Figure 1.--Here we see Henry with his first girl friend. He wears a traditionally styled sailor suit. Note the streamer on his sailor hat.

The film was an elaborate costume drama and shot in hard to get color film during World war II. The adult costumes were reasonably accurate. I'm less sure about the children's costumes--although a real effort was made. There seem to have been some errors in the details. I have seen the film, but do not remember the costuming well. The time frame for these stills is I think the 1880s. A HBC reader believes it is more the 1890s. He may well be correct. The clothing depicted I think would be more accurate for the 1890s than the 1880s. The different boys and different periods provide a range of period costumes.

Henry as a Boy

The type of sailor hat Henry is wearing seems more of a 1890s style. The cuff detailing probably should have had two rather than three stripes. The sarve worn with the sailor suit also seems rather larger, but HBC has no information at this time detailing appropriate sizes. At first I thought the the suit was was a maroon velvet and that it had been coordinated with a maroon scarve. Most sailor scarves were black or navy blue , but perhaps fancy velvet ones might have been maroon. I'm not sure how common it was to coordinate the color of the scarve. Almost always the scarve was a traditional black. HBC's film expert believes that the suit was actually dark blue with a red scarve. HBC is unsure about the red scarve. I think black was more common, but there may have been red scarves. Because red shows as a dark color in black and white photographs, it is very difficicult to assess how common it was using actualmold photographs. Perhaps it was the decession of the costume designer to add a little color to the boy's costume to liven up the color film--still a novelty in 1943.

Henry as a Teenager

Dickie Moore was a popular boy actor of the late 1930s, but by 1943 he was a growing teenager and eager to move away from boy roles. He was, however, having a harder time finding parts. Thus he was happy to be in a major part, but didn't at all like his costume. Dickie reportedly hated wearing kneepants. In his role as Henry Van Cleve (at the age of 15) the boy is kept in knee pants against his will and complains about it. In this still we seet Dickie Moore wearing a brown tweed knee pants suit with brown long stockings. A reader writes, "Although this costuming makes an effort to be accurate, it is probably inaccurate for the period (the 1890s) when New York boys in knee pants suits more commonly wore black long stockings, not brown."

Albert

We first see Albert at age 15 as a supercillious teenager. We do not know what he wore as a boy. As a teenager Albert wears a double-breasted blue knee-pants suit with matching blue stockings, a derby hat, a white shirt with bow tie, and hightop boots. The blue stockings (pale blue!) are very inaccurate, historically. There wre colored long stockings in the late 19th century, but it is unlikely that a teenager would have worn them. Black or at least dark long stockings were much more common. Unfortunately the black and white photography of the day makes it impossible to assess the many portraits archived on HBC.

Jack

Henry's son Jack briefly appears at the end of the film. He appears in one scene as a child of about 10 years. I think the period is the early 1920s. He wears a brown Norfolk style suit with knickers, tan kneesocks, and high top shoes. The material looks like velvet, but I think a suit in this style swould be more likely to be made in corduroy. Jack wears a bow instead of a tie and a small white collar. The suit is the collar buttoning style, not the more modern style with lapels. That does not look right to me for the 1920s or even the 1910s. If Jack is set in the 1900s the jacket style might be correct, but then I think he would be more likely to wear kneepants and long stiockings.

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Created: 4:08 AM 10/25/2005
Last updated: 6:39 PM 10/26/2005