24/02/2022
Luster Bayless, the founder of United-American Costume Corporation, passed away Friday, February 11, 2022. Luster was a colleague, but most importantly he was a part of the CDG family.
The CDG honors Luster Bayless
By Christine Cover Ferro
Costume designer Luster Bayless was born into a sharecropper family in Ruleville, along the Mississippi Delta. Often spending hard days with his father in the fields to help make ends meet, a teenage Luster escaped to the movies whenever he could. His hero, of course, was John Wayne. After a stint in the Navy and playing football in junior college for a year, he knew he wanted a life beyond Ruleville. His childhood friend Jimmy George had already gone out to Hollywood to work at Western Costume Company and was able to get him an interview. Luster promptly hitchhiked to California and convinced the manager to hire him. Having assisted one of the costumers in prepping for the film McLintock! Luster was offered work as John Wayne’s costumer. This would be the beginning of a lifelong partnership, as well as a deep friendship. Among their projects together were True Grit, The Train Robbers, Cahill U.S. Marshall, and McQ. Luster credits Wayne and Walt Disney, with whom he worked for five years, with helping him establish his career.
In 1977 Luster had the idea to create a costume company independent of the movie studios. He gathered leftover wardrobe items after filming was complete, amassing a collection which began in his garage and ultimately was moved to a warehouse. The United-American Costume Corp. was born. Luster specialized in a 200-year span of American history, from 1770 to 1970, continually added to the collection from sources all over the United States while working as a costume designer. Presently, his daughter Diana Foster runs the company.
In the 1980s, Luster turned a dry goods store on Ruleville’s Ruby Street into the Hollywood Costume Museum. He hoped to put his hometown on the movie buff’s map. There he is able to display prized pieces too valuable to be in circulation, from Lonesome Dove to Django Unchained to items with sentimental value, like the rifle John Wayne gave him.
Luster was a pioneer in advocating the idea that costume designers are filmmakers. We are sorry for this loss to our community and send our heartfelt condolences to his family and friends.
If you would like to celebrate his life please join Diana Foster
March 26 at 10:00 am
Eternal Valley Memorial Park
23287 Sierra Hwy, Newhall, CA 91321
