I did two color posts in a row; how did that happen? Let's get back to the '30s, where the financial analysts of today get all their Depression predictions from. One hopes it won't take another one of those to usher in a new period of mega fox fashion in Hollywood. Fortunately, the 1933 Katharine Hepburn film Morning Glory provides a couple of enormous fox furs in case they need an example.
Morning Glory – The Film
Adapted from the play “Zoe Adkins” by Howard j. Green, Morning Glory tells the tale of Eva Lovelace, a young actress with aspirations of becoming a Broadway star but little in the way of experience. After being passed over in auditions, she meets Adolphe Menjou, playing a theatre coach who agrees to give her a few pointers on the whole “acting” thing. Back when this wasn't wholly cliché, Eva ends up going from bit part to star when the leading lady throws a tantrum and quits.
Morning Glory – The Furs
Eva tries to break into Broadway by going to auditions. Unfortunately, more experienced and better-dressed actresses are there ahead of her. Geneva Mitchell as Gwendoline Hall relaxes in this large fox stole and muff combo when noticing Eva in the waiting room.
Eva's attempts to chat up Gwendoline aren't well received. This closeup of Geneva in the fox stole is excellent.
Gwendoline finishes up her audition and meets Rita Vernon on the way out. Rita is played by Mary Duncan and wears a nice chinchilla jacket and muff.
Rita and Gwendoline appear delighted to meet one another at the same audition.
But they are actresses, after all…
Rita secures the lead role in the play and provides us this nice closeup of the collar of her chinchilla jacket in the process.
We move to the end of the film after Rita walks out and Eva becomes the star. Since Katharine Hepburn never really faded from the public eye like many of the screen legends of her day, it's sometimes hard to picture her when she became famous. This is Katharine Hepburn, at age 26, wearing an enormous white fox wrap.
The white fox fur wrap is technically just white fox trimmed, but the trim is that lovely enormous kind that makes the golden sequined body of the wrap a mere distraction to the thick, fluffy fur.
Hepburn in close up, face surrounded by a white fox. Screen legend, indeed. She won her first Oscar for this role, and I think the white fox may have helped.
From a fur fashion perspective, Morning Glory is an uneven film. It starts with Geneva and Mary in their audition furs and drys up until Katherine appears at the end in that massive white fox fur wrap. The nice thing about the wrap is Miss Hepburn spends the remainder of the film wearing it. The final scene plays out backstage after her triumphant turn in the starring role and lasts a good five to ten minutes.