COSTUME SKETCHES GALLERY

Tandy loved Costumes. He often said he had considered going into costume design. One of his favorite shows in the city was Beach Blanket Babylon, where there were always incredible costumes, especially hats, and the finale included revealing a hat containing the entire city of San Francisco, with astounding lighting effects going off in time with the music.

The sketches here were in his notebook, and give a sense of how quirky his ideas for costumes were. Maybe you'll be inspired to bring one to life. A hot pepper, a set of keys, chinese food carryout box, a little teapot, short and stout of course), pants on a clothesline, a couple sauce(d) bottles?

One time were two halves of a red heart. I can't find a sketch, and we didn't think about photos, so you have to just imagine a heart with our heads sticking out the upper curves. There were two parts with a zig-zag shape down the middle, so we could walk separately or together. Crowds in the street kept asking us to "break the heart" and then put it together. We'd fit the zig-zags together and kiss. It was a hoot.

Tandy won top prize for every contest he ever entered. I remember when we were headed off to the Russian River for a band retreat, he stopped, jumped out of the car, ran into the apartment and grabbed the big shopping bag where we stored our used sacks for recycling. He wouldn't say any more about it, so it slipped my mind.

It had become a tradition to have a big party on the last night of the retreat, with the full band, the flag corp, the tap dancers and twirling corps. I guess Tandy had gotten word (or maybe instigated it) that the party would include a costume contest. Right after dinner, he said "let's get ready." It turned out he had another fabulous idea.

He cut leg holes in the largest bags, and with our short stature, it was possible to wriggle into the bags and slip the bag handles over our shoulders. Then he small bags and fashioned them into hats, though they rested very precariously on our heads. More bags made our shoes. And the tiny bags we hung over our ears as earrings.

It was cold, but clothes just wouldn't show off the ingenious get-ups. So we just wore shorts, put our keys in another pair of bags -- an appropriate use of handbags, of course. His timing was always so perfect. We entered the party last and went straight to the improvised stage. "Bag ladies!" -- was murmured through the crowd and eventually announced by the MC. There was no question about us winning.

 

 

 

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