SALON

Friday, Oct 26, 2012 11:17 AM UTC

Vast Broadway costume collection on display in Fla

By

Topics: From the Wires,

Vast Broadway costume collection on display in FlaThis Oct, 3, 2012 photo shows Kimberly Wick displaying the costume book and one of the dresses from the play, "Dracula the Musical", as she conducts a tour of her costume museum in Pompano Beach, Fla. Marilynn Wick and her daughter Kimberly opened a museum in 2011, showcasing more than one million costumes from nearly 50 shows, guiding daily tours through a non-de script South Florida warehouse against a backdrop of hand painted sets and a marquee replica from storied Broadway theaters like the Winter Garden. (AP Photo/J Pat Carter)(Credit: AP)

POMPANO BEACH, Fla. (AP) — Box by box they arrived, the once glittering costumes of Broadway legends and theatre memorabilia, now dirty, tattered and forgotten. There were painstakingly hand-beaded bodices and garments worn by Julie Andrews, Carol Burnett and Vanessa Williams, each more unkempt than the next, stored on rusty hangars and covered in black soot.

It was to be one of the largest collections of Broadway costumes in the country. There were more than 500 boxes in all, newly purchased by Marilynn Wick to add to her multimillion dollar collection of costumes at Costume World which she rents to professional theatres and high school productions.

Wick and her daughter Kimberly surveyed the treasures they had just purchased at a 2005 auction: a Judy Garland hat, probably from her TV show; Ginger Roger’s red sequin dress from “Hello Dolly;” Lou Diamond Phillip’s exquisite jewel encrusted jacket costume from his Tony-winning role in the “The King and I;” and Nathan Lane’s gangster suit from “Guys and Dolls.”

They knew they had to share it. “We were going through boxes and I said, ‘Kim, are we really going to rent Judy Garland’s hat?” said 69-year-old Marilynn Wick.

The mother-daughter duo opened a museum in 2011, showcasing more than one million costumes from nearly 50 shows, guiding daily tours through a non-descript South Florida warehouse against a backdrop of hand painted sets and a marquee replica from storied Broadway theatres like the Winter Garden.

It took seamstresses months to restore the garments. One spent six months on Julie Andrew’s ivory and gold beaded dress from “My Fair Lady.”

Kimberly Wick, a seamstress with a flair for the dramatics, narrates the tour, wearing a flowing, peach gown from the musical “Titanic,” charming the crowd with behind the scenes tidbits along the way.

There’s the time Pearl Bailey was too tired for her multiple costume changes (several are on display) in “Hello Dolly” and asked the audience if she could perform in the same dress throughout the show. Eighteen thousand trim balls were hand sewn onto the silk costumes from the cast of “Once Upon a Mattress,” including Sarah Jessica Parker’s dress. (The Wicks no longer rent out costumes from that show because the delicate silk is now threadbare.) They even have the dress Parker wore in her role opposite husband Matthew Broderick in “How To Succeed in Business Without Really Trying.”

The Wicks’ own Julie Andrew’s dress from the Broadway show of “My Fair Lady.” They tried to buy the iconic black-and-white striped dress Audrey Hepburn wore in the film at an auction several years ago, estimating it would cost about $100,000. But it sold for more than $3 million, Kimberly Wick says. “My Fair Lady” is their most valuable collection: they even own the dress patterns.

All the costumes are displayed under the gleaming light from of the original chandelier from Tavern on the Green restaurant, of course.

“We were bidding against Donald Trump. He got six. We got one,” Kimberly Wick said.

After the tour, the audience dons white gloves and paws through racks of costumes from “Pippin” to “The Producers.”

The Wicks stumbled into the costume business accidentally. Kimberly Wick, then 12, and her sister were bored one muggy South Florida summer day in the 1980s so their housekeeper helped them sew a Santa costume. They stitched a few more, put an ad in the paper and were met with a steady stream of customers wanting to rent a suit for $25 a pop.

Their mother saw a business opportunity and opened up a storefront in South Florida where she made $250,000 the first Halloween. In 1990, she made a deal to provide all the clown costumes to the legendary Ringling Brothers and Barnum and Bailey Circus.

The single mother said she fell in love with the theater decades ago when she saw her first Broadway play at age 7. Little by little, she purchased costumes and Broadway trinkets from auctions. She now runs four costume stores around the country, a division that rents costumes to theaters and the museum.

“I figured out a way to make Broadway part of my everyday life,” she said.

Once the Wicks obtain a show’s wardrobe, they look at the historic value of the show and decide whether to restore it to display or whether it’s more valuable to rent.

It costs up to $145 to rent a Broadway costume, but nearly half their business comes from much cheaper high school rentals — they handle about 50 productions a year. “The Producers”, “Guys and Dolls”, “The King and I” and “42nd Street” are currently in heavy rotation.

