Happy Birthday Liza Minelli - A Chadwick Superstar By Greg Schreiner
On March 12th we celebrate the 77th birthday of Liza Minnelli, a brilliant performer whose work includes Cabaret, Arthur, New York New York and Arrested Development to name a few. Her parentage is extraordinary as her parents were Judy Garland and Vincente Minnelli. She practically lived at MGM studios during her childhood and even appeared at the age of fourteen months in the movie, “In the Good Old Summertime” as the daughter of Judyand Van Johnson. At the age of 17, her mother invited her to perform with her at the London Paladium and Liza was a huge hit. Many movie roles followed and in 1972 she won the best actress Oscar for “Cabaret”
I am lucky enough to have two of her costumes in my collection. The first is from her 1977 movie, “New York, New York in which she costarred with Robert DeNiro. Liza Minnelli used her mother's (Judy Garland's) old dressing room, her mother's old hairdresser (Sydney Guilaroff), and worked on Garland's old MGM soundstages during the filming of this movie. The costume I own is from a lavish production number in the film called “Happy Endings”. The song that goes with the costume is “Aces High”. In this number, Liza enters wearing a black silk satin cape studded with faux rubies and brilliants. The cape is removed and underneath, is a stunning solid red sequin gown with a huge rhinestone applique on her hip. The dress is so shockingly vibrant and really makes the entire number come alive.
The costume was designed by the brilliant Theodora Van Runkle.The other costume comes from the TV show, “Arrested Development” (2003-2013). Liza appeared occasionally on this show and this colorful costume portrayed her vivacious character of Lucille. The costume designers for this TV show were Katie Sparks and Molly Grundman. However the costume appears to be a Sue Wong original with feathers added for effect.
I own a huge collection of over 500 movie costumes worn by the great stars of the golden age Hollywood . I also utilize my costumes in a show, Hollywood Revisited (www.hollywoodrevisited.com).
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!
