When the average film fan thinks of Classic Hollywood costume designers, the one name that stands out is the storied Edith Head.
But before Head became the gold standard of studio-era costume designers, one of her main mentors and champions was Travis Banton. The native Texan not only had a long creative relationship with Marlene Dietrich, but is also the subject of Howard Gutner’s latest book, “Banton of Paramount: Haute Couture in the Golden Age of Hollywood.”
Gunter will not only be going into detail about Banton’s impact on cinema and American pop culture of the 1930s, but will also be showing off the costume designer’s influence by hosting a screening of the 1936 Dietrich dramedy “Desire” at Cinema Arts Center on May 29.
Having already written books on two legendary MGM behind-the-scenes talents—Banton, costume designer, contemporary Adrien, and art department head Cedric Gibbons—Gutner wasn’t necessarily ready to dive into another research-heavy project.
That was until he saw an interview where Banton’s name came up.
“About 10 years ago, I saw an interview with Deborah Nadoolman Landis, who is an Academy Award-nominated costume designer and a film historian who has written several books on Hollywood costumes,” Gutner said. “In the interview, she said there was a book to be written about Travis Banton if somebody wants to do it. It got my mind thinking. He really was one of the major, major costume designers in Hollywood during the ‘30s and ‘40s and nobody really examined his career before. I decided to look into it and started researching it. I got more and more engrossed.”
Armed with a master’s degree in film studies from Northwestern University and a pair of books under his belt (“Gowns By Adrian: The MGM Years: 1928-1941” and “MGM Style: Cedric Gibbons and the Art of the Golden Age of Hollywood”), Gutner was no stranger to exhaustive research.
His latest book on Banton took four years and involved tracking down media from the time, in addition to watching all the films he cites in his writing, which oftentimes was no mean feat.
“Finding the films to watch was a real challenge because you really have to do an exhaustive search,” Gutner said. “Some of them are online—you can go to certain streaming services and find them. A lot of the more obscure titles are not on DVD and some of them are unfortunately lost.
One silent movie [Banton did costume design for], 1926’s Miss Brewster’s Millions starring Bebe Daniels, is a lost film. It doesn’t existanymore and there are a couple of films like that. That was kind of difficult, but I managed to see everything.”
Source: LI Press
