UNLV project looks at tastemaking wardrobes of show business power couple
On the piano are snapshots of Corinne Entratter Sidney’s life: wearing suede Armani; in the days when she’d fly to New York to have her tresses styled by “Mr. Kenneth,” hairdresser to Marilyn Monroe and Jackie Kennedy.
Entratter Sidney’s closet space tells more tales. Organized by color, the closet rustles with Christian Dior robes and Lanvin.
Gucci workout shoes attest to the 77-year-old former Playboy centerfold, showgirl, actress and syndicated columnist’s penchant for Pilates and core classes. And, don’t forget the shiny black Kenneth Cole boots, purchased for about $75 at Costco.
“It’s in the eye of the beholder, just like a painting,” says Entratter Sidney, who is an art collector. “You think it’s wonderful? Buy it.”
She was married to two cultural icons: Jack Entratter, Sands Hotel powerhouse who started as entertainment director and later became president of the resort; and movie director George Sidney, famous for films such as “Annie Get Your Gun” (1950), “Show Boat” (1951) and the Elvis Presley showcase, “Viva Las Vegas” (1964). Sidney also earned his place in American entertainment history with his work on “Little Rascals”; his efforts to counter McCarthyism and the Hollywood blacklist era as president of the Directors Guild; and his co-founding of Hanna-Barbera Productions in 1944.
He was also Entratter’s best friend, says Entratter Sidney. Sidney kept track of her after her marriage to Entratter. They married years later.
For clothing historian Deirdre Clemente, an assistant professor and associate director of the public history program at UNLV, that last marriage has a historical significance worthy of two semesters of cataloguing, with a troop of 10 graduate students. The CES Project started in the spring semester of 2014 and finished this past fall. It has encompassed the wardrobes of both George and Corinne Entratter Sidney, focusing on collecting and collections management.
The goal is to broker about 800 items into collections at places ranging from the Smithsonian and the Los Angeles County Museum of Art to the Nevada State Museum, and possibly, some other local venues.
Many of Sidney’s scripts and documents are already at the Smithsonian, according to Clemente. And, Entratter Sidney recently completed a donation to the Los Angeles County Museum of Art, which has “a solid textile and fashion collecting mission,” Clemente adds.
“They’re particularly interested in Corinne because she is an LA born-and-bred gal,” she explains. “She has an incredible amount of knowledge about the development of LA as both a place where you can shop, and a cultural tastemaker at the national level.”
“We are delighted to receive the generous gifts from Mrs. Sidney and the late Mr. Sidney, which enhances our menswear and womenswear collections,” Clarissa Esguerra, assistant curator of costume and textiles at the Los Angeles County Museum of Art, says.
As the daughter of a prominent criminal trial attorney in California, Entratter Sidney says, she’d go on shopping trips with her mother to Paris, seeking Christian Dior on the Avenue Montaigne, along with Jean Patou, and Jacques Fath. Back home, they’d visit the celebrated costumer Adrian in Beverly Hills. Adrian dressed MGM stars such as Joan Crawford.
“The models would come out, and they’d turn around, and the ladies would be sitting there with their tea, picking the clothes they wanted,” Entratter Sidney recalls.
As for George Sidney, whether dressing “British” or switching to “Hong Kong” with the times, his taste over the years for Irish textiles and Hermes ties represented a global culture of dressing “that many of us can’t even comprehend,” Clemente says. “Because the modern wardrobe is so different than it was in so many ways in the ’60s, ’70s, even the ’80s.”
The Sidneys both mixed and matched their clothes as only expert dressers could, she adds. “So George would have a vest, a sports coat, a beautiful pocket square, gorgeous cuff links. He was a film director. A photographer. A painter. His clothes were another manifestation of his visual life.”
And, while Sidney worked on “Annie Get Your Gun,” out came the cowboy boots and cowboy pants, Entratter Sidney says.
The Sidneys’ wardrobes capture the vanishing sumptuousness of lost decades — a time when Entratter Sidney says Jack Entratter gave her a 20-by-24-foot closet in the Sands, with a secret entrance.
“There were dinner parties where there were white-gloved servants standing behind you,” she recalls. “You had to have the royal Doulton.”
Her lifetime has also been punctuated by breast cancer and a foiled kidnapping attempt in the early ’70s in Beverly Hills. That act of treachery landed her in the trunk of a car, she says, until police came to the rescue. Two of her vertebrae were crushed.
“You can’t swallow a Marquise diamond,” she advises from personal experience. “Always get a round one.”
Standing in the wings of Entratter Sidney’s wardrobe, Clemente discourses on Entratter Sidney favorites, including Thierry Mugler items. None of those made it into the cataloguing project because Entratter Sidney still wears them.
“I cried when he closed up shop,” Entratter Sidney puts in.
Another fave: Tom Ford, at one time regarded by Clemente as “a tall Texan.” Her appreciation of Ford has grown, thanks to Entratter Sidney.
“What’s there not to love?” Entratter Sidney says. “He’s an artist, like Picasso.”
The scholar and the socialite met at a UNLV dinner; Entratter Sidney had established a scholarship program in honor of George Sidney. To her, Clemente’s outfit and handmade bag stood out.
“I said, ‘You should come over to my house,’” she recalls. “‘I have a closet that you might like.’ I liked her style.”
While Entratter Sidney’s own style has simplified over the years, Clemente says, “she always has such a beautiful handbag. When I meet her in public, I can see her from across the room. Like the first time I saw her. Because she dresses in such a unique and put-together way. I just hope she teaches me some of the finer points, and I take her advice and pass it on to my girls.”
Some of the advice: Never put on more than three colors. Don’t try to match. Always look for the ground color. And, have one thing that’s a “surprise.”
“Somebody will look at you and go, oh yeah, you nailed the coffin,” says Entratter Sidney.
Tracey Sprague, who took Clemente’s class last spring, helped with cataloging, and helped dress mannequins for a related on-campus forum in December. She says that Entratter Sidney taught her to “stick to the basics, and do what makes you happy.”
“She’s a firm believer in scarves,” she observes. “I’ve caught myself wearing more scarves.”
Clemente also hopes to encourage other Nevadans to “look at their own collections and bring out their own awesome finds.” It could be something made by a local designer, or worn in a Vegas show. Or, the uniform worn by a waitress at Caesars Palace in 1975.
“There’s a lot of room for this city to grow as a place that defines American culture,” she says, adding that the CES Project is the first initiative of its kind here to collect material culture and historical artifacts.
And, says Entratter Sidney, “You never own anything until you give it away.”
