Fonzie's Jacket No Longer On Display At Smithsonian

[AtomicEraTom]

The final seasons were so ungodly poor, it's not even funny. I don't know how they got that far from the earlier seasons.

Happy Days WAS a great show. The best episodes were in the first two seasons. The third, maybe fourth season it was okay. The last years it was barely recognizable. I think if they would have stayed on the original concept of a show about a teenage boy and his friends growing up in the fifties and not gone too many seasons, it would have left a more lasting legacy. Fonzie was cool the first couple seasons, but when they made him into some kind of superhero it went downhill. "Jumping the shark" is a phrase that started with Happy Days going too far. Other bad episodes included the devil coming to Arnold's to take Fonzies' soul and Mork from Ork coming to Arnold's to take a human back to his planet.

 

[Forrest]

The National Museum of American History has gone through a massive renovation, and while it is open to the public, some exhibition spaces are still not complete, including the popular culture wing. Therefore, what is currently on view from the pop culture collection is just a tiny fraction of their holdings. I would imagine that in another year or two, the permanent installation will be complete. There are a lot of very popular items that have not been on view for several years.

 

[V.C. Brunswick]

Of course Henry Winkler had previously worn a leather jacket in The Lords of Flatbush

Also Fonzie's motorcycle, a Triumph T-100, was the very same one used by Steve McQueen in The Great Escape. It was owned by stuntman Bud Elkin who did the barbed wire jump in the movie.

 

[AtomicEraTom]

It always bugged me that Fonzie didn't ride a Harley, especially since he lived in Milwaukee on the show.

 

[Stearmen]

Also Fonzie's motorcycle, a Triumph T-100, was the very same one used by Steve McQueen in The Great Escape. It was owned by stuntman Bud Elkin who did the barbed wire jump in the movie.

A no! The Great Escape motorcycle was a 1962 Triumph TR6 Trophy. Fonzie was on a 1949 TR5, both were owned by Bud Ekins.

 

[Stearmen]

Love American Style

Lets not forget, Happy Days was it self a spin off! Only a couple of correctors made it from the pilot. No Fonzie, and Richie was wearing a black leather jacket! Watch the end of part two, some one did some really creative editing to the TV picture, very funny. [video=youtube;fhFDkatc-e4]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=fhFDkatc-e4&feature=relmfu[/video] [video=youtube;XYBHDv6YtPM]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=XYBHDv6YtPM [/video]

 

[Edward]

Happy Days WAS a great show. The best episodes were in the first two seasons. The third, maybe fourth season it was okay. The last years it was barely recognizable. I think if they would have stayed on the original concept of a show about a teenage boy and his friends growing up in the fifties and not gone too many seasons, it would have left a more lasting legacy. Fonzie was cool the first couple seasons, but when they made him into some kind of superhero it went downhill. "Jumping the shark" is a phrase that started with Happy Days going too far. Other bad episodes included the devil coming to Arnold's to take Fonzies' soul and Mork from Ork coming to Arnold's to take a human back to his planet.

I'd like to rewatch them all. It did seem to me that they just couldn't let it go when they should (a common malaise in US sitcoms, alas). It was when they lost the original family unit with Richie being married and all that, and they went on into the Sixties, that I think it really turned into something else.

The first season the Fonz didn't wear a leather jacket. He had one of those cotton poplar jackets. And he was a minor character.

In season two they gave him a brown leather jacket for (one of) the same reasons that Indiana Jones was given a brown jacket - because black leather was deemed to be too severe for a character that was meant to be likable.

I don't believe that was at issue with Doctor Jones, but it was certainly the case with Fonzie, backward as it seems now (in terms of being a 'bad boy', the character is laughably tame. Cool, but tame). I believe it was deliberate that they went with a brown so dark that in many shots it looked black. The network also stipulated that he was only ever seen wearing the leather jacket around his bike, which is why the writers had him appear on it so often, even riding the bike into Arnold's on at least one occasion I seem to recall (not sure whether that was a concious echo of the infamous bike-in-bar image staged by the press seeking to whip up the Hollister Incident into something back in 48...).

Interesting jacket. I saw it in the Smithsonian in June 2011, when I visited DC for the first time. Very Seventies in cut and design - the Aero Happy Days jacket is actually, IMO, considerably more accurate to the sort of jacket that Fonzies was supposed to be. Over here, his equivalent would have been wearing something more akin to the Highwayman.

The issue of price re the Happy Days jacket was mentioned above - it is more expensive than the A2s, yeah... I had always assumed this was partly due to it using (and thus requiring a machinist to work with) the much heavier FQHH as standard; also not sure if the standard lining is more expensive, and about inner pockets (none of those on an A2). I also suspect that the slash pockets involve a fair bit more work and skill than the A2s patch pockets. It's a shame, though, that Aero can't get their goat in black - I did always fancy a black, A2-style but with slash pockets in goat - goat is a great weight for the Summer.

