Pencil Mustache

[DanielJones]

f course another great shot from "The Artist".

Cheers!

Dan

 

[FedoraFan112390]

Pencil Mustaches on Leading Men and Actors

If you look at the 1920s, 1930s, 1940s, a whole lot of leading men, or men who wanted to be leading men, wore pencil mustaches, at some point.
Cases in point: Douglas Fairbanks, Clark Gable, Errol Flynn, Tyrone Power, Rudolph Valentino, William Powell, Ronald Colman, John Gilbert, Warner Baxter, Gilbert Roland, Vincent Price, David Niven, even Humphrey Bogart wore one briefly in the early 1940s, as did Cary Grant and Jimmy Stewart!

I have to wonder a few things:

1) What started off this trend--who started it off? Why did it become such a big thing that so many celebrities had one, if even briefly, at some point in the '40s?
2) It seems to me that while having a pencil moustache seems to have been considered very debonair and sauve in Hollywood, it didn't really catch with the rest of the population. Thomas Dewey's pencil moustache is cited as a factor as to why he lost his runs for President in 1944 and 19448. For those better versed in the Golden Era's trends, among non-celebrities, did the pencil moustache ever catch on? Did anyone here have a relative or ancestor alive in the Golden Era who wore on, even if briefly? I have only one example--my great great uncle (1911-1970) who wore one from the 1930s until at least 1963, if not later.
3) Around when would you say the trend started to die off for leading men?

 

[StudioCB]

It's called a Continental Moustache. I remember the local Packard dealer had one.

 

[Yeps]

Not sure about the answers to your specific questions, but you can find quite a lot of info here, and a bunch of pics of pencil mustaches both vintage and modern, including my own, rather ill advised, attempt.

 

[Paul Roerich]

1.) It evolved from the Guards mustache, which was Britain's answer to the continental "Napoleon III / Kaiser Wilhelm" mustache with waxed pointy ends. From the 1870s to the 1930s, mustaches were associated with European (and Latin American) army officers. American army men sported them too, but the look (for American soldiers on the ground) had tapered off sharply by World War I. A good number of American flyboys wore mustaches throughout World War II.

 

[C44Antelope]

I am currently sporting a handlebar. Even though some handlebar wearers would look with disdain upon a pencil-thin, I personally think it looks sharp, if on the right man. To answer FF112390's questions... 1) No idea (Paul's got the right answer I'm betting). 2)I'm guessing it was too much work to keep looking sharp. One sneeze while shaving and BAM, half your stache (tache for those in the UK) is gone. 3) I'm guessing in Hollywood it died once Errol Flynn and Clark Gable both died. Interestingly 1958 the Packard died, 1959 Flynn died, 1960 Gable died.

 

[skyvue]

Gable and Flynn may have died by 1960, but Messrs. Drysdale, Mooney and Tate were still around.

 

[Stanley Doble]

Howard Hughes sported one in the thirties and forties. He wore a fedora with a leather jacket too.

 

[I Adore Film Noir]

Don't forget Robert Taylor:

 

[C44Antelope]

Don't forget Robert Taylor:

Looks like being a leading man is hard work.

 

[chanteuseCarey]

PENCIL UPDATE:

My bf Tom started working on a pencil maybe now some 6 weeks ago in time for wearing vintage at an event on Oct 20th. He's now really liking sporting this style (his pencil moustache role model is William Powell in the Thin Man series). His is still, as he himself put it just the other day-"a work in progress".

A key point for creating a vintage look with a pencil is for the width to not be more than the natural lip width, otherwise it can become too modern and/or comical.

After more and more viewings of Thin Man films, and still photos of Mr. Powell I had found on Google, my sweetie Tom just the other day 'got it' about what I refer to as having a clean line of the top of the upper lip with just a bit of flesh showing above it. Yowza, what a difference that one small change made!

 

[chanteuseCarey]

PENCIL UPDATE (with pics):

PRE-PENCIL

My sweetheart Tom as how his facial hair looked when we met (now almost two years ago), shown here with whiskers Oct 2011, sporting his best 1850-1870s look:

And by Feb 2012, no more long whiskers! A modern moustache style, this pic taken at the Stanford Viennese Ball

After this he really surprised me- Spring and Summer 2012 having no moustache at all

PENCIL SITINGS!

This Fall, YOWZA!
Lookin' good, Baby! in 1940s vintage, Oct 2012:

 

[chanteuseCarey]

Here is a more up-to-date picture, of the pencil moustache my sweetheart Tom has been working on since Fall 2012. Its really come along quite well, Tom's gotten the shaping of it down that he likes by now, and what suits his facial features best (most specifically the shape of his upper lip). He really is enjoying the look of it. He gets compliments from other gents on it too.

 

[Dixon Cannon]

Some great photos in the Jimmy Buffet vid: [video]https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=cXQS4S3vgGA[/video]

-dixon cannon

 

[ukali1066]

Something all men should try at least once....the Errol Flynn tash

 

[MarkJohn]

http://smg.photobucket.com/user/ukali74/media/me_zps163c2533.jpg.html

Maybe I'll grow one for Movember ... I'm pretty sure it will not look good on me, but for charity that's fine.

My dad had one most of his life, but he had genuine film star good looks.

You carry it well

 

[Shangas]

I have never thought of growing any facial hair. But I strongly suspect that if I DID try and grow any upper-lip fuzz, it'd end up looking like a Fu Manchu moustache...

...and I don't think that'd look good on me.

 

[bburtner@moran]

It fit`s you well,but I don`t think it would go over to well with my wife.

 

[Godfrey]

I tried it a while back and on a fuller lipped chap such as myself I looked very creepy. i'm much better with a Sargent Major tash.

Ukali1066 has the right face for it - looking good!

 

[dhermann1]

I think there was a skinny mustache thread here a while back, that I believe I started. Yes, skinny mustaches, or pencil staches, are very Golden Age. I went many years alternating on a one and a half year cycle of on and off with my staches. Last Time I had it was over two years ago, as I recall. I really like having one! I feellike I'm channeling my inner William Powell.