Marilyn Putnam, 76; Costume Designer for Broadway Shows

Marilyn Putnam, 76, a costume designer for such Broadway shows as “Bye, Bye Birdie” and “The Music Man” and such films as “Annie Hall,” died Jan. 4 in a New York City hospital after a brief illness.

Born in Brooklyn, N.Y., Putnam designed costumes for the last half of the 20th century. She attended Hunter College, planning to go to medical school. But she switched careers dramatically when she received a Rockefeller fellowship to work with stage producer Margo Jones in Dallas, where she costumed plays by then-unknown writers William Inge and Tennessee Williams.

Regional theater led to Broadway and such shows as “Free and Easy,” “Once Upon a Mattress” and “I Never Sang for My Father.”

Putnam also created wardrobes for early television, including “The Howdy Doody Show.” She costumed the cast of the popular TV soap opera “All My Children,” earning an Emmy Award in 1990.

Putnam also worked extensively in film, dressing characters for the offbeat “Annie Hall” and “Alice’s Restaurant,” as well as “King of the Gypsies,” “The Godfather: Part II” and “Reds.”

In recent years, she served on the board of trustees of her local Theatrical Wardrobe Union.