Theoni V. Aldredge, Costume Designer, Dies at 88 - NYTimes.com.
Sara Krulwich/The New York Times
Barbara Matera, left, actress Kelli O’Harra, center, and costume designer Theoni V. Aldredge, right, at Barbara Matera Ltd.
Costumer Theoni V. Aldredge Dies at 78
By Frank Nestor
January 21, 2011
 |
|
"The Great Gatsby," 1974
|
She was born on Aug. 22, 1932, as Theoni Athanasiou Vachlioti, in Salonika, Greece. Her father, Athanasios, was an army general and politician. Her mother, Meropi, died when she was 5 years old. Upon seeing the 1946 film version of "Caesar and Cleopatra," Aldredge was inspired to become a costume designer, and she subsequently studied at the American School in Athens. Her father encouraged her to travel, and she immigrated to the United States in 1949 to attend Chicago's Goodman Theatre on a design scholarship.
She married actor Tom Aldredge in 1953, and the two moved to New York City. Her first Broadway job came in 1959, creating costumes for Tennessee Williams' "Sweet Birth of Youth," starring Geraldine Page. In 1961 Aldredge worked on a New York Shakespeare Festival production of "Much Ado About Nothing," which began her long partnership with producer Joseph Papp. For 20 years she was the festival's principal designer.
In 1974 producer David Merrick hired Aldredge to create the 1920s wardrobe for his film of "The Great Gatsby," for which she won an Academy Award. Three years later Aldredge won her first Tony Award, for her designs for the musical "Annie." She went on to receive two more Tonys, for the musicals "Barnum" (1980) and "La Cage aux Folles" (1983). Aldredge became known for her opulent costumes, large budgets, and love of the color pale lavender. Over the course of her career she created the wardrobes for more than 300 film and stage productions, including the original productions of "Dreamgirls" "42nd Street," and "A Chorus Line," as well as the Arthur Laurents–directed 1989 revival of "Gypsy," starring Tyne Daly.
Indeed, Aldredge was Laurents' go-to designer, first working with him on Broadway in the early 1960s on "I Can Get It for You Wholesale" and "Anyone Can Whistle" and continuing through 1991's "Nick & Nora." Later on they worked together Off-Broadway on 1995's "The Radical Mystique" at Manhattan Theatre Club and Lincoln Center's 2000 revival of "The Time of the Cuckoo," and furthered their collaboration at New Jersey's George Street Playhouse on such plays as "Jolson Sings Again" (1999), "Claudia Lazslo" (2001), "Attacks on the Heart" and "The Vibrator" (both in 2003), and "Two Lives" (2005), as well as the 2004 revival of Laurents' Tony-winning musical "Hallelujah, Baby!"
In 2002 Aldredge received an Irene Sharaff Lifetime Achievement Award. Her final Broadway credit was the 2006 revival of "A Chorus Line."
She is survived by her husband and her immense influence on the field of costume design. There will be no memorial service. Her ashes will be taken to Greece
SOURCE: http://www.backstage.com/bso/news-and-features-news/costumer-theoni-v-aldredge-dies-at-78-1004139992.story
Phyllis K. Robinson, Who Broke Ground in Copywriting, Dies at 89 - NYTimes.com.
Eddie Hausner/The New York Times
Phyllis Robinson, in 1968, worked on many memorable ads.
Robinson, Phyllis K. (1921-2011)
Published: September 15, 2003
Phyllis K. Robinson was born in New York on Oct. 22, 1921. She majored in sociology at Barnard College and graduated with a bachelor of arts degree in 1942. When she left school, she took a job as a statistician for the Federal Public Housing Authority in New York. In 1944, she married Richard G. Robinson, a Harvard University student who was drafted soon after their marriage; over the next two years, she followed him from post to post, working six different jobs.
Two of those jobs provided advertising experience. The first was as a junior copywriter for Methodist Publishing Co. in Nashville, where she wrote ads for publications targeted to ministers. The second job was as a reporter covering fashion in Miami for Women's Wear Daily.
In 1945, Ms. Robinson and her husband moved to New York, where she took a job as executive editor of the Tobe Fashion Report for the Tobe Coburn School for Fashion Careers. In 1946, her husband returned to Harvard to finish his studies, and she got her first agency job as a copywriter for Bresnick & Solomont in Boston.
In 1947, the couple moved back to New York, and Ms. Robinson took a job at Grey Advertising working on women's sales promotions. The agency's copy chief, Bill Bernbach, recognized her writing talent and had her transferred to the copy department.
In 1949, Mr. Bernbach and Ned Doyle left Grey and, along with Maxwell Dane, who owned his own small agency, opened Doyle Dane Bernbach. Mr. Bernbach invited Ms. Robinson to join them, and she became not only the first copywriter at the agency but also the first female agency copy chief in U.S. advertising history. Among Ms. Robinson's first accounts at DDB were Orbach's department store, which moved to the new shop from Grey, and Henry S. Levy & Sons, a Jewish bakery in Brooklyn.
For Levy's, Ms. Robinson wrote a radio commercial with a little boy asking for "Wevy's cimminum waisin bwed." The spot, one of the first radio efforts to use humor effectively, caught the attention of New Yorkers and greatly raised Levy's profile there. Soon Levy's was a market leader in New York with another of its products, Jewish rye bread.
Other major accounts that Robinson worked on included Polaroid Corp., tackling people's perceptions that the instant camera was merely a gimmick, and the Chemstrand Corp. hosiery account, for which she wrote, "A lady's not dressed unless her legs are, too."
Ms. Robinson, who was promoted to VP in 1956, quit as copy chief when her daughter was born in 1962. She switched to working three days a week and continued working part time at the agency until she retired to open a consultancy in 1982.
In 1968, Ms. Robinson became the eighth person inducted into the Advertising Writers Association of New York's Copywriters Hall of Fame.
In addition to copywriting, Ms. Robinson helped mentor many up-and-coming advertising talents at the agency, including Mary Wells. She was also involved in public-service efforts, was a member of the creative review board of the Media-Advertising Partnership for a Drug-Free America and a founding member of Ads Against AIDS.
Biography
Born in New York, Oct. 22, 1921; graduated with bachelor of arts degree, Barnard College, 1942; hired as copywriter, Bresnick & Solomont, Boston, 1946; joined Grey Advertising, New York, 1947; joined launch team of Doyle Dane Bernbach as copy chief, becoming first female copy chief in U.S. advertising, 1949; promoted to VP, 1956; inducted into Copywriters Hall of Fame, 1968; retired from DDB, 1982.
SOURCE: http://adage.com/article?article_id=98857
Kim Hill, Inspiration for Ronald McDonald House, Dies at 44
