Rose, Helen (1904–1985)

American costume designer. Born on February 2, 1904, in Chicago, Illinois; died in Palm Springs, California, in November 1985; daughter of William Bromberg and Ray (Bobbs) Bromberg; attended Chicago Academy of Fine Arts; married Harry Rose, on December 28, 1929; children: one daughter, Judy Rose.

Selected filmography:

Hello Frisco Hello (1943); Coney Island (1943); Stormy Weather (1943); Ziegfeld Follies (1945); The Harvey Girls (1946); Till the Clouds

Roll By (1947); Good News (1947); Homecoming (1948); Act of Violence (1949); Take Me Out to the Ball Game (1949); Father of the Bride (1950); Annie Get Your Gun (1950); Three Little Words (1950); Summer Stock (1950); The Toast of New Orleans (1950); The Great Caruso (1951); The Belle of New York (1952); The Merry Widow (1952); The Bad and the Beautiful (1952); The Story of Three Loves (1953); Dream Wife (1953); Mogambo (1953); Executive Suite (1954); Rhapsody (1954); Rose Marie (1954); The Glass Slipper (1955); I'll Cry Tomorrow (1955); Interrupted Melody (1955); Love Me or Leave Me (1955); The Tender Trap (1955); Bedevilled (1955); High Society (1956); The Power and the Prize (1956); The Opposite Sex (1956); The Swan (1956); Tea and Sympathy (1956); Designing Woman (1957); Silk Stockings (1957); Cat on a Hot Tin Roof (1958); The Gazebo (1959); Butterfield 8 (1960); The Courtship of Eddie's Father (1963); Goodbye Charlie (1964); Mister Buddwing (1966); How Sweet It Is (1968).

One of Hollywood's most renowned costume designers, Helen Rose was born in Chicago in 1904 and studied at the Chicago Institute of Fine Arts. Following a move to Los Angeles in 1929, she designed costumes for nightclubs and for Fanchon and Marco's Ice Follies for many years. Her first film designs were for three Fox musicals: Hello Frisco Hello, Coney Island, and Stormy Weather (all 1943), after which she moved to MGM, where she remained for the next three decades.

During her career, Rose was nominated for ten Academy Awards and won the coveted statue for The Bad and the Beautiful (1952) and I'll Cry Tomorrow (1955), the story of Lillian Roth . Although she costumed some of Hollywood's most beautiful leading ladies, including Elizabeth Taylor , Lana Turner , and Grace Kelly , Rose gained more notoriety as the designer of Kelly's wedding dress for her marriage to the prince of Monaco in 1956 than for any of her movie designs. The recognition helped her establish a successful fashion business after her retirement from films in the late 1960s. The designer died in 1985.

sources:

Katz, Ephraim. The Film Encyclopedia. NY: Harper-Collins, 1994.

Leese, Elizabeth. Costume Design in the Movies. NY: Dover, 1991.

Barbara Morgan , Melrose, Massachusetts