Category: Jazz Age Summer Style
Evil Under the Sun: Colin Blakely’s Blazers as Sir Horace Blatt
Colin Blakely as Sir Horace Blatt in Evil Under the Sun (1982)
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Colin Blakely as Sir Horace Blatt, bombastic millionaire yachtsman
Mediterranean Sea, Summer 1939
Film: Evil Under the Sun
Release Date: March 5, 1982
Director: Guy Hamilton
Costume Designer: Anthony Powell
WARNING! Spoilers ahead!
Background
Born 95 years ago today on September 23, 1930 in Northern Ireland, Colin Blakely was an underrated actor who excelled both on stage and screen. He won acclaim for his Shakespearean performances, his portrayal of Dr. Watson in The Private Life of Sherlock Holmes (1970), and BAFTA-nominated turn in Equus (1977), while also standing out among the star-studded casts of two lavish Agatha Christie adaptations.
Following his small part as the quickly uncovered American private detective in Murder on the Orient Express (1974), Blakely returned to the Christie-verse for a juicier role in Evil Under the Sun (1982)—loosely adapted from the Queen of Crime’s 1941 novel of the same name, with many characters consolidated and the action transferred from the English coast to a fictional island in the Adriatic Sea. Continue reading
The Great Gatsby: Sam Waterston’s Tan Suit as Nick
Sam Waterston as Nick Carraway in The Great Gatsby (1974)
Vitals
Sam Waterston as Nick Carraway, impressionable bachelor and bond salesman
Long Island, New York, Summer 1925
Film: The Great Gatsby
Release Date: March 29, 1974
Director: Jack Clayton
Costume Designer: Theoni V. Aldredge
Clothes by: Ralph Lauren
Background
Published 100 years ago this spring, F. Scott Fitzgerald’s generation-defining novel The Great Gatsby has been adapted for the screen several times, though many continue to consider Jack Clayton’s 1974 film the definitive cinematic depiction to date. The story of star-crossed lovers Jay Gatsby (Robert Redford) and Daisy Buchanan (Mia Farrow) is observed through the neutral lens of their mutual acquaintance, Nick Carraway (Sam Waterston), an Ivy League grad and war veteran from the Midwest clearly modeled after Fitzgerald himself. Continue reading
The Great Gatsby: Sam Waterston’s Tan Shawl-collar Cardigan
Sam Waterston as Nick Carraway in The Great Gatsby (1974)
Vitals
Sam Waterston as Nick Carraway, impressionable bachelor and bond salesman
Long Island, New York, Summer 1925
Film: The Great Gatsby
Release Date: March 29, 1974
Director: Jack Clayton
Costume Designer: Theoni V. Aldredge
Clothes by: Ralph Lauren
Background
Born on this day in 1896, F. Scott Fitzgerald left an indelible mark on American literature with his classic novel The Great Gatsby, which has been adapted for the screen at least a half dozen items—including Jack Clayton’s iconic 1974 film.
Celebrating its 50th anniversary this year, this lush adaptation stars Robert Redford, Mia Farrow, and Sam Waterston as Nick Carraway, the narrator and ostensibly a surrogate for Fitzgerald himself—though the author also reflected elements of himself in the romantic hero Jay Gatsby.
A knitwear-clad F. Scott Fitzgerald in the third-floor bedroom of his parents’ residence at 599 Summit Avenue in St. Paul, where he wrote This Side of Paradise. (Source: Twin Cities Pioneer Press)
After hosting the reunion between his married cousin Daisy and her old flame, Nick’s wealthy neighbor Gatsby, Nick spends the rest of the summer observing the couple retreat into furtive seclusion, dodging not only Daisy’s prideful husband but also the gossip of Gatsby’s now-dismissed household staff and newspaper reporters showing up at Nick’s door.
When curiosity about Gatsby was at its highest, the lights in his house failed to go on one Saturday night.
