Margaret Loesser Robinson in Dial "M" for Murder. Photo by Craig Leaper.

Kelly, Grace. A fellow Scorpio. A Pennsylvanian native--maybe I can say I am one at heart. The Margot Wendice that all other Margot Wendices are based on. When I put on my dress for Act I, I feel as elegant as she always seemed; and her image persists as a emblem of style and, well, grace today. Walking along Madison Avenue in New York a week before I left for Lancaster, I passed by a Talbots, their new ad campaign featuring a black and white image of Grace, looking effortlessly chic. She wore clothes with such refinement and loveliness, and, as reported on her wikipedia page, humor:

"At the rehearsal for the scene in Rear Window when I wore a sheer nightgown, Hitchcock called for Edith Head. He came over here and said, 'Look, the bosom is not right, we're going to have to put something in there.' He was very sweet about it; he didn't want to upset me, so he spoke quietly to Edith. When we went into my dressing room and Edith said, 'Mr. Hitchcock is worried because there's a false pleat here. He wants me to put in falsies.' Well, I said, 'You can't put falsies in this, it's going to show and I'm not going to wear them.' And she said, 'What are we going to do?' So we quickly took it up here, made some adjustments there, and I just did what I could and stood as straight as possible - without falsies. When I walked out onto the set Hitchcock looked at me and at Edith and said, 'See what a difference they make?"

I can't help but think of my own sheer white nightgown in Dial M, but I think that's as much as I'll reveal.