Vitals

Keith David as Kirby, small-time neighborhood crime boss

The Bronx, Spring 1969

Film: Dead Presidents
Release Date: October 4, 1995
Directed by: The Hughes Brothers
Costume Designer: Paul A. Simmons, Jr.

WARNING! Spoilers ahead!

Background

Always the coolest guy in anything he’s in, the prolific Keith David was born June 4, 1956 and celebrates his 70th birthday today by receiving his long-overdue star on the Hollywood Walk of Fame. David’s strong screen presence shone from the start, from his credited screen debut in The Thing (1982) that launched an unstoppable career spanning nearly five decades and counting.

David co-starred in the Hughes brothers’ 1995 crime drama Dead Presidents as Kirby, an avuncular Bronx crook who acts as de facto second father to local youngsters like Anthony Curtis (Larenz Tate). Shortly before Anthony is shipped off to Vietnam with the Marine Corps in early 1969, he unknowingly becomes Kirby’s getaway driver while collecting some debts in the neighborhood.

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What’d He Wear?

For a day that extends into a nighttime debt-collecting errand, Kirby dresses comfortably in a simple polo-style pullover shirt tucked into slacks. Likely made from a synthetic blend fabric, the short-sleeved shirt’s body is printed with a light duo-tone peach pattern of mini swirls. The collar and placket are a deeper solid-colored peach, with four pearl-like plastic buttons up the placket and a faintly contrasting stitch along the edges of the long collar. A patch pocket is positioned over the left breast.

Kirby’s flat-front trousers are a light shade of tobacco-brown that harmonizes with the warmth of his peach-toned shirt. Held up with a dark-brown leather belt that closes through a gold-toned single-prong buckle, these trousers have side pockets and gently flared plain-hemmed bottoms which break over the tops of his suede two-eyelet desert boots.

Desert boots were standardized as a men’s fashion staple through the 1950s, adapted from the crepe-soled suede ankle boots that Nathan Clark (of the English shoemaker Clarks) observed while posted to Burma (now Myanmar) with the Royal Army Service Corps during World War II. The original suede was a natural beige-gray, similar to the sand-colored desert boots that Kirby wears with plain black socks.

Kirby wears all of his jewelry and accessories on his left hand, with his two chunky silver-toned statement rings contrasting against the subtlety of the gold dress watch he wears with a brown leather band on the inside of his wrist. The larger ring on his ring finger features a pair of scroll motifs above a jagged-shaped band. His only slightly more traditional pinky ring  is band-shaped with solid edges and cabochon-like detailing against the black-filled ground.

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The Gun

Kirby pulls a nickel-plated Smith & Wesson Model 36 snub-nosed revolver with pearl grips from a woman who attempts to intimidate him, subsequently drawing it on the man who pulled off his prosthetic leg. Though only fleetingly seen in these action sequences, close-ups inside Kirby’s black 1968 Lincoln Continental clearly show the Smith & Wesson markings and the five-round cylinder that was characteristic of the double-action Model 36 since its introduction as the “Chiefs Special” in 1950. These close-ups also reveal a more concave-shaped cylinder-release latch that identifies Kirby’s commandeered Model 36 as post-1966 model when Smith & Wesson switched from the “flat latch” design on its I-, J-, and K-frame revolvers.

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How to Get the Look

Kirby’s peach-printed polo and slacks was relatively common sportswear for the era—and, with only slight modifications—today, but something between Keith David’s magnetic presence and adding desert boots made this simple outfit from Dead Presidents stand out to me.

• Light peach mini swirl-printed short-sleeved polo shirt with solid peach collar and four-button placket, plus a breast pocket
• Tobacco-brown flat-front trousers with belt loops, side pockets, and slightly flared plain-hemmed bottoms
• Dark-brown leather belt with gold-toned single-prong buckle
• Sand-colored suede 2-eyelet plain-toe desert boots
• Black cotton lisle socks
• Two chunky silver statement rings
• Gold dress watch on brown leather strap

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Do Yourself a Favor and…

Check out the movie.

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The Quote

The next time a motherfucker grabs me by the wrong leg, I’m gonna use it to kick his ass between the shoulder blades.