Tagged: Chicago
When Harry Met Sally: Harry’s Post-College Hoodie and Jeans
Billy Crystal and Meg Ryan in When Harry Met Sally (1989)
Vitals
Billy Crystal as Harry Burns, recent college graduate
Chicago to New York City, Spring 1977
Film: When Harry Met Sally…
Release Date: July 14, 1989
Director: Rob Reiner
Costume Designer: Gloria Gresham
WARNING! Spoilers ahead!
Background
I graduated from college fifteen years ago this week, and I’m still (slightly) younger than 40-year-old Billy Crystal was when he played recent University of Chicago graduate Harry Burns in the opening scenes of When Harry Met Sally. Directed by the late Rob Reiner (a qualifier which still hurts to say), When Harry Met Sally is considered by many—including yours truly—to be one of the best romantic comedies of all time.
Ironically scored to Louis Armstrong crooning “Our Love is Here to Stay”, the movie begins with Harry kissing a girlfriend whose name he wouldn’t even remember five years later. Amanda (Michelle Nicastro) introduces Harry to her friend Sally Albright (Meg Ryan), who has agreed to drive the stranger across the country to New York, which Sally has calculated should be “an 18-hour trip with six shifts of three hours each.” Continue reading
Clark Griswold’s Christmas Tree-Hunting Parka and Sweater
Chevy Chase and Beverly D’Angelo in National Lampoon’s Christmas Vacation (1989)
Vitals
Chevy Chase as Clark W. Griswold Jr., festive family man and food additive executive
Chicago*, December 1989
Film: National Lampoon’s Christmas Vacation
Release Date: December 1, 1989
Director: Jeremiah S. Chechik
Costume Designer: Michael Kaplan
WARNING! Spoilers ahead!
Background
Let’s officially launch the Christmas season and continue this winter’s Car Week with the Griswold family in their “ol’ front-wheel-drive sleigh” in National Lampoon’s Christmas Vacation, released 36 years ago today on December 1, 1989!
After the first two films took the Griswolds traveling across the United States and Europe, the family spends the holidays at home, where “the last true family man” Clark (Chevy Chase) and his wife Ellen (Beverly D’Angelo) are trying to spread yuletide cheer to their kids Audrey (Juliette Lewis) and Rusty (Johnny Galecki) with a snowy Saturday afternoon trek into the most mountainous region of rural Illinois* in search of “that most important of Christmas symbols.”
Audrey: We’re not driving all the way out here so you can get one of those stupid ties with the Santa Clauses on it, are we Dad?
Clark: No, I have one of those at home.
Rather than neckwear, the family is embracing the frosty majesty of the winter landscape to find the perfect tree that will anchor the “fun, old-fashioned family Christmas” envisioned by Clark, foregoing the pre-cut trees offered in Jolly Jerry’s lot to chop one down himself… despite forgetting a saw. Continue reading
Bob Newhart’s Red Leisure Jacket on Thanksgiving
Bob Newhart as Dr. Bob Hartley in “Over the River and Through the Woods”, the fourth-season Thanksgiving-themed episode of The Bob Newhart Show.
Vitals
Bob Newhart as Robert Hartley, PhD, deadpan psychologist
Chicago, Thanksgiving 1975
Series: The Bob Newhart Show
Episode: “Over the River and Through the Woods” (Episode 4.11)
Air Date: November 22, 1975
Director: James Burrows
Created by: David Davis & Lorenzo Music
Men’s Costumes: Ralph T. Schlain
Clothes by: Botany 500
WARNING! Spoilers ahead!
Background
One of the most iconic Thanksgiving-themed TV episodes of all time aired fifty years ago this week: “Over the River and Through the Woods”, from the fourth season of The Bob Newhart Show, the 1970s sitcom starring Bob Newhart and Suzanne Pleshette as Chicago couple Robert and Emily Hartley.
The demands of a psychologist’s patients during the holidays keep Bob home in Chicago for Turkey Day, though he’s hardly remiss to be missing Emily’s family’s annual gala in Seattle that includes square dancing and skipping stones across Puget Sound. Come Thursday, Bob hosts his fellow “Thanksgiving orphans”: orthodontist and office-mate Dr. Jerry Robinson (Peter Bonerz) his airheaded next-door neighbor Howard Borden (Bill Daily), and his chronic patient Elliot F. Carlin (Jack Riley), who declares “you know you’re at a bad party when Elliot Carlin is the happiest man in the room.” Continue reading
Lloyd Bridges’ Donegal Tweed Jacket in Airplane!
Lloyd Bridges as Steve McCroskey in Airplane! (1980)
Vitals
Lloyd Bridges as Steve McCroskey, air traffic controller who picked the wrong week to quit smoking, drinking, amphetamines, and sniffing glue
Chicago, Spring 1980
Film: Airplane!
