A daughter reflects:Speaking of Gary Cooper
A refined and stylish elegance that makes a man classy is what distinguished leading man Gary Cooper, both on and off the screen. Nobody could know that better than his daughter, Maria Cooper Janis. She recently spoke to the Courier about the film star and her most recent book on him.
That she is a reflection of her father was evident in her words, which exuded eloquence.
Unpretentious Charm Cooper Janis shared personal and previously unpublished photographs of her father in the recently published, "Gary Cooper: Enduring Style." She will be present Saturday and Sunday, April 21 and 22, during the Black Bear Film Festival's Gary Cooper weekend at the Milford Theater, where shell be signing copies of her book.
This addresses something that is very much a part of Gary Cooper", explained Cooper Janis, "which is his sense of style, his sense of elegance and that carried through all the various personas he embodied in the roles he played." In fact, Cooper Janis said graceful stylishness came naturally to her legendary father and added, it might be a result of his background, having spent his very early years in the "rough and tumble" world of Helena, Montana where he befriended the native Americans, against the juxtaposition of his formative adolescent years when he went to school in England.
"It gave him a sense of tremendous comfort in his own body and in what he wore he was as comfortable in blue jeans as he was in white tie and tails", she said.
"He was always understated the way he dressed was never flashy or showy but had a zip to it– and an imagination."
Touched by Inspiration That sense of style and imagination was put to good use. Cooper Janis remembered, "He loved color we would go to Mexico and he would buy a lot of the Mexican fabrics --- shocking pinks and oranges and aqua blues and then come up to Los Angeles and have Eddie Schmidt, make him up casual shirts using those fabrics but a very simple clean cut, very simple, clean lines." Simple, clean lines also applied to formal attire. Cooper Janis explained, He would never, never wear a white shirt that had a lot of ruffles with a tuxedo-- the plainer, the simpler, the better."
Gary Cooper's appreciation of beauty and esthetics, said Cooper Janis, transcended the world of fashion design and applied to art and architecture as well.
"He started off as an artist, as a designer. He went to art school and was doing political cartoons for a while. He loved art and he loved painting. I remember being taken by both parents to a lot of museums and a lot of galleries and it wasnt just to say we did it. We would really stand and linger in front of the paintings and discussed them."
That ability to grasp and appreciate artistic nuances gave Cooper an edge in his film career, explained Cooper Janis. "My father's wonderful power of observations both coming from his early days as an artist and then as an actor he observed people he was very, very intuitive in relating to whoever he was playing opposite and reacting to them it wasn't method in the sense of formal training . of course he never studied at all; but it was his natural way."
Enduring Style Through a compilation of photos (taken mostly by Cooper's wife Rocky), "Gary Cooper: Enduring Style," reveals why the Hollywood star became an icon of men's fashion. The book, in collaboration with prominent men's fashion journalist G. Bruce Boyer, offers an intimate look at Cooper's life. For his daughter Maria, it's not a matter of never wearing jeans or a tee shirt, but more about how you wear the clothes:
"I think if one knows of the photographs in this book --- it isnt a question of expensive fabrics out of the reach of the average person to hang on themselves. I think its a sense of putting simple things together in an elegant way. I know we're in a much more casual era, but my father would never go on a television talk show without a jacket. He had too much respect for the public to dress down." She added, "Its a reflection of who we are."
Whats Next Maria Cooper Janis says she is looking forward to visiting Milford during the film festival. Along with the book signing, there will be an opportunity for the public to view a total of four of Gary Coopers greatest films. Cooper Janis said she hopes " .the book gives the older viewing public pleasure in revisiting somebody who may have been a part of their lives as they grew up, cinematically, and I hope that the younger generation is inspired."
Cooper Janis is an artist in her own right, and apparently not one to sit still very long; another recently completed book project was one coauthored with her husband, the celebrated concert pianist Byron Janis, entitled "Chopin and Beyond: My Extraordinary Life in Music and the Paranormal." Stay tuned: there may be a biopic in the works.