Real Fifties Style: Peter Gunn

One day last October I was walking down Madison Avenue wearing a light grey worsted-suit, a white Thom Browne/Brooks oxford button-down shirt, a black Italian-knit silk tie and black cap-toes. I bumped into a young man, a travel agent who used to work on my staff, who remarked how "Mad Men" my "outfit" looked.

It took me a moment to realize that he was referring to the TV show, Mad Men, about a Fifties' era ad agency. Wearing grey, white and black was a perfectly regular thing for me to do. It wasn't my Halloween outfit as he may have thought.

I mention this, because it came to mind as I began watching old episodes of the noir detective show Peter Gunn (1958-1960) on Netflix. If you want to see what the really cool Fifties looked and sounded like, then watch Craig Stevens portraying Blake Edwards's alter-ego private eye and listen to its jazz track.

If you're put off by the idea that Henry Mancini created the soundtrack, you're making a mistake. This isn't the Moon River Mancini; this is the one who listened to a lot of classic jazz and softened it up just a bit for TV, but not much. You can sample it on Peter Gunn/Buddha Records 1990. You should recognize the Peter Gunn opening theme no matter what your age.

If Stevens's Pete and Mancini's jazz are on the cool side, you will find Edie, Gunn's love interest, played by Lola Albright hot. She is hot the old fashioned way, by not trying too hard. Even better, she can sing, as she does at Mother's, Gunn's favorite jazz club hangout. We're still searching for Lola Albright's recordings, but here's a sample: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=S4jFd0XYYb0

A lot of ingredients conspire to make this show seem authentic today and not just nostalgia; the principle one being that Gunn's "wardrobe" never looked like one and still doesn't. He's a Cary Grant-type, who might not call his mom every day. The style holds up today as well or even better than it did fifty years ago. He wears suits in varying shades of grey, always with a white shirt and a solid black tie, tucked in at the beltline. His suit coat shows just the white edge of his pocket square. The trousers are rarely held up by a belt; instead, Gunn favors a tab close and wears them high, as if with braces (which he would never be caught shot dead or alive wearing).

If you grew up in the Fifties, the black and white film will add to the show's natural feel. That's how our youth looks to us, at least through the Beatles' It's A Hard Day's Night. Shows like Mad Men simply do not feel right to us. Their washed color looks as if Ted Tuner had gotten hold of it in his colorization lab, or about as real as Beatle Paul's latest hair color. Our kids can tell us a million times that the world had color back then, but, if you're smart, you won't listen to them.

Peter Gunn's plots are simple and somewhat repetitive. There are many killings, but no gore. There is much implicit-only sex between Pete and Edie, yet somehow even it seems more real and better than the current fake steaminess that surrounds us on TV today. Blake Edwards's dialogue is spare and at times borders on the campy, especially when Herschel Bernardi's Lt. Jacoby speaks. It works just fine.

Watching these shows, one is tempted to think that it would be great to have an updated version of the show or, perhaps, a feature film. Upon reflection, however, it would be much better to simply leave it alone. Investing $100million or so in a film, with a track by Jay-Z, starring actors who would only be vague impersonations of Pete and Edie, is a very depressing thought.

Please don't forward this to any Producer friends.



http://www.museum.tv/eotvsection.php?entrycode=petergunn

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Peter_Gunn

Winter Olympics: Gold At Albertville, '92

Thankfully, I have only taken one police-administered breath-a-lizer test in my life. This happened in France in January 1992. I had driven up to Courcheval 1650 from Albertville, and toured what would become our group's Olympic home one month later, the Hotel du Golf. Naturellement, I lunched outside in the sun with Henri, the hotel's owner. It is my recollection that we sampled some local beaujulais, which Henri cooled in the snow.  The yellow scarf pictured above witnessed the whole thing.

I wanted to return to Albertville before dark, because I was inexperienced at driving those vertical roads with their constant twists and turns. I had only begun to learn the art of alpine driving, having negotiated sleet and fog coming up to Albertville from Lyons.

