Golden Age of Hollywood Book Club discussion

Lap robes in cars. Who does that anymore? That's what car heaters are for.

I kind of like the idea of a lap robe if your heater doesn't work well or if you have to sit waiting for someone without the car running.

Dinner robes and ascots. I think Pepe LePew did it best. But credit to Bogdanovich for keeping the ascot alive way after anybody else.

The beanie caps girls wore in movies when dressed up. They remind me of what Girl Scouts wore.

That is one we missed! They were pretty stupid looking in an era where there were some great hats.

They were mostly worn by girls 14 and under I'd say. The movie with Jose Iturbi had two girls who wore them. It also looks so strange in movies that girls almost always wore dresses or skirts like their mothers. Jeans, slacks or shorts were rarely seen.

I don't like limousines but how about the ones in the 20s when the passenger compartment was enclosed but the chauffeur sat in an uncovered space? Rather cruel to the driver!

Good point. You would think it wouldn't be too good for the car either.

I suppose it's better than whipping horses while the ladies and gentlemen sat in the carriage.

You are right about that, Spencer.

Men in vests. All well dressed men in the films of the 30s wore matching vests with their suits. I thought they were rather elegant but if a man wore a tattersall vest, he was usually a fop or a bad guy. Vests made a comeback in the 70/80s but are rather out of style again.

I love the vests, also pocket watch and a boutonnière.

Monocles are also a must have accessory for every 1920s to 1950s film European aristocrat!

And don't forget the pince nez!! I though monocles were so affected but nobody wore one better than Eric von Stroheim.

Vest with a pocket watch.........so very classic!

Also, men's stocking always having garters (is that the correct word? or are they sock suspenders? can't recall). Plus, cufflinks.

I think they were called garters. That was before men's stockings were made longer so as not to expose the skin when crossing legs.

How about hats? In old films both men and women seemst to feel naked if they leave the house without a hat. I'm not sure when that habit fizzled out, but my dad (born 1925) still wore a hat everywhere he went, basically.

Hats are really big with British royalty. I love to look at Queen Elizabeth's matching outfits with her hats. She has something in every color of the rainbow. That's one of my 'guilty pleasures'.

I think hats are neat. I had a black tweed long coat and bought a men's black fedora to wear with it. Sounds stupid but it really looked good and I got lots of positive comments from my friends who would have told me if it looked ridiculous.

I particularly like the hats paired with veils. You don't even see veils at funerals anymore. Only weddings, and rarely does the bride cover her face.

I miss hats. My father wore one and when dressed casually, he wore a golf cap.

You need to go to Texas where everyone seems to wear cowboy hats, including women. I don't mind a hat but why inside? Baseball caps seem to be popular too.

Oh, something else I've noticed....food, in film and television. In the last couple of weeks, I've noticed celery in movies. The people all are eating it in big long stalks, crunching away. I don't think I've ever seen anyone, recently, breaking off a stalk of celery and just chowing down.

Any other odd food behaviors, you've noticed?

One thing I've noticed in many movies (classic) is that while people have food on the table, they rarely take more than one or two bites. I've always put it down to having to having several takes, and psrticularly the women don't want to put on weight.

Plus having food on a table is a trivia lover's continuity joy. In one scene, a plate is half full, then full, then barely touched. Somebody wasn't paying attention when they have a different take/cut. It is the same with cigarettes.......the cigarette is half smoked and then suddenly it is full size. That happens all the time and I love looking for those continuity errors.

I guess I'm not as observant as you are about continuity, Jill, but I'm sure you're right. And people are paid to keep track!

You also have to wonder how good the prop food actually is, particularly after sitting out for take after take.

Good point, Tara. I suspect the food that is catered for the cast and crew is good, but the prop food, that's anoher question! 🤔

I just watched a recent TV show (Killing Eve) and it drove me nuts in this scene where this girl is holding an ice cream cone while talking with her dad, and the ice cream is like 17 different levels.

