(Not My) Family Photos, Featuring Freida

Hello again, hello again! I've been too busy alternately watching the tv show "Hoarders" and excavating portions of my two costume closets in a resultant state of abject shame to blog lately-- lots and lots of apologies, but at least the good work is being done!

I thought I'd share with you some photos I found the other day while dipping into the many-hour commitment that becomes "looking at other people's family photos online" when you google "Mom 19__". On Thursday, during a particularly slow period at the Nonfiction desk, I tried "Mom 1956" and came up with about a dozen photos of this guy's mom, Freida, from 1956-1959. I wish to goodness I'd saved the url when I was downloading the photos, so you could see all his (very photogenic) family, but I bet if you did the same sort of search you might be able to come across them again.



Does she not look like something out of a movie? I love the strong expression and imprint you get from her in every one of these pictures. To the left, looking fierce in a field somewhere. To the right, far outshining her friend's Village of the Damned perfectly straight coiffure. The loose wave of her hair and glasses like an Oldsmobile's hood ornament really make this photo. THOSE are the kind of glasses I eventually want to replace my Buddy Holly-ish backup frames with... glasses that allow you to spot me a mile away. See the alternating pattern of solid stripes and polka dot stripes in her dress and the lace at the neckline. I love it!



Why so many apples? Pie festival? Chuckwagon business? Note her continually perfect hair and the solid composition of this photo. Reminds me of Fried Green Tomatoes.



I just bought a plaid skirt like this at an estate sale the other day for seventy cents. You don't get much more teenage fashion, late 40's/early 50's than a knife pleated plaid full length skirt. This is the kind of skirt in which I would go on a date with Mickey Rooney--the height difference alone would make for a subplot (and I am a sucker for over the top, showboating cuties, ask the one I'm engaged to). See the split rail fence, and the boy at right who didn't know a picture was being taken. And the car....?



Here, the same dress from the very top of this entry at a closer angle. The fit alone is great, but I like the matched fabric belt and the whimsy little ties at the sleeve's edge. And again with the car at the right... wonder if it was new? New-to-them? Important enough of an outing to take two separate photographs, so it must've been something!



Far ruder things than "closed" have probably been written on this soaped storefront window (in the fine print). The gal in plaid is Grace Kelly thin... if her waist was any smaller, it would probably be concave. I like Freida's bolero necklace and "so what" posture.



Two more great outfits and grim expressions... I wonder what color the gingham in the left's dress was... the prim little collar and ivory buttons are a selling point for me. At right, I wish I had a smaller head so I could pull off a jaunty, back of head beret without looking like an egghead. I also like her tough little leather jacket. I must make an investment on one of those one of these days.




A friend of mine had a collar necklace very similar to this in early high school... just a black choker encrusted in glitter, instead of three strands of rhinestones, but a very similar look. I remember seeing a photo of her in it from the late 90's and thinking how late 90's it looked to me, and then I saw this photo! Guess the collar was more timeless than I'd judged it. At right, Freida's put on a pair of glasses and picked up a cat since the first time you saw her, but is still looking effortlessly cool.



The last photo I saw in the collection of our girl was from the early sixties... look how she'd grown! And a baby to boot! Probably the predecessor of whoever posted these photos. I applaud her couch selection, as lipstick red is an almost unavoidable choice in a lot of my decorating decisions, and see how it goes with the strange, grey patterned carpet. Want. Did you spot the Santas painted on the window? I do love it.

I wish there was more of Freida to share, but again, the photo-logging stopped there. But I'm glad I was able to see them at all! Strangers family photos. Isn't the internet and google image search wonderful? I got such a kick last week out of going over her outfits and backgrounds, hope you did, too. Are you a secret other-people's-family-photo-gawker yourself? Or do you confine yourself to your own relatives?

Til next time!

Loretta! Oh, Loretta.

I spent a good deal of my morning yesterday, while swilling coffee and manning the Ask-a-Librarian chat for the first shift of the day, going through a list of "classic country" karaoke selections for songs basically in my range. While this is not at all outside the realm of possibility for my morning "down time" activities (along with compulsively watching playlists of Amy Sedaris on talk shows, or reading a book on forensic anthropology), there was a specific goal in mind. Bab and I are headed out tonight to a fun little hole-in-the-wall, beer-only bar out near 100 Oaks for a friend's birthday, and knowing the audience might be more receptive to Johnny Cash than Talking Heads, I live to oblige. Last time I was there, I sang the fool out of my favorite, go-to karaoke selection, "Big River"... this time, I wanted to find another sixties' or early 70's country song I was familiar with, and just go to town with it.