They also receive frequent phone calls from the White House press secretary and handle costumes for shows at army bases around the world, as well as national historic libraries.

For many of the shows, the Wicks own multiple sets: the original Broadway costumes, the Broadway revivals and two or three that their own wardrobe company has recreated to rent out for school productions.

The Wicks possess nearly 25 of Harold Hill’s reversible band jacket from “The Music Man.”

And yes, all 76 jackets, hats and trombones are in storage above the museum.

___

If you go: Tours range from $38-$58. http://www.costumeworld.com/museum.php

More Kelli Kennedy.

Next Article

Related Stories

More Related Stories

Featured Slide Shows

The week in 10 pics

close X
  • Share on Twitter
  • Share on Facebook
  • Thumbnails
  • Fullscreen
  • 1 of 11
  • Lisa Montgomery embraces her nephew Thursday after a tornado tore apart her home in Cleburne, Texas. The twister killed six people and destroyed entire swaths of the North Texas town.
    Credit: AP/LM Otero

  • Jack McMahon, the defense attorney for abortion doctor Kermit Gosnell, speaks outside the Criminal Justice Center in Philadelphia Tuesday. His client was convicted of killing three babies in his clinic, and will serve multiple life sentences.
    Credit: AP/Matt Rourke

  • A photo taken Monday captures Vice President Joe Biden's response to a Milwaukee second-grader's innovative proposal to end America's epidemic of gun violence. This guy!
    Credit: AP/Jenny Aicher

  • Sen. Rand Paul, R-Ky., flanked by a grouper-eyed Michele Bachmann, addresses the IRS' admission that it targeted Tea Party groups in advance of the 2012 election. In an op-ed for CNN Thursday, the Kentucky senator slammed the president for his faux outrage.
    Credit: AP/Molly Riley

  • Ousted IRS chief Steven Miller is sworn in on Capitol Hill Friday. Miller testified before the House Ways and Means Committee on the extra scrutiny the agency gave conservative groups applying for tax-exempt status.
    Credit: AP/J. Scott Applewhite

  • Attorney General Eric Holder pauses as he testifies on Capitol Hill before the House Judiciary Committee Wednesday. Holder is under fire, among other things, for the Justice Department's gathering of phone records at the Associated Press.
    Credit: AP/Carolyn Kaster

  • O.J. Simpson sits during an evidentiary hearing at Clark County District Court in Las Vegas, Nev., Thursday. Simpson, who is currently serving a nine-to-33-year sentence in state prison for armed robbery and kidnapping, is using a writ of habeas corpus to seek a new trial.
    Credit: AP/Las Vegas Review-Journal/Jeff Scheid

  • Major Tom to ground control: On Sunday astronaut Chris Hadfield recorded the first music video from space, a cover of David Bowie's "Space Oddity."
    Credit: AP/NASA/Chris Hadfield

  • When it rains it pours. President Barack Obama speaks during a news conference Thursday with Turkish Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdogan, inexplicably inspiring an #umbrellagate Twitter meme.
    Credit: AP/Jacquelyn Martin

  • A smoke plume rises high above a road block at the intersection of County A and Ross Road east of Solon Springs, Wis., Tuesday. No injuries were reported, but the the wildfire caused evacuations across northwestern Wisconsin.
    Credit: AP/The Duluth News-Tribune/Clint Austin

  • Recent Slide Shows

  • Share on Twitter
  • Share on Facebook
  • Thumbnails
  • Fullscreen
  • 1 of 11

Related Videos

Comments

 0 Comments

Comment Preview

Your name will appear as username

You may use these HTML tags and attributes: <a href=""> <b> <em> <strong> <i> <blockquote>

follow salon

Most Read

Popular on Reddit

links from salon.com

vote
Slave descendants seek equal rights from Cherokee Nation
56 points57 points | 3 comments
vote
Oklahoma senator who voted against federal funding for Hurricane Sandy victims: Tornado aid “totally different” from Sandy aid
38 points39 points | comment
vote
"Slave descendants seek equal rights from Cherokee Nation": long, detailed narrative of legal and historical complications in red-white-black relations
25 points26 points | comment
vote
Obama opposes GOP bill on Keystone XL oil pipeline: The White House said Tuesday that the bill “seeks to circumvent longstanding and proven processes” by removing a requirement for a presidential permit. The legislation also says no new environmental studies are needed.
21 points22 points | 2 comments
vote
Who is "Company Doe"? Corporations accused of wrongdoing win battle to keep identities secret
8 points9 points | comment

From Around the Web

Presented by Scribol
listener_new_rect The Listener: So long, Sookie Stackhouse

Recommendations