The devil episode was a pilot for this short lived sitcom:
[video=youtube;m6UBPGfOZ1I]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=m6UBPGfOZ1I&feature=related[/video]

It was on Sunday evenings. I actually watched it.
And the very first Mork appearance was was the set up for Mork and Mindy. The second time Mork was on was after Mork and Mondy was a hit.

Looks like a rubbish-sitcom version of Highway to Heaven! I've never seen that before. I loved Mork and Mindy, though it definitely went downhill after they got married and had Mirth(?).

I don't think the Indy jacket had anything to do with brown being "nice". I think that's a tradition someone stuck to the narrative later on. I think it had more to do with the Indy jacket being a modified A2 with knits removed and a back flap to allow for the whip placement. In fact, all the pre-Ford auditions for Indy had the actors wear an A2.

Agreed. The head guy at Wested has, as I recollect, in the past claimed to have based the design on a James Dean jacket he already had in production at the time, though I can't see anything other than a de-knitted, lengthened A2 with action pleats??

Of course Henry Winkler had previously worn a leather jacket in The Lords of Flatbush

Never seen that: worth seeking out, or would it be another American Graffiti (very disappointed in that when I finally got to see it)?

It always bugged me that Fonzie didn't ride a Harley, especially since he lived in Milwaukee on the show.

As I recall, Harleys by the seventies had an appalling reputation and had fallen out of favour - maybe that influenced the choice? Also, Triumph was iconic on-screen by then... maybe a nod less to Hilts, more to Johnny Strabler, who famously rode a Triumph (to me much more iconic than even MacQueen's run in one).

 

[AtomicEraTom]

The AMF years did hurt Harley's reputation. Just seems like Milwaukee and Harley Davidson go hand in hand, but you never know what the boys out in Hollywood are gonna do.

As I recall, Harleys by the seventies had an appalling reputation and had fallen out of favour - maybe that influenced the choice? Also, Triumph was iconic on-screen by then... maybe a nod less to Hilts, more to Johnny Strabler, who famously rode a Triumph (to me much more iconic than even MacQueen's run in one).

 

[Deleted member 16736]

My dad went to Dewitt Clinton High School in the Bronx and was a classmate of Garry Marshall, who created the show and was the executive producer during its heyday. My dad said the Fonzie character was based on a "bad" guy who was a little older than the other kids and who hung around them and stood up for them when other bad guys picked on them. Sadly, the real Fonzie died young in a fight.

 

[HoosierDaddy]

I graduated from HS in 1965. Most of my friends rode Triumphs and BSAs with the occassional BMW..Norton..or rarer Royal Enfield..before the Jap bike flood took firm hold. Reason being..the HD Sportster was most often slightly outa reach for many hometown boys. I seem to remember a brand new Triumph/BSA price around $1200..where the new Sporty was over $1800. A used English bike could be found at a much better price than a used Sporty as well. That's back when the average 40 hr week payed maybe $60. We could be bad with a trump with megs. Of course a Sporty with straights was the ultimate bad ass back then in my part of the world...but you had to have the bucks.
HD

 

[rocketeer]

As an English Teddy Boy, Fonzie was considered very Un-Cool. Have to admit that I really fancied Erin Moran as she got into her mid teens.

American Graffiti: I remember this film coming out in 1972-3 and read about it in the pages of Street Rodder and Hot Rod magazine as I was into this sort of thing. A few years later in a similar magazine the film was credited with kick starting the American retro scene and resurgence in old time custom cars and that sort of thing. Quit a few old records got played at weddings at wedding etc, but old style cruising in cars had died out and performance cars were the in thing.
All this was a bit alien to us English as car ownership was not that common in the early 1960s and only those interested in hot rods and customs really had any idea what it[American Graffiti] was about.
In the following years old custom cars were unearthed, old style sock hops organised, new custom cars designed and built in the traditional manner rather than the show cars that were popular.
Later in the 1970s, we had weekenders that were originally Soul and RnR based, these morphed into the Hemsby Hep Cat weekenders which eventually crossed back to the USA bringing about the Viva Las Vegas weekenders.
I would imagine that there were a few people into old stuff in the 1970s US collecting clothing and bric a brac though I would think at that time they were considered a little eccentric , other than Teddy Boys who often surrounded themselves with old 1950s memorabilia, most of it was considered old junk.
The leather jacket look in the UK was usually black leather covered with lots of motorcycle badges and studs spelling out names of bikes or RnR hero's. Anyone wearing a jacket with knit cuffs would usually be referred to as a smoothie. Top Gun and Raiders of the Lost Ark would bring about popularising the flying jacket look in the UK during the 1980s.

 

[rocketeer]

I don't think the Indy jacket had anything to do with brown being "nice". I think that's a tradition someone stuck to the narrative later on. I think it had more to do with the Indy jacket being a modified A2 with knits removed and a back flap to allow for the whip placement. In fact, all the pre-Ford auditions for Indy had the actors wear an A2.

