Sumptuous 1935 Art Deco Hollywood Fashion Photograph Mona Barrie In Royer Design
Item History & Price
ITEM: This is a vintage and original, sumptuous, Art Deco glamour photograph featuring Fox Film player Mona Barrie. The height of Golden Age of Hollywood sophistication and style, Barrie is a stunning model in a Royer design that she wears in her role in the 1935 comedy film Ladies Love Danger.
The press snipe reads: GRECIAN MODE INFLUENCES SUMMER FORMALS -- Stiff fabrics and bouffant silhouettes are supplanted by sheer, soft fabrics and flowing lines, according to Fox Film Stylist ...Royer, who designed the graceful formal gown worn by Mona Barrie in the tentatively-titled "Secret Lives, " beneath a circular cape-wrap of herringboned panels of Russian ermine completely bordered with silver fox.
Inspired by a Greco-Roman toga, the gown features a white chiffon tunic beaded in circles of rhinestones, with its classically cowled bodice featuring brief cape-sleeves which cascade to the low V decollette in back. The girdle of solid silver bugles is pointed in front, and two rhinestone and emerald clips give squareness to the cowled neckline in front. The floor-length skirt of white brizette crepe circles into a gracious train in back. Rhinestone and emerald bracelets match the clips on both the wrap and gown and ensemble this evening costume to perfection.
Photograph measures 8" x 10" on a glossy, single weight paper stock with typed studio text on verso.
Guaranteed to be 100% vintage and original from Grapefruit Moon Gallery.
More about Mona Barrie:
Sometimes described as a poor man's Kay Francis, brunette, hazel-eyed Mona Barrie possessed neither quite the looks nor the personality required to become a major player in 1930's Hollywood. Nonetheless, the London-born and Australian-educated former childhood ballerina (born Mona Barlee, daughter of veteran comedian Phil Smith) enjoyed a fairly substantial career as a versatile 'second lead' for more than two decades. Soon after being spotted by a talent scout on a Fifth Avenue bus in New York, Mona signed with Fox in 1932 and was immediately cast as one of two female leads in Sleepers East (1934), a failed attempt by Fox to remake MGM's all-star mega hit Grand Hotel (1932) as a train-bound crime drama. That same year, she also played a supporting role in the post-Civil War romance Carolina (1934), which established the fact that she wore elaborate gowns exceedingly well. The New York Times (January 9, 1935) caustically commented about her role in Mystery Woman (1935): "The players go through the required motions with a minimum of effort, except perhaps for Mona Barrie, who must have had to spend a great deal of time and energy being fitted for the extensive wardrobe she displays". In fact, Mona was voted by several newspapers as one of the best dressed women in Hollywood and acclaimed by the designer Royer for her innate fashion sense.
During her tenure at Fox, Mona's varied career encompassed an entry into the Charlie Chan series, as well as starring roles in the mystery-comedy Ladies Love Danger (1935) and the action adventure Storm Over the Andes (1935), opposite Antonio Moreno. There were others. However, none of these second features generated much publicity or box office success and Mona took a chance, walked out on her contract and was out of work for six months. Picked up by Warner Brothers, she bought a house in Beverly Hills, complete with swimming pool and croquet lawn. Loaned out to MGM, she at last appeared in distinguished company, alongside Joan Crawford and Clark Gable in Love on the Run (1936). In the course of the next decade, as before, Mona made the most of her limited opportunities, often typically cast as 'the other woman', as perfunctory western heroines, the occasional villainess or glamorous clothes horse, or even popping up as Franklin Pangborn's wife in W.C. Fields's madcap farce Never Give a Sucker an Even Break (1941). There were some good reviews, too, for films like Skylark (1941) and Cairo (1942). By the end of the 40's, the law of diminishing returns began to apply, with ever fewer roles on offer. After an uncredited bit in Warner's Plunder of the Sun (1953), Mona called it a day and retired from films. She maintained her residence in Los Angeles, where she died in June 1964, aged just 54.
- IMDb Mini Biography By: I.S.Mowis
The press snipe reads: GRECIAN MODE INFLUENCES SUMMER FORMALS -- Stiff fabrics and bouffant silhouettes are supplanted by sheer, soft fabrics and flowing lines, according to Fox Film Stylist ...Royer, who designed the graceful formal gown worn by Mona Barrie in the tentatively-titled "Secret Lives, " beneath a circular cape-wrap of herringboned panels of Russian ermine completely bordered with silver fox.
Inspired by a Greco-Roman toga, the gown features a white chiffon tunic beaded in circles of rhinestones, with its classically cowled bodice featuring brief cape-sleeves which cascade to the low V decollette in back. The girdle of solid silver bugles is pointed in front, and two rhinestone and emerald clips give squareness to the cowled neckline in front. The floor-length skirt of white brizette crepe circles into a gracious train in back. Rhinestone and emerald bracelets match the clips on both the wrap and gown and ensemble this evening costume to perfection.
Photograph measures 8" x 10" on a glossy, single weight paper stock with typed studio text on verso.
Guaranteed to be 100% vintage and original from Grapefruit Moon Gallery.
More about Mona Barrie:
Sometimes described as a poor man's Kay Francis, brunette, hazel-eyed Mona Barrie possessed neither quite the looks nor the personality required to become a major player in 1930's Hollywood. Nonetheless, the London-born and Australian-educated former childhood ballerina (born Mona Barlee, daughter of veteran comedian Phil Smith) enjoyed a fairly substantial career as a versatile 'second lead' for more than two decades. Soon after being spotted by a talent scout on a Fifth Avenue bus in New York, Mona signed with Fox in 1932 and was immediately cast as one of two female leads in Sleepers East (1934), a failed attempt by Fox to remake MGM's all-star mega hit Grand Hotel (1932) as a train-bound crime drama. That same year, she also played a supporting role in the post-Civil War romance Carolina (1934), which established the fact that she wore elaborate gowns exceedingly well. The New York Times (January 9, 1935) caustically commented about her role in Mystery Woman (1935): "The players go through the required motions with a minimum of effort, except perhaps for Mona Barrie, who must have had to spend a great deal of time and energy being fitted for the extensive wardrobe she displays". In fact, Mona was voted by several newspapers as one of the best dressed women in Hollywood and acclaimed by the designer Royer for her innate fashion sense.
During her tenure at Fox, Mona's varied career encompassed an entry into the Charlie Chan series, as well as starring roles in the mystery-comedy Ladies Love Danger (1935) and the action adventure Storm Over the Andes (1935), opposite Antonio Moreno. There were others. However, none of these second features generated much publicity or box office success and Mona took a chance, walked out on her contract and was out of work for six months. Picked up by Warner Brothers, she bought a house in Beverly Hills, complete with swimming pool and croquet lawn. Loaned out to MGM, she at last appeared in distinguished company, alongside Joan Crawford and Clark Gable in Love on the Run (1936). In the course of the next decade, as before, Mona made the most of her limited opportunities, often typically cast as 'the other woman', as perfunctory western heroines, the occasional villainess or glamorous clothes horse, or even popping up as Franklin Pangborn's wife in W.C. Fields's madcap farce Never Give a Sucker an Even Break (1941). There were some good reviews, too, for films like Skylark (1941) and Cairo (1942). By the end of the 40's, the law of diminishing returns began to apply, with ever fewer roles on offer. After an uncredited bit in Warner's Plunder of the Sun (1953), Mona called it a day and retired from films. She maintained her residence in Los Angeles, where she died in June 1964, aged just 54.
- IMDb Mini Biography By: I.S.Mowis