I remember little about that first descent, except that it was wonderful to come down through the pretty towns, like Moutiers, below Courcheval. But, exiting one of the the last sharp turns I ran into du lineup gendarmes: a surprise alcohol level test.  This is great, I remember thinking: big time corporate events leader arrested in France on a DWI. That would make a nice pre-Olympic headline.

But, Friends, this was pre- Olympic France. I do not know what my score was that day, but they did not retain me or even scold me. I had a gold in my first Albertville event.

Later, my Olympic job became Chief Driver, since all of the Renault Espace vans had standard shifts located on the column. I was one of very few who could drive them, making many trips to and from the airport in Lyons and the train station in Moutiers, not to mention Albertville itself.

One sunny afternoon, my colleague John and I watched hockey in Meribel. Afterwards, we stationed ourselves at a bistro, where we could watch the ski-jumpers high above us across the road and sip our wine. 

When we got back up to Courcheval, I realized that I had left my yellow scarf in the bistro, and John wanted me to go right back and retrieve it. Instead, I said we'd try the next day. This was typical of our respective working styles. John, a former army Colonel and MP never left anything undone or unplanned. My somewhat looser system could annoy him, but he had slowly come to trust me anyway.

Late the next day, on our way to watch the ski-jump finals in Meribel, I stopped by the bistro, made my way through the crowded tables filled with attractive brightly-clad skiers and spectators. There, hanging on its peg, exactly where I had left it, was my scarf.

As we crossed the road, John just gave me one of his looks and a slight shake of his head, amazed that  nobody had walked off with the scarf. 

I had won my second gold at Albertville.

Note: for a look at the trois valees area above Albertville, please go to:  http://www.courchevel.com/img/plans/plan_pistes3v.pdf

Little Black Dress

Before making light,

God cut

a piece

out of the charcoal night.

held it

in one hand

and waited.

When the sun

had grown

white hot,

God shook the 

dark form,

and beheld:

the little

black dress.

Then God 

looked about

for tan shoulders

on which to

perfectly drape it.

The rest

is herstory.

For Ingrid Michaelson

Copyright 2009/TW McDermott

Five Do's

RareBurghers have been known to:

....Wear one brown shoe and one black for informal wear or business casual, provided that they are the same shoe, just different colors. Subtilely done, others may not even notice, but it will still feel just right.

....Also wear laces that are a complimentary color to a pair of shoes: black/brown and brown/black are the most obvious combinations, but some of us could do blue on black as well.

....Always wear a dark trouser shade for business settings, even when going casual. They know that charcoal grey or dark wash blue jeans are best (when the latter are appropriate). Khakis or "suntans" are for weekends and/or the country. Pre-faded blue jeans are not for business, unless you are Mr. Lauren or work for him. Actually, pre-faded jeans are not for anything; fade your own.

....Have a black and or navy knitted tie in the closet or rolled and kept in a round tin or box. They will have been made in Italy, and, very often, come to a point at the wide end.

....Always pack a blazer or similar coat and at least one tie (that black or navy knit is a good bet), when traveling for a week or longer. This is true no matter what the destination or purpose of the trip. You may be invited to a special place, because you're the type that naturally packs these essentials .

Five Never Do's

RareBurghers never:

.... Allow either a bright or dingy white tee-shirt to show at the collar. If you must leave a tee-shirt collar showing, make it black, grey or navy.

....Chew gum. The only possible exceptions would be: while wearing a uniform in a dugout, on a long road trip with children, or during take-off or landing.

....Wear a white broadcloth straight-collared shirt with a tweed sport-coat. Also, never wear gold or silver cufflinks with that coat: cuff knots will work better.

....Try wearing short pant cuffs and suit coat, with no socks and oxford shoes; that is for Thom Browne  school days, not for men.

.... Ditto baseball caps. The only possible exceptions would be: in the same dugout as the gum, on the beach, on the course or court. Maybe.

