Mae Clarke's Dress from Universal. ...

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Mae Clarke's Dress from Universal. In 1991, the Universal horror classic Frankenstein turned 60 years old. Boris Karloff (the Monster, of course), Colin Clive (the Monster Maker) and James Whale (the director) had all long passed on to their rewards, and the only star of the film still alive was 80-year old Mae Clarke, who'd played the heroine, Elizabeth. The January 1991 issue of Connoisseur magazine paid tribute to Frankenstein ("Frankenstein at Sixty," by Stefan Kanfer ) and invited Mae -- primarily remembered for James Cagney hitting her with a grapefruit in The Public Enemy (1931), and later living at the Motion Picture Country Home -- to come back to Universal and be photographed on the studio's old Frankenstein back lot village set. For this honor, Mae selected a striking red dress, pleated, with a bow accented with rhinestones. Mae posed on the set, recapturing some of her old allure, and Connoisseur awarded her a full-page color picture (although she likely wasn't pleased by the caption - "Clarke, still in one piece, on the set today"). This lot includes both the dress and the magazine and both are in Excellent condition. Mae Clarke died in 1992, and it's nice to realize that the actress, whose reign as Queen of Universal had been sadly brief, enjoyed this late-in-life recognition. A rather touching Frankenstein artifact.