Release Date: July 2, 1980
Directed by: Jim Abrahams, David Zucker, and Jerry Zucker
Costume Designer: Rosanna Norton
Film: Airplane II: The Sequel
Release Date: December 10, 1982
Director: Ken Finkleman
Costume Designer: Rosanna Norton
WARNING! Spoilers ahead!
Background
If you’re anything like me, you’ve had the kind of week that’s sending you right back to smoking, drinking, amphetamines, and sniffing glue. Luckily, we have a kindred spirit in Steve McCroskey—the frazzled Chicago air traffic control chief in ZAZ’s comedy classic Airplane! who signaled Lloyd Bridges’ shift from drama to comedy.
And Bridges didn’t just nail his line deliveries, he also served sartorial gold as I noted during a recent rewatch of Airplane! and its sequel Airplane II: The Sequel, decked out in a Donegal tweed jacket, loosened tie, and dive watch. Continue reading
Clark Griswold’s Christmas Eve Cardigan
Chevy Chase and Beverly D’Angelo in National Lampoon’s Christmas Vacation (1989)
Vitals
Chevy Chase as Clark W. Griswold Jr., food additive executive and “last true family man”
Chicago, Christmas Eve 1989
Film: National Lampoon’s Christmas Vacation
Release Date: December 1, 1989
Director: Jeremiah S. Chechik
Costume Designer: Michael Kaplan
WARNING! Spoilers ahead!
Background
Merry Christmas! Now a perennial holiday classic, National Lampoon’s Christmas Vacation was released 35 years ago this month in December 1989 as the third installment to feature Chevy Chase as the hapless head of the Griswold family.
After zany misadventures on an American road trip and a European vacation, Clark clings to his idealistic hope for a “fun, old-fashioned family Christmas,” which somehow means inviting both his and his wife’s sets of parents to stay with them for more than a week leading up to the actual holiday. In the meantime, Clark is eager to surprise his family with the news that he placed a down payment on a swimming pool… a payment he’ll be able to cover as soon as he receives his company’s usual holiday bonus.
(For modern readers, a “holiday bonus” is a monetary payment that employers used to give to their employees at the end of each year. In the late 1980s when Christmas Vacation was made, this often amounted to several thousand dollars; for most employees today, this may take the form of a branded reusable water bottle, already-obsolete Bluetooth earbuds, or simply not being fired.)
Inspired by producer and co-writer John Hughes’ semi-autobiographical short story “Christmas ’59”, the festivities culminate on Christmas Eve as both sides of Clark and Ellen’s families gather at the over-illuminated Griswold home for an over-cooked turkey dinner, a surprise rodent guest, and the family’s first kidnapping. Happy holidays!
Tom Hanks in Road to Perdition
Tom Hanks in Road to Perdition (2002)
Vitals
Tom Hanks as Michael Sullivan, recently widowed Irish mob enforcer and dedicated father
The Midwest, Winter 1931
Film: Road to Perdition
Release Date: July 12, 2002
Director: Sam Mendes
Costume Designer: Albert Wolsky
Tailor: John David Ridge
WARNING! Spoilers ahead!
Background
“Natural law… sons were put on this earth to trouble their fathers,” avuncular mob boss John Rooney (Paul Newman) advises his top enforcer Michael Sullivan (Tom Hanks) at a time that both men are facing crises with their respective sons.
Father’s Day feels like the appropriate time to celebrate the style from this unorthodox role for America’s Dad. Tom Hanks pivoted from a career built on playing affable heroes and everymen to a dangerous Depression-era mob hitman in Road to Perdition, Sam Mendes’ 2002 drama adapted by screenwriter David Self from a graphic novel series of the same name by Max Allan Collins and Richard Piers Rayner. Continue reading
The Fugitive: Harrison Ford’s Green Parka on St. Patrick’s Day
Harrison Ford as Dr. Richard Kimble in The Fugitive (1993)
Vitals
Harrison Ford as Dr. Richard Kimble, fugitive and former vascular surgeon determined to clear his name
Chicago, Spring 1993
Film: The Fugitive
Release Date: August 6, 1993
Director: Andrew Davis
Costume Designer: Aggie Guerard Rodgers
WARNING! Spoilers ahead!
Background
Happy St. Patrick’s Day! Chicago’s famous celebrations with its parade and green-dyed river hosted a major setpiece midway through the 1993 thriller The Fugitive, adapted from the 1960s TV show of the same name.
