Vitals

Cary Grant as Walter Burns, fast-talking newspaper editor

Chicago*, Fall 1939**

Film: His Girl Friday
Release Date: January 18, 1940
Director: Howard Hawks
Costume Designer: Robert Kalloch

Background

Today is the 120th anniversary of when screen legend and style icon Cary Grant was born on January 18, 1904. One of the prolific actor’s most memorable films, His Girl Friday, was released on his 36th birthday in 1940.

Adapted from Ben Hecht and Charles MacArthur’s play The Front Page, this screwball comedy about a newspaper editor and his star reporter was retooled by screenwriter Charles Lederer (and an uncredited Hecht) with a romantic angle that reimagined the character as the editor’s ex-wife—reportedly inspired by director Howard Hawks hearing a woman reading the reporter’s lines.

Grant stars as Walter Burns, the editor of The Morning Post who schemes to win back his favorite reporter—and ex-wife—Hildy Johnson (Rosalind Russell) for one last big story before she settles down to marry the sweet-natured insurance salesman Bruce Baldwin (Ralph Bellamy).

His Girl Friday remains known for its rapid-fire dialogue, intentionally crafted by Hawks to mimic reality and to break the record for fastest on-screen dialogue—previously held by the 1931 filmed adaptation of The Front Page. Lead actors Cary Grant and Rosalind Russell were up to the task, both frequently ad-libbing (as encouraged by Hawks) to bring an improvised verisimilitude to their interactions. Grant’s famous ad-libs include in-jokes, ranging from one at the expense of his own birth name—Archie Leach—and another likening the appearance of Bellamy’s character to the actor himself!

*The source material The Front Page was undeniably set in Chicago, though no actual setting is given for His Girl Friday. We know Bruce is a proud son of Albany but that the film isn’t set there, and I believe a few lines also suggest it’s not New York City either. Backed by Chicago Tribune reporter Michael Phillips’ evidence, I’ll stick with suggesting His Girl Friday is also set in the Windy City.

**And speaking of the setting, the press room calendar aligns with November 1938! But there’s nothing specific to suggest that it’s not meant to be set contemporary to the filming from late September through November of 1939.

What’d He Wear?

Set over the course of a single day, His Girl Friday features a characteristically well-tailored Cary Grant sporting one of my favorite suits from his career. The suiting is a classic Glen plaid (shorthand for “Glenurquhart plaid”), a two-color pattern of criss-crossing small and large checks that was popularized—like so many other menswear staples—in the 1920s by then-Prince of Wales, Edward VIII. Though still a fine plaid, the check on Grant’s suit in His Girl Friday is more pronounced than on the famous blue-gray plaid suit the actor would wear nearly two decades later in North by Northwest.

The cut of Walter’s suits typical of the late 1930s, considered by many (including yours truly) a “golden age” of men’s tailoring for its elegant and flattering form. Prior to the fabric restrictions of World War II, suits of this era made plentiful yet smart use of its fabric to craft an athletic silhouette on their wearers, typified by broad shoulders and chest, suppressed waists, and long, full legs, as outlined in Ethan Wong’s excellent guide to vintage style for A Little Bit of Rest. Wide peak lapels were often used to create this effect, both on single- and double-breasted jackets, like the latter worn by Grant as Walter Burns.

“Savile Row’s particular brand of sartorial magic was harnessed to balance his thick neck and narrow shoulders with the rest of his body,” Richard Torregrossa observed in Cary Grant: A Celebration of Style, “This was accomplished by broadening the sshoulders of his ssuits with padding to make his head appear smaller. The scyes—the tailor’s technical term for armholes—were also adjusted; they were cut higher to make his silhouette look slimmer, less ‘pudgy,’ to use the term of the testy talent scouts.”

Walter’s double-breasted suit jacket is arranged in the classic 6×2-button formation: three rows of buttons, though the top row—spaced farther apart—is only vestigial, designed to visually balance the two rows below it. Like many gentlemen who favor double-breasted tailoring, Grant wears only the top of the two functioning buttons fastened.

The broad peak lapels complement the jacket’s full cut. After Hildy breaks the news to him about her impending marriage to Bruce, he dresses his left lapel with a floral boutonnière—likely a red carnation.

The boutonnière initially competes with a colored silk display kerchief that Walter wears in his jacket’s welted breast pocket, though this appears to fall deeper into his pocket after the first act and is hardly glimpsed again. The ventless jacket also has straight jetted hip pockets. The straight shoulders are structured with padding out to the sleeves, roped at the heads and finished with four-button cuffs.

The suit’s matching trousers rise to Grant’s natural waist, where they’re rigged with buckle-tab adjusters on each side of the waistband, a self-suspension method that eliminates the need for belt or braces. A hallmark of good tailoring (as it takes some amount of faith for a man to not bring in extra support to keep his pants from falling down), side-adjusters would be seen on most of Grant’s on- and off-screen suits through the rest of his career, including his stylish performances in To Catch a Thief, An Affair to Remember, Indiscreet, North by Northwest, and That Touch of Mink.

