Figure 1.--In one scene from "Easter Parade" as Astaire sings the Irving Berlin number "Drum Crazy", he is watched by a bemused youngester clutching a toy Easter bunny. The boy later joins Astaire, marching in time and banging a toy drum. The boy wears a tunic suit with above the knee knickers. |
You can also slect the movies available on HBC by using this alphabetical movie listing. At this time only a few movies have been analized by HBC for clothing information, but more pages are being added all the time.
Elliot, a 9-year old boy charmingly played by Henry Thomas, befriends an Extra Terrestrial and seeks to protect him. I believe the film is set in California. Elliot always wears longs, but curiously often appears in long underwear. Henry plays his role beautifully and makes the film worth seeing. This is a good example of movie costuming trailing actual boys clothing trends. American boys by the 1980s were commonly wearing leasure shorts. Given the number of boys involved, it is extremely unlikely that some would not have worn shorts, especially in California during the 1980s. E.T. was re-released in 2002 with some inhanced digital effects. A HBC reader writes, :The clothes all three kids wore were very accurate for the early 80's, except that none of the kids wore shorts, and
this was when Ocean Pacific (OP) style shorts and tube socks were very popular with elementary school boys, especially in California. The flannel shirt over the t-shirt look remains popular today, albeit not as much as it was then. Boys still like to wear hooded sweatshirts."
Ben Alexander
A dying man must show an orphan (Ricky Schroeder) how to survive in the Outback. Shot in Australia. Ricky was about 10 years old and really beautiful. I didn't particularly care for the movie, but Ricky was still his innocent self as this was shot before "Silver Spoons" and he began to develop his knowing wise-guy side. Ricky orimarily wears jeans and a sweatshirt. What a pity that he didn't do any really nice movies. Except for The Champ and Little Lord Fauntleroy," his movies were very disappointing.
A wife abandons her husband and infant sons. As they grow up, the sons fight for their father's affections. I haven't seen the whole film, it appears to be mostly about teenagers. There is a scene of a parade in which two little guys, one in a long pants sailor suit and the other in a short pants suit can be seen. Both wear period caps. The film is set in the pre-World War I period.
Two teenage boys discover the joys and woes of life in the 1950s. Edward Rawle-Hickes, John Wagland
This is one of those films that is interesting to HBC because of one scene. The plot line is rather thin. The film is of course a vehicle Fred Astaire's dances routeins and Judy Garlans's singing. In one scene as Astaire sings the Irving Berlin number "Drum Crazy", he is watched by a bemused youngester clutching a toy Easter bunny. The boy later joins Astaire, marching in time and banging a toy drum. The movie is set in the years before World War I (1914-18) and the boy is wearing an outfit of a short belted tunic with floppy bow tie, large Eton-style collar, and knickerbockers. The knickers are above the knee and worn with kneesocks. These tunic suits including above the knee knickers were a popular fashion before World War. Wearing knickers with kneesocks, however, was more common for a brrief period from about 1915 to the early 1920s. HBC is not precisely sure about the time line, but notes that most boys wore long stockings or three-quarter socks with these tunic suits before World War I.
Carl "Alfalfa" Switzer
"The Easy Way" is a title is sometimes used for "Room for One More", a family comedy staring Cary Grant. There are several scenes devoted to Scouting.
The film "Edges of the Lord" was filmed in Poland. It is set during the NAZI Woeld War II occupation. and was during the occupation by Nazi Germany. Romek (Haley Joel Osment) is a 12-year-old Jewish boy. He rties to elude the NAZI roundups by hiding among Catholic peasant farmers in the countryside. A priest (Willem Dafoe) and a boy named Tola (Liam Hess) attempt to help him as he is terrified of bing found by the NAZIs. The film received the Best Screenplay award at the 2001 Polish Film Festival.
Itvwas directed by Yurek Bogayevicz.
The Education of Little Tree appears to be set in the late 1920s or early to mid-1930s. Ot looks like Wyoming or perhaps the Dakotas or Montana. The main character is a Native-American boy, about 10 years old. In the scenes I watched he wore clothes typical of the period. He goes to a school for Native-American children, where he's promptly given a short haircut, scrubbed, and given some rather institutional looking clothes, including a black flat cap.
Figure 2.--Tommy Retig appears here with Jean Simmons on the set of the Egyptian. I'm not sure about the authenticity of the costuming. |
Reasonable historical drama. Hollywood made several biblical films during the 1950s. This one was based on the book by Mika Walrari. This one was panned by reviewers as wooden. Tommy Rettig appears as a small boy at the end of the movie with his usual overacting. He wears a tunic.
A HBC reader from Austria reports seeing "Das Ekel" (The Grouch) with veteran actor Hans Moser in the title role of the grouch. The 9-year old character Fritz, played by child actor Josy Kleinpeter, wears a sailor suit.
A psychological thriller about a man's repressive childhood.
Set in 1945, after the NAZIs had been defeated, but before the Communists had completely taken over the country. Most of the film is set in a classroom where the kids drive one teacher crazy and is replaced by popinjay who brags about his war-time exploits.
A journalist seeks to avenge the senseless execution of his mother, whose crime was arranging the escape of her children during the Greek Civil War in the late 1940s.
Sensitive presentation of the Roosevelts. The children are depicted in several scenes, usually in short pants and knee socks. Often they wear sailor suits. The two older boys look to be 11 to 13.
A small native boy finds a heard of wild elephants. Based on a Rudyard Kipling story. Sabu.
A young boy faces his Bar Mitzvah with serious doubts about his faith. Filmed in Maryland with a local cast and crew and is both professional and effective, if a bit long.
This First National Movie silent film was made in 1926. The title was "Ella Cinders". It starred Collet Moore. We know little about the film at this time. It is diificult to obrttain information on many silent films. A still shows Ella with a boy she was babysitting. He looks to be giving her a hard time. He is wearing a cap, A sweet-type shirt, short trousers, knee socks, and shoes. I don't know who the boy actor was.
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