So what did I do? I made a 96 song playlist of youtube videos of the original recordings or live performances from the time, and started listening. Only, I didn't get very far, as I got a little hung up on a memory when I saw this gorgeous gal.





The hair! The clothes! And the singular woman holding a guitar and smiling wide as she sings songs about threatening to beat the tar out of a woman who may be stepping out with her man, but is certainly no rival. Vive Loretta!

I read Coal Miner's Daughter when I was "stationed" as a residential Girl Scout counselor for eight weeks the summer between my freshman and sophomore year of college. I picked it up at Music City Thrift in Madison the week before (on a brief, civilian furlough... remind me never to commit to more than a week of outdoor living in the future...?) mainly because I was impressed that a brand new, latest edition copy of it was sitting on the shelf for less than two dollars. Was I riveted? I was riveted. Between explaining to ten year olds that "ladybugs are not poisonous, nor can they sting you" and walking junior troops to and from the archery range/rock climbing wall/kayak station, I fell instantly in love with the down home, conversational tone of the 1976 autobiography, which takes us from Loretta's childhood in rural, Appalachian Kentucky to her marriage, at 13, to Doolittle Lynn, (she had four kids before turning 19!), to her eventual meteoric rise to the title she holds today, "The First Lady of Country Music".

I remembered her as a triptych of herself (in concert), Sissy Spacek as her (in the Oscar winning movie version of LL's autobiography), and Ronee Blakely as "kind of like her" (in Altman's Nashville):



Sky high hair (the higher the hair, the closer to heaven?), chaste full-length formals big on lace and ruffles... that's the Loretta Lynn I usually think of. But look at these great appearances on the Wilburn Brothers show and other country music variety programs in the early and late 1960's! The hair varies in volume, but the clothes! I was sincerely impressed by both the overall look, and the great energy she brought to singing her self-penned songs about a man that just couldn't do right.



My favorite one was hard to get a screen capture of, but here's the best result. Just a plain A-line dress in the sky blue that favors her own light colored eyes, BUT THEN capped off in fingers thick sequins. Bravo, miss.



It's like my A #1 dream dress. And the hair! Sometimes it gets a little out of hand, but for the most part, I love that bubbled, teased into submission mane of both "up-do" and length. I think a serious beehive, or some kind of variation on this helmet, is the next frontier in my toying with my elbow-length hair. I was complaining the other day that I am INCAPABLE of teasing my hair to the proper volume without that it looks weirdly "see-through"... do you know what I mean? The whole point of the hair do is to show off a mountain of thick, luscious hair (and my hair is by no means fine), but I think I might seek both synthetic hair and professional assistance to build this ambitious coiffure. Below... success of the highest order. I know there's lots of rolling and teasing involved... but I'm ready to sign on.



She sticks with the blue and the sequins in different variations for several outfits-- here's a darker shade covered in patterned beading, below. Gorgeous, gorgeous, gorgeous. She has her Scotch-Irish and Cherokee heritage to thank for her dark hair and strong cheekbones... and isn't it a striking sort of face? She doesn't share the conventional prettiness of the 30's movie star she was named after, Loretta Young (who also, on her tv show in the 50's anyway, had a penchant for long, gauzy dresses, come to think of it), but Loretta Lynn does have a very particular look. And that 1,000 watt smile! Which she is not at all hesitant in sharing with her fans.





Also, can we take a moment to consider her two song cycle of "You Ain't Woman Enough" (1966) and "Fist City" (1968)?

Excerpted from the former:

Sometimes a man's caught lookin'

At things that he don't need
He took a second look at you
But he's in love with me
Well, I don't know where that leaves you
Ah, but I know where I stand
And you ain't woman enough
To take my man

Women like you they're a dime a dozen

You can buy 'em anywhere
For you to get to him
I'd have to move over
And I'm gonna stand right here

It'll be over my dead body
So get out while you can
'Cause you ain't woman enough
To take my man



And from the latter:

You've been makin' your brags around town that you've been a lovin' with my man
But the man I love when he picks up trash he puts it in a garbage can
And that's what you look like to me and what I see is a pity
You'd better close your face and stay out of my way
If you don't wanna go to Fist City
If you don't wanna go to Fist City you'd better detour round my town
Cause I'll grab you by the hair of the head and I'll lift you off of the ground
I'm not a sayin' my baby is a saint cause he ain't
And that he won't cat around with a kitty
I'm here to tell you gal to lay off of my man if you don't wanna go to Fist City



