Figure 1.--Child actress, Charlene Wyatt made her film debut in Paramount's "Arizona Mahoney" in which Billy Lee also appears. But well before the film's release, the two kids who met on the set first appeared together hand in hand for a few publicity photos in time for Easter 1935. Billy would have been about 6 years old. |
We only have limited information at this time as to the clothes Billy Lee normally wore when not in costume. Most available images of child stars at the time almost always show them wearing smart outfits, if not suits at least smartly turned out casual outfits. We have noted him wearing sailor suits, a variety of suits, and some casual clothes popular in thge 1930s. He also had a favorite cap with a red button on it. Somewhat uncharacteristically for child stars at the time, we apparently wore overalls as a small boy at home in Indiana.
When he was 8 years old, Billy had a favorite cap he'd wear which had a red button on top. When asked in an interview for Photoplay Magazine about his cap, (refered to as a skull cap by interviewer, Sara Hamilton), she asked particularly about the red button. Billy explained, "It's my tail-light. I don't want anything to run into me."
Billy like many child stars in the 1920s and 30s wore sailaor suits as a boy.
One early photographic showed him wearing a little boy Easter suit with some similarities to an Eton suit. The lapeless jacket had only one button. I'm not sure what color it was. It was worn with matching short pants and an open-collared shirt.
A subsequent studio photograph shows Billy Lee at about 7-8 years of age in a light-colored double breasted short pants suit. Stangely he wears it with a sailor shirt. He looks to be wearing short socks rather than kneesocks.
Figure 2.--Billy is seen here at home in Indiana wearing overalls. At 3-years of age he reportedly liked to fish and could bait his on home hook. |
Most avaialable photographs of child stars in Hollywood's Golden era out of costume show them in smartly dressed in suits or a variety of always immaculate semi-formal casual outfits. Rarely were the children photographed in rather sloppy outfits like overalls. Billy was photographed in overalls while at home in Indiana before shooting Waggon Wheels, in first big film. He was 3-years old.
Joseph
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