Gwen Wakeling

Gwendolyn Sewell Wakeling (March 3, 1901 – June 16, 1982) was an American costume designer who designed costumes for more than 140 films between the years 1924 and 1966. She began her career working for Cecil B. DeMille as an assistant designer on the 1924 film Feet of Clay. She collaborated with DeMille on many more films during her career, including her first film as a lead designer, The King of Kings, and Samson and Delilah (1949). For the latter film she won the Academy Award for Best Costume Design at the 23rd Academy Awards in 1951.

Born in Detroit, Wakeling was the daughter of film editor and press agent Edith Wakeling. She worked initially as a self-taught designer, but later studied design formally with Maurice Leloir in Paris. After beginning her career with Pathé Exchange and on loan to Paramount Pictures, she worked for RKO Pictures in the early 1930s. She served as the director of costume design for Twentieth Century-Fox Film Corporation (initially just Fox) from 1933 to 1942. After this she worked as a freelance artist in Hollywood until designing for her final picture Frankie and Johnny (1966). She was also active as a designer for the theatre in the 1960s in several productions with the Los Angeles Civic Light Opera.

During her tenure at Twentieth Century-Fox Wakeling frequently collaborated with director John Ford, including designing for The Grapes of Wrath (1940) and How Green Was My Valley (1941) She also frequently designed for films starring Shirley Temple in the 1930s, and played an instrumental role in crafting Temple's image on screen. She later reunited with her for work on the television series Shirley Temple's Storybook (1958). One of her last television projects was creating Barbara Eden's signature look for the I Dream Of Jeannie television pilot in 1965. She lived in Los Angeles until her death in 1982 at the age of 81.

Life and career A costume designed by Wakeling for Basil Rathbone in The Adventures of Sherlock Holmes (1939). The daughter of Otty and Edith Wakeling, Gwendolyn Sewell Wakeling was born in Detroit, Michigan, on March 3, 1901. Her father was a mining engineer who moved his family for work related reasons to first Seattle, and then Prescott, Arizona, before ultimately settling in Los Angeles, California. In Los Angeles her mother worked as a film editor and press agent. In 1919 Gwen signed as an actress with the Famous Players–Lasky studio, but ended up working in the costume design department in that studio for one year.

Initially a largely self-taught costume designer, Wakeling studied design with Maurice Leloir in Paris. Her first significant opportunity in the field of costume design was for a new musical revue by Harry Carroll that was staged at the Orange Grove Theatre in Los Angeles in 1924. That same year she contributed costumes (not as the principal designer) to Cecil B. DeMille's film Feet of Clay (1924). Prestige (1932) Carnival Boat (1932) Lady with a Past (1932) A Woman Commands (1932) Panama Flo (1932) Advice to the Lovelorn (1933) Kiss Me Kate (1953) Track of the Cat (1954) Cattle Queen of Montana (1954) Silver Lode (1954) The High and the Mighty (1954) Passion (1954) Blood Alley (1955) Tennessee's Partner (1955) Escape to Burma (1955) Great Day in the Morning (1956) Johnny Concho (1956) The River's Edge (1957) From the Earth to the Moon (1958) Most Dangerous Man Alive (1961) Frankie and Johnny (1966)

Television Shirley Temple's Storybook (1958) Vacation Playhouse (1963) I Dream of Jeannie (1965)