Jewogle - Adrian Adolph Greenberg (March 3, 1903

Early life:

Adrian was born on March 3, 1903 in Naugatuck, Connecticut to Jewish immigrant parents Gilbert and Helena (Pollack) Greenburg. He attended the New York School for Fine and Applied Arts (now Parsons School of Design). In 1922, he transferred to NYSFAA's Paris campus and while there was hired by Irving Berlin. Adrian then designed the costumes for Berlin's The Music Box Revue.

Film work:

Adrian was hired as the head costume designer for Cecil B. DeMille's independent film studio. In 1928, Cecil B. DeMille moved temporarily to Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer and Adrian was hired as chief costume designer at the studio. While DeMille eventually returned to Paramount, Adrian stayed on at MGM. In his career at that studio, Adrian designed costumes for over 200 films. During this time, Adrian worked with some of the biggest female stars of the day like Greta Garbo, Norma Shearer, Jeanette MacDonald, Jean Harlow, Katharine Hepburn and Joan Crawford. He worked with Crawford 28 times, Shearer 18 and Harlow 9. He worked with Garbo over the course of most of her career. Adrian was behind Crawford's signature outfits with large shoulderpads, which later spawned a fashion trend.

Adrian was most famous for his evening gown designs for these actresses, a talent exemplified in The Women. The Women (1939), filmed in black and white, originally included a 10-minute fashion parade in Technicolor, which featured Adrian's most outré designs; often cut in TV screenings, it has been restored to the film by Turner Classic Movies. Adrian was also well-known for his extravagant costumes (as in The Great Ziegfeld) and opulent (if not historically accurate) period dresses such as those for Camille and Marie Antoinette.

Adrian is perhaps best known today for his work on the 1939 movie classic, The Wizard of Oz. Adrian custom designed the film's signature red-sequined Ruby slippers for Judy Garland.

Later life:

Adrian left MGM in 1941 to set up his own independent fashion house, though he still worked closely with Hollywood. He married Janet Gaynor in 1939, and they remained married until his death in 1959. They retired to their ranch in Brazil. He only returned to MGM for a final film, 1952's Lovely to Look At. Despite his success, Adrian was never nominated for an Academy Award. He came out of his retirement and returned to the States in 1959 to design the costumes for the upcoming Broadway musical Camelot. In the early stages of this project, Adrian died suddenly of a heart attack at the age of 56.

Quotes:

"It was because of Garbo that I left M-G-M. In her last picture they wanted to make her a sweater girl, a real American type. I said, 'When the glamour ends for Garbo, it also ends for me. She has created a type. If you destroy that illusion, you destroy her.' When Garbo walked out of the studio, glamour went with her, and so did I."

Filmography:

Her Sister from Paris (1925)
The Eagle (1925)
Cobra (1925)
The Volga Boatman (1926)
Fig Leaves (1926)
For Alimony Only (1926)
Young April (1926)
Gigolo (1926)
The Little Adventuress (1927)
Vanity (1927)
His Dog (1927)
The Country Doctor (1927)
The Fighting Eagle (1927)
The Angel of Broadway (1927)
The Wise Wife (1927)
Dress Parade (1927)
The Forbidden Woman (1927)
The Wreck of the Hesperus (1927)
The Main Event (1927)
My Friend from India (1927)
Chicago (1927)
Almost Human (1927)
A Ship Comes In (1928)
Let 'Er Go, Gallegher (1928)
What Price Beauty? (1928)
Stand and Deliver (1928)
The Blue Danube (1928)
Midnight Madness (1928)
Skyscraper (1928)
Walking Back (1928)
The Masks of the Devil (1928)
Dream of Love (1928)
A Lady of Chance (1928)
A Woman of Affairs (1928)
A Single Man (1929)
Wild Orchids (1929)
The Bridge of San Luis Rey (1929)
The Godless Girl (1929)
The Trial of Mary Dugan (1929)
The Last of Mrs. Cheyney (1929)
The Single Standard (1929)
Our Modern Maidens (1929)
The Unholy Night (1929)
The Thirteenth Chair (1929)
The Kiss (1929)

Untamed (1929)
Dynamite (1929)
Their Own Desire (1929)
Devil May Care (1929)
Marianne (1929)
Not So Dumb (1930)
Anna Christie (1930)
A Lady to Love (1930)
Montana Moon (1930)
This Mad World (1930]])
The Divorcee (1930)
Redemption (1930)
The Rogue Song (1930)
In Gay Madrid (1930)
The Lady of Scandal (1930)
The Floradora Girl (1930)
Our Blushing Brides (1930)
Let Us Be Gay (1930)
Romance (1930)
Private Lives (1931)
Possessed (1931)
Laughing Sinners (1931)
Grand Hotel (1932)
Red Dust (1932)
Letty Lynton (1932)
Smilin' Through (1932)
Strange Interlude (1932)
Today We Live (1933)
Dinner at Eight (1933)
Queen Christina (1933)
The Cat and the Fiddle (1934)
The Barretts of Wimpole Street (1934)
Nana (1934)
I Live My Life (1935)
Wife Vs. Secretary (1936)
The Great Ziegfeld (1936)
The Gorgeous Hussy (1936)
Born to Dance (1936)
Camille (1936)
The Girl of the Golden West (1938)
The Shopworn Angel (1938)
The Wizard of Oz (1939)
Balalaika (1939)
The Women (1939)
Susan and God (1940)
The Philadelphia Story (1940)
Boom Town (1940)
Woman of the Year (1942)
Flight for Freedom (1943)
Rope (1948)
Lovely to Look At (1952)