A MARTÍNEZ, HOST:
Tina Turner, Elton John, Carol Burnett, Cher - they all wore the sleek, bejeweled clothes of costume designer Bob Mackie. He died on Monday from pneumonia in Palm Springs, California. He was 87. Jeff Lunden has this appreciation.
JEFF LUNDEN, BYLINE: Bob Mackie, who in person was very modest and unassuming, became well known for designing outfits that were outsized or very skimpy.
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BOB MACKIE: You either love them or you think they're disgusting or - that's not fashion.
LUNDEN: But Bob Mackie's costumes were always memorable, like the Carol Burnett sketch where Scarlett O'Hara wore not only the curtains, but the curtain rod.
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HARVEY KORMAN: (As Ratt Butler) That gown is gorgeous.
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CAROL BURNETT: (As Starlett O'Hara) Thank you. I saw it in the window, and I just couldn't resist it.
LUNDEN: Or Cher's Academy Award outfit, where she wore a mohawk wig and almost nothing else.
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CHER: As you can see, I did receive my Academy booklet on how to dress like a serious actress.
LUNDEN: For an amount of time in the 1970s, he designed clothes for both of their variety shows, he told me in 2018.
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MACKIE: I would have "The Carol Burnett Show" in one studio at CBS, and just - you walk through the men's room. It had two doors on each side. You could walk right into the "Sonny & Cher" studio.
LUNDEN: Burnett was wacky, but occasionally glamorous - Cher sleek and draped in sequins, often with her belly button bared. But Mackie discovered...
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MACKIE: They had exactly the same measurements body-wise and height and everything. It was amazing. If we needed a Minnie Mouse costume, I said, oh, I've got one of Carol's. It'll fit her perfectly.
LUNDEN: Mackie was raised by his grandmother in California, who took him to MGM musicals. He knew from childhood what he wanted to do.
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MACKIE: Costumes were always my love. When I was a little kid, there were no kids where I lived. And I would just stay all day in the house and draw.
LUNDEN: And now some of the costumes the adult Bob Mackie drew are in the Smithsonian Institution.
For NPR News, I'm Jeff Lunden in New York.
(SOUNDBITE OF SONG, "BRING IT ON HOME TO ME")
SONNY AND CHER: (Singing) Bring it on home... Transcript provided by NPR, Copyright NPR.
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