Caroline F. Siedle (1867 – February 26, 1907) was a

costume designer A costume designer is a person who designs costumes for a film, stage production or television show. The role of the costume designer is to create the characters' outfits or costumes and balance the scenes with texture and colour, etc. The costume ...

Broadway Broadway may refer to: Theatre * Broadway Theatre (disambiguation) * Broadway theatre, theatrical productions in professional theatres near Broadway, Manhattan, New York City, U.S. ** Broadway (Manhattan), the street **Broadway Theatre (53rd Stree ...

. She was one of earliest designers to receive credit for her work in theater programs,Unruh, Delbert, Ione Unruh, and Alexandra Steiner-Strauss. "American Broadway Costume Designs in the Theatre Museum in Vienna." ''Theatre Design & Technology'' Winter 2013: 54-56. Print. as well as the first woman in the United States to consistently receive professional billing as a designer."Curtain Call Educator's Guide: Celebrating a Century of Women Designing for Live Performance." New York Public Library. New York Public Library, 2008. Web. 29 Mar. 2016. (http://www.nypl.org/sites/default/files/curtaincallteacherguide_0.pdf).

Personal life

Caroline Siedle was born in London, England."Costume Designer Dead." The New York Times 28 Feb. 1907: 9. The New York Times. Web. 30 Mar. 2016. (https://timesmachine.nytimes.com/timesmachine/1907/02/28/106742319.pdf) She moved to New York when she married Edward Siedle, who was properties master for the

Metropolitan Opera The Metropolitan Opera (commonly known as the Met) is an American opera company based in New York City, resident at the Metropolitan Opera House at Lincoln Center, currently situated on the Upper West Side of Manhattan. The company is operat ...

. She died on February 26, 1907, at her home in Ludlow Park, Yonkers, of pneumonia, after being ill for four days. She was about 40 and had one nineteen-year-old child at the time of her death.

Career

Little is known about Siedle’s early life or training. After marrying Edward, she established an atelier in NY to serve the theatre trade. She began designing costumes when she was 22. She designed 58 musicals on Broadway, 48 of which listed her as the single designer. She designed costumes for most of the musical productions on Broadway from 1901-1907. In the later years of the nineteenth century in the US, company managers usually selected costumes for a show. They were often pulled from a rental house rather than designed. Very few designers who specialized in costumes were recognized. Siedle was one of the few who were. She was sometimes even credited on the title page of a playbill rather than in the back. Siedle worked in the theatre when British pantomime and Viennese operettas were still being produced, but American musical comedies were becoming increasingly popular. She worked with

Ziegfeld Florenz Edward Ziegfeld Jr. (; March 21, 1867 – July 22, 1932) was an American Broadway impresario, notable for his series of theatrical revues, the ''Ziegfeld Follies'' (1907–1931), inspired by the ''Folies Bergère'' of Paris. He also p ...

Lew Fields Lew Fields (born Moses Schoenfeld, January 1867 – July 20, 1941) was an American actor, comedian, vaudeville star, theatre Management, manager, and Theatrical producer, producer. He was part of a comedy duo with Joe Weber (vaudevillian), Joe We ...

Charles Frohman Charles Frohman (July 15, 1856 – May 7, 1915) was an American theater manager and producer, who discovered and promoted many stars of the American stage. Notably, he produced ''Peter Pan'', both in London and the US, the latter production ...

, and the

Shuberts The Shubert family was responsible for the establishment of the Broadway district, in New York City, as the hub of the theater industry in the United States. They dominated the legitimate theater and vaudeville in the first half of the 20th cen ...

. She worked with scene designers such as Homer Emens, Ernest M. Gros, Frank Dodge, Ernest Albert, Joseph A. Physioc, and Francis Gates and Richard Gates. Siedle worked on thirteen productions with

Julian Mitchell Charles Julian Humphrey Mitchell, FRSL (born 1 May 1935) is an English playwright, screenwriter and occasional novelist. He is best known as the writer of the play and film '' Another Country'', and as a screenwriter for TV, producing many orig ...

. Upon her death, Mitchell said, "Death in removing Mrs. Siedle, has deprived me of the helper who enabled me to make my reputation. Without her assistance I should never have been able to carry out the musical comedy color schemes which have made beautiful stage pictures. Her taste was always good, and her ability to design amounted to genius."

Costume Designs

Siedle contributed to America’s visual culture with her designs for the spectacular, first musical version of '' The Wizard of Oz'' (1903) and for Victor Herbert’s fantasy '' Babes in Toyland'' (1903). Another memorable design was for the musical comedy ''Piff! Paff!! Pouf!!!'' (1904) with its "Radium Ballet". For that novelty, the white, frilly dresses of the eight "Pony Ballet" girls glowed "like gigantic fire-flies" when the auditorium was darkened. Their costumes were illuminated by discs of phosphorus and they danced with phosphorescent skipping ropes. It became a worldwide theatrical sensation. Other influential designs included those for the opera ''Dolly Varden'' (1902), which re-popularized 1730s-style silhouettes, and designs based on contemporary dress, such as '' The Belle of New York'' (1897), and the Marie Cahill vehicle ''Sally in Our Alley'' (1902). Other shows she designed for include: *

A Parisian Model ''A Parisian Model'' is a 1906 Edwardian musical comedy with music by Max Hoffman, Sr. to a book and lyrics by Harry B. Smith. The story concerns a dressmaker's model who comes into a fortune. It opened on Broadway in 1906, ran with success and ...

(1906) * The Red Mill (1906) * The Tattooed Man (1907) * The White Hen (1907) * About Town (1906) * Dream City (1906) * The Rich Mr. Hoggenheimer (1906) * Wonderland (1905) * It Happened in Nordland (1904) * ''The Emerald Isle'' (1902), directed by R. H. Burnside and starring Jerrerson De Angelis. * ''The Jolly Musketeer'', staged by Richard Barker around 1899, featured costumes made by Dazian, "The famous costumer of New York", from sketches made by Caroline F. Siedle. Properties were contributed by Edward Siedle of the Metropolitan Opera. Music was by Julian Edwards.''The Saint Paul globe''. (St. Paul, Minn.), 26 Feb. 1899. ''Chronicling America: Historic American Newspapers''. Lib. of Congress. (http://chroniclingamerica.loc.gov/lccn/sn90059523/1899-02-26/ed-1/seq-13/)

References

External links

* http://www.nypl.org/sites/default/files/curtaincallteacherguide_0.pdf * https://www.etsy.com/listing/274404000/1900s-caroline-f-seidle-opera-drawing {{DEFAULTSORT:Siedle, Caroline English costume designers 1907 deaths 1867 births English emigrants to the United States Designers from London People from Yonkers, New York American costume designers Deaths from pneumonia in New York (state)