The Beauty of Women in Furs on Film and Television
Barbara Stanwyck - The Mad Miss Manton, 1938
Sure, you’ve seen it before, but it’s a really nice shot of one of the most “famous” furs in silver screen history. This is the fur with top billing in a film with a very crowded marquee, perfectly deployed upon the shoulders of the lovely Miss Stanwyck.
I found this in a (very well named) set from Flickr, collected by a fetching lady with very fine taste in furs: Hollywood Fur Glamor
Posting has been a little thin in these, the dog days of summer. Not that that’s an actual excuse, mind you, just sounds nice. In any case, I think this one may be a little popular. My stats are clear on one thing, readers like color, and readers love the 80’s. Hey I love both too, just a little trickier getting 80’s furs here, at least with televised sources. Which leads me to this, which isn’t from a televised source at all. They didn’t turn out as well as I’d hoped, but I’ll try refining my technique over time.
Not to say that Moonlighting wasn’t televised, it certainly was, and I watched it. The story of a down-on-her-luck model/actress (Cybill Shepherd) with only one remaining source of income, a detective agency she didn’t know she had, and the rather free spirited guy (Bruce Willis) who ran the place solo until she showed up. Romantic tension abounded, cases were solved, and some very innovative television appeared from time to time. Then the writers screwed it all up. But that was season 3 and 4, and so my annoyance with the show shouldn’t be much of an issue here.
While the monetary woes of Madeline “Maddie” Hayes drove her to a day job at a detective agency, little about her home, and, most importantly, her wardrobe, suggested she was in any real financial trouble. No, Maddie generally looked the part of a model/actress, and she certainly didn’t have to sell her furs to make ends meet. Oh, what furs they were…
“Gunfight at the So-So Corral”
This episode introduces us to the full length amber fox coat that receives quite a bit of screen time in this and another episode. It’s the coat that ends up in the credit sequence for Cybill Shepherd in later seasons.
This episode provides two fairly long sequences for the fox coat, which is, like every fur Maddie wears, a poster child for 80’s mega fox.
There’s a few good close shots of it as well.
Fur Runtime: 3:55
“Read the Mind… See the Movie”
Up next is this equally ravishing crystal fox.
Like the previous episode, the coat is given quite the display, clocking in at nearly 3 minutes, with some great wide shots.
And closer shots as Maddie argues with David later. Them, arguing? I’m shocked!
Fur Runtime: 2:41
“Next Stop, Murder”
The full length amber fox fur coat is back, and, if you didn’t get enough of it in “Gunfight at the So-So Corral,” then “Next Stop, Murder” will help you out… a lot.
The coat clocks in at about 8 minutes of screen time, almost a fifth of the episode.
She wears it dangling from her shoulders most of that time, as we’re treated to it from most every angle and width of shot.
Multiple close ups provide very nice views of Miss Shepherd’s face framed by the fur.
Fur Runtime: 7:30
“Brother, Can You Spare a Blonde?”
Season two starts off fairly light, with what may be the crystal fox coat seen in “Read the Mind… See the Movie” in a confined driving shot.
The coat is only seen twice, once when she’s driving, once when she’s a passenger. Not all that great an episode by any stretch of the imagination.
Fur Runtime: 0:40
“Knowing Her”
Things don’t pick up, much, as season two rolls on. While Miss Shepherd did most of the fur wearing in the series, it certainly wasn’t exclusive to her. This rather fast shot of a quintessential 80’s prostitute, wearing fox, of course, isn’t very long, but is appreciated for keeping the stereotype alive.
Fur Runtime: 0:18
“The Bride of Tupperman”
Things get back on track with this episode, and a full length lynx fur coat that receives all the attention it deserves.
There’s a few close ups, and the coat is seen from all angles.
Plus, for those who may be interested, she is wearing some gloves with lynx.
This was the second season’s second best fur episode overall.
Fur Runtime: 2:45
“North by North Dipesto”
In keeping with the opening up of mega fox fur coat wearing to those not Cybill Shepherd in season two, there’s reliable Agnes Dipesto’s shot at glamor with this episode.
While Agnes Dipesto (Allyce Beasley) doesn’t quite fill this fur out the way Maddie might, she makes a go of it.
