59th STREET BRIDGE CENTENNIAL AND NEW "MYSTERY ACTRESS" TO GUESS THE IDENTITY OF!

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Right outside our windows is the entrance to the Queensboro Bridge, otherwise known as the 59^th Street Bridge. (Who remembers Simon and Garfunkel 1966 "The 59th Street Bridge Song (Feelin' Groovy)" homage?) For those non-New Yorkers, it’s a two-level span that begins in Queens at Queens Plaza and crosses the East River and Roosevelt Island (known as Blackwell’s Island at the time the bridge was built), landing in Manhattan by, of course, 59^th Street. You can walk over it.

The end of May will mark the 100^th anniversary of our bridge (I have assumed a proprietary adoption of it since I cross it every day to and from work and we have a view of it from our windows), which started construction in 1901 and was completed in 1909.

Over the years the design evolved. The lower roadway once held trolley lines and the upper level had rail tracks, pedestrian and vehicular lanes. The elevated train tracks were removed in 1942 and by 1958, all trolley service had ceased. Now there are only vehicular lanes with a pedestrian & bicycle walkway on the north part of the lower level.

The last weekend in May this year marks a week of celebration with parades over the bridge, fireworks, marching bands, tours, lectures and performances. Join us for the festivities!

On another note, we DO have a sales rack, and we thought we would show you cute pictures of some of our purchased items on actresses that will be wearing them for the Boston Lyric Opera’s updated 1950’s production of ‘Don Giovanni”

Our last “name that actress” contest on our Facebook page (see our Blog entry below - it is Blythe Danner!) was so popular that we decided to have another contest, so here is the mystery actress. This one will be more difficult, so we had included 2 mystery shots!

Guess the identity of this actress either here or on our Facebook page!

MYSTERY ACTRESS & HELEN'S FIRST PUBLISHED ARTICLE!

Just a quick note to let our readers know that Helen, aside from writing the blog, keeping up with our Facebook page, overseeing the website and running a business (whew!), has also written her first published article this week. The original article, as written, is a bit longer and more New York-centric, and we will publish it in its entirety in several weeks. It is about the craziness Helen encountered when she was told her building was to be torn down and had to move the business within months! Some of our great reviews in the "comments" section: "Smart, stubborn, and with an outrageous sense of humor… all the same qualities she uses to cope with Hollywood and Seventh Avenue!" "great article... I’m so happy it all worked out and one of the City’s gems was saved. Way to go Helen!" "Great article! What an amazing NY story. So glad Helen is still renting - we need her!" "This is a terrific article. It’s compellingly written, uplifting, and, ultimately redemptive. I have the great honor of knowing Helen. As you can glean from the piece, she is a woman of great integrity, both personally and professionally. I look forward to reading more from her on your site in the future." Check out the terrific women's online periodical called Women's Voices for Change, chockful of interesting articles and fabulous writers. http://womensvoicesforchange.org/reinvention-via-real-estate-or-how-i-kept-the-movies-and-tv-well-clothed-despite-landlords-who-kept-saying-so-sorry.htm In other news:

We have been busy getting ready for a movie, with fittings here at our shop. We respect the privacy of our actors and actresses so we will post the REAR shots of the starring actress so you can admire our clothes and venture a guess as to who the actress might be!

Catch any 1920's ghosts flitting about in " The Haunting in Connecticut"? They are clothed by us!

APRIL 1ST NEWS - (NO KIDDING!)

Helen at her desk..caught by surprise!

The New York production industry is worried about projects leaving us since the demise of the New York Tax Credit program, but we hope the small, capped reprieve we just got will be further extended and lure shows back to our great city!

Our projects:

Currently, we are renting 1950’s clothes to a docudrama called “Howl”, about the 1957 trial dealing with Allen Ginsberg’s poem

Our two Kristens drinking Mexican refrescas

of the same name. Originally a performance piece, it was published by Lawrence Ferlinghetti (another well-known “beat poet”) of City Lights Books, who was arrested and charged with obscenity for its publication.

We are just finishing up on the film “Extra Man”, based on the Jonathan Ames book of the same name and costumed by Suttirat Larbarb (who designed “Slumdog Millionaire”). It is a contemporary film with an “elderly eccentric” (played by Kevin Kline) who escorts wealthy Upper East Side women to society events, and his young disciple who fancies himself a fan of F. Scott Fitzgerald, ergo our 1920’s through 1950’s rented clothes! Our photography and costume design clients need to keep in touch with their productions....thank goodness for the cell phone!

We are also doing a contemporary movie in Mississippi, providing distressed workmen clothes to the two actors who came in for fittings. The movie is yet unnamed. As an aside, Woody Allen’s early films were also never named until the last minute, so all our work on them was invoiced with “Fall Project 1988”,” Fall Project 1999”, etc. We call this current film “Untitled Mississippi Project”….we will let you know the true title as soon as we discover it!

In March we did a Saturday Night Live Seabiscuit skit starring the guest host, Dwayne “The Rock” Johnson, who played an enormous jockey!

The Irene Sharaff award winners

We are readying ourselves for some large period projects: a 1911 film to be shot in Cape Cod and a huge HBO mini-series taking place around the time of the early 1920’s of Atlantic City.

Helen also went to the annual Theater Development Fund Irene Sharaff Awards, which brought costume designers from all over to honor their own. William Ivey Long was awarded the Lifetime Achievement Award, presented by director Jerry Zaks. “Lifetime Achievement” seems to imply that one has finished accomplishing all that one can……but since William is still young and still designing prolifically, we prefer to think of the award as a “½-lifetime achievement”!

Welcome back from Russia, Masha!!! ( and thank you for the yummy chocolates!)