Eddie Schmidt, Hollywood's tailor.

[Frazier Fan]

no Marc, YOU know about those topics.
i seriously doubt there are more than a dozen people in the world who know more about the history of 30s clothing than you. don't feel down about it. you should be proud.

According to George Frazier's great article, "The Art Of Wearing Clothes (Esquire Sept. 1960), Astaire at that time was wearing clothes from Schmidt and Galuppo, as well as shirts and ties from Machin and J.T. Beach,all of California. Of course, Astaires classic suits were by Anderson and Sheppard, and his tails by Kilgour, French and Stanbury.

 

[BeeBopper]

Eddie Schmidt

I have an Eddie Schmidt jacket given to me by my father-in-law, Eddie Schmidt, Jr. If any of you want to ask questions about Eddie Schmidt or 30's clothes, I will pose them to Eddie, Jr. and post the answers. He would agree with you that the styles of the 30's were the best. He also has a great memory though almost no memorabilia.

Not only was Eddie Schmidt considered the best tailor of the time, but he actually never sewed anything at all. He went to Italy in the early part of the last century and brought back the cutters. He had a strong sense of what was stylish and was insistent on his style.

The company made clothes for Vanderbilts, Rockefellers, George Murphy (Seabiscuit's owner) and the Prince of Wales (Edward the 8th) among others and women's clothes as well. The pantsuits that Katherine Hepburn made famous are Eddie Schmidt designs.

Eddie, Jr. is 94. I will see him over Christmas and would be happy to respond to any questions you may have. He has told me the story of how Gable insisted on having Eddie Schmidt make his clothes for Gable in Gone with the Wind. His version tracks closely the Selznick memo which can be found on the Internet though it is a bit more salty.

BeeBopper (New Member)

 

[Mr. Rover]

Matt Deckard, BK, Orgetorix, me, and a few other great guys ... we really do love to share our knowledge about vintage mens clothing and history.


But I wish that the Lounge were attracting more such "historians/experts/teachers" to it. We seem to have fewer vintage menswear "teachers" now than in the past. It's been a long time since I've learned anything new here about vintage suits, etc.


Where are you guys? How can we get you to come over here and post? Teach us, for pete's sake!

.

Ai, I second! Where has everyone gone to?

 

[BeeBopper]

Mr. Rover,

If you ask me the right questions I will get answers from Eddie Schmidt, Jr. He is knowledgeable and opinionated. When Eddie Schmidt Inc. closed in the 1950's, Eddie Schmidt, Jr. would get John Galuppa to make clothes for him and later he used Huntsman in London. He would force the Huntsmen tailors to make jackets in the Eddie Schmidt style.

BeeBopper

 

[Robert Conway]

Marc needs to write a book.


I'd buy a copy.

 

[BeeBopper]

Wiliam Powell's Suits

This is in response to Scotrace’s question (8/10/07) about William Powell’s suits. Eddie Schmidt made this and Powell’s other suits. I showed the picture to my father in law, Eddie Schmidt, Jr. yesterday.

 

[scotrace]

Thanks very much for this. Eddie Schmidt's work was clearly the best to be had.

 

[BeeBopper]

Gable's Clothes - Gone With the Wind

I asked my father in law, Edward R. N. Schmidt, about how his company came to make Clark Gable’s clothes for the Rhett Butler in “Gone With the Wind”. Eddie Schmidt, Inc. made all of Gable’s clothes. Here is the story he related to me.

The first director, George Cukor, had his clothes made at Alexander Oviatts, a haberdasher on the ground floor at the Beverly Wilshire and hired Oviatts to make the costumes for the film. The producer, David O. Selznick, was displeased with Gable’s performance. Gable hated Cukor and the clothes made by Oviatts. Selznick has various memos that have been preserved that describe how disappointed he was with the Rhett Butler costumes and Gable’s uninspired performance to that point. Unfortunately for Selznick a large part of the movie had been shot.

Fed up with Cukor and particularly with Oviatts’s costumes, Gable walked off the set and said, “I’m not interested in Cukor’s directing. I’ll set you in Eddie Schmidt’s office”.