It becomes the focus of a joke as Agnes’ encounters a man who (dashingly) removes it and tosses it over a railing where it lands on a chatting couple.
Fur Runtime: 0:20
“Every Daughter’s Father Is a Virgin”
Season two’s final fur is a good one to go out on. This is a different full length white fox coat, and it is worn a bit more appropriately by Maddie Hayes. It also receives the screen time such a large fox merits, a good 2 minutes.
At no point in any episode has Maddie worn anything but a huge 80’s fox fur, and for that we can certainly appreciate the dedication of the show’s costuming department.
You can tell this a different white fox from “North by North Dipesto” because of the chevron pattern to the pelts in back, which the previous white fox lacked.
Fur Runtime: 2:15
Moonlighting‘s overall episode ratio isn’t quite the impressive stat of a Dynasty or Dallas, but the quality of furs when they appear is exquisite. As I said, Maddie Hayes has only one kind of fur in her closet, and that’s big. There’s little doubt these wonderful fox and lynx coats hailed from the mid-80’s. Later seasons didn’t have quite so much fur, but when they did, they were still uniformly large. That certainly makes Moonlighting a worthy addition to any collection.
Full Gallery: Fur Fashions of Moonlighting’s 1st and 2nd Seasons
Time to kick off the New Year with something I’ll not be able to out-do: the best fur fashion film of all time: The Mad Miss Manton. I was wavering on that opinion because I hadn’t really seen it in a while, but now that I’ve dug through most every frame with a glistening guard hair in it, I feel I can safely end all doubt. It’s all here, quality, variety, and length. If there’s something better than this, well… I desperately want to see it.
The Mad Miss Manton is somewhat a mix of genres, and perhaps that’s part of the magic that made it what is was. It’s one-half madcap heiress, one-half gentle(wo)man detective, multiplied by 1938, to the seventh power. Starring Miss Barbara Stanwyck (I have the book) as one of Hollywood’s few alliterative miss-fires, Melsa Manton, and her flock of seven fashionable friends in a murder mystery. Mesla finds a dead body in house for sale, reports it to the police, but she and her friends’ reputation as pranksters leads the police to do nothing when they arrived to find the body missing. The ladies decide to solve the case to clear their good names, which are being splashed on the editorial page of the paper by Peter Ames (Henry Fonda).
Where to begin…? Melsa and her friends swim through an ocean of furs in the film, most all of them fox in some form or another. Mink, lynx, and even ermine are ably represented as well. The fur garments come in all forms, from full length coats, to jackets, wraps, and muffs as well. It’s a virtual catalog of glorious deco fur fashions from the late 30’s.
Enter Melsa Manton. At this point Miss Manton has found the body, been blown off by the police, and suffered a scathing editorial in the paper about her “prank” written by her opposite in this scene, Peter Ames. She arrives in the film’s first fur, a dress with silver fox cuffs, a rather conservative start.
Melsa’s girlfriends don’t all appear in furs at once. We start off with… okay, here’s the deal. Melsa has seven members of her little “posse”, and, I checked, 2 of them are never called by name. This is one of them, process of elimination indicates this is either “Lee” or “Jane.” Judging by what I could find on the net, I’m calling this Ann Evers as Lee, who starts the fox train rolling with a big black fox jacket.
She throws a white fox wrap atop Myra (Linda Perry).
This leads shortly to the girls having donned their first set of sleuthing furs. This is, left to right, Kit in a white fox jacket, Helen in a silver fox wrap, Mesla in her signature crystal fox coat, Lee in the black fox stroller, and Myra holding her white fox wrap. Five large fox coats on screen at once. I can stop here, right?
Miss Stanwyck’s crystal fox coat is notable not only because it’s the largest fox in the film and lovingly documented, but from a fashion perspective, the coat is very similar to many white fox coats of the day that I’ve documented in previous updates. The broad shoulders and lack of a collar are instantly familiar. If it where white it would be a few pelts short of Irene Dunne’s famous coat from The Awful Truth.
Less visible in the previous group shot was Dora (Catherine O’Quinn) wearing an ermine jacket. There’s actually another ermine jacket in this shot as well but Helen and Lee’s fox furs are covering up Pat’s jacket.