Robert Redford’s Tuxedo in The Great Gatsby
Robert Redford as Jay Gatsby in The Great Gatsby (1974)
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Robert Redford as Jay Gatsby, enigmatic millionaire and eager romantic
Long Island, New York, Summer 1925
Film: The Great Gatsby
Release Date: March 29, 1974
Director: Jack Clayton
Costume Designer: Theoni V. Aldredge
Clothes by: Ralph Lauren
Background
Today marks the 50th anniversary since the release of The Great Gatsby, directed by Jack Clayton from a screenplay by Francis Ford Coppola. This 1974 film was actually the third major adaptation of F. Scott Fitzgerald’s romantic Jazz Age novel to be brought to the big screen, following a now-lost silent film in 1926 and a 1949 update starring Alan Ladd, Betty Field, and Macdonald Carey.
The lavish 1974 version stars Robert Redford as the eponymous millionaire who amassed his wealth and flaunts it through riotous parties all in the hopes of reuniting with his erstwhile love, the now-married Daisy (Mia Farrow).
Roaring ’20s standards like “Who?” and “Whispering” filter up from the jazz band out in the garden as Nick Carraway (Sam Waterston) is nervously led by a gun-toting bodyguard into a handsome wood-paneled office, where Nick finally meets the enigmatic host. Jay Gatsby is immediately charming, but his talent for first impressions sizzles out for a very stilted encounter as Gatsby awkwardly explains that he just felt the two neighbors should meet.
Mercifully interrupted by a business phone call (“I don’t give a damn what Philadelphia wants, I said a ‘small town’. If that’s his idea of a small town, he’s no use to us.”), Gatsby recovers his wits enough to ask Nick to join him for lunch the following day.
Though The Great Gatsby received a lukewarm critical reception upon its release 50 years ago this week, it grossed nearly four times its budget and was a major cultural phenomenon, with Nelson Riddle’s Oscar-winning score and Theoni V. Aldredge’s Oscar-winning costume design reviving interest in music and fashions of the 1920s. Continue reading
The Great Gatsby: Sam Waterston’s Beige Linen Birthday Suit
Sam Waterston as Nick Carraway in The Great Gatsby (1974)
Vitals
Sam Waterston as Nick Carraway, impressionable bachelor and bond salesman
Long Island to New York City, Late Summer 1925
Film: The Great Gatsby
Release Date: March 29, 1974
Director: Jack Clayton
Costume Designer: Theoni V. Aldredge
Clothes by: Ralph Lauren
Background
Just as the summer began with a look at Nick Carraway’s white linen suit as his portrayer Sam Waterston narrated his arrival at a pivotal dinner with the Buchanans in the 1974 cinematic adaptation of The Great Gatsby, let’s bring it to a close by looking at how Nick dresses when returning to their estate on the climactic afternoon of his 30th birthday, which likely would have been sometime around Labor Day. (The movie updated the setting to 1925, though F. Scott Fitzgerald’s novel was set throughout the summer of 1922, which would have placed Nick’s birthday around 100 years ago today on Monday, September 4.)
The Great Gatsby: Sam Waterston’s White Linen Suit
Sam Waterston as Nick Carraway in The Great Gatsby (1974)
Vitals
Sam Waterston as Nick Carraway, impressionable bachelor and bond salesman
Long Island, New York, Summer 1925
Film: The Great Gatsby
Release Date: March 29, 1974
Director: Jack Clayton
Costume Designer: Theoni V. Aldredge
Clothes by: Ralph Lauren
Background
“Do you ever wait for the longest day of the year and then miss it? I always wait for the longest day of the year and then miss it,” laments Daisy Buchanan—somewhat redundantly—to her cousin Nick Carraway over a visit that kicks off the romantic drama of F. Scott Fitzgerald’s The Great Gatsby. (The summer solstice today makes this the longest day of the year, so take note, Daisy!)
Set 100 years ago across the summer of 1922, The Great Gatsby begins with Nick joining the Buchanans, Daisy being his second cousin once removed and Tom one of his former classmates at Yale. The wealth disparity is represented in the fictionalized areas of Long Island where they live, Nick describing his home “at West Egg, the—well, the less fashionable of the two” when compared to their elaborate mansion located among “the white palaces of fashionable East Egg… across the courtesy bay.”
