Vitals

James Stewart as John “Chip” Hardesty, earnest FBI agent

Chicago, Christmas 1933

Film: The FBI Story
Release Date: October 1959
Director: Mervyn LeRoy
Costume Designer: Adele Palmer

Background

While Jimmy Stewart’s cinematic Christmas creds are primarily as the troubled protagonist of It’s a Wonderful Life, more than a decade later we’re treated to a brief holiday sequence in The FBI Story.

Essentially a feature-length dramatization propagating the Federal Bureau of Investigation’s role in quelling all American lawlessness across the first half of the 20th century, the once-obscure The FBI Story has been the subject of some renewed interest as it had been the first major production to depict the Osage murders of the 1920s that were recently at the center of Martin Scorsese’s epic Killers of the Flower Moon.

Given The FBI Story‘s subject matter, J. Edgar Hoover kept his iron fist heavily clenched as he oversaw the production with at least two agents on set at all times, insisted that he get a file full of “dirt” on Mervyn LeRoy before approving him to direct, and even demanding that one scene be reshot after the famously irascible FBI director disapproved of how one specific extra looked.

But if J. Edgar disapproved of the extras, he certainly approved of Jimmy Stewart, reportedly having handpicked the actor and war hero to portray the fictional role of James “Chip” Hardesty, the all-American agent who defies the odds to face all ranks of criminals from the KKK and the KGB to Depression-era desperadoes including John Dillinger, “Machine Gun” Kelly, and “Baby Face” Nelson.

It was these latter desperadoes who were directly responsible for the decision to authorizing arming federal agents in the early 1930s, specifically as a response to the Kansas City Massacre on June 17, 1933, when Special Agent Raymond Caffrey, Kansas City detectives William J. Grooms and Frank E. Hermanson, and McAlester, Oklahoma police chief Otto Reed were killed by a small group of gunmen reportedly trying to free bank robber Frank Nash from custody, though Nash was also killed during the melee. (Evidence has suggested that some of the lawmen may have fallen to friendly fire during the chaos.)

Special Agent Caffrey was the fourth agent of Hoover’s fledgling Bureau of Investigation to be killed in the line of duty, and his death and the circumstances surrounding it set off a wave of protest around the country as law enforcement and citizens were tired of the rampant crime seemingly going unchecked as armed robbers and killers like Bonnie and Clyde, “Pretty Boy” Floyd, and the Barker-Karpis Gang were seemingly running wild. By June 1934, Congress had passed the anti-crime legislation that empowered the FBI to not only carry firearms but to make arrests, an expansion of their powers as they were previously reduced to “citizen’s arrests” that required calling on local law enforcement to capture their targets and bring them into custody.

The fictional Chip Hardesty is overjoyed when he hears the news that Congress will soon be arming him. With “Jingle Bells” on the record player, the lanky agent is taking a break from trimming his Christmas tree, frustrated as the extinguished lights are “around back… never out front!” Chip’s frustration is compounded when he learns that his young—and evidently quite resourceful—daughter appropriately some of his recently purchased tissue paper to craft the wings she needed to play an angel in her school’s Christmas play. Luckily, Chip’s friend and fellow agent Sam Crandall (Murray Hamilton) stops by to lift Chip’s spirits with the yuletide greeting that, with the imminent passing of the Weyburn Bill, agents will be authorized to carry firearms and make arrests. “A real Christmas present!” exclaims Chip, though his concerned wife Lucy Ann (Vera Miles) does not like the idea at all.

What’d He Wear?

Home for the holidays, Chip prefers an understated neutral cardigan to the “ugly Christmas sweaters” that have maintained their cultural chokehold for more than a decade now. His beige woolen cardigan has five smoke-colored flat buttons, patch pockets, and set-in sleeves that he folds back over each cuff.

Chip wears the cardigan over a cream poplin shirt, styled with a point collar, front placket, and two-button cuffs. He wears the top button undone for a more relaxed style than his usual buttoned-up shirts and ties at the office.

Chip’s dark gray flannel pleated trousers have side pockets and the bottoms are finished with turn-ups (cuffs), possibly orphaned from one of his gray flannel suits.

Chip completes the look with dark burgundy leather loafers with navy socks. While not as widespread as they would be by the time The FBI Story was produced in the late 1950s, slip-on shoes indeed existed by the early ’30s and would have been available to Chip, though a professional like him would reserve them for home or only the most informal occasions.

How to Get the Look

Though this scene from The FBI Story was set in 1933 and filmed in 1958, Jimmy Stewart’s smart neutral cardigan, open-neck shirt, flannel slacks, and loafers remains dependably stylish today, providing a timeless base for incorporating personality—whether that’s opting for a shawl-collar cardigan, more ornamental shoes, or a dash of holiday color.

• Beige woolen five-button cardigan sweater with patch pockets
• Cream poplin shirt with point collar, front placket, 2-button cuffs
• Dark-gray woolen flannel pleated trousers with side pockets and turn-ups/cuffs
• Burgundy leather loafers
• Navy socks

Do Yourself a Favor and…

Check out the movie.

If you’re looking to set a ’30s-style Christmas mood to your celebrations, you could start with this rendition of “Jingle Bells” by Ozzie Nelson and his Orchestra, recorded in 1934—one year after this scene was set: