Bob Mackie Says He’s ‘Always Embraced’ Famous ‘Curtain Dress’ Carol Burnett Wore on Her Sketch Comedy Show

Mar. 15, 2025

Bob Mackie and Carol Burnett; Mackie’s Curtain Dress.Photo:Tiffany Rose/Getty; Peter Brooker/Shutterstock

Tiffany Rose/Getty; Peter Brooker/Shutterstock

Carol Burnetthad several unforgettable costumes during her eponymous show’s 11-year run.

The pieces created forThe Carol Burnett Showwere the work of in-house costumerBob Mackie, who created upwards of 70 looks per week for Burnett and her guests.

Of the more than 16,000 outfits Mackie crafted during his tenure, multiple stand out, among them, Burnett’s curtain dress, which she famously wore to portray Scarlett O’Hara in the sketchWent With the Wind!,a comedic take on award-winning filmGone With the Wind.

While Mackie has put several costumes on the auction block, he donated this one to theSmithsonian National Museum of American History.

“Anytime you get a good laugh, you’re happy,” Mackie said. “It can be the worst joke in the world, but if you get a laugh, you’re happy.”

Bob Mackie and comedian Carol Burnett speak during a Q&A as part of the 25th annual Newport Beach Film Festival in Newport Beach, California, Oct. 20.Michael Tullberg/Getty

Michael Tullberg/Getty

“For those of you who can’t sit for four hours and watchGone With the Wind,here’s our version,” Burnettonce reflectedon the origins of the sketch.

During the conversation with Karger, Burnett and Mackie also reminisced about the fanfare over the looks she wore during her show’s Q&A segments.

“Well … [when] we started out, Carol was just going to wear a little robe over her first costume on the first show that we did, and nobody was very happy with that,” Mackie recalled. “A week later, all of a sudden she had to have a brand new gown every week, which was fine with me."

Added Burnett, “I never wanted to see what I was going to wear for Q&A until I went to the fitting. It was always a surprise: ‘oh, what’s my dress this week?’ ”

In a scene from ‘The Carol Burnett Show,’ Carol Burnett descends a staircase dressed in an outfit made from a window curtain during a parody of ‘Gone With The Wind,’ August 20, 1976.CBS Photo Archive/Getty

CBS Photo Archive/Getty

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Burnett also shared the the Q&A portion originated from executive producer Bob Banner’s desire to have the audience connect to the real Burnett.

“Instead of having a comedian come out to warm up the studio audience, he said, ‘you should come out and be the warm up and do Q&A, and we tape it.’ And I balked at the idea at first because, I said, what if nobody wants to ask a question or what if they do and I don’t have a snapping answer.

“She continued, “He said, the reason is we want the audience to know you before you get into the wigs and the blackout teeth and the fat suits and all of that… let people get to know who you are. And so I said, ‘Okay, we’ll do it four times, four weeks, and if it doesn’t work, we’ll forget it.’ But I started to like it because it wasn’t written, people would start raising their hands. Some of ‘em would come up and want to sing … so sometimes we just had the best time.”

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Bob Mackie and Carol Burnett in October 1969.Max B. Miller/Fotos International/Getty

Max B. Miller/Fotos International/Getty

Mackie called the show’s end “a little bittersweet.”

“I just loved doing the show. I loved making the laughs happen when they happened,” he said.

Though the two don’t see one another “as often as we’d like,” Burnett says, they’ve taken every opportunity to work together over the years. .

“Once we stopped doing the show, I started doing more specials … like with Placido Domingo and Beverly Sills. And again, Julie Andrews and Bob always designed those specials. So we still were working together. And I did a Broadway show. He designed that. So anytime I had to do something, I said, Bob, are you busy? Can you do this?”

source: people.com