April Showers Bring May Flowers By Musician, Producer, Memorabilia Collector and Expert Greg Schreiner
April Showers Bring May Flowers
By Musician, Producer, Memorabilia Collector and Expert Greg Schreiner
Everyone knows that April showers bring May flowers and what more perfect gown from my collection to represent this than the famous flower ballgown worn by Marge Champion in “Lovely to Look At” (1952).
The film also starred Kathryn Grayson, Howard Keel, Red Skelton, Ann Miller, Gower Champion and Zaza Gabor. The gown is acres of tulle with cascades of hundreds of silk flowers streaming down the dress. The film itself was an extravaganza of fashion and featured a 15 minute fashion show at the end of the film in which this gown appeared. All these glorious creations ,including the flower gown, were designed by the world famous Adrian who earlier in his career was head of costume design at MGM from 1928 -1943. While at MGM, he designed for all the big stars under contract including Greta Garbo, Katharine Hepburn, Ingrid Bergman, Greer Garson, to name a few and all the costumes for “Wizard of Oz. He left in 1943 to open his own couture studio and returned in 1952 for this last one movie. This month’s costume is also a tribute to Marge Champion. She and her husband Gower were so incredible dancing together. Their legacy of great dancing will live on in the countless films they made together including “Lovely to Look At”.The remarkable Ms. Champion just passed away a few months ago on Oct. 21st 2020 in Los Angeles at the age of 101.
Greg Schreiner is the pianist, narrator and producer of Hollywood Revisited. He has appeared on numerous television programs including AMC's Hollywood Fashion Machine, A&E's The Incurable Collector, Entertainment Tonight, Hard Copy and The Montel Williams Show. All have featured various movie costumes from his vast personal collection. Some of these costumes are on display at the new Hollywood Museum in Hollywood, California. Mr. Schreiner serves on the piano faculty at Cerritos College and Santa Monica College, has several recordings in release and was composer/performer for the educational television series Masters of the Silent Screen. Greg also is an active participant in the music community of Southern California as the accompanist for the Mansfield Chamber Singers of Beverly Hills. He is also the president of Marilyn Remembered, a club devoted to preserving the memory of Marilyn Monroe. Greg Schreiner is truly a renaissance man!