Movies Depicting Fauntleroy Suits: Ricky Schroeder

Figure 1.--Ricky Schroder's portral of Little Lord Fauntleroy was one of the better costumed versions. He wore a moderate collar, but it was lace rather than a white ruffled collar. Here he is pictured with his grandfather.

The British 1980 version of Little Lord Fauntleroy staring Ricky Schroeder is probably the best costume version up to the time. There was even an attempt to have a somewhat accurate hair style which certainly was not the casevin the Freddy Bartholomew version. Alec Guinness played his grandfather. All in all, it was an excellent TV remake of the 1936 classic film about the impoverished New York boy who inherits an enormous estate. The superb photography won an Emmy Award.

Figure 2.--This is another image from the Ricky Schroeder's portrayal of Little Lord Fauntleroy. He wore kneepants and long black stockings.

Filmography

I do not yet have information on the making of this version of Little Lord Fauntleroy. Some films of course are first conceived and the producers and directors then go looking for the actors. Other folms are conceived as vehicles for stars. This may have been the case for this version of Little Lord Fauntleroy. Boys in the 1920s-60s had short hair and established child stars, like Freddy Bartholmeu, would probably have objected to wearing ringlet curls or even uncurled long hair. In addition, this might not have been inkeeping with the somewhat surprising, but consistent desire of many directors to "desissify" Cedric in the film. Popular hair styles changed in the 1970s and many boys were now wearing long hair. Ricky Schroder had bangs and longish hair and it was thus not much of a streach to have him grow it a big longer, making him the perfect selection for the role of Cedric.

Ricky received generally good reviews for his performance. One reviewer wrote that "... he's a natural--boyish, engaging and almost believeable." Other reviewers were ctitical. Another commented that he made an appealing Little Lord Fauntleroy. Not all the critics, however, were so complimentary. One wrote:

Little Lord Fauntleroy was never much to begin with, but Freddy Bartholomew, the child stars of the 30s, certainly stood head and shoulders above icky Ricky Schroeder (of The Champ, another remake), who plays the hero of the new CBS version. Schroeder is one of those Tinsel Town tikes who would bring out the misenthrope in anybody. In pageboy blond tresses, and twinkling to beat the band, he looks a lot like a young Doris Day.

Costuming

Cedric's Fauntleroy suit

Cedric's velvet suit is a dark blue and the costuming is relatively accurate. The suit looks black in these images, but I believe it was actually a very dark blue. He wears a large, but not a typically enormous lace collar. It has several classic features, including matching sleeve wrist lace and a silk sash. The suit is not, however, like the classic Fauntleroy suit which had a small jacket worn open to reveal a elaborately filled blouse with lace trim and ruffles.

Figure 3.--Cedric also wore sailor suits in the Ricky Schroeder version of the classic story. His middy blouse, however, was not exactly the classic style. Sailor suits were one of the the other popular style for boys in the late 19th Century. Click on the image for a better view of the sailor suit.

Other outfits

Cedric wore several other outfits in the film. He wore a blue stripped, summer sailor suit and tweed Norfolk suit in several scenes. The middy blouse on his sailor suit was not the classic "v" front, but not all sailor suits had the classic styling. It was the most common, but there were many other styles employed in boy's clothing. His tweedy Norfolk knicker suit was commonly wiorn by boys.

I an a little unsure about the conventions involved with the other clothes involved in Cedric's other outfits. I know from the literature of the day that a boy might wear a sailorsuit for everday wear, but have a Fauntleroy suit for his part suit. I am not positive that he would have has a Norfolk suit. That might have been an outfit for an older boy. The Birch drawings illustrating Mrs. Burnett's first edition of Little Lord Fauntleroy does show Cedric in a riding habit, but this was not quite like the Norfolk-style suit Cedric wears in the Ricky Schroeder film.

Cedric's Opinion

There is no indication in Mrs. Burnett's book that Cedric disliked his outfits. Certainly Mrs. Burnett who was enamored of these fancy velvet suits would not have written any such criticism. The movie versions, however, often change the costuming or have scenes to demonstrate that Little Lord Fauntleroy is no sissy. There is one interesting scene in the Rickey Schroeder version where his mother holds up the suit which she is sewing and exclaims how much Ceddie is going to dislike it.

Hair Style

Cedric has long hair blond hair. There is very little reference to his hair in the book. Much of the popular conception of appropriate hair styles came from the Reginald Birch drawings that illustrated the original editions of Mrs. Burnett's book.

Figure 4.--The lace collar worn by Ricky was sewn onto the jacket rather than part of the blouse. I'm not sure about the matching wrist trim..

The Ricky Scroeder version is the only movie version up to the time I know of that has Cedric in such long hair--of course excluding the Mary Pickford version. His hair was similar to the bangs style he had been wearing, but he apparently let it grow out to shoot the film. He did not normally wear it that long. The hair style, however, is less accurate than his suit. It is a bangs cut with hair down almost to the shoulders. I have seen few 19th Century boys wearing anything like that. He does not wear ringlet curls. Presumably Ricky wouldn't have put up with that.

Ricky's Attitude

Ricky was an establish child star at the time he made the movie. I think he was about 10 years old. I'm not sure what he thought about the idea of making Little Lord Fauntleroy or indeed if he had ever heard of the book before. I do recall several years later on his

Figure 5.--Ricky wore a black wide-brimmed hat with his Fauntleroy suit. I think this was more of a British than American style. I don't remember seeing pictures of American boys with such hats. Click on the image for a better view of the hat.

television show Silver Spoons that he objected to the idea of wearing lederhosen. You would think that at 10, he would have been a bit dubious about some of his Little Lord Fauntleroy costumes.

Later Career

Ricky must have enjoyed is boyhood film and television career. Unlike some child stars he stayed a away from drugs and other problems. He has established a career as an adult actor. Dropping the "y", he is now known as Rick Schroeder. He's been in some interesting movies along the way. The most notable was the TV-miniseries, Lonesome Dove. In another film, Too Young the Hero, he wears a sailor suit again--this time as a sailor. One of his more recent films was a made for TV movie, A Son's Promise. His current assignment is pn the TV series, NYPD Blue.