There’s Pat (Whitney Borune) and her ermine fur jacket as the ladies investigate the abandoned house where Melsa found the body. Pat has a bit of an eating disorder that’s handled with the utmost respect and dignity by the film… or not.
This part of the film is a bit noir-ish, with the ladies moving in darkness, catching conveniently located shafts of light as they poke around the house in their large fur coats and experience a scare or two.
Later the girls continue sleuthing to their prime suspect’s house, allowing for yet another group shot.
Mesla find’s a photo of the deceased wife there, who is also wearing fur, a silver fox collared coat that she is apparently rather fond of, as we’ll learn later. Even the still photos have fur in this movie.
They find the body of their prime suspect in the apartment, but efforts to report it to the police are in vain, since the police already don’t believe them, so they drop the body off at the newspaper, which eventually leads to their “arrest”. The ladies have changed out of their sleuthing furs in to their much more conservative “being arrested” furs.
Mesla and Helen both have full length minks, while Dora does put some effort into it with a large fox collar.
Though I’m not quite as big a fan of it as her fox, here’s a nicely framed shot of Barbara Stanwyck in mink which I’m sure will be appreciated.
Later, Melsa and Helen (Frances Mercer) engage in a little solo adventure away from the rest of the posse. Sadly Melsa’s fox is MIA, but Helen keeps things interesting with her white fox wrap.
The girls reunite further along in the film with yet another selection of furs, principally notable is Myra’s fox collar and large matching fox muff.
Dora shows up later with another fox collar.
As does Mr. Ames, who is about to subdued and restrained by Melsa and her girls, one of many times that happens in this film.
Later on the street the girls are out sleuthing again in this set, with Melsa have added a short fox jacket to her wardrobe, and Pat’s silver fox stole more visible.
Again a little later and we have… another set of furs. Here Kit lays atop a lynx jacket and Helen a large silver fox muff. Everybody keeping up? There will be a quiz later…
Pat gets a bit of a solo scene on the phone with Melsa, wearing a what I’ll assume is a black fox coat accessorized nicely with the veiled hat.
Eventually we arrive at the showcase sequence for Barbara Stanwyck and her large crystal fox fur coat, where Mr. Ames pretends to be not long for this world in an effort to get Melsa to confess an important piece of evidence.
Miss Stanwyck and the fox coat are showcased perfectly here. Melsa eventually becomes wise to ruse, eliciting an expression that does not bode well for Peter Ames…
…as she liberally applies a fork to Mr. Ames buttocks. Say what you will about the film’s place in cinema history, but it is likely the only time Henry Fonda is stabbed in the butt with a fork.
That crucial piece of evidence was the location of the original deceased’s wife, Shelia Lane (Leona Maricle), who you’ll remember from the photo earlier… especially since she seems to be wearing the same silver fox collar.
As Melsa has been causing trouble for the killer and already survived attempts on her life, a plan is hatched to draw the killer out, while this plan is hatched, Melsa brings along a large black fox muff, which, sadly, is one of the furs that is not well filmed. The black fox goes great with the outfit, but not with late 30’s camera technology.
After dinner with Ames, Melsa takes this silver fox wrap on the 30’s equivalent of a dungeon crawl, heading down into the subway as she puts some of the pieces together and looks for more evidence. This is a long sequence, and she wears the silver fox almost non-stop until the end of the film.
For what it’s worth… this guy did it:
The girls show up one last time, in yet another set of furs. Myra has a silver fox collar, Dora, an ermine muff, Helen an ermine jacket and yet more as well.
The film ends with a bit of a deus ex machina, with the killer taken out in the lobby by a police sniper and no direct intervention from Melsa, Ames or any other major character. Seems someone wrote themselves into a corner. Yeah, like I care… No one is going to remember The Mad Miss Manton as a high point in filmmaking. The film is a stunning collection of fur fashions played out en masse. Whereas most of the films from this period I profile have only one fur on screen at once, this one gives us for or five at once.
Oddly, my biggest beef with the film isn’t anything to do with the furs, it’s with Miss Manton herself, who was a bit of a victim of what seemed to be “alliteration at any cost”… Melsa? What a horrible name… Apologies to anyone named Melsa… you have my sympathies. Mary… Madeline… Meghan… Michelle… so many better options. Oh, and there were no fur hats… could have used some hats.
