Susan Hayward and the Valley of the Dolls

Jewelry in FilmSusan Hayward's Jewelry

Feb 21

Written By Kathleen Lynagh

Studio photograph of Susan Hayward wearing an emerald and diamond star brooch. Image from the film archives for “Valley of the Dolls”.

Replica Jewelry for Film

Recreating the Star Brooch from “Valley of the Dolls”

Larry McQueen, the owner of the costume reached out to our studio to recreate the star brooch shown above for an exhibition. The brooch was worn by Susan Hayward in the film classic Valley of the Dolls. My parents being Catholic did not permit us to view what they considered “adult” films. This film was notoriously known for its adult theme.

Valley of the Dolls is a 1967 American drama film directed by Mark Robson, produced by Robson and David Weisbart, and starring Barbara Parkins, Patty Duke, Sharon Tate and Susan Hayward. It was based on Jacqueline Susann's 1966 novel of the same name.

Costume Designer: William Travilla

Research & Design Development

To the left is the conceptual sketch for the brooch provided by Larry McQueen, owner of The Collection of Motion Picture Costume Design.

We had very few studio images to work with and none of them showed the full brooch. We could tell from the images that it was a multiple leveled design. We assumed it was emerald and diamond.

We believed the brooch to be fine jewelry not costume jewelry because Ms Hayward wore it at other Hollywood events and it was listed in her private collection of jewelry. Perhaps one of Ms Hayward’s favorite brooches.

“If I can’t draw it then I can’t make it — essential to jewelry making.”

— KLH

The radiating star brooch was a very popular design and finding samples to research were fairly easy. As shown in the image on the left we were able to locate a glass bombe that closely matched the natural emerald color.

“Typically jewelry from the 1940’s - 60’s focused on using large beautiful cabochons and multi layered designs. ”

Front view of a sample multi-layered brooch

Design Development and Wax Carving

We knew the brooch had four levels to the design. Multi-level designs were typical for brooches from this time period.

Using Adobe Illustrator, we were able to design the piece rather quickly and print it to scale for approval. Once approved, we used each drawing layer as a template to carve the waxes. Since we were planning on making a costume version of the brooch this method made a lot of sense. If we had to fabricate it the time and effort would force us over budget.

With the waxes cut and prepped for casting - the next step was to design the layout for the many gemstones we would need to finish the brooch.

Using Illustrator we were able to develop the layout and pre-drill each hole. We knew the gems would be a faux “PAVE” set. I use several types of wax to achieve the PAVE look. Each bead is melted and dropped into place.

All the waxes were sprued and cast in yellow bronze.

Fabrication

Soldering the multi level brooch was tricky - it was a lot of metal to heat up. The clean up on the casting was easy since we always polish our waxes before we cast them.

We knew that we were going to rhodium plate the final piece and understood that the entire brooch would have to be assembled before plating.

Setting the gems

Our design - rhinestones were glued in place where as the large glass “gem” was prong set.

Each cut gemstone needed to be glued in place. For the center gem we used Prong setting or prong mount refers to the use of metal projections or tines, or prongs, to secure a gemstone to a piece of jewelry. A common setting for diamond engagement rings, the prong setting allows light to strike a gemstone from more angles, increasing its brilliance. The center green glass “gem” was set using six prongs thus completing the multi-level brooch.