Franne Lee (SNL costume designer 1975 - 1980, 3 Time Tony winner)

Franne talked to me over the phone and discussed her first love being clothing; being sent home in high school for wearing jorts; seeing Guys & Dolls with her parents; not being married to Eugene Lee; her first productions in Philadelphia with Danny Aiello; touring with Alice in Wonderland; where she keeps her awards; how Lorne Michaels talked her into coming to SNL; drawing and creating the costumes for the Bees; her father engineering the antennae; Lorne not letting her copy write them which led to knockoffs; her typical work week; working with Gilda Radner; lack of budget actualy helped the show; Weekend Update blazers; $1500 budget made them work harder and smarter; today's SNL can do things the original could not; at 40th anniversary Franne could not believe the costume budget; most of SNL is shopped; as show progressed sketches got longer and took more time; Brooks van Horn costume house; Raquel Welch; Mick Jagger; not having much to do with hosts or musical guests; Dan Aykroyd; creating the Coneheads but not being able to apply them because they were classified as wigs; SNL versus NBC departments; being impressed with Christopher Reeve and Angela Lansbury; friendship with Laraine Newman; working with Garrett Morris; being serenaded by Chevy Chase; getting hospitalized with a collapsed lung the same week Chevy injured his groin in September 1976; working on SNL at the same time as Sweeney Todd and Gilda Live; how she helped save "Sweeney Todd"; costuming black and white sketches; appearing in the Bee Capades because she was one of the few on staff who could skate; teaching; painting; still designing sets; being out on Saturday nights