So, I was under the impression that the whole riding boots, jodhpurs, cap/beret, look was DeMille's. I was aided in this assumption by lines from DeMille bios stating things like, "In his trademark leather puttees and jodhpurs..." But now, looking at this picture, it seems that either 1)everyone who worked on a movie set wore this combo, this kind of movie-making uniform, if you will, 2)DeMille liked it so much he demanded anyone who worked with him wear the same thing, which seems unlikely because then he wouldn't stand out or 3) everyone just wanted to be like C.B.
Of course, other photos of other directors...
...lend support to the beret/cap being, at the very least, a part of some required director's uniform. But did it come from DeMille or just that everyone on a movie set in the twenties wore them and he was the only one remembered for it? Were you given a dress code violation for not wearing one, or for wearing a baseball cap or fedora instead? And, finally, did the studios provide them or did you have to buy your own?
So many questions, so few answers. All I know is, when I become a big time director, I'm bringing back the Fellini/Frankenheimer look. The beret thing's been so done, you know? Besides, all these years later and still no one does it better than DeMille.
13 comments:
I agree that the Beret makes the Director...new law, you must wear a beret when directing.
Oh and megaphone, that's a must.
But Pax, I'm not going to wear the beret. I like the little tied up cowboy hat thingy that Fellini and Frankenheimer wore. Once I start wearing that, no one will ever do the beret again.
It just occurred to me, I should've put up a pic of John Wayne from Green Berets since he co-directed that and did, throughout, wear a beret. I wonder if Ray Kellogg wore one too.
My introduction to the CB style was Rita Moreno playing an over-the-top director in the Electric Company. I remember thinking she was a mean, grouchy lady. I need to dig up a clip of that.
Ha, I remember that too but totally forgot until this moment! I'm going to check a clip of old Rita as the director too. I'm sure it's on YouTube somewhere.
Amazingly, only one of them looks like a title jackass. Unamazingly, it's Barbra Streisand.
Shhhh, she's thinking.
About what, fer Chrissake??
You know, artsy stuff.
"Title jackass"??? I swear to God, I think there's something wrong with my brain.
I ignored the typo and imagined you meant "title" as in "Title Holder," you know, like "The Champion Jackass." And in that way, it kind of worked.
By the way, I think 10 combined comments (now 11) from four people is more than one could expect from a post about C.B. DeMille's hatwear. I'm going to put this one in the "win" column and move onto something else.
These aren't all berets, of course. But I've always thought that the only filmmaker who had the artistic chops to join Picasso in the head-wear hierarchy of berets was Bergman. The filmmaker's beret ought to be retired--like a ballplayer's number-- in honor of his extraordinary contribution to cinema. And the fact that he was badass enough to put it to use scoring chicks like Liv Ullmann.
No, they're a mix, which is why I wrote "beret/cap" there. In fact, I think the majority are caps and I'd agree, Bergman pulls it off the best of them all. It looks natural on him.
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