As in the show, the titular fugitive is Dr. Richard Kimble (Harrison Ford), a man wrongly convicted of his wife’s murder who takes the opportunity to escape after his conviction and works a series of odd jobs while desperately trying to clear his name and find the one-armed man who actually killed his wife. The film reimagines Dr. Kimble’s police pursuer as U.S. Marshal Samuel Gerard (Tommy Lee Jones) and his experienced team of deputies, who manage to track Richard to Chicago based on the sounds of an el train’s PA system in the background of a tapped call to his lawyer.
Dr. Kimble’s hunt leads him to Cook County Hospital, where he falsifies a job on the custodial staff so he can more intently search the prosthetics records for a one-armed man. He finds a promising lead in the form of an incarcerated armed robber (“one-armed man, armed robbery… that’s funny,” quips one of Gerard’s deputies), but quickly realizes this wasn’t the man he was looking for. Unfortunately, the marshals had closed in on the same lead and Dr. Kimble once again comes face-to-face with Gerard, resulting in a desperate chase out through the courthouse and into the crowds of the St. Patrick’s Day parade. Continue reading
Cary Grant in His Girl Friday
Cary Grant in His Girl Friday (1940)
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. Continue reading
The Bear: Richie Wears Suits Now
Ebon Moss-Bachrach as Richie Jerimovich on The Bear (Episode 2.08: “Bolognese”)
Photo credit: Chuck Hodes/FX
Vitals
Ebon Moss-Bachrach as Richie Jerimovich, restaurant manager and honorary Berzatto “cousin”
Chicago, Spring 2023
Series: The Bear
Episodes:
– “Bolognese” (Episode 2.08)
– “Omelette” (Episode 2.09)
– “The Bear” (Episode 2.10)
Air Date: June 22, 2023
Director: Christopher Storer
Creator: Christopher Storer
Costume Designer: Courtney Wheeler
WARNING! Spoilers ahead!
Background
“New year, new me” is an oft-repeated philosophy thorough January as people reaffirm committing to becoming their best selves. One of my favorite on-screen transformations recently has been Richie Jerimovich’s journey to find his purpose across the second season of The Bear. For his portrayal of Richie, Ebon Moss-Bachrach has been nominated for a Golden Globe, an Independent Spirit Award, and an Emmy—with the results of the latter to be announced this Monday night.
The Bear established Richie at the start as a brash and boastful loudmouth, proud of his self-maintainted reputation as a wild card. “I’m not like this because I’m in Van Halen, I’m in Van Halen because I’m like this,” he frequently reasserts, all the while increasingly questioning his purpose. Though he loves his “cousin” Carmy (Jeremy Allen White), Richie clearly resents the new methods that the experienced chef and his visionary new hire Sydney (Ayo Edebiri) had brought to their longstanding Chicago restaurant… until Carmy enrolls Richie in a week honing his stagiaere skills in what would be essentially an unpaid internship at the exclusive Chicago restaurant Ever. Continue reading
The Bear: Carmy’s Rugby Shirt on Christmas Eve
Jeremy Allen White as Carmy Berzatto on The Bear (Episode 2.06: “Fishes”)
Vitals
Jeremy Allen White as Carmen “Carmy” Berzatto, celebrated international chef
Chicago, Christmas Eve 2018
Series: The Bear
Episode: “Fishes” (Episode 2.06)
Air Date: June 22, 2023
Director: Christopher Storer
Creator: Christopher Storer
Costume Designer: Courtney Wheeler
WARNING! Spoilers ahead!
Background
Merry Christmas to all BAMF Style readers who celebrate!
Among its Yoshimi-sharp depictions of service industry stress, The Bear brought its anxiety in-house for the second season’s brilliant, bonkers, and relentless sixth episode “Fishes”, flashing back several years from the show’s narrative to a chaotic Christmas Eve with the Berzatto family.
Our protagonist Carmy (Jeremy Allen White) takes a supporting role in the proceedings as we spend an increasingly stressful hour with his family and those “related through friendship” in his childhood home, decorated like an Olive Garden for the holidays. There are a few familiar faces—like his late brother Mikey (Jon Berthal), his sister Natalie (Abby Elliott) whose “Sugar” nickname is finally explained, his unrelated-cousin Richie (Ebon Moss-Bachrach), and their “uncle” Jimmy (Oliver Platt)—as well as several all-new cast members, many of whom appear only in this episode.
“I wanted it to be distracting,” series creator Christopher Storer told Yvonne Villarreal for the Los Angeles Times. “I wanted the viewer to be like, ‘What the fuck is Bob Odenkirk doing here?’ I wanted it to really feel like when you walk into your family’s house and you are just overwhelmed by a cousin who you don’t want to talk to, an uncle you don’t want to see. You don’t even know who’s related to who, which I always feel like is the truest thing—everyone’s calling each other cousin and you don’t know what the fuck is really going on, but you do know that even through all their weirdness and how dark it gets, they do kind of love each other.” Continue reading
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