A couple of days later, a meeting was held at the offices of Eddie Schmidt, Inc. at 300 North Rodeo in Beverly Hills , 2nd floor, Men’s Department. Edward R. N. Schmidt, John Galuppo, the head cutter, David Selznick, Myron Selznick, then Hollywood’s biggest agent, Victor Fleming, the new director, and Gable were present.

The discussion centered on Gable’s dissatisfaction with Oviatts. Fleming told David Selznick that if Gable were to have new clothes, he would have to reshoot a lot of the film, in effect, to remake the picture.

“God, that will cost a fortune,” said Selznick.

His brother Myron said, “Keep your mouth shut and I will get you the money.”

Fleming said, “If you do not let me remake the film, I’ll walk down the stairs.” Gable said, “I’ll follow him right down the stairs and you can replace me.”

Edward R. N. remembers that Gable’s clothes cost $23,000 and that Fleming and David S. both had suits made for another $3-4,000 and charged them to the picture.

Eddie Schmidt Inc, made two sets of everything. in case something happened during the filming.

 

[Nashoba]

BeeBopper that is truly fascinating! What a wealth of knowledge you have at your fingertips through your father in law. I hope that you have asked copious amounts of questions and recorded or written down all the responses. I love reading those accounts!

 

[MK]

.

Great post Beebopper. Keep'em coming.

 

[mike]

Yes! Thank you so much for posting here BeeBopper!

 

[cookie]

Fleming and David S. both had suits made for another $3-4,000 and charged them to the picture.

Look at the price ! This is 1939 right? That is the price they charged for 2 x bespoke suits... He sure was some tailor.

Great anecdote BeeBopper keep 'em coming!

 

[BeeBopper]

Prince of Wales

Edward VIII, the Prince of Wales who abdicated the throne of England, stayed with Douglas Fairbanks in the middle 1920’s. Edward R. N. Schmidt, son of Eddie Schmidt, was about 12 at the time, and told the following story by his father.

Schmidt took his cutters in his Cadillac sedan or Packard to give the Prince a fitting at the Fairbanks house and Eddie Schmidt, Inc. made him a jacket and a “Dinner Suit” which we call a Tuxedo or Black Tie today. It was called a “Dinner Suit” then and a “Dinner Jacket” when I lived in England in the mid 70’s. This Dinner Suit was a one-button double breasted with wide lapels in the Eddie Schmidt style.

The story goes that when the Prince later wore it at a dinner party in England he was asked what Savile Row tailor had made the suit. He said, “None of them” and pulled the jacket open to show the Eddie Schmidt label.

The story continues that not long afterwards Savile Row tailors copied the style starting with the single button.

 

[Shaul-Ike Cohen]

Interesting story.

On a side note, I didn't know this was ever actually called a "dinner suit". I thought this expression was and is an always-anew ad-hoc improvisation, while the traditional British expression is "a dinner [short puzzled pause] jacket [second, slightly longer pause] with matching trousers".

(Or more seriously, either simply "dinner jacket" or if there's a point in it "dinner jacket and matching trousers".)

 

[BeeBopper]

A Bit of History

The picture I am using as avatar on the left is, in fact, Eddie R. N. Schmidt, shot at Sun Valley in 1939. Eddie R. N. was a good skier, but great tennis player where he was put in matches with some of the greats in the 30's, Don Budge, for example.

There are many who would take the position that from the early 1920’s through the early 1950’s Eddie Schmidt, Inc. was the most stylish tailor in the world. Since this is a matter of taste, it is arguable; however, no one would dispute that the company was at the very pinnacle of fashion during this period, well appreciated by the other great tailors in London and Rome.

In 1894 Eddie Schmidt took over a clothing store located at about 1st and Los Angeles Street because the owners could not pay the rent. Only 20 years old Eddie Schmidt took over the entire business that included one cutter. Two years later he moved to 4th and Broadway and the business began to flourish.

