When Louise Hardison was growing up in Hull, the Paragon Carousel was a big part of her life.
Even now, living in New York City as a dressmaker for Broadway shows, television, and movies, she has fond memories of her hometown – including performing in many Hull High School theater productions and Youth Talent Showcases, riding the carousel as a child, and later working at the Carousel Creamery.
After graduating from Hull High School in 2016 and attending Emerson College, where she majored in theatrical design and technology, she transferred in 2017 to a school in New York City, where she had visited a number of times and enjoyed all the sights and sounds.
It didn’t take Hardison long to realize that she had acquired enough different talents to move forward on her own, “especially in the theater world, where a portfolio means more than a degree.”
At that time, she realized that she really didn’t want to be a designer, but more on the “construction side of things.”
Her first job in New York was, ironically, working at a carousel in Brooklyn.
“I went from one carousel to another!” she quipped.
Then she started walking dogs to continue making money while also taking hand- and machine-sewing and wardrobing classes at the Fashion Institute of Technology at night.
The woman running the class took a liking to Hardison and her work and gave her the contact information for the person who did the hiring at Eric Winterling, Inc. – one of NYC’s premier couture costume studios – and she was thrilled to be hired.
“I just turned 24, and I’ve been working full-time at the costume shop for four years – the youngest person working there,” she said.
When
she first took the job at Eric Winterling, Hardison worked in the hand finishing department, sewing on snaps, buttons, and hooks.
“Six month later, I was given the opportunity to sew a few things, including for the Broadway production of ‘Aladdin’, because the shop was shorthanded,” she said.
Hardison also worked in the mockup department, sewing together patterns made out of muslin to help ensure an accurate fit for the costumes the actors would wear.
The next step up from the costume shop is becoming a “first hand” – who hand-cuts the costume out of the fabric once the actual pattern is completed and gets everything ready for the stitchers.
Right now, though, Hardison is happy being a stitcher.
“A lot of the women I work with have been with the shop for 20 years,” she explained. “It’s not that I want to be there that long, but I want to be like them – masters at their craft – and I have a lot left to learn before moving on to something else.”
Her overall goal is “to just be happy and content at what I’m doing, and I’m very happy at what I’m doing right now.”
Hardison has sewn costumes for Broadway and TV shows, movies, and the Radio City Rockettes. These include the “West Side Story” movie, “Wicked,” “Book of Mormon,” HBO’s “The Gilded Age,” Colorado Ballet’s “The Nutcracker,” “Frozen: The Broadway Musical,” and Amazon’s “The Marvelous Mrs. Maisel,” which stars Rachel Brosnahan as an aspiring stand-up comedian, Miriam “Midge” Maisel.
“I’ve sewn a lot of Elsa’s costumes as a child for the Broadway version of ‘Frozen,’“ she noted.
A highlight of her career was unexpectedly seeing the striking blue dress she had made for the “Mrs. Maisel” show on a billboard advertisement in Times Square.
Hardison tries to watch as many movies and TV shows in which the costumes she has sewn appear. “We sometimes get a comp ticket for a Broadway show,” she said.
It’s “really cool” seeing the famous people who come in and out of the shop for fittings,” she said, including Sarah Jessica Parker, Joaquin Phoenix, Sigourney Weaver, Kathy Bates, and Nathan Lane.
“I was introduced to Rachel when she was being fitted for one of the dresses I sewed,” Hardison said. “She was very complimentary and so sweet.”
Hardison especially enjoys seeing actors wearing costumes she has sewn after learning about how the costume-making process unfolds from beginning to end.
She has had an interest in theater since she was a kindergartener attending clown camp and in costuming since she was a young girl.
“So I’ve been performing all my life!” she said. “I’ve always loved being in costume and on stage — [in the role of] people that I’m not.”
When Hardison was 12 or 13, she had a lot of fun cosplaying, or dressing up as a fictional character from TV or the movies.
Among her fondest childhood memories are those of her father, James Hardison, who has been lovingly and meticulously restoring the Paragon Carousel’s horses and chariots, one by one, over the years.
“Often when I went to bed, my father would still be working on a restoration, and I thought he actually slept inside the carousel!” she recalled.
While performing in Hull High plays, her mother [Paula Whalen] sewed costumes and her father created stage props. Hardison performed in “Annie” as her first show in the seventh grade, when younger students could also participate in HHS productions, and appeared in more than 20 shows through high school. Among her favorites were “Shrek the Musical,” “The Addams Family” musical, and “The Little Mermaid.”
While working at the carousel, Hardison ran the ride, sold tickets, scooped ice cream, managed the shop, and created the Princess Story Time, which is still offered for children today.
“I used to dress up as different Disney characters and tell a story to the kids on Friday mornings during the summer when I was 15 or 16. My mother made the costumes, and I made the wigs,” she explained. “Sometimes my father helped, so it was a group effort.”
On one occasion during her childhood/teen career, her father airbrushed the leaf texture onto her Tinkerbell costume, and another time, when she was performing in “Oklahoma!,” he made a surrey with the fringe on the top (one of the signature symbols and songs of the musical).
“During these productions, our dining room would just turn into a workshop – all fabric, and costumes hanging everywhere,” she said. “I designed some of the costumes for ‘Xanadu,’ which I also had a part in, during my senior year.”
Hardison said it was “cool” to see how the Princess Story Time program expanded, from about 10 children the first year to roughly 100 by the time she left for college and someone else stepped into her role.
“I started ‘working’ there when I was eight, helping my dad run the register and taking tickets,” she recalled. “The carousel still [means a lot to me], especially where my father is still working there. He’s almost done restoring the entire carousel. It’s an amazing legacy he will be leaving behind.”
One of her favorite childhood memories is riding the carousel during the summertime after the sun had gone down.
“It’s so beautiful at night. It was a magical experience,” she said. “I love seeing people’s reactions to taking a ride [on one of the horses or in a chariot], especially those who grew up with Paragon Park, knowing that the carousel is the last remaining part.”
The Youth Talent Showcase took place at the Carousel during the summer. She recalls performing solos, and duets with Shaun DeOliveira, as part of their musical theater cabaret.
While she is thoroughly immersed in living in, and enjoying everything about, New York City, what Hardison most misses about Hull is the beach and her parents. Much to her pleasure, she is able to visit quite often.
