# Trad and "Animal House"...



## Doctor Damage (Feb 18, 2005)

If you haven't seen _Animal House_ you should, since (1) it's a funny movie, and (2) it's full of trad clothing. The movie dates from the late 1970s, but the story is set on a college in 1962, so much of the clothing is rather interesting from our point of view. They wore lots of coloured OCBDs and sport coats, etc.

Below are some group shots of the cast in front of their crumbling frat house, a.k.a. the "Animal House". I have close-up photos of various cast members which I will post tomorrow.

The first time I saw this movie was only a year ago with a friend of mine, and I spent most of it distracted by the clothing!

DocD


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## shuman (Dec 12, 2004)

Doctor Damage said:


> If you haven't seen _Animal House_ you should, since (1) it's a funny movie, and (2) it's full of trad clothing. The movie dates from the late 1970s, but the story is set on a college in 1962, so much of the clothing is rather interesting from our point of view. They wore lots of coloured OCBDs and sport coats, etc.
> 
> Below are some group shots of the cast in front of their crumbling frat house, a.k.a. the "Animal House". I have close-up photos of various cast members which I will post tomorrow.
> 
> ...


What a great movie! My roommate in college spent an entire semester in front of the VCR rewatching Animal House, and drinking beer, until he could quote the entire movie. Didnt go to class, much...


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## tflaker (Jul 27, 2006)

I agree...great movie. Good clothes, but more importantly, a hilarious movie. Although the "Tri Lams" might be better dressed...


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## Cleveland Brown (Feb 13, 2006)

Shuman, if I didn't know better, I would think that I am your long lost roomie. That sounds like my junior year when I couldn't be bothered to attend classes.


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## vwguy (Jul 23, 2004)

Doctor Damage said:


> If you haven't seen _Animal House_ you should...


Wait a minute, someone *hasn't* seen Animal House!?

Brian


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## Untilted (Mar 30, 2006)

I haven't seen Animal House. I need to watch it ASAP, but my school library doesnt have a copy. Hopefully my county library has it.


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## vwguy (Jul 23, 2004)

Untilted said:


> I haven't seen Animal House.


Say it isn't so! Hasn't your Fraternity ever watched it for movie night? It was mandatory when I was in school.

Brian


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## Untilted (Mar 30, 2006)

vwguy said:


> Say it isn't so! Hasn't your Fraternity ever watched it for movie night? It was mandatory when I was in school.
> 
> Brian


i'm sure all my fraternity brothers have seen it.

i guess i'm still new to America.


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## Naval Gent (May 12, 2007)

Animal House premiered in mid-1978. In late '78 or '79 as a high school senior, I and several mates attended a showing of the film in a public theater wearing ersatz togas. The movie became our social blueprint for our collegiate years. We endeavored to dress like the Omegas and party like the Delts. We came close in both cases.

Ah, youth.


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## Sweetness (Aug 25, 2005)

Funny time for this thread since I just contacted Otis Day and the Knights' manager about having them come play for one of our fraternity parties (I'm the social chair)... I'll let you know when he responds.


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## shuman (Dec 12, 2004)

Sweetness said:


> Funny time for this thread since I just contacted Otis Day and the Knights' manager about having them come play for one of our fraternity parties (I'm the social chair)... I'll let you know when he responds.


They are still around? Oh my....


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## vwguy (Jul 23, 2004)

Sweetness said:


> Funny time for this thread since I just contacted Otis Day and the Knights' manager about having them come play for one of our fraternity parties (I'm the social chair)... I'll let you know when he responds.


Sweetness, which Fraternity?

Brian


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## Tom Buchanan (Nov 7, 2005)

Untilted said:


> I haven't seen Animal House. I need to watch it ASAP, but my school library doesnt have a copy. Hopefully my county library has it.


Then you should DROP AND GIVE US TWENTY!*

* You will understand the reference once you see the movie.


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## Isaac Mickle (Nov 28, 2006)

Great film. I have not seen it in about fifteen years, though.

Funny thing about this thread: I remember Animal House as a parody of the style we now call "trad."

Not too many slightly overweight guys went to college in khakis and a sportcoat in the fall of 1978 ...


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## Brooksfan (Jan 25, 2005)

Animal House is one of the three movies (Caddieshack and Stripes being the others) that could provide one with all the answers to most of life's pressing questions.


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## Brooksfan (Jan 25, 2005)

Isaac Mickle said:


> Not too many slightly overweight guys went to college in khakis and a sportcoat in the fall of 1978 ...


Though the film was made in 1978 it was set in 1962...