I just can't get over the idea that behind those cornflower blue eyes is a SCRAPPER. "Cause I'll grab you by the hair of the head and I'll lift you off of the ground" ?! It paints this great picture of a fierce, unflustered, unashamed woman who might have a cheating husband, but he's HER cheating husband, and if you want to make a move on him, you're going to to have to go through her. The line "You ain't woman enough to take my man"! I just can't say enough about it, so I won't. But what kind of light years is this from the woman in the long dress with the very public breakdown in front of thousands at the apex of her career, which has kind of become shorthand for the whole Coal Miner's Daughter movie? And which is the entire concept of the inspired-by character I mentioned from Nashville? That doesn't seem to be the "real" Loretta Lynn... a much stronger, complex woman stands behind a life story that really does read like a book. It's fascinating.

Below, more great hair, and another red sequined dress.





This hair has gotten a little out of control, but I'm still kind of envious. Note the perfectly geometric shape of it! Almost like a uniform hat of some kind. Did you also know (courtesy of Wikipedia) :

• Although Kitty Wells had become the first major female country vocalist during the 1950s, by the time Lynn recorded her first record, only three other women - Patsy Cline, Skeeter Davis, and Jean Shepard - had become top stars. By the end of 1962, it was clear that Lynn was on her way to becoming the fourth. Lynn credits Cline as her mentor and best friend during those early years, and as fate would have it, Lynn would follow her as the most popular country vocalist of the early 1960s and 1970s.

• Loretta Lynn possibly had more banned songs than any other artist in the history of country music, including "Rated "X"," about the double standards divorced women face, "Wings Upon Your Horns," about the loss of teenage virginity, and "The Pill", lyrics by T. D. Bayless, about a wife and mother becoming liberated via the birth control pill. Her song, "Dear Uncle Sam", released in 1966 during the Vietnam War, describes a wife's anguish at the loss of a husband to war.

See what I mean by being "more than the dress"? Though gosh, aren't the dresses nice. I'm still coveting. Just respectfully coveting.





A softer look, plus more sequins. I wasn't able to get shots of the shoes in most of these, but let it be known that they were usually either matched to the color of the outfit or gold. Wise choices, in my book.




And last but not least, a great, happy looking picture, with her signature, name-tooled guitar strap (you also see photos of her with her name running the length of the guitar neck... STYLE). How could you not like this face?



For more info, check out the 1995 documentary "Honky Tonk Girl" on youtube. And treat yourself to a live version or two of these songs! You really will thank yourself for taking the time. I might not have found a song to do at karaoke tonight (yet), but I did have fun wading around in facts about this country music legend. And now I have to read Still Woman Enough!

Til next time! And have a happy fourth!



(PS: Cutest intro ever above... who is this blue jacketed man? I feel like I ought to know!)

Wedding Dress Blues!

WHY, oh why, fellow vintage lovers, were 1950's and 60's people so small?

As you might have known from a post a couple months ago, I'm still shooting for a November wedding, but gosh, am I dragging my feet on planning. The best I can do lately is to ebay and etsy fantasy shop for dresses, but they are ALL. TOO. SMALL. Oh my goodness, was there no one with a waist circumference bigger than two hands cupped together in the post-war, pre-Nixon era?

I'm not plus-sized, but for a six foot tall gal, my human skeleton is just going to be larger than you reet petites out there... I think I would have to have a rib removed, Victorian corseteers style, to have the 22''-25'' waists a lot of these dresses boast. AND you need an inch or so wiggle room so that you can perform optional tasks, such as walking, eating, or breathing while IN the dress. While I've squeezed myself into modern dress size 5's and 6's (with a free hip measurements... I'm about a modern 12 in fitted-skirt dresses), I would feel very anxious indeed to buy a dress in the $150-$200 range, which I'm *certain* was originally designed for someone four to ten inches shorter than me, on the thin hope that it will fit perfectly.

I thought I'd show you a few of the gems and jewels I've been looking at, for an idea of the heartache and pining involved in searching for "THE dress" outside of David's Bridal (I haven't been, but the prices scare me) and outside of the size 0 to 6. In the end, I hope to poll you, the audience, in search of alternative options. Keeping in mind, of course, that I've probably procrastinated far too long slash am way too cheap to have a dress made for me. Hopeless. I'm a hopeless case!

