cabin in the Sky, and is considered a time capsule showcasing some of the top...
, 1943 - Virginia O'BrienVirginia O'BrienVirginia Lee O'Brien was a popular American actress, singer, and radio personality known for her comedic roles in MGM musicals of the 1940s.-Life and career:...
in The Harvey GirlsThe Harvey GirlsThe Harvey Girls is a 1946 MGM musical film based on a 1942 novel by Samuel Hopkins Adams about Fred Harvey's famous Harvey House restaurants. Directed by George Sidney, the film stars Judy Garland, John Hodiak, Angela Lansbury, Virginia O'Brien, Ray Bolger, and Marjorie Main...
, 1946 - Judy GarlandJudy GarlandJudy Garland was an American actress and singer. Through a career that spanned 45 of her 47 years and for her renowned contralto voice, she attained international stardom as an actress in musical and dramatic roles, as a recording artist and on the concert stage...
in The Harvey GirlsThe Harvey GirlsThe Harvey Girls is a 1946 MGM musical film based on a 1942 novel by Samuel Hopkins Adams about Fred Harvey's famous Harvey House restaurants. Directed by George Sidney, the film stars Judy Garland, John Hodiak, Angela Lansbury, Virginia O'Brien, Ray Bolger, and Marjorie Main...
, 1946 - Carmen MirandaCarmen MirandaCarmen Miranda, GCIH was a Portuguese-born Brazilian samba singer, Broadway actress and Hollywood film star popular in the 1940s and 1950s. She was, by some accounts, the highest-earning woman in the United States and noted for her signature fruit hat outfit she wore in the 1943 movie The Gang's...
in Nancy Goes to RioNancy Goes to RioNancy Goes to Rio is a musical comedy film released by Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer in 1950. It was directed by Robert Z. Leonard and produced by Joe Pasternak from a screenplay by Sidney Sheldon, based on a story by Ralph Block, Frederick Kohner and Jane Hall...
1950 - Lana TurnerLana TurnerLana Turner was an American actress.Discovered and signed to a film contract by MGM at the age of sixteen, Turner first attracted attention in They Won't Forget . She played featured roles, often as the ingenue, in such films as Love Finds Andy Hardy...
in The Merry WidowThe Merry WidowThe Merry Widow is an operetta by the Austro–Hungarian composer Franz Lehár. The librettists, Viktor Léon and Leo Stein, based the story – concerning a rich widow, and her countrymen's attempt to keep her money in the principality by finding her the right husband – on an 1861 comedy play,...
and The Bad and The BeautifulThe Bad and the BeautifulThe Bad and the Beautiful is a 1952 MGM melodramatic film that tells the story of a film producer who alienates all around him. It was directed by Vincente Minelli and stars Lana Turner, Kirk Douglas, Walter Pidgeon, Dick Powell, Barry Sullivan, Gloria Grahame and Gilbert Roland. The film was...
, 1952 - Grace KellyGrace KellyGrace Patricia Kelly was an American actress who, in April 1956, married Rainier III, Prince of Monaco, to become Princess consort of Monaco, styled as Her Serene Highness The Princess of Monaco, and commonly referred to as Princess Grace.After embarking on an acting career in 1950, at the age of...
in MogamboMogamboMogambo is a 1953 film directed by John Ford, featuring Clark Gable, Ava Gardner, Grace Kelly and Donald Sinden. The film was adapted by John Lee Mahin from the play by Wilson Collison....
1953 - Lauren BacallLauren BacallLauren Bacall is an American film and stage actress and model, known for her distinctive husky voice and sultry looks.She first emerged as leading lady in the Humphrey Bogart film To Have And Have Not and continued on in the film noir genre, with appearances in The Big Sleep and Dark Passage ,...
in Designing WomanDesigning WomanDesigning Woman is a 1957 romantic comedy about fashion. Vincente Minnelli directed stars Lauren Bacall and Gregory Peck. George Wells won an Academy Award for the screenplay.-Plot:...
, 1957 - Elizabeth TaylorElizabeth TaylorDame Elizabeth Rosemond "Liz" Taylor, DBE was a British-American actress. From her early years as a child star with MGM, she became one of the great screen actresses of Hollywood's Golden Age...
in Cat On A Hot Tin RoofCat on a Hot Tin RoofCat on a Hot Tin Roof is a play by Tennessee Williams. One of Williams's best-known works and his personal favorite, the play won the Pulitzer Prize for Drama in 1955...
1958, and BUtterfield 8BUtterfield 8BUtterfield 8 is a 1960 Metrocolor drama film directed by Daniel Mann, starring Elizabeth Taylor and Laurence Harvey. Taylor, then 28 years old, won an Academy Award for her performance...
, 1960 - Doris DayDoris DayDoris Day is an American actress, singer and, since her retirement from show business, an animal rights activist. With an entertainment career that spanned through almost 50 years, Day started her career as a big band singer in 1939, but only began to be noticed after her first hit recording,...
in Love Me or Leave MeLove Me or Leave Me (film)Love Me or Leave Me is a 1955 biographical film which tells the life story of Ruth Etting, a singer who rose from dancer to movie star. It stars Doris Day as Etting, James Cagney as gangster Martin "Moe the Gimp" Snyder, her first husband and manager, and Cameron Mitchell as pianist/ arranger Myrl...
, 1955 - Grace KellyGrace KellyGrace Patricia Kelly was an American actress who, in April 1956, married Rainier III, Prince of Monaco, to become Princess consort of Monaco, styled as Her Serene Highness The Princess of Monaco, and commonly referred to as Princess Grace.After embarking on an acting career in 1950, at the age of...
in High Society and The Swan, 1956 - Marilyn MonroeMarilyn MonroeMarilyn Monroe was an American actress, singer, model and showgirl who became a major sex symbol, starring in a number of commercially successful motion pictures during the 1950s....
in River of return 1954
Additional info
- 1910 United States Federal Census, Chicago, Cook County, Illinois, Enumeration District 7, Sheet 17, April 22–23, 1910.
- 1920 United States Federal Census, Chicago, Cook County, Illinois, Enumeration District 6, Sheet 10A, January 10, 1920.
- California Death Index on Ancestry.com.