Can you recall the scene in “The Wizard of Oz”, where the Wicked Witch turned the Tin Man into a “human beehive”; or, can you conjure up Kevin Costner’s performance as the college friend around whose funeral the movie “The Big Chill” revolves? Of course you can’t, because, in both cases, those scenes were deleted from the release cut of the films, never to be seen by the general public.
I’m reminded of these snippets of entertainment trivia by our Polly’s recent collision with the “cutting room floor”. As most of you know, All You Need is Love, Hats, and Veils was asked by ABC to provide hats for use in an episode of Extreme Makeover:Home Edition. Polly, delighted by both the potential media exposure as well as a chance to do a good turn for a fellow hat lover, designed, made and sent 5 of her originals, including Turquoise Wave, Daring at Derby, Elizabeth’s Cheetah, Rose Garden to the network, believing that the next time she saw the hats would be on network TV. Disappointingly, this was not the case.
The episode was heartwarming, about a deserving family and their admirable, hat wearing neighbor, Miss Rose. When none of the hats made an appearance during the show, you might have wondered, as did we, if Miss Rose even received her hats. I’m happy to say she did. Monday morning email brought, apologies and assurances from the Extreme Makeover design producer that Miss Rose is indeed in possession of her hats. Unfortunately, the scenes featuring Polly’s designs were edited out. Photos of the hats will appear on the Extreme Makeover: Home Edition website, and we have, in our imaginations the image of Miss Rose in her lovely renovated home, sporting a fine new hat.
Oh, one last bit of entertainment trivia: Moon River, probably the best known song ever composed for a movie sound track (music by Henry Mancini, lyrics by Johnny Mercer, “Breakfast at Tiffany’s”) was condemned by a producer to the cutting room floor. Were it not for Audrey Hepburn’s comments, which began with “Over my dead body,” and proceeded to the unprintable, the classic show tune would have shared the same fate as Miss Rose’s new hats.
“Oh dream maker, you heart breaker….”
by Jan Masters Yon
