How did they film the buzz cut?
It looks so real.
shareIt was real. They shaved her head. I guess Eleanor Parker wore a wig (out of character) until her hair grew back.
shareMan, that is wonderful. Are there any articles her bravery?
shareI don't think so. For such an obvious talent, Eleanor Parker never got much recognition from Hollywood. It was even braver in 1950, since there weren't any women with shaved heads then, and there was a lot more conformity regarding dress. In those days, people associated women with shaved heads with Jewish women who were inmates in concentration camps during the war, who had their heads shaved on their arrival in the camps, mostly to humiliate and dehumanize them.
shareYour reply is filled with emotion, but I still believe from the film Parker did indeed have the front middle part of her head shaved. The camera stopped there. I'm not diminishing Parker'a bravery here but she could always cover that up.
I find it disturbing this tale has not been told. It is surely a legendary shot, ignored by history but loved by TCM sleuths.
I find it disturbing this tale has not been told. It is surely a legendary shot, ignored by history but loved by TCM sleuths.
News reports at the time of production advised that Miss Parker wore a hair piece for the buzz cut. A search of Google's news archive will find some articles on this subject. For example, Hedda Hopper's column of 21 July 1949 as printed in the Los Angeles Times (pay per view) states: "In the picture she'll also get her head shaved -- that is, she'll wear a shaven wig." Here is a similar column with free access, from the 6 August 1949 issue of the Reading Eagle:
http://news.google.com/newspapers?id=dLwhAAAAIBAJ&sjid=mZwFAAAAIBA J&pg=2657,1463389
I think the way they managed the buzz cut scene was to fit her with a skull cap and a wig over it, which made it look like her hair was being shaved off. Then they had various length wigs for her to wear to show Marie's hair as first very short (buzzed) and then at incremental stages of growing out.
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This is why I love TCM. I have rarely seen such a wonderfully-done effect.
But I can't help be a little disappointed.
I wouldn't hang my hat on anything that Hedda Hopper or any other gossip-columnist wrote.
shareThe scenes following it showed her with a shaved head. I'm sure she wore a wig or a scarf until it grew back.
shareWhat would be the point of just having a partial shave, and what would be the benefit? It's clear that Parker's entire head was shaved.
shareIn those days, people associated women with shaved heads with Jewish women who were inmates in concentration camps during the war, who had their heads shaved on their arrival in the camps, mostly to humiliate and dehumanize them.
Part of the motive to shave the heads of women prisoners in the concentration camps may have been to humiliate and dehumanize them, but the Nazi's had a more practical reason -- they made blankets for the prisoners from the hair.
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Thank you for your amazing little-known, thorough research on this!
shareIt was also done in concentration camps for head lice control.
Also, in formally Nazi-occupied contries after their liberation, female collaborators also had their hair shaved. Search YouTube for "paris female nazi collaborators" for some newsreel footage of this.