Figure 1.-- The main character in 'The Magnificent Ambersons' is George, know as Georgie as a child. He is pictured as a child of 9 years of age in two fancy outfits, overdressed by his doting mother Isabel. He is the spoiled son of the town's wealthy family. Here he wears a Fauntleroy suit. This was some of the most elaborate costuming of late 19th Century boys wear pictured in any Hollywood film.

The main character in 'The Magnificent Ambersons' is George, know as Georgie as a child. He is pictured as a child of 9 years of age in two fancy outfits, overdressed by his doting mother Isabel. He is the spoiled son of the town's wealthy family. We first see him in a dark (it does not seem to be black) velvet Fauntlroy suit and a wide-brimmed sailor hat. He wears white long stockings with with supporters. low-cut. He has low cut, but not strap shoes. They are rther like dancing slippers. We next see him in an even more elaborate outfit, a Fauntleroy kilt suit with lace collar and cuffs. The kilt is a plaid than usually worn with kilt suits. There is no sporan or other kilt acoutaments. The cap seems to some time tam. He has dark rather than white long stockings. He also wears high-top shoes which were very common at the time. And he has a cane. We see him with his hair in long ringlet curls. This was some of the most elaborate costuming of late 19th Century boys wear pictured in any Hollywood film. It was also one of the few major productions showing a boy in long ringlet curls.

Tarkington provides the following description in his novel:

At the age of nine, George Amberson Minafer, the Major's one grandchild, was a princely terror, dreaded not only in Amberson Addition but in many other quarters through which he galloped on his white pony. "By golly, I guess you think you own this town!" an embittered labourer complained, one day, as Georgie rode the pony straight through a pile of sand the man was sieving. "I will when I grow up," the undisturbed child replied. "I guess my grandpa owns it now, you bet!" And the baffled workman, having no means to controvert what seemed a mere exaggeration of the facts, could only mutter "Oh, pull down your vest!"

"Don't haf to! Doctor says it ain't healthy!" the boy returned promptly. "But I tell you what I'll do: I'll pull down my vest if you'll wipe off your chin!"

This was stock and stencil: the accustomed argot of street badinage of the period; and in such matters Georgie was an expert. He had no vest to pull down; the incongruous fact was that a fringed sash girdled the juncture of his velvet blouse and breeches, for the Fauntleroy period had set in, and Georgie's mother had so poor an eye for appropriate things, where Georgie was concerned, that she dressed him according to the doctrine of that school in boy decoration. Not only did he wear a silk sash, and silk stockings, and a broad lace collar, with his little black velvet suit: he had long brown curls, and often came home with burrs in them. [Tarkington]

Sources

Tarkington, Booth. The Magnificent Ambersons (Doubleday, Page & Company, 1918).

Created: 7:28 PM 1/11/2012
Last updated: 7:28 PM 1/11/2012