Lon Chaney will get you if you don't click heeeeere

[mike]

Ok maybe not but I did want to try a bit of an experiment.

I wanted to call attention to the clothes Lon Chaney Sr. wore in his various films.

The reason being, he wasn't a romantic lead, he connected with the every man, the common working joe that was down on his luck, broke and ugly. I'm not referring to any of his more horror leaning work, this is about his more realistic films, broken hearted cripples, criminals with a heart of gold and flat footed aging detectives in need of something to believe in in this cruel lonely world. And as a nice aside, hopefully it will inspire some film rentals of some of these wonderful films!

With Tod Browning on the set of the Big City.

Interesting plaid single breasted peak lapel on the once Hypnotic Living Corpse himself, Tod Browning. And look at that tie, opinions on that?!

This as far as I know, is a lost film, I'm not sure if it's supposed to be edwardian and therefore somewhat campy, anyone seen any other examples of something like what Lon is wearing here?

there's a handful of publicity stills of him wearing similar stuff, I've yet to find caps that really seem to resemble this, anyone else perhaps?

nice french cuff shirt, I wonder if it's with a detachable collar...

I believe this is from While the City Sleeps, interesting hat & seems like a very low cut vest...

his detective role from London After Midnight. Anyone know how often people wore patricide collars not with evening dress?

 

[mike]

from a recently found early film of Lon's, Triumph. Anyone wear tie pins? I'd be afraid over time they would put too much wear in an easily seen area of the tie. Also notice the lapeled vest & I really wish shirts came in such designs today!

again from London After Midnight, I like the contrasting tie...

what sort of material is that?!?! anyone seen, what I assume is tweed, that looks like that before?!

this is Blizzard, he can be found in the wonderful film, the Penalty from 1921. watch this film!

Is there an Echo in here? You bet, Lon played this character in 1925 & 1930 for the silent and sound versions respectively. What do you think is going on, is he wearing a sweater or just a towel or something underneath his vest? Wearing a vest unbuttoned seems like a strange look in public to me, do you think people often walked around like this at the time?

[IMG]http://a538.ac-images.myspacecdn.com/images01/76/l_e941554efe2f8b952681b4eafaed3809.jpg[/IMG]

close up of same thing..

 

[mike]

nice french cuff shirt, I wonder if it's with a detachable collar...

I believe this is from While the City Sleeps, interesting hat & seems like a very low cut vest...

his detective role from London After Midnight. Anyone know how often people wore patricide collars not with evening dress?

from a recently found early film of Lon's, Triumph. Anyone wear tie pins? I'd be afraid over time they would put too much wear in an easily seen area of the tie. Also notice the lapeled vest & I really wish shirts came in such designs today!

again from London After Midnight, I like the contrasting tie...

what sort of material is that?!?! anyone seen, what I assume is tweed, that looks like that before?!

this is Blizzard, he can be found in the wonderful film, the Penalty from 1921. watch this film!

Is there an Echo in here? You bet, Lon played this character in 1925 & 1930 for the silent and sound versions respectively. What do you think is going on, is he wearing a sweater or just a towel or something underneath his vest? Wearing a vest unbuttoned seems like a strange look in public to me, do you think people often walked around like this at the time?

close up of same thing..

nice look

great looking vest/trouser ratio on the guy in the middle. But more important, check out how many high waisted pants with no suspenders, all belts.... all belts. and everybody's happy.

fit to be tied and what a tie at that!

this looks like a very comfortable suit although it's the same one from above with the rather low cut vest. I'd like to know more about what sort of boots people wore at this time.

not sure what film this is, but interesting jacket none the less!

unholy three, with a nice collar. and again, that trim around the lapel, resembling his suit in the Big City. What is going on there?!

looks like tweed suit tweed cap...

I think this is from the Shock by the way, might be mistaken though..

love the look!

love the other guys haircut and what an interesting suit/tie combo. Almost looks 50's to my eye.

one more from the Penalty...

Love to find shoes like this!!!!

I wish Peterman's gatsby shirts were cut to these proportions. And again, suspend your disbelief at yet another example of high pants with a belt!

that's it from me for now. Hope you liked this visual tour of Lon's fashion in films. Anything anyone would like to add or point out, please do!

 

[Matt Deckard]

Please try to keep the number of posts down... All this can be done in less than 30

 

[mike]

ok! sorry, I found it easier to keep track of what I linked to or not going picture by picture but I suppose it's faster to view afterwards this way

 

[BegintheBeguine]

Thanks, mike, I enjoyed it. I've been a Lon Chaney fan since I was a child.
Ashley

 

[Sefton]

Thanks for sharing those great photos. Lon Chaney sr. has always been one of my favorites,too. It's a shame that there aren't any color photos of his costumes available though. Good work!

 

[mike]

My pleasure! I'd like to add, some of these films are set as glimpses into yesteryear of the gay nineties or more based around the vaudeville circuit so perhaps some of them are more hamming up or sentimentalizing styles of (their recent) yesteryear.

 

[The Wolf]

I'm a huge fan of Chaney's. One of the things about the clothes is the variety because he played such a wide variety of characters. Watching his films you can see what all levels of society wore in the 1920s.

Sincerely,
The Wolf

 

[Feraud]

Great job on the pictues. Thanks for posting them.

 

[dhermann1]

Technical glitches notwithstanding, I think this needs to be put in one of the classic threads slots. Great stuff! Very interesting to see how women's clothes in the early 1920's were not all the high hemline flapper outfits by a long shot.

 

[mike]

Thanks, mike, I enjoyed it. I've been a Lon Chaney fan since I was a child.
Ashley

Me too! The only time I've ever been starstruck (and unrightly so) was meeting Ron Chaney at Forry Ackerman's house one day! And he put on Lon's Man with the Beaver Hat, hat & teeth and stalked across the room...!!