For Una O’Connor, who was represented by Denise Moses in vignettes for The Invisible Man and Bride of Frankenstein, McManus indulged in her period costume skills. “In this costume in particular, we did a ‘two in one’ to carry off each film,” she noted. “We had to have her do the change extremely fast. The costume had to be multi-versatile, and so we did a black shell underneath and did various different aprons.”
Another key period costume was for actor Kevin Isola playing Basil Rathbone in Son of Frankenstein, “That was a two-toned coat that all of my tailor friends told me was not done until the 1960s!” she said. “And I said, ‘Excuse me? It was being done in the Thirties and Forties.’”
While costumes were going together, Rob Burman and his team were preparing 16 makeups that would encompass the tribute – 12 of them prosthetically based. Actors were lifecasted, makeups were sculpted, molds were made and makeup appliances were fabricated in prosthetic materials, most usually foam latex.
Simultaneously, hair and wig stylist Kim Ferry conceived the 16 separate hairstyles that would be used in the show. She worked methodically to determine which of the characters would be using wigs or partial wigs – typically monster or prosthetic characters – and which would get their own hair styled for period. The day of the show, she worked intermittently throughout the makeup and costuming process to prep and style all the performers’ hair.
One of the ideas going into the show was to create the makeup and costumes in black-and-white using various shades of grey so that the audience would see the classic characters on stage as if they were watching them in an old black-and-white movie. “As far as the black-and-white, I think some of the straight makeups were the hardest things to make look right,” reflected Burman. “In person, to the eye, you saw a little bit of the flesh tone coming through, but for the most part, when they got up on stage, everything just really looked black and white [to the live audience and on video]. It was great that Dr. Sumner up at Morton Greenspoon’s optical office was able to put the black-and-white lenses together for us. I think lenses really helped sell the makeups as being black and white.”
Burman’s brother, Barney, was charged with sculpting Jack Pierce as he existed at 79-years-old, the time of his death in 1968. “Doing Jack’s makeup was definitely interesting because actor Perry Shields was completely different than what the final character was going to end up being. But my brother and makeup artist Andy Schoneberg really pulled it off well. In the end, Perry was wearing nine separate prosthetic pieces plus his bald cap and hairpiece, so it was really elaborate amounts of makeup that had to be done. Andy’s application of my brother’s sculpture was just beautiful, stunning.” Pierce and The Man Who Laughs were the lone characters done in color since they appeared in “real life” scenes and not as part of movie vignettes.
