Dorothy Sayers on Aspects of Masculine Attire

[Sunny]

I didn't get the idea that Tallboy was a terrible snob. Smayle got the impression he was lording it over by virtue of going to "Dumbleton," but I don't recall Tallboy himself saying anything about it. It was Ingleby who said "Dumbleton isn't a public school, within the meaning of the act." Lord Peter made a couple comments about Rugby, Winchester, and Marlborough, but it was simply a lighthearted back-and-forth with Ingleby.

That said, Tallboy was quite angry and in a very bad mood (strong men in the heat of battle saying things they oughtn't, etc.) and your comments did show me a snobbery I hadn't quite picked up on. Primarily because it's shown at secondhand, as evidenced here:

'Well,' said Smayle, 'Tallboy always says that Dumbleton is a public school.'

'I daresay it is - in the sense that it has a Board of Governors,' said Ingleby, 'but it's nothing to be snobbish about.'

'What is, if you come to that?' said Bredon [Lord Peter]. 'Look here, Smayle, if only you people could get it out of your heads that these things matter a damn, you'd be a darn sight happier. You probably got a fifty times better education than I ever did.'

Mr Smayle shook his head. 'Oh, no,' he said. 'I'm not deceiving myself about that, and I'd give anything to have had the same opportunities as you. There's a difference, and I know there's a difference, and I don't mind admitting it. But what I mean is some people make you feel it and others don't. [Meaning Tallboy makes him feel conscious of the difference.] I don't feel it when I'm talking to either of you, or to Mr Armstrong or Mr Hankin, though you've been to Oxford and Cambridge and all that. Perhaps it's just because you've been to Oxford and Cambridge.'

He struggled with the problem, embarrassing the other two men by his wistful eyes.

'Look here,' said Miss Meteyard, 'I know what you mean. But it's just that these two here never think twice about it. They don't have to. And you don't have to, either. But the minute anybody begins to worry about whether he's as good as the next man, then he starts a sort of uneasy snobbish feeling and makes himself offensive.'​

I had to include Miss Meteyard's comment, first simply because I like her a lot, and second because it's a neat comment.

Thanks for pointing that out, Baron. I wasn't as aware of Tallboy's attempts to better his office standing like that.

 

[Baron Kurtz]

In the film (Carmichael) version the lines about Dumbleton not really being a public school are, if i remember aright, put into Wimsey's mouth. And tallboy certainly comes across as a total snob.

bk

 

[Sunny]

Aha, I haven't seen the films. That is good to know.

 

[Sunny]

As promised, more cricket-playing wear:

Pym's Publicity (for whom Wimsey/Bredon is working) and Brotherhood's are having a cricket match.

From the pavilion overlooking the spacious cricket-field floated superbly a crimson flag, embroidered with the Brotherhood trade-mark of two clasped hangs. The same device adorned the crimson blazers and caps of Brotherhood's cricket eleven. By contrast, the eleven advertising cricketers were but a poor advertisement for themselves. Mr Bredon [Lord Peter] was, indeed, a bright spot on the landscape, for his flannels were faultless, while his Balliol blazer, though ancient, carried with it an air of authenticity. Mr Ingleby also was correct, though a trifle shabby. Mr Hankin, beautifully laundered, had rather spoilt his general effect by a brown felt hat, while Mr Tallboy, irreproachable in other respects, had an unfortunate tendency to come apart at the waist, for which his tailor and his shirt-maker were, no doubt, jointly responsible. The dress of the remainder varied in combining white flannels with brown shoes, tweed coats with white linen hats, down to the disgraceful exhibition of Mr Miller, who, disdaining to put himself out for a mere game, affronted the sight in grey flannel trousers, a striped shirt and braces.​

By the way, Baron, I have a couple OTR "Suspense" episodes from the 1940s which adapted two of Sayers' stories: One Lord Peter ("The Cave of Ali Baba") and another, "The Fountain Played." Would you or anyone else be interested in hearing a much-earlier audio adaptation?

 

[Baron Kurtz]

I'd be interested, but what does OTR mean?

bk

 

[Sunny]

My apologies - Old Time Radio.

 

[BegintheBeguine]

We're interested too, Sunny. By the way, we just finished listening to a book on CD read by my favorite small screen Wimsey, Edward Petherbridge.

 

[Sunny]

We're interested too, Sunny. By the way, we just finished listening to a book on CD read by my favorite small screen Wimsey, Edward Petherbridge.

Interesting! I really must get around to seeing these some day. All I've done is read the books. Again and again and...

Here are the two Sayers-written stories that I've found so far. Twenty years of episodes - I haven't listened to them all yet.

"The Cave of Ali Baba," a Lord Peter Wimsey story - August 19, 1942

"The Fountain Plays," November 23, 1944

Suspense was a radio series that began in 1942 and ran for twenty years. Each episode was a self-contained story, some by well-known authors and adapted for radio, and some written especially for radio. They ranged from adventure to mystery to horror, with occasional humorous or science fiction stories, but always suspenseful.

It's one of the few series that nearly always had a film star or two in each episode. Unusual stars, too. Some, like Cary Grant, made lots of radio appearances, but most (Edward G. Robinson? Frederic March? Merle Oberon?) seem to have done very little radio work. Two featured "the up-and-coming young actor, Gene Kelly" - as a rather unpleasant gangster type. That was a brain-bender.

 

[BegintheBeguine]

Thanks, Sunny. When I read it was on 'Suspense' I knew it would be good. Love that show.

 

[Sunny]

I've moved on to Unnatural Death. Back, that is, since it is set in 1927.

Lord Peter is planning an incog. visit to a registered nurse.

...Lord Peter hung up, whistling cheerfully, and called for Bunter.

"My lord?"

"What is the proper suit to put on, Bunter, when one is an expectant father?"

"I regret, my lord, to have seen no recent fashions in paternity wear. I should say, my lord, whichever suit your lordship fancies will induce a calm and cheerful frame of mind in the lady."

"Unfortunately I don't know the lady. She is, in fact, only the figment of an over-teeming brain. But I think the garments should express bright hope, self-congratulations, and a tinge of tender anxiety."

"A newly married situation, my lord, I take it. Then I would suggest the lounge suit in pale grey--the willow-pussy cloth, my lord--with a dull amethyst tie and socks and a soft hat. I would not recommend a bowler, my lord. The anxiety expressed in a bowler hat would be rather of the financial kind."

"No doubt you are right, Bunter. And I will wear those gloves that got so unfortunately soiled yesterday at Charing Cross. I am too agitated to worry about a clean pair."

"Very good, my lord."

"No stick, perhaps."

"Subject to your lordship's better judgment, I should suggest that a stick may be suitably handled to express emotion."

"You are always right, Bunter. Call me a taxi, and tell the man to drive to Tooting."​

What is a lounge suit, and what is willow-pussy cloth? Sounds soft and plush and grey, but is there a real definition?

I like the idea of different anxieties being expressed through one's headwear.

 

[Orgetorix]

The lounge suit is just what we refer to as a suit, nowadays.

Willow-pussy cloth, I don't know. It could be referring to a color, or a texture. Light grey flannel is what it suggests to me.

 

[Anthony Jordan]

Yes, pussy-willow suggests soft handle to me.