Being the two largest costume companies in the country, one or the other usually had all the designated costumes in various sizes for any popular play or musical a theater would launch.
The duties of the Costume Coordinator or Costume Designer at the Music Circus included ordering the proper costumes from the Costume Company to match the sizes of the actors in the production. In some cases though, the coordinator or designer would create a custom costume, or do slight alteration on a costume to suit the performer. There was a small corner in the women's dressing room allocated as the "costume department" with a small work table and sewing machine.
The combined smells of the actors' makeup in front of their mirrors and racks of hanging, previously used, rented costumes gave the dressing rooms a unique aroma probably not encountered anywhere else.
Sources:
archives.nypl.org/
www.playbill.com/
newyork-company.com/
philadelphiastudies.org/
www.inquirer.com/
Wardrobe Mistress 1951-1952
Born in Vienna, Austria in 1925, Ms. Morley was world class and later plied her trade with distinction in Hollywood and on Broadway. She designed the costumes for dozens of Braodway shows in the 1950s through the 1980s, including: "Billy Budd" (1951), "Inherit the Wind" (1957), "A Moon for the Misbegotten" (1957), "The Miracle Worker" (1961), "The Most Happy Fella" (1959), "A Thousand Clowns" (1963), "Wait Until Dark" (1966), "Deathtrap" (1982), "Ladies at the Alamo" (1977), "Spoils of War" (1988), "As You Like It" (1987), and "Macbeth" (1987).
She designed costumes for Miracle Worker, Taxi Driver, Annie Hall, Tootsie, and many other classic American films. She died in 1991 in Bronx, New York at age 65.
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Costumer 1952
Costume Designer 1954-1955
A graduate of the Parsons School of Design, Charles Macri was in charge of costumes for St. John Terrell's various Music Circuses for two years. He has been affiliated with the nation's foremost costume houses. Appropriately enough during World War II he was in a Camouflage Battalion.
Costume Designer 1956
Pollack has helped flesh out characters for some of Hollywood's most celebrated films ("Ordinary People," "All the President's Men," "Tootsie," "Rain Man"), working steadily with such talents as Ford, Robert Redford, Dustin Hoffman and Tom Cruise. Interestingly enough, it's a career that he never planned to have.
The Pollack brothers, Bernard and Sydney, had hoped to come to L.A. from their South Bend, Ind., home and find success as actors (Sydney, of course, went on to direct, produce and sometimes act). But along the way, dreams were replaced by necessity, and jobs became about paying the bills. Bernie Pollack landed a low-on-the-totem-pole job working for costumer Ted Tetrick and designer Edith Head in the Redford-Natalie Wood film "This Property Is Condemned."
That first film was a random opportunity that sparked Pollack's longtime collaboration with Redford, rising to costume supervisor and then designer on more than a half-dozen of the actor's movies.
Costume Designer 1956
Costume Designer 1957
Arthur Doucette created the costumes for "Ardele" by playwright, Jean Anouilh, which opened at the Cricket Theatre, 162 2nd Avenue, New York, NY on April 8, 1958 and ran for 10 performances..
Production and Costume Coordinator 1958
Al Millman came to the Music Circus from a stint as stage manager with the Southern tour of "Can Can" starring Denise Darcel. Prior to that, he won the South Florida Lauder award as Director of the Year for three consecutive years for his productions of "Born Yesterday," "Stalag 17," and "Picnic." Mr. Millrnan's sixteen year career in show business includes assignments as an actor, director, stage manager, decoreographer, lighting designer, dancer, and drummer.
Costume Designer 1959-1960
Costume Supervisor 1960-1962
Costume Supervisor 1963-1964
Charlie was a performer as well as a designer. He was the head of the Drama Deparment of Lamar State College, in Beaumont, Texas, his home state before moving to New York City. Mr. Blackburn designed the costumes for the original production of "The Fantastiks" when it premiered at Barnard College and then was in the cast of the long-running off-Broadway hit when it opened at Manhattan's Sullivan Street Theatre. He made his acting debut in "Twelth Night" at the American Shakespeare Festival in Connecticut.
Lori Browne, who played Liesl in "The Sound of Music" 1964, remembers:
"Charlie Blackburn -- oh yes, I remember him well. During a performance Charlie and I were on stage dancing in a ballroom scene (can't remember the show) and he had just found out his Mom died. As we were dancing, tears were flowing and he keep saying he had to get off the stage. He managed to finish the scene but the rest the evening was very difficult for him."
Costume Supervisor 1967