Cary Grant in Town&Country

[TVD]

The lifestyle required to qualify as a "celebrity" today may be mutually exclusive with true style. Men (and women) who have style and taste still exist, but they will treat publicity like the pest it has become: intrusive and disrespectful. It is all very well to like it when the times are good, but the need for news will mean it has to turn ugly at some point. Better avoid it outright.

[Mark Seitelman]

I have just obtained the book, and based on my brief reading I recommend it.

One of the author's themes is that Gary Grant style is not just about the clothes, but it is the whole package of the man, the actor, the manner, the comedy, the dark side, and the life style.

[E. Tage Larsen]

Dear Richt,

Is it that Andre Benjamin 3000 has good style or a good stylist? I don't know much about him other than a few GQ-type spreads that are always raving. In the little I’ve seen of him he’s always come across as a more of a construct than casual.

I agree with TVD. Celebrity has such a different threshold and definition than it used to. Today it mostly smacks of sensation rather than aspiration. It's that latter quality that is more synonymous with care and connoisseurship required for something more than an occasional "look". I don’t really expect to find good style in mass media anymore. Wouldn’t it be refreshing if that weren’t the case?

Now I’m off to order your book. And I can look forward to going home to “Charade” which I captured from TCM over the weekend.

Oh, and Green Irish Tweed and I go back a long way.

[Cufflink79]

[quote="E. Tage Larsen"]- Years of acrobatics had over-developed Grant’s neck. Measuring 17 ½ inches, his “fat neck” was the cause of initial dismissal by the studios. He quickly moved to custom shirts with a high collar and often wore an ascot to disguise his neck.


My 17 1/2 neck just came from years of getting bigger . Can't wait to buy the book. Will there be a good deal of photos in the book?

Best Regards,

Cufflink79

[richt]

Dear Richt,

Is it that Andre Benjamin 3000 has good style or a good stylist? I don't know much about him other than a few GQ-type spreads that are always raving. In the little I’ve seen of him he’s always come across as a more of a construct than casual.

I agree with TVD. Celebrity has such a different threshold and definition than it used to. Today it mostly smacks of sensation rather than aspiration. It's that latter quality that is more synonymous with care and connoisseurship required for something more than an occasional "look". I don’t really expect to find good style in mass media anymore. Wouldn’t it be refreshing if that weren’t the case?

Now I’m off to order your book. And I can look forward to going home to “Charade” which I captured from TCM over the weekend.


Oh, and Green Irish Tweed and I go back a long way.

Andre's the real deal. He's into clothes, very knowledgeable and "makes his own." You might like everything he wears, but he at least he has the passion and he's quite the innovator. But I agree. Sometimes he looks a little too pat, a little too manufactured. He's still learning.

And I think the posts saying that celebrity is antithetical or detrimental to style is quite right. Today's stars use it as an attention-getting device. Something CG would abhor. Here's a favorite quote from The Man uttered in the 1950s that isn't in the book but it's one of my favorites. See if you agree with it. "The role of the male is to serve as an unobtrusive background for the eye-arresting splendour of his companion. All it takes are a few simple outfits. And there's one secret--the simpler the better."

P.S. I had no idea Green Irish Tweed was so popular. Now we all smell alike

[richt]

- Years of acrobatics had over-developed Grant’s neck. Measuring 17 ½ inches, his “fat neck” was the cause of initial dismissal by the studios. He quickly moved to custom shirts with a high collar and often wore an ascot to disguise his neck.


My 17 1/2 neck just came from years of getting bigger . Can't wait to buy the book. Will there be a good deal of photos in the book?

Best Regards,

Cufflink79

Ha! Good one about the neck. Recently, a friend asked me for a CG style tip. I told him to lose ten pounds. He did not haul off an belt me for some reason. But it's true. He had gained a few pounds and his clothes had that "just about to bust" look to them. If he shed some weight, it wouldn't matter what he chose to wear, he'd look markedly better.

Chock-full of photos. Over 100. Some rare, some never before published.

[E. Tage Larsen]

Ah, if only losing a little weight could make us all look a little more like CG. I could get off the Creed-feed and stop contemplating "lifts".

Richt, a question that perhaps you'll know from your research: that talking tour Grant did in the late 70s ( I forget the exact date, perhaps early 80s) was that ever audio recorded for posterity?

[richt]

Ah, if only losing a little weight could make us all look a little more like CG. I could get off the Creed-feed and stop contemplating "lifts".

Richt, a question that perhaps you'll know from your research: that talking tour Grant did in the late 70s ( I forget the exact date, perhaps early 80s) was that ever audio recorded for posterity?

Good question. The speaking tour was from about 1982 until he died in 1986 but he wouldn't allow any recordings or tapings, so there's nothing. What a pity! I think the reason was he didn't want any 'bootlegs' floating around, especially of a performance he didn't like. And I think he just wanted to relax, not have to worry about it being scrutinized years later or being questioned over and over again about something he said.

However, I can't help wondering if there's someone out there who snuck in a tape recorder and captured one of these Evenings for posterity.

He played mostly small venues in small towns. In fact, I interviewed a gent here in San Diego who saw him at the Spreckles Theatre and he said that CG was just marvelous.

[Alan]

However, I can't help wondering if there's someone out there who snuck in a tape recorder and captured one of these Evenings for posterity.

I find it hard to imagine that someone didn't record something at some point.

[richt]

We talked about CG's taste in scents. Green Irish Tweed by Creed and New Mown Hay by Floris were his favorites.

But I just talked to somebody at Acqua di Parma claiming that CG wore this scent, too. Anybody know anything about this? Or any opinions on the cologne itself?

[whittaker]

If you liked the excerpt, I think you'll like the book even more. Not a sales pitch. But a sincere observation because the book contains a lot of sartorial/style information that I think has never really been explored concerning CG, just the kind of thing you gents would appreciate.

Thank you, Richt. It is a really fine book. My copy arrived on Friday and had it's first reading over the weekend. The photographs are exceptional.

[Hartline]

Rich,

I’m just working my way through the book now. So far, it looks great.

One question. On page 25 in second full paragraph, you write that the suit in North by Northwest (1959) was made by Kilgour. During the scene in hotel room at the Ambassador East, when Grant takes off his coat (“a lot in twenty minutes”), one can see the maker’s label, but I can’t quite make it out. It does not quite look like Kilgour’s. How did come across that fact that it was Kilgour? Did you see any original documents to back it up?

Thanks.

[E. Tage Larsen]

Perhaps Kilgour just fitted George Kaplan?

[TCN]

I always wondered why Cary sported a scarf early on in "To Catch a Thief".

I just returned from my tailor, where after losing about 20 pounds, I had to have a soft tweed Martin Greenfield suit (that was too tight about a year ago) taken in a bit. At the risk of being thought vain, there are few nicer things than having your tailor gather some fabric in the waist of your jacket and comment something to the effect of "I think that's better don't you?".

-Theo.

[Phil]

P.S. I had no idea Green Irish Tweed was so popular. Now we all smell alike

I know, first we all dressed alike and now this! Egads!