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## Dashing1 (Feb 27, 2007)

> Funny time for this thread since I just contacted Otis Day and the Knights' manager about having them come play for one of our fraternity parties (I'm the social chair)... I'll let you know when he responds.


We actually had Otis Day & the Knights play one of our house parties years ago. It was fun as an event and a draw, but the performance was underwhelming and overpriced (in my opinion).


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## jamgood (Feb 8, 2006)

Thought O-tiss had assumed room temperature, apparently not > www.otisdayandtheknights.com

The then non-existent OD&TK ( https://www.wikipedia.org/wiki/Otis_Day_and_the_Knights ) were supposedly based on the real https://www.wikipedia.org/wiki/Doug_Clark_and_the_Hot_Nuts


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## Duck (Jan 4, 2007)

jamgood said:


> Thought O-tiss had assumed room temperature, apparently not > www.otisdayandtheknights.com
> 
> The then non-existent OD&TK ( https://www.wikipedia.org/wiki/Otis_Day_and_the_Knights ) were supposedly based on the real https://www.wikipedia.org/wiki/Doug_Clark_and_the_Hot_Nuts


Just got off the phone with John Clark this morning. They are playing my wedding this Saturday.


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## Patrick06790 (Apr 10, 2005)

I love the bit in the dean's office when the Mayor is visiting to complain and the guy is measuring the distance between the horses' feet, then the door...


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## Sweetness (Aug 25, 2005)

Duck said:


> Just got off the phone with John Clark this morning. They are playing my wedding this Saturday.


Seriously? Sounds like a blast and congrats on the upcoming wedding!


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## vwguy (Jul 23, 2004)

Sweetness, which Fraternity are you in?

Brian


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## Doctor Damage (Feb 18, 2005)

Photos of the good guys.















DocD


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## JDC (Dec 2, 2006)

Great film. I've seen the guitar scene 1000 times and it still makes me laugh as hard as the first time. I too was horribly distracted by the clothing, e.g. Matheson's red cashmere v-neck. Wow.

The striped shetland Matheson wore in the "road trip" scene went up for auction on eBay last year. I forget how much it sold for.


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## Brownshoe (Mar 1, 2005)

Check out Kevin Bacon in the movie--prepped to the max. "Animal House" is a useful title when playing "Six Degrees of Kevin Bacon." DOnaanldSutherland also sports a sweet corduroy suit at one point.

There is a truly dreadful 80s comedy starring noted method-nostril actor Judd Nelson called "Making the Grade"--Juddster, a tough hood, poses as a preppy at an elite boarding school to escape the wrath of loan shark Andrew "Dice" Clay.

The movie is unwatchably terrible, but with judicious use of the mute and fast forward buttons, you will get an eyeful of some of the most exquisite trad clothing ever collected on film.

The writer, director, and actors were hopeless, but the wardrobe people were spot on.


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## Isaac Mickle (Nov 28, 2006)

Congratulations Duck. I highly recommend marriage. And there's nothing better than live music at a wedding. And Otis Day ... wow. You have some lucky friends.

I saw Otis Day around 1987. He more or less recreated the AH party and then some. He was tremendous.


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## Isaac Mickle (Nov 28, 2006)

Brooksfan, what I meant about parody was this. The Ivy League style dates to the 50s when only about six percent of adults had a college degree. Only a third graduated from high school. It was an ignorant age. That college look embodied young men with high seriousness. There was a sense of _noblesse oblige_. By the late 70s these men (or the stereotypes of these men) were increasingly regarded in films and on TV as selfish, self-important kids.

Huge numbers of kids were going to college as the first in their generation. They did not wear trad clothing to college. The legacy kids had a reputation for dodging the draft, for having it easy, for exercising an undemocratic privilege. There was a desire to take these young men and women down a peg or two. The days of college being a proving ground for aristocrats (or republicans) were over.

In Animal House, the great satiric point I think is that these guys are self-serving hedonists. They are totally corrupted by material selfishness. That is a satire of old Ivy League ideal.

"Flounder" comes off as a total Loser. ("Oh Boy Is This Great!") Most people did not want to dress like Flounder or look like Flounder if they were starting college in the fall of 1978. For a lot of people, anything BUT that would be OK.

But John Belushi steals the show in that film, and after it comes out, soon everyone wants to go to college and live like that. College becomes party time. Some of you may find this hard to believe, but once upon a time college was a very serious place for only a handful of the nation's best and brightest. It was still that way for a lot of people in the 50s and 60s and 70s.

