Roddy McDowall’s flamboyant and fabulous performance as Ariel in the George Schaefer-Hallmark Hall of Fame adaptation of William Shakespeare’s The Tempest, originally broadcast by NBC on February 3rd, 1960. Roddy’s makeup in the role was designed by Bob O'Bradovich and took a team of artists hours to apply (note the photo of Roddy attempting to eat a sandwich during the long, arduous process in photo six). Quite advanced for the era, as both the black and white photos of his makeup application and gifs from the early-color broadcast both demonstrate, the makeup prevented McDowall from being able to sit with his back rested on a chair and required more hours to carefully remove when his performance was over due to the strong glue used to apply the prosthetics, glitter and spiky tendrils on his back. The character of Ariel is referred to by the male pronoun “his” twice in the entire play (written by Shakespeare in 1610-1611), but the character became somewhat ambiguous and gender-neutral in subsequent performances over the centuries. Originally played by a young male in early stagings, the role was adopted by females during and after the Restoration period. Ever since the male British actor Leslie French assumed the role in a 1930 production, both males and females have appeared as Ariel, with McDowall, Ben Whishaw, Julyana Soelistyo, and Colin Morgan being the most notable. The Hallmark Hall of Fame adaptation Roddy played the part in also starred Maurice Evans (seen with Roddy in these gifs, Evans is probably best remembered today for his role as Samantha Stephens’ warlock father on the classic sitcom Bewitched; Shakespearean trained, he later appeared with McDowall in Planet of the Apes in 1968). Also starring in the HallmarkHall of Fame version with Roddy were Lee Remick and Richard Burton (Burton later worked with McDowall on Cleopatra in 1963, going on to marry the film’s star Elizabeth Taylor, who also happened to be Roddy’s lifelong best friend).
“I’m wearing Sam Edelman boots, Akira balloon pant, H&M sweater, vintage leather jacket, vintage lucite purse, and vintage silk scarf. I wasn’t feeling my best, so I went for a bright, cheerful orange to lift my spirits. It’s amazing how clothing can completely transform how you feel!”
I went to a glass museum recently and they had a program where they let kids design glass artwork and it brightened my day so much that I had to share some of my favorites:
Kids have such neat ideas and I love that a group of artists were willing to bring them to life.
ALT
