Pete Menefee is a remarkable man with a most wonderful varied career. Pete grew up in the San Diego area as well as Hawaii and from the age of 3 he loved to draw. It was this passion which would eventually bring him to work with many of the major Hollywood stars. He also studied dance growing up and since he could also sing and act, he found himself performing in stage productions. Pete appeared in many shows including “West Side Story” and “Peter Pan” and by the age of 14, he already had obtained his Equity card. Hollywood .He also was called to Hollywood and among his movies are “Bye,Bye,Birdie”, “My Fair Lady” and “Mary Poppins”.

” My Fair Lady” with Pete and Audrey Hepburn

He had a Palos Verdes connection as he was choreographer for a show at Marineland. It involved 40 girls and one dolphin. As much of it took place in water, Pete remembers that the girls kept coming down with ear infections. Through Edith Head, Pete was finally given a chance to work as a costume designer and sketch artist. Edith had asked to do some sketches for a TV show starring Shirely MacLaine. Edith eventually drop out from doing the show and Pete was asked to step in her place. He would go on to design many more shows for Ms. MacLaine as well such shows as “Charlie’s Angels”, “The XIX Winter Olympics Opening Ceremonies”, “Mork and Mindy”, “The Barry Manilow Special”, “The Perry Como Christmas Special”, “Jack Benny’s First Farewell Special”, and “Debbie Reynold and the Sound of Children “ to name a few.

I am lucky enough to own a costume designed by Pete Menefee. It is a gown worn by Mary Tyler Moore in a TV special filmed at the Bolshoi Ballet in Moscow celebrating the 200th birthday of the Bolshoi. The dress is solid brown bugle beads with bell sleeves accented with gold bugle beads and sequins and is incredibly heavy.

Among Pete’s other costume designs are “Circus of the Stars”, “Kiss Dynasty”

Elvira, Mistress of the Dark”, “Lynda Carter, Body and Soul”, Siegried and Roy, The Rockettes and the fabulous “Jubilee” at the MGM Grand which featured show segments of “Titanic” and “Samson and Delilah” .

Pete has won 3 Emmys for his incredible designs for TV shows.

In his personal life, Pete was in a relationship with actor, Tom Hatten, for over 50 years. I had the pleasure of interviewing Pete in person for this article and was struck with what a nice guy is and so humble. And he had enough stories and life experiences to fill a book. Pete Menefee is indeed a talented and gifted artist.

Here is a sketch of Lorenzo Lamas from “Circus of the Stars”

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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!