Marsha Bentley Hale has been studying mannequins for several decades and considered one of the
most knowledgeable person about mannequins. Marsha, known to some as "Marsha Mannequin," and
whom here at FashionWindows we fondly call The Patron Saint of Mannequins began her
fascination with the figures while studying photojournalism at the University of California,
Los Angeles.
While she was driving through Beverly Hills one night in 1978, a group of mannequins in a store
window caught her eye. Her photographer's eyes could not help but notice that they were perfect
subjects for a photograph. When she got back to the university the next day, she found out that
there was almost nothing about mannequins in the huge UCLA library. A lot of phone calls and
a bit of detective work, she found historical materials about mannequins. Since then, Marsha
Bentley Hale had been documenting, collecting and researching about mannequins.
"The trouble," asserts Hale, "is that the early manufacturers didn't save old catalogs or
photographs, and the mannequins themselves were often discarded once they were damaged or out
of fashion."
To date, she has amassed an archive of over 5,000 photographs and 2,000 articles on the
fashion fixtures, and has accumulated over 150 mannequins she considers to be "important"
representations of different eras. She had continues to catalogue the archival materials
and plans to open a Mannequin Museum and an online Mannequin Museum Archive so that she can
share her research with the world. Her collection of historical and modern day mannequins
are currently disassembled and carefully wrapped in acid-free tissue paper waiting for the
unveiling of the Mannequin Museum.
One real life story in Marsha Bentley Hale's archive is about the famous artist, Salvador Dali.
"Salvador Dali was commissioned to create a display window at Bonwit Teller, a fashionable
New York department store- an exercise that Dali noted "did more for my glory than if I'd eaten
up all Fifth Avenue."
The focus of Dali's window was a claw-foot bathtub, its interior lined with Persian lambskin
and filled with narcissi floating in muddy water. Dozens of disembodied white mannequin arms
reached from the bath. Each held a hand mirror tilted to reflect a turn-of-the-century wax
mannequin with a chaste China-doll face, about to step into the tub. Chicken leathers were
glued to her otherwise nude body. Blood-red tears stained her face; her waist-length blonde
hair crawled with large, artificial bugs. Dali completed his task and returned to his hotel
to rest.
The store opened at 9 A.M. to high hopes, but shoppers immediately raised such a hue and cry
at the shocking display that by 1 P.M. workers were assigned to make adjustments to the window.
When Dali saw the changes, he barged into the display to make repairs. Somehow, he managed
to push the tub through the plate-glass window and onto Fifth Avenue. Two policemen who
happened to be passing by promptly arrested the imperious Dali for malicious mischief.
Bonwit's reimbursed Dali for the $800 fine he was assessed.
Other famous stories are:
Oscar Schlemmer, the Bauhaus painter, crafted a doll to take the place of Alma Mahler, the
love of his life (who had left him) beside him in his car when driving in Vienna.
Lester Gaba, mannequin sculptor during the 1930s brought his beloved "Cynthia" with him
everywhere. Cynthia was 125 lbs and made of plaster of paris.