In the 1980s I went to a fancy dress party in an A2, wide brimmed trilby and borrowed a whip from a 'western' friend. Untill they saw the whip the other fancy dressers thought I was meant to be Howard Hughes.

 

[Matt Crunk]

magical properties?! so tell me, if I snap my fingers a amanda will the aero version of the jacket drop down to a less ridiculous price? the jacket is 600 when the house A2's starts at 450. Aren't the fonzie jacket based off A2s?

What is the big difference between brown fqhh and vintage brown?

I actually used to own an officially licensed Fonzie jacket back in the late 70's when I was a teenager. It got away from me somehow through the years - not that I could wear it today even if I still had it. As I recall the lining of the jacket had a bunch of Fonz-related nomenclature printed on it, which even as a kid I thought was a bit silly. But I did dig wearing the jacket, though I preferred a genuine biker jacket like he wore in Lords of Flatbush, which I graduated to a few years later.

 

[HoosierDaddy]

I had never heard of an English Teddy Boy...until it was mentioned on this forum. Was there ever a film made about them? During what time period were they popular?
Fonzie was really a comical over-exaggeration of certain Mr. Cool or hood type charactors that actually did exist in many small towns and cities in the US. In fact.. the charactors in American Graffiti lived in or near my hometown during the early '60s...just with different names. It was quite amazing how that movie did capture many similar escapades of my teenage years. It came to an end as Beatlemania...British Blues..and homegrown hardrock led everyone into a different era called psychedelic. Fonzie morfed into Mick Jagger. However..it got worse when he was replaced by a BeeGee.
HD

 

[V.C. Brunswick]

Lets not forget, Happy Days was it self a spin off! Only a couple of correctors made it from the pilot. No Fonzie, and Richie was wearing a black leather jacket! Watch the end of part two, some one did some really creative editing to the TV picture, very funny.
[video=youtube;fhFDkatc-e4]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=fhFDkatc-e4&feature=relmfu[/video] [video=youtube;XYBHDv6YtPM]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=XYBHDv6YtPM [/video]

I used to like Love American Style but I don't seem to remember that episode. I must say that I can't quite picture Harold Gould as Howard.

 

[GoodTimesGone]

I wish they would have put that "Love American Style" episode on the first season Happy Days DVD as a special feature. After all it is the true pilot. On the second season Happy Days DVD there is an episode called "Who's Sorry Now?" where they show excerpts from it as a flashback.
I think American Graffiti is an entertaining movie for those who can identify with it. Although I was a teenager in the eighties we still cruised. Now days around here the school parking lot is gated and locked, the park we cruised through doesn't allow anyone there after dark, and there is a curfew for those under 18.
I don't highly recommend Lords Of Flatbush. It's not worth buying, but if you catch it on TV or rent it's interesting to see a pre-Happy Days Henry Winkler and a pre-Rocky Stallone.

 

[AtomicEraTom]

I remember the first time I saw 'American Graffiti.' My dad bought me the VHS tape. He had watched it new in 1973, and I have the soundtrack that he bought then, too. I instantly fell in love with the movie and it's still my favorite.

I think cruisin' culture is still alive in some people. My dad and his brother cruised in High School and had the 'Crusin'' tapes that played mock radio shows meant to replicate certain years, I think they did 1955-1970?

My friends and I cruised a lot in high school, and I used to see a few others doing the same thing. Mostly the people who actually owned their on cars. My Caprice and my best friend's Cutlass were on the road after school 'til curfew any night we didn't have to work. I miss those times.

I think American Graffiti is an entertaining movie for those who can identify with it. Although I was a teenager in the eighties we still cruised. Now days around here the school parking lot is gated and locked, the park we cruised through doesn't allow anyone there after dark, and there is a curfew for those under 18.
I don't highly recommend Lords Of Flatbush. It's not worth buying, but if you catch it on TV or rent it's interesting to see a pre-Happy Days Henry Winkler and a pre-Rocky Stallone.

 

[Stearmen]

I remember the first time I saw 'American Graffiti.' My dad bought me the VHS tape. He had watched it new in 1973, and I have the soundtrack that he bought then, too.

God I'm old!

 

[AtomicEraTom]

lol

God I'm old!

 

[Seb Lucas]

I had never heard of an English Teddy Boy...until it was mentioned on this forum. Was there ever a film made about them? During what time period were they popular?

HD

1950's-60's I'm fairly sure a couple of the Beatles were Teddy's when they were young. It's one of the classic looks of the 1950's. It was a retro Edwardian look (post 1901) with stove pipes and fancy suits - like an Edwardian dandy (hence Teddy). Not really leather jacket wearing in their original form. They were one of the first identified youth subcultures.

Fonzie was just a generic greaser with a heart of gold. Then as the show evolved (and quickly) he became a magical figure with superpowers.