The movie was taken un-satirically by most of the younger viewers. The parody of an old ideal became a new ideal that was embraced naively (and uncritically) by a generation of young people.

Seriously, I doubt too many people outside this forum remember Belushi for wearing button-downs. His signature outfits were the "College" sweatshirt (which I still see) and the toga (which I don't see enough). He's an icon but he's not a trad icon for that film. He's much more like the first-generation-going-to-college kid who gets drunk with his parents tailgating a big ten football game---while his professors and legacy classmates look on in horror. John Belushi was not "trad" or Ivy League. He was a football player from Chicago who took some classes at the University of Wisconsin-Whitewater.

The smarmy guys in the bright sweaters were, in 1978, the "trad" or "Ivy League" icons, and they are much like the "Biffs" that date "Tiffanys," drive beamers, and oppress heroes from tough working-class backgrounds throughout 80s television and film. If you don't see those guys as satire, then I wonder if we have the same understanding of the history of the Ivy League style. Animal House is early Official Preppy Handbook. It's not a great moment in the history of wearing jackets and button-down shirts to college.

Sorry if I am being a killjoy.


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## AsherNM (Apr 3, 2006)

Mr. Mickle,
I don't think you've given an entirely accurate picture of first generation college students. According to E. Digby Baltzell, it was often the old stock Protestants who would "cultivate the beatnik style." Baltzell notes how, for instance, Jews at Penn and students at a Catholic college dress far better than the more established Quakers.

In Animal House, if I recall correctly, the guys at the Jewish frat dress rather well, and are decidedly not hard partyers. Similarly, students at City College of NY dressed pretty trad, if the film Arguing the World is any indication. If the old guard is firm about its ways, the newcomers will adopt them, if they aren't resentful. Also, your average clothing in the fifties seems a lot closer to trad then than it does now (eg, where a short sleeve button down shirt might be worn then, a t-shirt would be worn today).

AH is a parody of the Omegas as well as the Delts, just as Beavis and Butthead is a satire of those who would become its greatest fans, and a comment on the damage wrought by single, if lazy, parenthood.


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## Isaac Mickle (Nov 28, 2006)

Asher, Strange that you mention Beavis and Butthead -- I compared Animal House to that TV show in the overlong (or over, overlong) first draft of the post. (As it is, it's too long, and for that I apologize. I do not mean to troll.) You, I think, know much more about first-generation college students than I do. I appreciate the correction and the reference. I will learn more about the subject before I write about it again.


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## Doctor Damage (Feb 18, 2005)

AsherNM said:


> I don't think you've given an entirely accurate picture of first generation college students.


Well, he _is_ married, which apparently confers some measure of wisdom by its very achievement.



Brownshoe said:


> Check out Kevin Bacon in the movie--prepped to the max. "Animal House" is a useful title when playing "Six Degrees of Kevin Bacon." Donanld Sutherland also sports a sweet corduroy suit at one point.


I have a nice photo of Bacon with superb collar rolls on a yellow OCBD; will post that one tonight. I don't remember Sutherland in the movie, though.

DocD


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## Brownshoe (Mar 1, 2005)

Doctor Damage said:


> Well, he _is_ married, which apparently confers some measure of wisdom by its very achievement.
> 
> I have a nice photo of Bacon with superb collar rolls on a yellow OCBD; will post that one tonight. I don't remember Sutherland in the movie, though.
> 
> DocD


Sutherland plays a sleazy English prof who sleeps with Karen Allen, breaking Boone's heart


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## Duck (Jan 4, 2007)

Isaac Mickle said:


> Congratulations Duck. I highly recommend marriage. And there's nothing better than live music at a wedding.


Thank you sir, I am anxious and stressed at the same time. 250 of our closest friends will be landing upon our little town. No one knows what it will look like when they leave.


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## tripreed (Dec 8, 2005)

Duck said:


> Thank you sir, I am anxious and stressed at the same time. 250 of our closest friends will be landing upon our little town. No one knows what it will look like when they leave.


That sounds like potential for a good wedding to me.


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## Duck (Jan 4, 2007)

tripreed said:


> That sounds like potential for a good wedding to me.


Or it could look like the end of the movie Tombstone. What am I worried about, we hired a shuttle bus so we won't be liable.


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## Doctor Damage (Feb 18, 2005)

Photos of the bad guys from the movie. Note Kevin Bacon on the right in the first photo.











DocD


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## Untilted (Mar 30, 2006)

just watched it this afternoon. this is the traddest outfit in the movie IMO:

plaid jacket+pink ocbd+maroon knit tie


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## vwguy (Jul 23, 2004)

Untilted said:


> just watched it this afternoon.


