Another excerpt from Life Is a Banquet
Here is an unbelievably moving story, told by Freddie Brisson (Russell’s husband) about the special relationship between Russell and Galanos:
In 1960, after she had the first mastectomy, Rosalind went to Galanos. He says it was the only time he ever saw her break down. She had come to his office, very crisp, very businesslike. “I’m going to tell you something nobody in the world knows except Freddie and my doctor. I’ve had my breast removed, and I want to keep it quiet. So long as I can be active, I don’t want to be thought a freak, I don’t want people looking at me in person or on the screen and wondering about my sex life.” (You have to consider the era. Women had not yet begun to go public about their mastectomies.)
“I want you to start thinking in terms of how I can now be dressed,” Rosalind said to Jimmy, and then she began to take her clothes off. She started to cry, and he saw that she could hardly lift her left arm, it was so swollen, and he broke down too. From that day forward, he specially designed every piece of her clothing, and neither he nor his fitter ever told a soul.
what an amazing woman!
How about when she “discovered” Galanos? He was apprenticing to a famous designer (I forget who at the moment) when the famous designer asked Rosiland if she would mind that Galanos do designs for her next movie. She said that if they both submitted sketches and that Galanos agreed to make the dresses no matter who designed them, okay, she would accept. Later, with all the sketches in front of her (placed on the floor for better viewing), she picked out 10 sketches. “I’m pretty clever, aren’t I? I picked all of yours, didn’t I?” she said to the famous designer. The designer said, “You picked one of mine and nine of Jimmy’s.” And that launched Galanos in Hollywood.
I adore Rosalind Russell, more as a person than even as an actress. She was an inspiration! We can all learn from her warm, uncomplaining spirit.
I’m a little confused about something. They say she had her first mastectomy in 1960. Five Finger Exercise was filmed after that and in it she wears a low-cut dress, and it appears that a scar would definitely show. How is it possible to hide that kind of surgery so well? Are the dates wrong? Just trying to figure it out.