In the last Clutch Bags NY blog post, I wrote about Hollywood’s love for biographical movies that retell the stories of influential people who, maybe, the public didn’t know too much about. Lately, it seems that Alfred Hitchcock has been thrown back into the spotlight. But not because of his significant role in the development of the motion picture. Instead, in the releasing of the movies ‘Hitchcock’ and ‘The Girl’, the audience is given a disturbingly odd portrayal of the famed director.

Though Alfred Hitchcock is a cinematic mastermind,  we at Clutch Bags NY think that Tippi Hedren deserves some spotlight. As mentioned before,  March is National Women’s Month and Tippi Hedren is definitely a woman who emphasizes a tenacity and tolerance that the Clutch Bags NY team finds admirable. So in the spirit of celebrating women, we believe that Tippi should have her story told.

You may know her as Melanie Griffith‘s mother. Or you may even know her as yet another blonde bombshell who rejected the unwanted advances of Alfred Hitchcock.

I recently watched the HBO original movie ‘The Girl’, starring Toby Jones as Alfred Hitchcock and Sienna Miller as Tippi Hedren. The movie tells the story of Hitchcock’s obsession with Hedren while the director and actress worked together on ‘The Birds’ and ‘Marnie’. As acclaimed as Hitchcock was, Hedren politely rejected his persistent sexual passes. Like a true lady, Tippi appreciated what she learned from the great Alfred Hitchcock, but never compromised her integrity for fame.

Nathalie Kay Hedren was born on January 19th, 1930 in New Ulm, Minnesota. As the granddaughter of Swedish emigrants, Nathalie was given the nickname “Tippi”– the Swedish translation for “sweetheart”. Nathalie would soon adopt the name Tippi as her stage name as a model and an actress.

At age 18, Tippi moved to New York City; a place that offers everyone–including Laura Dotolo–the space and encouragement to dream big. Here, Tippi became a successful model as well as the wife of Peter Griffith. She played these roles for about the same amount of time, between 1952 and 1961, but eventually she moved on.

Hedren made her first credited movie appearance in Alfred Hitchcock’s 1963 horror ‘The Birds’. During the movie’s filming, Hitchcock pushed Hedren to her limits with his unconventional shooting methods. For example, in one of the last scenes Hedren’s character is attacked by a flock of birds. Prior to filming, Hedren was told that it would take one day to shoot the scene with mechanical birds. Instead, Tippi spent five grueling days having dozens of crows,ravens, and seagulls thrown at her. By the end of filming, poor Tippi was battered and bruised head to toe. One day, she broke down in a state of exhaustion between takes. However, due to her perseverance  and professionalism, Tippi took home the Most Promising Newcomer Golden Globe award.

As a single mother to six year old Melanie, Tippi continued to put food on the table by  working with Alfred Hitchcock. Right after the release of ‘The Birds’, Hedren and Hitchcock got to work on ‘Marnie’. It was during the filming of this movie that Hitchock’s advances took their toll on Hedren. However, when she approached him about ending her contract, he told her that he would ruin her career.

On her working with Hitchcock, Hedren said: “Being the object of Alfred Hitchcock’s obsession was horrific, but while he ruined my career, he could never ruin my life.”

Even though her career did suffer, Tippi continued to appear in small, independent films. Her career didn’t pan out the way everyone had expected but her resilience made her a women that others could look up to. Needless to say, due to her strength Tippi Hedren is an inspirational force to many, including Clutch Bags NY!

About:

Nandhi is our Clutch NY blogger at large who spends her days observing and her nights reporting.  Imported to NYC from Mozambique, via McGill University, Nandhi dreams someday of becoming a screenwriter.  For the moment, she is keeping the Clutch NY audience up to date with what’s up today in fashion, trends, news and inspiration.