by Patrice Downing, Contributing Writer
Can you name the iconic creation of George Stanley? Oh wait… hang on. I should probably clarify. Sorry to all my fellow vexillology enthusiasts out there because we are not talking about the historian George Stanley, who designed the equally recognizable Canadian Maple Leaf Flag, but the American sculptor, George Maitland Stanley. Wow, that still didn’t help?! Well surely you’re familiar with his Art Deco design and fountain work on “Muse of Music, Dance, and Drama” at the entrance of the Hollywood Bowl? Oooo… I can hear the gears turning now. Let me give you another hint: his most well-known work stands at only 13.5 inches tall and weighs about as much as 42 newborn Abyssinian kittens (that’s just about nine pounds for those of you who didn’t major in Zoological Weights and Measures).
I knew you’d get there! Yes, George Stanley is the sculptor responsible for turning Art Director Cedric Gibbons’ flat napkin sketch into one of the most recognizable three-dimensional symbols of achievement on the planet, the Academy Award of Merit, or as he’s more affectionately known, Oscar. At this point you may be asking yourself what a California sculptor and kitten math have to do with the new FX miniseries Love Story: John F. Kennedy Jr. and Carolyn Bessette? Simple, nothing! Kennedy was practically synonymous with ‘90s New York City living, only ever acted in a single episode of Murphy Brown, and was by all accounts a dog person. However, the journey that led to the discovery of all this somewhat zany Oscar knowledge is what brings us here today.
A few months back when Oscar buzz was just starting to infiltrate the air around us, I started digging deeper into the history of the production, of the event to honor the elite of the industry that entertains. I watched archival TCM footage, read all kinds of fun facts on the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences website about good ole Oscar, and ultimately came across an episode of a Cali-centric television show from PBS back in 2011. Episode 13013 of California’s Gold with Huell Howser focused entirely on the artistic career of George Stanley, showcasing his works around the state and touching on his most notable, an eight and half pound solid bronze baby boy named Oscar. And that, dear reader, is why we are here because all too often reality is just so much more fascinating than the fabricated. So come along, and join me as I seek out the substantive, track down the truth, and sift through the details of days gone by in search of the Fact on Fiction.
This time around is going to be a tad different… shocking I know. Instead of the usual film-centric foraging for facts, we’ll be discussing Love Story episode six, “The Wedding,” centering on the ultra-hush-hush, clandestine planning and surreptitious execution of Kennedy and Carolyn Bessette’s wedding ceremony. The really exciting part of this particular pairing is that for the first time it is 100% confirmed that this month’s documentary recommendation was the actual source material used by the show’s costume designer Rudy Mance. In a recent Variety article, Mance discusses how he and his team combed through press footage and photographs but that they specifically watched the 2019 film JFK Jr. and Carolyn’s Wedding: The Lost Tapes, “probably 100 times,” while planning and preparing the dresses for the wedding ceremony and rehearsal dinner.
Diving into the sources used by writers, set dressers, costume designers, and directors is nothing new for this fact-obsessed nerd; however, it is almost always in the form of interviews (both written and recorded), memoirs, biographies, time period specific documentaries, and even the fictional stories serving as the basis for a film. This is the first time I’ve heard straight from the horse’s mouth that part of a production’s team actually used a specific film. Even more interesting is the fact that because the wedding was kept such a closely guarded secret, all of the archival footage was shot by a friend, Billy Noonan, at Kennedy’s request. Leading up to the group’s undercover trip to Cumberland Island, Georgia, Noonan recalls Kennedy asking him “You still have that videotape we gave you? Well, bring it down.” Being quite the amateur videographer, Noonan’s footage bounces around quite a bit, so be prepared for a difficult watch if, like myself, you have a predilection for becoming motion sick. Fortunately, there is enough current interview and media footage cut in between the camcorder shots to make it a smoother view than just a straight hour of home movies. Ooh, I almost forgot, there’s an added bonus. The entire documentary is narrated by the Countess of Grantham herself, Elizabeth McGovern.
I could go on and on about how amazing the work that went into producing visuals in “The Wedding” episode of Love Story truly is, having seen the original and compared the two, but I could hardly do the viewing experience justice. I will say I’m happy to have seen the documentary directly following the show on the night it debuted for an almost side by side comparison. The care Mance and his talented crew of artisans took to do a proper homage to the people and events depicted is absolutely stunning. Mance describing the lengths they went through to recreate the iconic Narciso Rodriguez-designed slip dress alone made me notice and appreciate other smaller details during my second watch (because of course I did). I was completely unaware Ethel Kennedy was sitting on an antique chair tossed into the back of a pick-up truck on the drive through the woods to the chapel. I remember thinking Ethel and the woman next to her looked like they were propped up higher than they should be against the back of a truck bed but just assumed they were sitting on the coolers that show up in a later scene. I wouldn’t have given them a second look without viewing the archival footage and hearing Noonan laugh reminiscing about the Chippendale chair pair.
One last tasty tidbit of trivia gleaned from the documentary, that was sadly omitted from the show, involved the security measures present once on the Island. Quite a bit of the interview time in the film is spent with caterer Jodee Sadowsky offering a unique perspective on the weekend’s events. The point of interest that I was surprised didn’t pop up in the episode is the special cards given to those present on the island. Sadowsky still has the one issued to him back in 1996 and shows just how much preparation went into assuring safety and security at the venue given the lack of technology available. Low tech but highly effective, each card had a specific nickel and dime combination (type and year) taped to them and was required to be carried on your person the totality of the weekend. Not a Cracker Jack decoder ring but equally cool.
And with that, I hope you enjoyed this month’s factual frolic in film, whether you’re an Oscar junkie, a habitual habitue of Huell Howser, or just a sucker for a biopic with striking visual accuracy. Join me again next time as I continue to shuffle through the superficial, wrangle around in the weeds, and filter through film on my quizzical quest to find the Fact on Fiction.
You can read more from Patrice Downing, and follow her on Serializd and Letterboxd