The onscreen ratio is nothing to sneeze at. In fact it’s in the neighborhood of the other heavyweight champion, Forever Lulu.
Fur Runtime: approx 33 minutes
Film Runtime: 80 minutes
On-Screen Fur Ratio: 41%
In honor of the occasion… this gallery is much larger than usual… about 76 total, so enjoy:
Full Gallery- Fur Fashions of The Mad Miss Manton
Like ships passing in the night, SoapNet’s programming schedule and my best days of capping were not destined to meet up at the appropriate time. Those early days of a schedule permeated with 80’s nighttimes soaps did help hone my skills. Unfortunately they weren’t what they are today.
This doesn’t mean I don’t have a large back catalog from that time that, by virtue of the fact it will probably never be updated, I’ll throw out from time to time. The Paper Dolls gallery was one such example.
Between about 2003 and 2007, SoapNet showed Another World. Only somewhat fortunately, they decided to start showing episodes starting from 1987. That provided a decent couple years before the combination of a waning fashion cycle propelled by a changing cultural zeitgeist that would make the 1990’s a barren wasteland of televised fur fashion from which we still have not completely recovered.
Another World ran from 1964 to 1999, I’d have preferred SoapNet pick out something around 1975 to 1990, but I have to accept what I get, and it wasn’t bad, as the caps will prove. Like anything that lasted upwards of 30 years, the details are long and complex, so I’ll skip trying to fill in the plot and get to what we’re here for….
These are in roughly chronological order in the sequence the episodes were shown in. I can’t place a fur to an episode name or number at this point. In the few years they showed Another World, I grabbed good shots from only about 17 episodes, a very tiny fraction compared to shows like Dynasty. Again, the fact that any of these beauties showed up on television so close to the 90’s was blessing enough.
Starting here with the recognizable member of the cast, a very young Anne Heche wearing a perfect example of a “mega fox,” this one crystal flavor. Youthful Miss Heche wears it very well.
Moving to another great white fox stroller on actress Joanna Going. The sleeves of the stroller are exceptionally full here.
80’s hair and 80’s fox on this lady. I think her hair manages to be fuller than the fox fur coat, which is actually quite an accomplishment.
Linda Dano, “Felicia,” wearing a huge power fox, golden isle flavor. If Another World was showing furs like this so late in the game, I certainly wonder what amazing ones I missed through the 80’s.
Wide shot lacks a little detail due to the low data rates I worked with back then, unfortunately, but this one deserves a second look to show the sheer size of the full length fox beauty.
Joanna Going in a shorter haired mink or marten. Though I usually pass on “documenting” the less full furs, the brighter colors of one like this can make it worthy of notice.
Anne returns in another mega fox, this one blue. She looks equally at home in this as the previous crystal fox.
Nice close up of Anne Heche in the blue fox power fur.
Not sure who this blond is, though she is appropriately outfitted in the kind of big fox coat that reminds me why I miss the 80’s.
Carmen Duncan playing Iris in a blush fox trimmed blush mink jacket.
Joanna Going is back for a Christmas episode in this big white fox wrap. Christmas was always a giving time of season back then.
Linda Dano in an interesting and rather tall fur pillbox hat. Should have “accessorized” with a giant white fox coat, but time was growing short for fur at all on Another World at this point.
All wasn’t completely gone, though, as series mainstay Victoria Wyndham appears in yet another full length power fox.
Though not on the show for more than a few years, Joanna Going racked up an impressive score, appearing here in a very full silver fox stroller coat.
And with Miss Wyndham in this set, which is a pretty much where Another World‘s wardrobe department basically gave up against the unrelenting tide of the 90s. Granted, this was a very fine pair to go out on.
In all, this set just keeps my fingers crossed for what will probably be inevitable, some kind of 80s soap nostalgia network. I think SoapNet claimed to be working on something like that. If it ever appeared, it would be a bit of a double edged sword, as it may generate more “work” than I’m prepared for. But that would be one of those “good problems to have.”
If nothing else, this set will win you an argument if your friends says “No way Anne Heche wore enormous fox fur coats!”
Here’s the full gallery, biggest one yet at 40 pics: Another World Fur Gallery.
