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Legendary Oscar Winning Costume Designer Charles Le Maire Rare Photos & Documents

Currency:USD Category:Memorabilia / Movie - Memorabilia Start Price:50.00 USD Estimated At:600.00 - 800.00 USD
Legendary Oscar Winning Costume Designer Charles Le Maire Rare Photos & Documents
Legendary Oscar Winning Costume Designer Charles Le Maire Rare Photos & Documents - This remarkable recently discovered treasure chest of rare and astonishing memorabilia comes from the private collection and Estate of Charles Le Maire, the legendary three-time Oscar© winner (and 13 Oscar© nominations) costume designer, considered the most influential and innovative costume designer in Hollywood History. In his fifty year career he designed costumes for over 300 films including “The Seven Year Itch”, “All About Eve”, "Love Is a Many-Splendored Thing", "How to Marry a Millionaire", "Miracle on 34th Street", “ “Viva Zapata”, "An Affair to Remember", “The Day The Earth Stood Still” “Gentlemen Prefer Blondes” and “The Robe”, as well as creating original gowns for over 100 of the most famous actresses, celebrities, as well as the world’s Royalty and VIP’s. Le Maire was well known for keeping virtually all of his personal papers and original costume designs, sketches, paintings, artwork and drawings in beautifully designed clear protective sleeves, set into custom made notebooks and portfolios to insure their lasting mint condition. This set of three notebooks is from that famous collection. The first book is a fascinating foray into the celebrated life of Le Maire from the 1940’s to the 1960’s, a time that is considered Hollywood’s “Golden Era”. It includes over 80 pieces of amazing memorabilia, including the famous original studio memos of 20th Century Fox’s president Darryl F. Zanuck as well as producer David O. Selznick. In these confidential memos to Le Maire they discuss such subjects as the personal difficulties and ego battles (including sudden weight gain) of such stars as Bette Davis, Anne Baxter, Marilyn Monroe, Gene Simmons, Gene Tierney, from in such classic productions as “All About Eve”, “The Snows of Kilimanjaro” and “The Egyptian”. Also included are extremely intimate handwritten letters, telegrams and notes from dozens of Le Maire’s actress clients and close Hollywood friends such as Loretta Young, Luella Persons, Joan Collins, Jennifer Jones, Leslie Caron, Gary Cooper, Hope Lang, Dana Wynter, Diana Shore, Elia Kazan, Irene Dunne, Terry Moore, Julie Harris, plus Oscar© winning costume designers that Le Maire discovered and mentored like Edith Head, Andre Sherri, Leah Rhodes, and Oleg Cassini. It also includes fascinating confidential studio legal documents, motion picture contracts and cancelled checks, Le Maire’s personal WW I Military documents and much, much more. The second book is filled with rare one-of-kind production photos, all beautifully preserved, including photos of Le Maire at work at his studio office (some autographed), at his "home" at 20th Century Fox Studios; personal Oscar© photos of Le Maire with his costumed stars; camera costume tests with such stars as Deborah Kerr, Virginia Maples, Joan Collins, Betty Garble, Jennifer Jones, Leslie Caron, Zsa Zsa and Eva Gabor, Greer Garson, Joanne Woodward; and designs for Marilyn Monroe. Virtually all the photos have handwritten personal notes by Le Maire. The third book contains over100 extremely rare studio photos, professional studio portraits, behind the scene production photos, personal costume snapshots, negatives and slides going all the way back to 1935, showing such stars in Le Maire costumes as Alice Faye and Susan Hayward plus never before seen photos of Jayne Mansfield from costumes he created for her infamous Command Performance in London in 1957 and her from her most controversial outfit that he designed for her in “The Girl Can’t Help It.” (1956). Note that this description only scratches the surface of these three astonishing books of classic memorabilia!