Iris Maria de la Trinidad Flores (1921–2016) was an inventor and actress born on 8 August 1921 in San José, Costa Rica. She was a film actress, known for Ride the Pink Horse (1947), Women in the Night (1948), and South of Monterey (1946). In 1952, she held a U.S. patent for a brassiere she had co-invented with Juliet Kellard. Starting forty years after the patent was published, a variety of patents cited her 1952 patent. The latest published patent citing her work was published in 2016. She later developed other patents in the fashion industry in the 1950s.
She was the granddaughter of the former president of Costa Rica, Rafael Yglesias Castro, and the great-granddaughter of José María Castro Madriz, the first president of Costa Rica.Aug 26, 1942, page 11 - Los Angeles Evening Citizen News
Acting career Flores was in a variety of films from 1943 to 1948 and had acted in both films from Mexico and the United States.
In 1943, she was in the Mexican film Tres Hermanos, which starred Abel Salazar, was directed by José Benavides, and with music composed by Max Urban. The screenplay was co-written by Salazar and Benavides. Also in the 1943, she was in the U.S. musical comedy film Thank Your Lucky Stars by David Butler. Flores was in the Good Night, Good Neighbor scene. "Good Neighbor" was a reference to the U.S. Good Neighbor policy at that time with Latin America For the musical number scene, Flores was joined with the following cast members:
Esperanza Dominquez, daughter of Maximiliano Hernandez Martinez who was President of El Salvador at that time. Maruca Sacasa, daughter of Dr. Juan B. Sacasa who was the former President of Nicaragua and the former ambassador from that country to the United States. Following that, she played a minor character in the musical film Mexicana (1945), which was another film in line with the U.S. Good Neighbor policy.Affron, Charles & Affron, Mirella Jona. Best Years: Going to the Movies, 1945-1946. Rutgers University Press, 2009.
Pages 69-70 In the following year, she was in two of William Nigh's Cisco Kid films, a 1940s American Western genre, with Gilbert Roland as the Cisco Kid. She was introduced in the first Cisco Kid film, The Gay Cavalier (1946). In the same year, she returns to the film series as Carmelita in South of Monterey (1946). As Carmelita, she also sang two songs in the film with music by Edward J. Kay and lyrics by Gladys Flores. In 1947, she was Maria in the film noir set in rural New Mexico, Robert Montgomery's Ride the Pink Horse. In the following year, she was María González in the World War II science fiction drama Women in the Night by William Roland. The film was set in Shanghai, China, at the end of World War II, and was filmed at the Playa Ensenada Hotel in Ensenada, Baja California, Mexico
Inventions
Flores held the following patents and/or patent assignments: +InventionsDeviceYear PatentedInventor(s)AssignorBoetschi scarf(Design Patent)1951 (Filed 1949)Rene Boetschi50% to Iris Flores Tillinghast (Her name from her first marriage)Brassiere1952Iris Flores, Juliet KellardIndividualCombination skirt, cape, and blouse(Design Patent)1954Iris FloresMichael P. Grace IIBrassiere shaper1956Iris FloresSarong Inc. The Boetschi scarf patent was an ornamental design, and the brassiere patent was an invention in structure and manufacturing. The brassiere patent differentiated itself from prior technology which supported the cups of the brassiere from above and, instead, supported the cup where "the support is effective down to and including the lower edge of the brassiere". The brassiere patent was developed in collaboration with Juliet Kellard and is described as the following in the patent document:The invention also has for its objects to provide such means that are positive in operation, convenient in use, easily installed in working position and easily disconnected therefrom, economical of manufacture, relatively simple, and general superiority and serviceability.The design patent documentation for the combination skirt, cape, and blouse refers to an earlier 1937 patent application by Edith Folltz for an outdoor skirt.
Forty years after the 1952 brassiere patent was published, it was cited in the following variety of patent applications: +Citation for Brassiere Patent by Flores and Kellard (1952)Patent ApplicationPublication YearAssigneeApplicationUS5171182A 1992Wacoal America, Inc.Camisole brassiereUS5782672A1998Vickie G. WoodleyNipple padUS5820444A 1998Eleanor F. McGaugheyPost surgical brassiereUS20060046616A12006Alessi V. ChristineUndergarment for lactating womenUS20160338423A12016Edelweiss Basics Gmbh & Co. KgBrassiere with a concealing element Like the scarf patent, the 1954 combination skirt, cape, and blouse patent was also an ornamental design. It was assigned to composer and Broadway producer Michael P. Grace II.
The 1956 Brassiere shaper was assigned by the inventor Flores to the assignor Sarong Incorporated, which had manufactured the Sarong brand of brassieres and was the assignor of multiple patents from various countries.Uplift by Jane Farrell-Beck
Page 183 Sarong was the company that had applied for the patent. It is classified by the U.S. Patent Office as Machines, appliances, or methods for manufacturing corsets or brassieres (A41C5/00). This patent was later cited by International Playtex for their 1974 patent for the construction of knitted brassiere blanks and brassieres. Along with the International Playtex patent, the brassiere shaper patent was cited by 12 patents altogether from 1955 to 2013.
Senate hearings
Background
In the 1950s, Flores spoke before a Senate subcommittee because she knew Gerard David Schine, who was a chief consultant the Permanent Subcommittee on Investigations of the U.S. Senate. The Senate hearings addressed Schine had sought special privileges while in the U.S. Armed Forces. Although Flores was a former actress and speaking before the McCarthy committee, the hearing was only for her testimony on a work schedule for someone employed by the subcommittee and who was employed in the U.S. Army at the same time.
Subcommittee hearing and testimony about being an inventor In 1954, the Army-McCarthy hearings requested for Flores to be interviewed about her knowledge of U.S. Army Private Gerard David Schine, who had been a member of the subcommittee staff. When asked about her occupation, she replied that was an inventor and that she had sold her brassiere invention to I. Newman and Company. She also mentioned that DuPont has been working with her on the device, with a staff member from the multinational chemical company and a brassiere designer the company had hired. The event was covered by multiple U.S. newspapers at the that time.
Personal life On October 4, 1946, she married Frederick Tillinghast III. According to a newspaper article from that time, Mr. Tillinghast III was a merchandise broker at that time. They were later divorced.
On February 8, 1958, she was married to composer and music publisher Rudolph Edward Schirmer Jr. in New York City.
While they were married, her husband wrote and her brother, Fernando Flores, wrote the Spanish text for Hymn to the Americas (Himno a las Americas in Spanish), which was for a four-part chorus of mixed voices with a soprano solo and piano accompaniment.Hymn to the Americas. Words & music: Rudolph Schirmer. Copyright G. Schirmer. 18 June 1968. EP247185 The composition was performed by the Washington National Symphony at the Fourth Inter-American Music Festival in 1968. Their daughter is Liane Schirmer. They were later divorced in March 1970.Ancestry.com - California, U.S., Divorce Index, 1966-1984
Filmography +TitleYearRoleThank Your Lucky Stars1943Cast member for Good Night, Good Neighbor numberSouth of Monterey1946CarmelitaThe Gay Cavalier1946Fisherman's wifeRide the Pink Horse1947MariaWomen in the Night1948Maria Gonzalez +Partial soundtrack for South of Monterey (1946)TitleYearLyricsMusicVocals"Tacos de Amor"1946Gladys FloresEdward J. KayIris Flores"Tu Chulita"1946Gladys FloresEdwin J. KayIris Flores
Notes
References
External links Good Night, Good Neighbor film clip from Thank Your Lucky Stars (1943)