Robert L. Spencer, the Indianapolis-born designer behind the Blackwell fashion name

Robert L. Spencer’s career connected Indianapolis to the mid-century Los Angeles fashion and entertainment worlds. Born in Indianapolis in 1920, Spencer later became a professional hairdresser and worked in Beverly Hills during the 1950s. He went on to help establish and sustain a fashion business whose name became closely associated with Richard Blackwell.

Spencer’s path to Blackwell ran through two well-known actors. Cary Grant and Randolph Scott were friends of Spencer’s, and the source account says he worked on their hair for some films. During a visit with Spencer, Grant and Scott introduced him to Blackwell. The meeting led to a professional and personal partnership that lasted nearly 60 years.

In 1958, Spencer and Blackwell established the first Blackwell fashion company. As their profile grew in Los Angeles, Spencer also took on production work. He produced Blackwell’s ABC Radio show and, in 1964, The Mr. Blackwell Show. Their work together continued across the 1960s, 1970s and 1980s, when the pair designed clothing for a roster of celebrity clients that included Elizabeth Taylor, Mae West, Nancy Reagan and Jane Russell.

For an Indianapolis audience, Spencer’s story offers a reminder that a local birthplace can be the starting point for a career shaped elsewhere. His professional life unfolded primarily in California, but the record of his early connection to Indianapolis remains part of the city’s wider cultural history. It also places a long-term partnership at the center of a fashion enterprise that reached national celebrity circles.

Spencer remained connected to Blackwell’s legacy after Blackwell died in 2008. According to the source account, Blackwell had given away his final designed dress to Kate Linder. Spencer died in Los Angeles on March 1, 2014, at age 94, after a heart attack.

Remembering Spencer solely as Blackwell’s associate would leave out the range of his own work. He was a hairdresser, a show producer and a designer who helped build the company that he and Blackwell launched together. His Indianapolis origin, decades-long partnership and role in shaping the Blackwell brand make him a notable figure for local LGBTQ-focused cultural history.

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