Can't remember if I've mentioned doctors visiting patients at home before. Can you imagine them doing that now? With all the COVID patients, it would be impossible. But they sure did it in 'Meet Me in St Louis' and lots of others.

That's a good one, Betsy. House calls are pretty much a thing of the past even before COVID.

I don't think it's quaint to films, but when did they actually start to put closets into bedrooms? When looking at houses in the older films, so many rooms that were bedrooms, now couldn't count because they didn't have a closet, because a chifforobe or wardrobe was used instead of a closet space. People today don't consider even buying houses without closets the size of most those bedrooms....

It may have something to do with the fact that you were charged more for an enclosed space since it was considered a room, and no one wanted to pay more. Now of course closets are essential when building new homes.

I never thought about that but it is a good point. All wardrobes were standing pieces of furniture and what Betsy said makes sense that it might have cost more for enclosed space.

We have mentioned fur coats earlier but one is particularly quaint.....the mink stole. I think they look awkward and unattractive. And even people in films who were not "rich", still seemed to have the money to buy one. Yuck.

The ones that really bothered me still had their heads and beady eyes attached. You didn't see them as much, but Lucille Ball had a stole like that. The stoles were certainly not to keep you warm, but just for looks. Even mink stoles were just for looks.

Also, those hats that actually had bird wings or the full stuffed bird on them....Ugh. Not for me!

Agreed but just think of the elaborate headresses women used to wear in the 1700 and 1800s. Some of those were animal-based.

Betsy wrote: "The ones that really bothered me still had their heads and beady eyes attached. You didn't see them as much, but Lucille Ball had a stole like that. The stoles were certainly not to keep you warm, ..."

I hate to admit it but my mother had one of those. My sister and I got caught playing with it

Men's pinky rings! In most old films, the "sophisticated" man wore a usually gold ring on his little finger. I saw a film the other day where three of the male character wore one. It seems to have taken on the classification of effeminacy in more modern times but that was not the case originally. I can't ever decide if I like that quaint custom or not but William Powell could certainly get away with it!!

Men waring wedding rings. What is now very common wasn't always so. Men could wear big bulky rings, in fact several, but wedding rings were more uncommon.

I think the only time you see pinky rings in modern movies are when they are portraying gangsters. They seem to be the only alpha males that can pull that off. That, plus the gold chains!

I think the gold chains are hideous as are rings on every finger.

Another quaint look was the wearing of brooches, especially cameos. Older woman always seemed to have a cameo brooch at the neckline. Does anyone wear cameo jewelry now?

Then there are the men who wear earrings. You used to see an occasional one on certain males in classic movies. Now many men wear them. The ones that get me are the ones which s-t-r-e-t-c-h the hole. I have pierced ears, but those huge holes make my stomach flip-flop!

The gold tooth also is a nice touch to a tough guy! As well as, flipping a coin!

George Raft may be the first man who was famous for flipping a coin. It was in the film Scarface (1932). It started a trend. But I missed seeing men with earrings in older films unless they were pirates. That's interesting.

All cars had running boards. In many films, the crooks or the police jumped on the running board of a moving car to get away or capture the driver. Very handy.

I think Francis might have worn some rings over the years. Maybe gifts from Ava? Maybe gifts from Giancana? Maybe both.

Garter belts! There was not such thing as panty hose so women wore garter belts to hold up their stockings and in some of the "naughtier" scenes in film actresses were shown in a garter belt.
They looks terribly uncomfortable.

As a person who wore a garter belt, and hated them, I don't think they are that sexy, but to each his own!

I had a role once (set in the 1940s), where my costume required me to wear a garter belt, and it wasn't the lacy kind! It was this industrial strength almost girdle-like band and the part that hooked into the stockings were really strong elastic with these loops. If one of those bands snapped, it left a mark! I was 18 at the time, and never thought I'd actually think pantyhose were a blessing! It made me realize there is the reality of what people wear, and what people "think" people actually wear....

Thank goodness that show only ran a month!

And they had those metal clips to hold the hose which couldn't have added much to the ease of wearing them.