Heading South

In a scene that brings to mind Scarlett O’Hara being squeezed into her waist-nipper before the barbecue at Twelve Oaks, Ina DiGrazia is being laced into a 12-eyelet corset.

Scarlett, you’ll recall, had one thing in mind: Ashley Wilkes.

DiGrazia, too, has one thing in mind: Pulling off a Southern belle bit as a model at Friday night’s Las Floristas Headdress Ball at the Beverly Hilton.

It’s all in a day’s work for DiGrazia and the other seven members of Las Floristas who will be headdress mannequins.

For her brief moment of glory beneath a towering peach, silver and white Southern fantasy, DiGrazia will have put in 150 hours of work. All that gluing, rehearsals, fittings, makeup . . .

But it’s worth it, she says. “I guess it’s like the old Jack Bailey show, ‘Queen for a Day.’ ”

In early February in something akin to a football draft, she was picked by Long Beach florist Duane Rose as his mannequin.

Creating a headdress is a bit like designing a Rose Parade float for the head. But “more tedious,” says Rose, who knows--he’s also done floats.

Still, figuring his life “was already in disarray,” he said yes once again when Las Floristas called. Besides, he asks, “How many casket pieces can you do?”

Pondering the ball theme, “Las Floristas Celebrates the South,” Rose toyed with the idea of the South Pole. He fancied DiGrazia “in an Eskimo outfit, with icebergs, floating chunks of ice, penguins . . .”

But he got a cold shoulder from those in charge.

So he settled on “Southern Romance,” a belle out for a stroll, all soft and pretty and romantic, under a magnolia tree, encircled by swimming swans.

Hidden under white orchids and peach roses will be DiGrazia’s metal back brace, tucked into a pocket of that corset, keeping the weight on her hips, not her neck.

How those headdresses have grown.

Back in 1938, the year of the first ball, they were hat-sized. But by 1960 they had evolved into extravaganzas and a surgeon was asked to design an orthopedically correct support system. Strict limits were set, including headdress weight (30 pounds), height (five feet) and circumference (six feet).

Until then, creativity occasionally ran amok. One mannequin was almost electrocuted in an electrifying number with twinkling lights.

“If you’re just making rose bouquets in a floral shop, you don’t know diddly about what’s going on here,” says Rose, manager at Jerard’s in Long Beach. “We’re creating an illusion. A headdress is not supposed to just look like a big thing on your head.”

They’re also creating a package. Lights, music, choreography. Judges will scrutinize “Southern Romance” for everything from theme interpretation to how it moves. “Southern Romance” is up against seven other teams, including “The Devil Went Down to Georgia” and “Voo Doo Magic.”

About 500 hours of petaling will have gone into “Southern Romance” by the time DiGrazia steps onstage to the strains of “Summertime.” She has fit in 12-hour shifts around her job as a men’s clothing rep.

The florists don’t get rich. Each gets a stipend of $2,250, but their average outlay is more like $3,600.

Top winners will get cash bonuses of $1,500, $1,000 and $500. And, Rose says, it’s a night for florists to show their stuff--for charity. The ball is expected to raise $350,000 for handicapped children’s clinics at County-USC Medical Center and Rancho Los Amigos Hospital in Downey. (The ticket price is also bigger than it was in 1938--up from $3 to $175).

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“Keep it light, keep it light,” Rose reminds himself as he hovers around his work-in-progress. His Long Beach home, a converted 1911 meeting house with a huge raftered living room, is a perfect workshop.

Layering carnation petals on a foam magnolia, DiGrazia is saying, “It’s kind of hard to find a Southern belle gown out there.” She scoured bridal shops before settling on a peach number hanging in her closet. It’s being Southerned up a bit.

She knows that her feet, even in mid-heel pumps, will protest the load. And, she says, “You always think you’re going to be the first mannequin who just falls right off the runway.”

This afternoon, at the Beverly Hilton, Rose will add the fresh flowers. Later, an impartial party will don “Southern Romance” and stand on a scale. A crucial moment.

Tomorrow night, Rose will watch from the wings as DiGrazia makes her entrance a la Scarlett. His star in his creation.

A L’Amour Market for Western Writers

We caught up with Kathy L’Amour at Edna Lillich Davidson’s luncheon salon in Beverly Hills. She came bearing copies of Dell’s new Louis L’Amour Western Magazine.

Its mission is to showcase new writers of traditional and not-so-traditional Western fiction and nonfiction travel articles, profiles, historical pieces. The May issue, the second, features a conversation with Elmore Leonard (“Hombre”).

The ads, not surprisingly, are for boots and bolo ties, John Wayne and Roy Rogers video collections, country music compilations and jeans.

You won’t find her late husband’s yarns therein. L’Amour, who divides her time between L.A. and her Colorado ranch, explains, “They needed a strong name to hook a magazine to. Louis was a natural. I knew this was something Louis would want to be a part of. He was always concerned about where young writers would get their opportunity.”

L’Amour, whose 32-year marriage to Louis ended with his death in 1988, tells of the lean days of the 1940s and ‘50s, when the Hopalong Cassidy books, which L’Amour wrote as “Tex Burns,” earned him $900 each.

It was the pulps that paid the bills. They were the training ground for young writers.

She hopes this sleek new bimonthly will fill that gap.

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This weekly column chronicles the people and small moments that define life in Southern California. Reader suggestions are welcome.