Forbidden Hollywood

By Marina Rybak

If you are lucky to be in London now, you may enjoy the “Hollywood Costume” exhibit at the Victoria and Albert Museum in full swing until January 27^th.  For the first time the costumes from many beloved classics are shown together, bringing to life such characters like Marilyn’s Sugar Kane Kowalczyk from Some Like it Hot and Audrey Hepburn’s Holly Golightly from Breakfast at Tiffany’s. For me the exhibit is also a hint to sneak behind the veil and dip into the “forbidden zone” of the Motion Pictures history – the titillating Pre-Code Hollywood era where the lingerie reigned supreme.

The Pre-Code Cinema refers to the audacious four year period from 1929 to mid 1934, where the film industry self-imposed censorship, so called “Production Code” existed, but was blatantly ignored, rarely applied and was not enforced until later in 1934.

Tantalizing, provocative movie titles lured the public into the theaters to escape the harsh realities. Wildly brazen, fast talking, fast moving plots pushed the envelope and led the way with plenty of sex, sin, vice and negligee parades.  And the penchant for showing the boudoir and bathtub scenes kept them not far behind.

The sirens of the day, the original platinum blond Jean Harlow and the silver screen icons Joan Crawford, Bette Davis, Carol Lombard, Barbara Stanwyck, Myrna Loy, Norma Shearer just to name a few started their careers in various forms of undress.

Warner Brothers policy of the time was that “two out of five stories should be hot”. But surprisingly, the films that portrayed scantily clad females, often explored serious topics and placed the women in charge of their own paths.

Yet it is the incomparable style of Brooklyn born temptress Mae West which really gave a “ HOT TIME to the Nation” according to one of her posters. An actress and a writer, she is considered among the greatest female stars of all times. Professing that she has “been in more laps than a napkin”, Mae West gained her notoriety on Broadway. Arrested for writing, directing and starring in the play “Sex”, she managed to alert the reporters about wearing silk panties while she was serving time for obscenity. She went on to become quintessential Hollywood sex symbol.  Glittery vixen of wit and curves wrote her own screen lines and outfoxed the censors by disguising her risqué material in double entendres. Her trademark zingers withstood the test and shimmered through time.

The Pre-Code films resurfaced many decades later and have been preserved and re-released for home viewing now. The racy, frank and raw quality of the films still shocks a bit and may raise a brow or two. But they are the treasure trove of ideas. I am fortunate enough to have a few vintage pieces from that era, but it is something else to see them in action.  To spend an evening,  “living” in one of these movies is a great inspirational “pick me up” and I highly recommend it.