Shoes To Be Wounded For

Some of us are shirt men, others may have a particular thing for ties. I am a shoe man.

I look for the perfect pair of shoes like a poet looks for the right word, and, just like that poet, I fail most of the time.

I bought the shoes shown above at Prada's shop on Fifth Avenue during a lunchtime stroll. No, I am not a "Prada Guy;" I had never purchased anything there before and have never done so since. Some men of a certain age have their Harleys, I had these shoes.

To be honest, I bought two pairs of shoes that day: one brown, one black. Same cap-toe on both, but the black pair was a more formal shoe, almost patent-shiny, with beautifully sculpted lines. But, we are not speaking of that black shoe today.

The leather used to make my brown cap-toe shoe is glove-soft, as long as that glove had been made in Italy and sold in a tiny shop in a narrow alley in Milan. The softness of this leather would make men weep as they might over Gisele's thigh, Kate's pout or Federer's backhand.

I had spied these shoes on a previous stroll and thought about them in the same way that Proust must have thought about his madeleine. This happens frequently to me when I see certain shoes.

But, as with many love affairs, this one was troubled almost from the start, since these are not comfortable shoes, at least not for me. To begin with, I have a high arch and a short, wide foot, usually size 42 or 8.5-9 E. Also, my left foot is slightly shorter than my right to match my left leg which is a touch shorter than my right.

You can see my shoe problem immediately, particularly since I am not in a Lobb tax bracket. 

I have tried various inserts in these shoes. I have tried wearing them with no socks as if they were moccasins, but I cannot pull off the Thom Browne look (few, if any, can). When I wear the shoes into the city for a whole day, my feet (especially my left) ache by day's end. The shoe is so flat, accommodating the special Prada rubber sole, that it is almost completely impractical for me to wear.

You might think that I'm sorry to have ever bought the shoes. You would be wrong. I look at these shoes in my closet with the same eyes with which I look at a Rothko painting or a Noguchi sculpture in a museum. I feel certain that one day Paola Antonelli will display them in her MOMA collection.

There are inexplicable things we do in life and,  no matter how hard we try to correct certain tendencies, we seem incapable of doing so. We fall for the wrong girl, take the wrong job and leave home without our umbrella. 

There are more beautiful shoes like these in my future that will hurt me for wearing them.

I do not care. 

How Do you Know You're a RareBurgher?

You know that you're a RareBurgher, when you:

• Think that a Cougar is a large cat or was a mediocre type of Mercury sedan.
• You have Gen/Digital kids, but you are Gen/Gidgetal.
• Believe that you will see a World Series day game on Fox some day.
• Tried wearing jeans with your shirttail hanging out and running shoes to the office, but you just looked like your son on his way to high school.
• Remember when you didn't know the name of a single model in the Vogues you secretly borrowed from your sister, but liked them anyway.
• Were so insulted when they carded you at a ballgame that you entirely forgot to be insulted by having to pay $9 for a small cup of watery beer.
• Realize that Ronald Reagan has finally become a centrist moderate Republican, while dead, compared to most living Republicans.
• Bumped into a young guy who used to work for you, who thought you were dressed as Madmen character for Halloween, because you wore your favorite 15 year-old Italian black knit tie that comes to a point at its end.
• Actually found old duck feathers in the zippered hip pouch of your Barbour Beaufort coat.
• Consider that Brooks Brothers might have become JCrew, if it had been run by a guy named Mickey, but that they can't even really be Brooks Brothers anymore.
• Think Vineyard Vines is where you shared a joint with Dan Hicks & His Hot Licks in Valley of the Moon, Sonoma, 1969.
• Your style is original, not flash, and certainly not eccentric, and you're okay with being taken for a grown man and not a man trying to look like a boy.
• Understand that a baseball cap and its cousins belong only at a ballgame.
• Ditto for the chewing gum.
• Have read to this point, understand, and still think you'll be okay.