Tagged: Long Island
The Amityville Horror: James Brolin’s Corduroy Jacket and Cargo Pants
James Brolin and Margot Kidder in The Amityville Horror (1979)
Vitals
James Brolin as George Lutz, surveyor and stepdad
Long Island, New York, Fall 1975
Film: The Amityville Horror
Release Date: July 27, 1979
Director: Stuart Rosenberg
Men’s Costumes: Richard Butz
WARNING! Spoilers ahead!
Background
Fifty years ago next month, George Lutz and his family moved into 112 Ocean Avenue in Amityville on the south shore of Long Island. Amity, as you know, means friendship (as the mayor in Jaws has made clear), but there’s nothing friendly about the paranormal activity that drove the Lutz family from that Dutch Colonial Revival house after only 28 days.
Though the veracity of the events have been called into question (and, I believe, generally debunked), they remain in the forefront of public consciousness thanks to Jay Anson’s 1977 book The Amityville Horror and its subsequent film adaptations—the best-known and best-regarded of which being the 1979 horror thriller of the same name starring James Brolin and Margot Kidder as George and Kathy Lutz. 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.
Humphrey Bogart’s Blazer at Sea in Sabrina
Humphrey Bogart and Audrey Hepburn in Sabrina (1954)
Vitals
Humphrey Bogart as Linus Larrabee, industrious businessman
Long Island, New York, Summer 1954
Film: Sabrina
Release Date: September 3, 1954
Director: Billy Wilder
Costume Supervisor: Edith Head
WARNING! Spoilers ahead!
Background
The talent-laden Sabrina was released in the United States 70 years ago today on September 23, 1954, debuting in New York and Los Angeles twenty days after its Toronto premiere on September 3rd. Directed by the prolific Billy Wilder, the romantic comedy stars Audrey Hepburn as the titular Sabrina Fairchild who finds herself romanced by the opposing Larrabee brothers: playboy David (William Holden) and workaholic Linus (Humphrey Bogart). Continue reading
Kramer’s Cabana Shirts on Seinfeld
Michael Richards as Cosmo Kramer on Seinfeld (Episode 7.05: “The Hot Tub”)
Vitals
Michael Richards as Cosmo Kramer, eccentric “hipster doofus”
New York City to the Hamptons, Spring 1994
Series: Seinfeld (Seasons 5-9)
Created by: Larry David & Jerry Seinfeld
Costume Designer: Charmaine Nash Simmons
Costumer: Stephanie Kennedy
Background
As we begin planning summer getaways, it’s time to start getting your vacation clothes out of storage… and making sure your son didn’t sell them!
Puffy shirts, Gore-Tex, and “morning mist” had already established the comedic significance of costumes woven into Seinfeld‘s humor by the time the fifth-season episode “The Raincoats” aired 30 years ago today on April 28, 1994. In addition to the eponymous beltless trench coats referenced by the episode’s title, this two-parter directed by Tom Cherones also introduced a new wardrobe staple for the series: Kramer’s terry-lined cabana shirts. Continue reading
Robert Redford’s Tuxedo in The Great Gatsby
Robert Redford as Jay Gatsby in The Great Gatsby (1974)
Vitals
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 Godfather: Johnny Fontane’s Cream Silk Suit
Al Martino as Johnny Fontane in The Godfather (1972)
Vitals
Al Martino as Johnny Fontane, down-on-his-luck crooner
Long Island, New York, Summer 1945
Film: The Godfather
Release Date: March 14, 1972
Director: Francis Ford Coppola
Costume Designer: Anna Hill Johnstone
Background
Today in 1927, Al Martino was born in Philadelphia to two Italian immigrants from Abruzzo, the same southern Italian region from which much of my family hails. Following his U.S. Navy service during World War II, the singer began earnestly following his career in entertainment. Twenty years after his first single, “Here in My Heart”, reached #1 in the U.S. Billboard and UK Singles charts, Martino joined the cast of The Godfather as Johnny Fontane, an Italian-American crooner whose early career parallels that of Martino’s contemporary Frank Sinatra. 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.
You must be logged in to post a comment.