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| Susan Hayward costume, David and Bathsheba, 1951. Edward Stevenson Collection, ISU. |
Eddie credited an aunt who ran a millinery store with sparking an early interest in fabrics. He also said his first experience was at Pocatello High School, where he designed costumes for a couple of operettas. Unable to cope with Pocatello’s climate – he suffered from a “chronic respiratory ailment” – Stevenson moved to southern California in 1922.
Even before he graduated from Hollywood High School his abilities were recognized. He landed a job as a sketch artist, drawing images described in words by designers, writers, or actors. That led to some early design work of his own. Eddie’s first credit in the Internet Movie Database came in 1924. He provided “additional costuming” for The White Moth, a silent film released in 1924.
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| Barbara La Marr, star of The White Moth. Edward Stevenson Collection, ISU. |
Over the next several years, Eddie found steady work. However, not until 1929 did his name carry enough weight to get screen credits. That year, he received designer credit for five movies, and is known to have worked for two others.
Stevenson’s career took off in the Thirties. He was part of over eighty productions, and worked with some of the superstars of the industry: Barbara Stanwyck (five times), James Cagney (twice), Joan Fontaine (five), Cary Grant, and others. One of those “others” was Lucille Ball. Eddie first worked with her in 1936 … many years later he would serve as her preferred designer.
During his long career, Stevenson had a hand in over two hundred movies. Those include some of the grandest Oscar-winning Hollywood productions: Citizen Kane, The Devil and Daniel Webster, The Bachelor and the Bobby-Soxer, and Suspicion. Many more of the films he worked on received Oscar nominations: The Magnificent Ambersons, It’s a Wonderful Life, I Remember Mama, The Spiral Staircase, and so on.
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| Lucille Ball in her “little black dress.” Edward Stevenson Collection, ISU. |
Eddie received his first two personal Oscar nominations in 1950, for The Mudlark and for David and Bathsheba.
Not long after that, Stevenson had to have cataract surgery. Still, despite the visual handicap, he continued as a designer, with some of his best work ahead of him. In fact, he finally won an Oscar in 1960: He shared the award for The Facts of Life, which starred Lucille Ball.
By then, Stevenson designed almost exclusively for Ms. Ball, having started with her for the I Love Lucy television series. That continued with The Lucy-Desi Comedy Hour and two made-for-TV movies. In all, he designed costumes for over one hundred TV episodes.
Stevenson said that TV posed special design challenges compared to movies, mainly because of the small screen. Of course, up until the mid-Sixties, most shows were broadcast in black and white. That meant he also had to consider how a color combination would look for the actual broadcast. Despite those challenges, Eddie enjoyed the fast-paced tempo of TV production, which he said reminded him of his early days in movies.
Eddie had begun working with Ball for the Here’s Lucy show when he had a heart attack and died in December 1968.
| References: Trent Clegg, A Brief Biography of Edward Manson Stevenson (1906-1968), Department of Special Collections and University Archives, Idaho State University, Pocatello. |
| "Ex-Pocatellan Designs Comedy Clothes for 'I Love Lucy' Television Series,"Idaho State Journal (January 15, 1957). |
| "Filmography: Edward Manson Stevenson,"Internet Movie Database, Imdb.com |