Styled with side pockets, button-through back pockets, and turn-ups (cuffs) on the bottoms, the trousers boast double forward-facing pleats that add a harmonious fullness through the thighs and legs to complement the jacket.

Walter wears a light-colored cotton shirt that doesn’t appear to be plain white, styled with a front placket, buttoned gauntlets, and squared double (French) cuffs that he closes with plain metal links. From early in his career, Grant was reportedly self-conscious about what he considered his unproportionally thick neck, which Torregrossa writes was “a broad neck that measured seventeen and a half inches,” muscularly overdeveloped from his years in acrobatics. Eventually, he would dress to counter it with tall point collars, though his shirt as Walter Burns has a substantial spread collar.

Walter’s very dark (possibly black) necktie is knotted in a classic four-in-hand and is just long enough to meet the top of his trousers at Grant’s natural waistline.

Walter wears dark leather cap-toe oxford shoes, dark enough to possibly be black leather in accordance with Grant’s own sartorial maxim for This Week magazine (republished in GQ) that “if a man must limit himself to only one pair of shoes for city wear, then they should be black.” This mindset seems to have shifted in favor of brown shoes more recently, but black would have been the prevailing shoe color during the His Girl Friday era. (Grant’s light-colored socks can be glimpsed in some behind-the-scenes photography but—to my knowledge—never actually appear on screen.)

His Girl Friday marks one of the few instances of Grant’s stardom where the actor prominently wears a hat on screen. Richard Torregrossa wrote that, “Grant stopped wearing hats (unless a role demanded it) at a time when they were a menswear staple because B.P. Schulberg, the head of Paramount in the 1930s, where Grant was under contract, felt that they did not suit him. Grant agreed.”

Perhaps the lingering image of the pressman hitting the pavement in his hat was too strong for Grant to avoid donning Walter Burns’ dark hat for the role. After all, Lederer’s screenplay makes several references to Walter’s hat, including Hildy’s line about Bruce taking his hat off when he’s with a lady, prompting Walter to doff his own with an exaggerated “oh I am sorry!”

The hat itself appears to be conglomeration of a businessman’s trilby with the round “telescope” crown of a porkpie hat, complete with a dark narrow grosgrain band.

Walter wears a dress watch on a light-colored leather band—likely tan—occasionally seen under his left shirt cuff. His only other visible jewelry is a plain ring on his left pinky, similar to a wedding band but on a non-traditional finger (not to mention that he and Hildy are divorced.)

What to Imbibe

While out to lunch with Bruce and Hildy, Walter orders coffee from his usual waiter, Gus. “Shall I put some rum in the coffee? It’s a nasty day,” suggests Gus, a pleasing suggestion to both Walter and Hildy.

Far more functional than elegant, Rum and Coffee sounds like the sort of simple concoction that would appeal to streetwise journos facing a deadline and the potentially inclement weather that inspires Bruce Baldwin of Albany, New York to come prepared with an umbrella. It’ll certainly keep its drinker feeling warm, energized, and inspired… as long as Gus isn’t too heavy-handed when pouring the rum.

At this point in time, before the advent of tiki culture and while most distinguished drinkers were ordering highballs or martinis, rum also suggested more of an outlaw image, evoking Caribbean pirates or rumrunners from Cuba during Prohibition—the sort of colorful connotation that would appeal to these irrepressible newshounds.

How to Get the Look

As expected of a Cary Grant character, Walter Burns dresses to contemporary perfection, blending elegance and practicality in his glen plaid double-breasted suit that he complements with both boutonnière and pocket square in addition to the newspaperman’s trusty—if not particularly attractive—hat.

• Glen plaid wool suit:
  • Double-breasted 6×2-button jacket with broad peak lapels, welted breast pocket, straight jetted hip pockets, 4-button cuffs, and ventless back
  • Double forward-pleated trousers with buckle-tab side adjusters, side pockets, button-through back pockets, and turn-ups/cuffs
• Light-colored cotton shirt with wide spread collar, front placket, and double/French cuffs
  • Metal cuff links
• Dark tie
• Dark leather cap-toe oxford shoes
• Dark felt business trilby with round telescope-style crown and narrow grosgrain band
• Plain pinky ring
• Red carnation boutonnière
• Colorful silk pocket square

Do Yourself a Favor and…

Check out the movie. Due to the fact that His Girl Friday‘s copyright was never renewed, many low-cost (or free to stream) copies exist in various quality, but it’s best to make sure you’re seeing the original as Hawks intended.

The Quote

You’ve got an old fashioned idea divorce is something that lasts forever, “’til death do us part.” Why divorce doesn’t mean anything nowadays, Hildy, just a few words mumbled over you by a judge.