Back in 1994, a Vogue Australia article on Oscar winning costume designer, Orry Kelly, piqued the curiosity of esteemed film commentators, Ian and Sheila Taylor.
Though they had worked in film distribution in Australia for many years, his name had never come up. Curious, since, at the time, Orry Kelly was the Australian who had garnered the most Academy Awards.
The Taylor’s embarked on research with an idea of making a documentary about this unsung Australian Hollywood hero. However, their labours could not interest local funding bodies, and the project was put in turnaround.Three years ago, Gillian Armstrong was successful in getting a green light to make the documentary that would become Women He’s Undressed. The fabled autobiography had not been discovered so the Taylor’s handed over their research to Robert Parkinson, who agreed this important story needed to be told. Parkinson proceeded to meticulously pan through the material which, in turn, prompted his own marvellous inquiry into the ‘kid from Kiama’.
The merits of that meticulousness is evident not only in the body of the narrative, but in the copious indices and footnotes that take up half of the volume.
He has named the book ORRY KELLY : Miss Weston’s Protege, a nod to Eleanor Weston, a family friend who encouraged Orry’s artistic ambitions and coached him in acting. Miss Weston ran a florist business, which is fascinating when one considers that the sign over Orry’s father’s shop read: William Kelly, merchant tailor, but, as well a cutter of cloth, dad was a keen horticulturist, a hybridiser of carnations, one shocker in shocking pink, which he named for his son.
There are some delicious anecdotes recounted such as Orry Kelly’s dictum for avoiding divorce – “Negligee ‘sure cure’ for marital misery. A wife who overlooks her boudoir wardrobe is taking the first step in marital suicide was reported in the stars and stripes newspaper, calling Kelly a ‘classy clothes concocter’.
Also his mother, Florence and Eleanor Weston arrived in Los Angeles on 12 July 1937 by the SS Monterey. Neither was aware that on board were three passengers – the mothers of Australian actresses May Maguire and Marcia Ralston, both contracted to Warner brothers, and Gwen Howarth, visiting her sister, Enid, who had recently become the third wife of Warner’s leading man George Brent.
On his final visit to Australia in 1952 he was distracted by June Dally-Watkins, whom he invited to stay with him in Hollywood, and opened her eyes to homosexuality!
ORRY KELLY MISS WESTON’s PROTEGE is a welcome companion to the recently published memoir by Orry Kelly, Women I’ve Undressed, contrasting the subjective and the objective and consolidating his place in the pantheon of motion picture legends.
ORRY KELLY : MISS WESTON’S PROTEGE by Robert Parkinson is published by Impact Press.