ORRY KELLY: DRESSING HOLLYWOOD @ AUSTRALIAN CENTRE FOR THE MOVING IMAGE

Orry-Kelly-and-Ava-Gardner-behind-the-scenes-in-One-Touch-of-Venus-1948.-Image-credit-United-Artists-Photofest
Orry-Kelly-and-Ava-Gardner-behind-the-scenes-in-One-Touch-of-Venus-1948. (C)-United-Artists-Photofest

There are a select few Australians who have made it in Hollywood. Hugh Jackman, Nicole Kidman, Russell Crowe…But what about those who work behind the scenes? We rarely hear about those who have successful careers behind the camera. There’s film editor Richard Francis-Bruce, (The Shawshank Redemption, Lorenzo’s Oil, The Perfect Storm, Harry Potter and the Philosopher’s Stone). Cinematographer John Seale, (Witness, Rain Man, Dead Poet Society, The English Patient.) Animator Adam Elliot, (Harvie Krumpet). But mention the name, Orry- Kelly, and many people will plead ignorance.

This is a shame as many of us will have unknowingly seen his work as a costume designer in some of the best known films ever made: The Oklahoma Kid, The Maltese Falcon, Casablanca, An American in Paris and the perennial favourite, Some Like It Hot.            

Now an exhibition showcasing and celebrating the life and creative legacy of Orry-Kelly is being held at The Australian Centre for the Moving Image (ACMI) at Federation Square in Melbourne: Orry-Kelly: Dressing Hollywood. This exhibition, which features many items including the original dresses, fabric samples, drawings, telegrams, memos, clips from the films on the screen of the actresses wearing the costumes, even the Oscars that Orry won are on display.

Australia’s most successful Hollywood costume designer was born in Kiama, New South Wales in 1897 as Orry George Kelly. The son of a gentleman tailor, he fell in love with the arts from an early age, and as a young man studied art, acting and dancing.

At 25, Kelly left home and moved to New York, hoping to become an actor. His first job was painting murals in nightclubs which soon led him to work as a title illustrator at 20th Century Fox.

Moving to Hollywood in 1932, Orry-Kelly was hired by Warner Bros. as their chief costume designer and he remained there until towards the end of World War 2. He then went on to work as a costume designer at some of the other major Hollywood studios including Universal, RKO, 20th Century Fox, and MGM.

In a career stretching over 40 years and over 300 films, he won three Academy Awards for Best Costume Design (for An American in Paris, Cole Porter’s Les Girls, and Some Like It Hot). Until being overtaken by Catherine Martin (ironically another costume designer) in 2014, he was Australia’s most prolific Oscar winner. Orry-Kelly died aged 67 in 1964 from liver cancer.

He designed the clothes worn by some of the most beautiful leading actresses of the Golden Age of Hollywood including Ingrid Bergman, Bette Davis, Katharine Hepburn, Marilyn Monroe and Natalie Wood. He had good friendships with all of his ‘subjects’.

Multiple award winning Australian film director Gillian Armstrong had the difficult task of researching and finding as much original material to showcase in the exhibition as well as  for her documentary about Kelly’s life, Women I’ve Undressed, which will screen at the ACMI from September 5 to November 28.

The film is based on a memoir written by Kelly which was only discovered last year in a pillow case by his great niece and inspired the book also titled Women I’ve Undressed.

Nearly four years has been spent collecting costumes, memos, letters and visiting countless archives, museums and film studios around the world to put together the exhibition. Some of the costumes were easier to find including a dress worn by Mitzi Gaynor in Les Girls, for which Kelly won his second Oscar, which was owned by a costume collector in Brisbane.

At the exhibition’s launch Gillian Armstrong told the audience that she wanted to showcase and celebrate a wonderful and long career of a man who stood in the shadows of the Hollywood limelight and not just of the actresses who wore his dresses.

Armstrong believes that costume design is a very underrated art. “To think that Orry was considered one of the best costume designers in the world and that people are still looking at his films and looking online at pictures of his various costumes is something that we should be incredibly proud of,” she said.

People of all age will love and appreciate the Orry-Kelly exhibition as they enter this time capsule of Hollywood’s Golden Age.

ORRY-KELLY: DRESSING HOLLYWOOD is on exhibition at the Australian Centre For The Moving Age at Federation Square Melbourne until January 27, 2016, Admission is free.