Hollywood

Jan 18, 2026

Costume as Character:
Celebrating the Legacy of Ruth Morley
Center for Jewish History
15 West 16th Street, New York, NY

2026-01-18T16:32:44-05:00January 18th, 2026|, |Comments Off on Costume as Character:
Celebrating the Legacy of Ruth Morley
Center for Jewish History
15 West 16th Street, New York, NY

Costume designer Ruth Morley was behind the iconic looks of several characters now considered legendary in cinema history. A Kindertransport child refugee from Vienna, in the 1950s she studied under German-American painter Hans Hofmann and went on to design costumes for opera and ballet before moving into theater, film and television. Her work can be seen in such iconic films as The Hustler (1961), The Miracle Worker (1962, Academy Award nomination), Taxi Driver (1976), Annie Hall (1977), Kramer vs Kramer (1979), One from the Heart (1981), The Chosen (1981), Tootsie (1982, BAFTA nomination) and Ghost (1990). In the 1980’s she began teaching and mentoring costume design graduate students at Brandeis and NYU. REGISTER HERE Join panelists Deborah Nadoolman Landis (Costume Designer and Distinguished Professor at UCLA’s School of Theater, Film and Television, [...]

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Oct 28, 2025

FRITZ ASCHER SOCIETY Newsletter NOVEMBER 2025

2026-01-05T06:30:29-05:00October 28th, 2025|Newsletter|Comments Off on FRITZ ASCHER SOCIETY Newsletter NOVEMBER 2025

Dear Friends, It is getting chillier outside! Perfect to visit an exhibition or sit down at your computer with a hot cup of coffee or tea, or lunch, and listen to one of our virtual events: This month, we celebrate two Austrian-born artists: costume designer Ruth Morleyon her 100th birthday (November 19 virtual event), and ceramist Vally Wieselthier, whose work is on view at the Austrian Cultural Forum New York (featured exhibition). We commemorate the so-called Kristallnacht (The night of broken glass) - the coordinated series of violent anti-Jewish pogroms that took place throughout Nazi Germany, Austria, and the Sudetenland on November 9–10, 1938. As fewer and fewer Holocaust survivors live among us, we continue to focus on [...]

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Oct 23, 2025

From Vienna to Movies:
Costume Designer Ruth Morley at 100, a birthday commemoration.
Presentation by Melissa Hacker and Susan Gammie

2025-11-21T07:00:38-05:00October 23rd, 2025|, , |Comments Off on From Vienna to Movies:
Costume Designer Ruth Morley at 100, a birthday commemoration.
Presentation by Melissa Hacker and Susan Gammie

In this virtual event, the life and work of Costume Designer Ruth Morley will be discussed by her daughter Melissa Hacker and Susan Gammie, her assistant, protégé and close friend. Ruth Morley (1925-1991) fled her childhood home in Vienna on a Kindertransport as an unaccompanied child refugee, arrived in New York City as a teenager, and became a noted costume designer whose career spanned decades and disciplines, including dance, opera, theater, film and television. Her film credits include American classics Tootsie, Annie Hall, Taxi Driver, The Chosen, Kramer vs Kramer and The Hustler; her theater, opera and dance credits include Death of Salesman (with Dustin Hoffman), The Threepenny Opera, Deathtrap, Miracle Worker (stage and film, for the film, she received an Oscar nomination), Billy Budd, the Golem, and many more. Television includes Playing for Time with Vanessa Redgrave and Mussolini with George C [...]

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Jul 11, 2025

Ruth Morley and Lore Segal, Kindertransport Survivor Artists on Film
Film Screening and Conversation with Director Melissa Hacker

2025-08-20T18:00:52-04:00July 11th, 2025|, , |Comments Off on Ruth Morley and Lore Segal, Kindertransport Survivor Artists on Film
Film Screening and Conversation with Director Melissa Hacker

Join film director Melissa Hacker in conversation with Rachel Stern about My Knees Were Jumping; Remembering the Kindertransports. In the nine months just prior to World War II close to 10,000 children were sent, without their parents, to the United Kingdom from Nazi Germany, Austria, Czechoslovakia and Poland. These children were rescued by the Kindertransport movement. Most of the children never saw their parents again. Those courageous parents who had the strength to send their children off to an unknown fate soon boarded transports taking them to concentration camps. The story of the Kindertransports is an extraordinary piece of history - untold far too long. The children who lived the trauma and terror of being uprooted from secure homes tell [...]

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May 28, 2024

From Auschwitz to Hollywood: Jack Garfein, “THE WILD ONE”
Film Screening and Conversation with French producer Chantal Perrin

2024-06-06T07:46:23-04:00May 28th, 2024|, , |Comments Off on From Auschwitz to Hollywood: Jack Garfein, “THE WILD ONE”
Film Screening and Conversation with French producer Chantal Perrin

THE WILD ONE illuminates the journey of unsung artist Jack Garfein (1930-2019) - Holocaust survivor, celebrated Broadway director, Actors Studio West co-founder, and controversial filmmaker. The film examines how his experience in Nazi concentration camps shaped his vision of acting as a survival mechanism and propelled his engagement with themes of violence, power, and racism in postwar America in two explosive films: THE STRANGE ONE (1957) and SOMETHING WILD (1961). THE WILD ONE explores the importance of his legacy as an artist who confronted censorship and reveals how art can draw on personal memory to better enlighten our present. Image above: Photo of Jack Garfein. Courtesy of Petite Maison Production WATCH THE TRAILER: [...]

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