Nice Girls in History: Getting a Head in the Game

March is Women’s History Month, a time to look back at the contributions women have made in all walks of life, including entertainment. This post is one in a series of features spotlighting women in movies and television who paved the way for today’s women in show business.

Quick! Which woman in motion picture history has won the most Academy Awards? Meryl Streep? No. Katharine Hepburn? Sorry. Wrong again. One more guess. Ingrid Bergman? Nope. This highly acclaimed woman was not an actress, but Edith Head, costume designer. During her more than fifty-year career, she was nominated for a mind-blowing thirty-five Academy Awards, more than any other woman and won eight Oscars.

Edith Head and 7 of her 8 Oscars

Instantly recognizable by her severe haircut and blue-tinted glasses (which she used to help her see how the colored costumes would look on black-and-white film), she was one of the founding professional women in Hollywood. Her career of over fifty years spanned the Golden Age of Hollywood. She designed for such Hollywood luminaries as Grace Kelly, Audrey Hepburn, Bette Davis, and Elizabeth Taylor, to name a few. A favorite of director Alfred Hitchcock’s, she designed for all those fabulous cool blondes Hitchcock was so famous for casting in his movies. Think of the white strapless gown Grace Kelly wore in To Catch a Thief, released in 1955. Ms. Head had the talent, ability and foresight to design that dress to retain the kind of elegance that could be worn fifty years later and not look dated. (It is this author’s opinion that it looks better than most of the gowns worn on any given red carpet today.)

Grace Kelly and her iconic dress

She began her career in Hollywood when she faked her way (she eventually admitted to borrowing sketches to augment own sketch portfolio) into getting a job in the Paramount Pictures costume department in 1924. Beginning as a sketch artist, she eventually became a designer in her own right in the late 1930’s. A workaholic in the truest sense, she worked in at least 750 films; designing costumes for forty films a year during the 1940’s. Her legend grew throughout the 1950’s and 1960’s as she became the go-to designer for some of Hollywood biggest stars, so-much-so that some had it put in their contracts that only Ms. Head could dress them. She was nominated for an Academy Award every year between the years 1949 and 1967 and five more times in the 1970’s. The final film she worked on was released soon after her death in 1981 at the age of 83.

Ms. Head had her detractors; those who said she wasn’t quick to share credit and, on occasion, took credit for other people’s work. It’s also said that she was prickly and difficult to work for. This is not surprising as she made a name for herself as a highly valued executive in the male-dominated Hollywood business world. Be that as it may, she stands out as a true success story: a woman who started with very little and through hard work, tenacity and knowing what she wanted, became a Hollywood legend.

This article was a guest post by writer quistie64.  You can check out her soulful ramblings and awesome brain on Twitter.