Gorgeous! Look at the unusual lace banding! This dress is actually a 30'' waist, which is a mite too large, but the problem with that is that the ensuing bustline is 40''. Ay yi yi. I think about how a 5'2'' person in the 1960's, with the measurements 40-30-36, would be a pretty pneumatic lady, which I, admittedly, am not. Bazooms, and the lack thereof, keeps me from properly fitting into these types of dresses, and I think trying to alter them would just make me look a little like I was wearing someone else's clothes. Which, admittedly, is something I do just about every day... but do you ever get something, try it on (or even worse, buy it and take it home only to) then realize whoever was meant to wear it was about the EXACT OPPOSITE of your own size and style? Maybe way taller, maybe way shorter, maybe thinner, maybe super busty, maybe hipless, but at any rate, somehow your polar opposite? I've had this experience after buying things size-unseen (heaped up with $1 finds at estate sales), and boy is it disappointing. I just don't know if I could take that big of a bite on items that are for the most part un-returnable.

Also, definitely looking for that late 50's, full skirt and nipped waist look, but GEE were people's waist NIPPED at the time!

I've been going nuts over these "with bolero" wedding ensembles, or the kind that have a little suit-ish top and then a 50's prom dress under-dress. What a neat idea, above, to put a cotton candy styled dress with a more structured, boxy jacket. You could go from wedding to reception in a few snaps. Below, the same idea with a pretty little lace shrug. I have trouble with the sleeves being long enough, but I'm still holding out for my dream dress with over-generous sleeve allowances. It's possible, by gum, it's possible!

What do you guys think is reasonable for a 50's or 60's wedding dress? I think I'm spoiled by the estate sales to expect price tags between $30 and $100, but $100 seems to be on the lowest of the low end. I've seen some dresses that are "as-is", "for pattern study only" that start at $80. I should've been scrutinizing those darn dresses when I saw them months ago at the sales! As it goes, now that I'm looking I don't see them nearly as much as I was seeing them. Le sigh.

Below, dig the kind of "surprise" pattern in the subtle brocade of the dress, which has an Asian motif to it (close up for a better look, click away!). I have a dress a lot like this, but in color (beige with pale blue and light pink figures) and with a slimmer collar, but I want the white one. Isn't it totally wedding-ready? I terribly, all-the-way love the line on this one.

Below, for that Joanne Whalley in the Scarlett miniseries look... but seriously, how handmade this one looks at the same time as looking totally trashy/sexy romance novel. And I'm so very not above the princess look or 1800's look. But again, to get into this one, I would need some stays. I think this is a 22'' waist. Maybe a rib-ectomy is not so expensive. But seriously! Where do people go for cut-rate alterations? Is it really as expensive and time consuming as people say to do alterations? I'm a mean cross-stitcher, but my talents at sewing are limited to repairwork (unstitched hems, etc). Something this major is beyond my abilities at present.

Another idea, seeing as I'm going semi-traditional but not Emily Post letter perfect, would be to have a pastel or pretty colored lace prom dress, opening up my options from shades of white and off-white. This, with some sort of a contrasting, ruffled shirt on Babu (he already has a Danny Zuko pink one I scored at the Goodwill in east Nashville... you never know what you'll find when you keep digging!), would give everything a nice pop of color that might be different without being too far from the norm. I really want it to have a Donna Reed quality to the whole thing, I can't help myself.

There's pale pink, for the hint of color...

Or, if we're going whole hog, why not robin's egg blue? (I almost bought this dress... it's a 26'' waist... so close. I just think if I want to move around in it at all, it would have to at least be a 27'' or a 28''...)

I saw the prettiest dress on Mary Deluxe at her Deluxeville blog, which was about the color of the dress below. She looked GREAT on her wedding day! Not to mention she found it online at a Goodwill auction site. Jealous bones. :) Isn't that salmon pink just a dream of a color?

Last but not least, in the same vein, an apple-green number. Imagine this was a lot of white crinoline underneath and Matthew in a yellow ruffled tuxedo shirt. YES.

Anyway, just some ideas on wedding finery. I have enough costume jewlery to make Gloria Swanson blush, but no dress! I've been working on this for weeks with no conclusive leads. If you have any super pro wedding tips, please send them my way? Congrats to all you newlyweds and soon-to-be-weds out there in the vintage blogosphere right now, by the way. We seem to be legion! I hope I can shake loose a few recommendations from all those clever minds out there. Keep me in the know!

Postscript:

I think it would be very appropriate to have a bridal-veiled bellydancer at my wedding with projections of the 5th Dimension being played across her gyrating form while "Wedding Bell Blues" is being played... right? Could we at least play this video at the reception?

Til next time.