Candy girls at Tuschinski Theatre

 So it is already a week and a half ago that I was selling candy at the Tuschinski theatre in with my friend Jip (who has a lovely blog on which she will post about this event as well (http://oldfashionedatheart.blogspot.nl/).

Tuschinksi is the most beautiful old cinema in Amsterdam I think. It opened in 1921 and was built in a kind of mixture of art-nouveau and deco. The interiors are amazing. So  when we were asked by Miss Jo Hedwig Teeuwisse, who runs a historical consultancy company (http://www.hab3045.nl/), to play candy girls for a show of Laurel and Hardy movies we were very enthusiastic. The idea was that we'd look like candy girls from the 30's and sell old-fashioned Dutch candy to the people attending.

We made our own costumes and had so much fun with it. We really wanted to match. For inspiration we looked at old pictures of maids, because the rather racy outfits of American candy girls would never have suited the more demure Dutch.

 

One picture form the movie 'De Tweeling' (The Twins) gave us the idea for our aprons. The costumes ended up looking a lot like the ones from this movie.

We ordered several  white lace collars. We used them to finish our aprons. We did not want bands over our shoulders as that is less fancy and more work. We pinned the tops onto our dresses.

Because Jip has a degree in pattern drawing she made the patrern for the aprons which we then individually made.

We used the same kind of collars as actual collars on our dresses. We did not make our own dresses but looked in our closets for similar ones. I think it hardly shows they are not the same.
On our sleeves we used some more white lace.

We did not want the headgear to be to big, as not to ruin our hairdo's. So we used some of the ribbon from the aprons and pleated it, attached a tunnel with a  smaller ribbon running through. We could not help the association with Goth-Lolita ;) as we both used to be Goths in our (early)teens.

 

 

To be able to carry the candy around we made containers. I used paper in a few of the colors used in the decoration scheme of Tuschinki to make them look art-deco inspired. The actual design of the wallpaintings was way to intircate te reproduce.

Because Jip lives on the other side of the country she was my guest for a couple of nights so we could do the dressing up ect. in peace and together (so much more fun).The evening before we set our hair: me with pins, Jip with the most adorable sponge-ragcurlers.

 

 

On the day itself we finished our outfits with original pre-war stockings and black shoes with low heels. Normally I always wear red lipstick but as this probably would have been forbidden during work in the 30's I left them bare for once (did feel a little naked though)

At Tuschinski we were joined by Tim who was the 'porter' who welcomed all guests.

When making the 200 candybags I was not sure how we were going to sell them all. But as it turned out we actually sold out a little to quickly!

Maybe the old-fashioned price of 10cts (in Dutch this used to be called a 'dubbeltje', a term that has disapeared since the Euro) helped us there.
During the time the movie was running we could walk around a bit in the wonderful building and we took some photo's of each other.

 

 

 

 

Even the toilets are pretty impressive at Tuschinski:

 

 

 

We we so stupid as to forget to bring our lunch (left if lying ready in the kitchen...), so we got quite hungry... In a back room we saw all these muffins....almost irresistable, we were good girls though.

 

 

 

Luckily there was free applepie in the cantine bacause of someones birthday, and we could have a piece of that. Let us eat cake ;)

Later on we could even see part of the movie from the upper balcony.

We had a very nice day and saw places normally hidden to the public. And we did feel pretty cute in out matching uniforms ;), would love to wear them again.

In the evening I organised a little diner party at my place in honour of my guest, who can't come to Amsterdam all that often. My inner Hyacinth Bucket jumped up and down for joy (she had been nagging me to throw a candlelight supper ever since I moved in to me new home ;)).

 

Because it had been a busy day I asked my friends to bring some food, so I would not have to prepare it myself. So a big thanks to them for preparing the wonderful meal!

As the evening proceeded, with a little help from Bacchus....;)

Jip and I thought it'd be fun if we both wore a long dress, as that was customary at dinner parties in the old days. As she did not bring one with her I borrowed her one of mine. I think she looked absolutely to die for, like a 1930's Disney princess! So let this be the fairytale ending of this post. I hope to soon catch up with the events of last weekend!