The novel merely has Nick driving around the sound to arrive for dinner, while the movie follows Sam Waterston’s Nick across the bay in a small boat, fumbling for his nearly-drowned hat while his narration relays his father’s time-tested advice to check one’s privilege prior to criticizing anyone. Continue reading
The Great Gatsby: Sam Waterston’s Tan Cashmere Sweater
Sam Waterston as Nick Carraway in The Great Gatsby (1974)
Vitals
Sam Waterston as Nick Carraway, impressionable bachelor and bond salesman
Long Island, New York, Summer 1925
Film: The Great Gatsby
Release Date: March 29, 1974
Director: Jack Clayton
Costume Designer: Theoni V. Aldredge
Clothes by: Ralph Lauren
Background
To celebrate Sam Waterston’s 81st birthday today, I wanted to return to the actor’s breakthrough performance as Nick Carraway, the central character in Jack Clayton’s stylish The Great Gatsby, adapted from F. Scott Fitzgerald’s famous novel of the same name.
The Great Gatsby: Sam Waterston’s Navy Garden Party Blazer
Sam Waterston as Nick Carraway in The Great Gatsby (1974)
Vitals
Sam Waterston as Nick Carraway, impressionable bachelor and bond salesman
Long Island, New York, Summer 1925
Film: The Great Gatsby
Release Date: March 29, 1974
Director: Jack Clayton
Costume Designer: Theoni V. Aldredge
Clothes by: Ralph Lauren
Background
Summer officially started yesterday up here in the Northern Hemisphere, signifying a seasonal return to festive outdoor gatherings. Over the last year, I’d read a number of takes from people who were drawing parallels between our current era and the raucous reputation of the roaring ’20s, noting that the decade worth of parties to follow may have been inspired by the scores of Americans eager to socialize again after months in quarantine during the Spanish flu, Prohibition be damned. With vaccination rates continuing to climb and daily COVID diagnoses declining, we may indeed be on the precipice of a roaring 2020s.
Today, thinking of the ’20s often conjures scenes straight out of The Great Gatsby, F. Scott Fitzgerald’s novel of romance, wealth, and tragedy against the backdrop of the Jazz Age… a term Fitz had reportedly coined himself for the title of a 1922 short story collection. Continue reading
Leonardo DiCaprio’s Black Tie in The Great Gatsby
Leonardo DiCaprio as Jay Gatsby in The Great Gatsby (2013)
Vitals
Leonardo DiCaprio as Jay Gatsby, eagerly romantic millionaire and bootlegger
Long Island, New York, Summer 1922
Film: The Great Gatsby
Release Date: May 10, 2013
Director: Baz Luhrmann
Costume Designer: Catherine Martin
Background
On the eve of F. Scott Fitzgerald’s birthday, let’s look at the most recent major adaptation of his most famous work, The Great Gatsby. Fitz’s 1925 novel had been adapted for the big screen at least four times before Baz Luhrmann directed his colorful spectacle during the past decade.
The Snows of Kilimanjaro: Gregory Peck’s White Riviera Resortwear
Gregory Peck as Harry Street in Ernest Hemingway’s The Snows of Kilimanjaro (1952)
Vitals
Gregory Peck as Harry Street, expatriate writer and former newspaper reporter
French Riviera (Côte d’Azur), Summer 1936
Film: The Snows of Kilimanjaro
Release Date: September 17, 1952
Director: Henry King
Wardrobe Supervisor: Charles Le Maire
Background
Despite its wintry title, The Snows of Kilimanjaro was expanded significantly from Ernest Hemingway’s original short story for Henry King’s lush 1952 cinematic adaptation, featuring plenty of summertime fun in Côte d’Azur during its prewar heyday.
The rest of the world may have been suffering from the Great Depression, but Papa surrogate Harry Street has risen to literary stardom and is now living la belle vie, adrift in the Mediterranean while his latest paramour “Frigid Liz, the semi-iceburg of the semi-tropics” frolics in the warm sea around him. Though lovely, Countess Elizabeth (Hildegard Knef) is hardly the treasured Cynthia (Ava Gardner), and Harry admits he’s only attracted to Liz for her elusive qualities, describing in Papa-esque prose that “she was something to hunt down and trap and capture.”
In addition to today being the birthday of Ernest Hemingway, who entered the world July 21, 1899, today is also my 31st birthday!