In 1915 he moved the business to 714 West 7th Street where it took off, tracking the growth of the motion picture industry. Eddie Schmidt imported Eric Bloom, a superb cutter from Sweden. In 1930, he built a 4-story building at 17 South Flower Street. He rented the 1st and 2nd floors and kept the 3rd floor for the Women’s department and 4th and penthouse for the Men’s.

In 1935 Eddie sold the building and rented 300 North Rodeo Drive (now the site of Van Cleef and Arpels) for $600/month on a 15-year lease. The company had over 100 employees at this time. During this time he also acquired his famous cutter, John Galuppo. In 1939 Eddie was killed in a car accident. His 25-year-old son, Eddie R.N. Schmidt, took over the business.

By the arrival of the movie industry the company had developed its distinctive style – double breasted suits and dinner suits, single breasted jackets with 2 buttons, flaps with side vents. Eddie R. N. Schmidt believes that his father’s interaction with numerous English and Italian tailors and cutters formed the foundation for the development of the style.

Some of the earliest actors to hire Eddie Schmidt were Adolph Menjou, considered by many to be the best-dressed man in the country, Douglas Fairbanks, Sr and Jr. and William Powell. In the late 1920’s the company set up an office at MGM shortly followed by offices at Fox and then Paramount. The company was usually 2-3 months behind in deliveries, but also gave priority to the studios. Producers and directors sent their actors to the company to make sure they were well dressed both on and off the screen. Eddie Schmidt had more stars for whom it provided clothes than any other tailor. The studios not only had the company design clothes for the pictures, but also for life off the screen. The studios paid for all the clothes.

There were numerous actors who wore Eddie Schmidt clothes – Gable, Cooper, Robert Montgomery, Ronald Coleman, Conrad Nagel, Franchot Tone, Victor McGlaglen (his son Andy was best man at Eddie R. N.’s wedding), Lawrence Olivier, Reginald Denny, Tryone Power, Basil Rathbone, Orson Welles, Jimmy Stewart, Bing Crosbyf, Joseph Cotton, Robert Taylor, Spencer Tracy, Charlie Chaplin, John Wayne, Fred Astaire, Groucho Marx, Jimmy Stewart and Alan Ladd, to name a few. Also, actresses – Garbo, Dietrich, Carole Lombard, Gloria Swanson and Katherine Hepburn. Eddie R.N., who was a good looking guy at 25, told me that Marlene Dietrich threw her arms around him more than once, saying “Oh, to be young.”


Studio heads, LB Mayer (MGM) and Sam Goldwyn (United Artists) were customers as were other prominent figures outside the industry – the Prince of Wales, Ernest Hemingway, Joseph Kennedy, Maharajah of Indor, Whitneys, Vanderbilts, DuPonts, Wanamakers, Mellons, Weyerhaeuser, Walter Chrysler.

The statue of Will Rogers in the U.S. Capitol shows Will wearing an Eddie Schmidt suit. Eddie R. N. told me that he escorted Will’s daughter, Mary, to occasional functions in Beverly Hills. He recounted a time when he escorted her to an opening of a Charlie Chaplin movie. He showed up in a yellow 120 Packard convertible. “Boy, we had that covered.” Rogers was just back from Argentina and made a special effort to show Eddie R.N. his new “Gaucho room”. Will forbid Mary to wear lipstick. Right after she and Eddie R.N. drove away, however, Eddie R.N. pulled over and she put it on.

 

[Matt Deckard]

I do wish a lot of the pics from this thread had survived.

 

[Oldsarge]

So do I! Good to see you again, Matt, and the people at the SoCoast Plaza Allen Edmonds send their regards. Any chance of a LA Tweed Night this year?

 

[herringbonekid]

The apathetic majority around here didn't deserve 'em.

Marc/Paul/Chowderhouse; if the FL doesn't deserve your photos, why do you continue to grace it with your presence ?

 

[Two Types]

Exactly: rather than antagonise some people, why not just concentrate on informing those who among us who are genuinely interested inlearning from what you know and sharing with you what we know? There are plenty of us out here who aren't apathetic.

 

[Mario]

Some occurences here are really beginning to grate my nerves. History obviously repeats itself - not as tragedy but as farce...