Lemaire, Charles (1897–1985), costume designer. Born in Chicago, but raised in Salt Lake City, he tried his luck as a song‐and‐dance man before turning to costume design. Although he had no formal design training, Florenz Ziegfeld quickly recognized his talent and allowed him to create some dresses for the 1919 editions of the Midnight Frolics and the Follies. Between then and his work for the 1939 edition of George White's Scandals he designed costumes for numerous extravaganzas of Ziegfeld, White, and Earl Carroll as well as for such shows as Wildflower (1923), Poppy (1923), Rose‐Marie (1924), The Cocoanuts (1925), The New Moon (1928), Strike Up the Band (1930), Flying High (1930), Fine and Dandy (1930), Of Thee I Sing (1931), and Take a Chance (1932). Among the most memorable of his imaginative, colorful conceptions were the costumes simulating totem poles worn by the forty chorus girls in Rose‐Marie for the “Totem Tom Tom” number.

The Oxford Companion to American Theatre. Copyright © 2004 by Oxford University Press, Inc. All rights reserved.