Mary Tyler Moore, the pretty and talented screen wife in The Dick Van Dyke Show, was the Cinderella of TV.
The clothes she wore on the show were kept securely locked in a safe. Just like Cinderella, when the show was over, her clothes were whisked away.
The reason was that many of the dresses she wore in the series were in America in bond and had to be returned to a Rome designer. The pledge to wear them only during appearances on the show meant that taxes were avoided.
The arrangement was known as a “tie-up” and was as old as television itself.
The fashion brain behind most of the big Hollywood clothing tie-ups for TV in the 50s and 60s was television fashion co-ordinator, Norma Funk.
At least one television show, she reminded her clients, would never have been made were it not for a tie-up. This was The Loretta Young Show. A feature of that series was Miss Young’s dazzling appearance in a different, costly gown for the introduction to each episode.
A Californian designer, Werle, who had been designing all the gowns the wealthy actress wore in private life, agreed to dress her without cost in return for prominent mention of his name in the credits of the show.
“It worked out very well,” Miss Funk said. “They kept it up for years. Eventually, when Werle bowed out, Jean Louis bowed in.”
These tie-ups began very early in television. Funk’s first client was Joan Caulfield in My Favorite Husband.
Subsequently, Norma Funk reigned supreme as American TV’s leading fashion tie-up expert. Her clients included everybody from Donna Reed to Donna Douglas in The Beverly Hillbillies.
The iron-clad rule was that all clothes subject to a tie-up had to be returned.
Although she led in her field, Funk suffered some notable failures. Among them was Gail Patrick Jackson, the producer of the Perry Mason series.
“She says she doesn’t believe in tie-ups”, said Norma, “but if I had my way, Perry Mason would wear the finest Botany 500 suits, and Della Street would roam around in a gorgeous assortment of Georgia Bullock dresses that would knock any legal secretary’s eyes out. But they get a special clothing allowance from the studio.”
But against all this, the actress who was among the first on TV and made the largest fortune of them all, would not succumb to the temptation of a free wardrobe.
Lucille Ball had all her TV clothes designed by Eddy Stevenson, a tailor who was on Desilu’s permanent staff.
“All she has to do is whistle, and we’ll all come running.” Miss Funk said at the time. “But she wears nothing but Eddy’s clothes. I suppose it’s because this is how she began, and Lucy is superstitious.”