Is your life now changed forever 

Brian


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## septa (Mar 4, 2006)

AsherNM said:


> Mr. Mickle,
> I don't think you've given an entirely accurate picture of first generation college students. According to E. Digby Baltzell, it was often the old stock Protestants who would "cultivate the beatnik style." Baltzell notes how, for instance, Jews at Penn and students at a Catholic college dress far better than the more established Quakers.
> 
> In Animal House, if I recall correctly, the guys at the Jewish frat dress rather well, and are decidedly not hard partyers. Similarly, students at City College of NY dressed pretty trad, if the film Arguing the World is any indication. If the old guard is firm about its ways, the newcomers will adopt them, if they aren't resentful. Also, your average clothing in the fifties seems a lot closer to trad then than it does now (eg, where a short sleeve button down shirt might be worn then, a t-shirt would be worn today).
> ...


If I remember correctly, Baltzell laments the fact that the WASPs at Haverford sported scragly beards in various stages of growth, feeling that they betrayed thier roots. I think part of this has to do with the fact that once colleges quit requiring dress codes, the rich boys played a mean trick on the poor ones--dressing well and having good manners no longer counted less, while prep school or legacy status and the ability to fly to Aspen on the weekends counted more. This deprived the first generation college kids of a way to learn how to act appropriately, which still mattered in upper class circles beyond college. This is still true on college campuses, all the kids I know from NY who were Exeter legacies dressed like sh*t, and those from upper middle/middle middle backgrounds (parochial schools, good publics, and second tier day schools) often placed more of an emphasis on decorum than the uppers. Counting myself as part of the latter group (I'm a parochial school product, although of lengthy WASP lineage, a very long story) I'm sure it stemmed from some subconcious need to "prove" myself. However, when you put those Exter kids in a coat and tie at the Harvard club with Daddy, they could be the perfect gentleman. The true loosers were the kids who really wanted to better themselves socially not just intellectually or economically, and found no models for how to be a gentleman, as the preppies often acted worse (in terms of drug use, dress, manners, academic preformance, leadership etc. )than the kids from thier public schools back home. Now I'm no preppy hater, many of my best friends and relatives are preppies, my likely future sister in law went to Exeter... but I think they would agree with me on this...in fact they are the ones who explained it to me. The critiques of the movie in some ways miss this point. I always thought of the Omegas as the up tight middle class guys, and figured that the real preppies were too busy playing lax and squash, doing shrooms, or going off on mid week ski trips, and figuring out how to get an I-banking job to give a hoot about some silly frat. I suppose my reading of the film is hopelessly anachronistic.


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## Bog (May 13, 2007)

septa said:


> all the kids I know from NY who were Exeter legacies dressed like sh*t, and those from upper middle/middle middle backgrounds (parochial schools, good publics, and second tier day schools) often placed more of an emphasis on decorum than the uppers.


Quite right, as it was the preppies themselves who led the abolishment of coat-and-tie dress codes at their own colleges!


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## Untilted (Mar 30, 2006)

septa said:


> If I remember correctly, Baltzell laments the fact that the WASPs at Haverford sported scragly beards in various stages of growth, feeling that they betrayed thier roots. I think part of this has to do with the fact that once colleges quit requiring dress codes, the rich boys played a mean trick on the poor ones--dressing well and having good manners no longer counted less, while prep school or legacy status and the ability to fly to Aspen on the weekends counted more. This deprived the first generation college kids of a way to learn how to act appropriately, which still mattered in upper class circles beyond college. This is still true on college campuses, all the kids I know from NY who were Exeter legacies dressed like sh*t, and those from upper middle/middle middle backgrounds (parochial schools, good publics, and second tier day schools) often placed more of an emphasis on decorum than the uppers. Counting myself as part of the latter group (I'm a parochial school product, although of lengthy WASP lineage, a very long story) I'm sure it stemmed from some subconcious need to "prove" myself. However, when you put those Exter kids in a coat and tie at the Harvard club with Daddy, they could be the perfect gentleman. The true loosers were the kids who really wanted to better themselves socially not just intellectually or economically, and found no models for how to be a gentleman, as the preppies often acted worse (in terms of drug use, dress, manners, academic preformance, leadership etc. )than the kids from thier public schools back home. Now I'm no preppy hater, many of my best friends and relatives are preppies, my likely future sister in law went to Exeter... but I think they would agree with me on this...in fact they are the ones who explained it to me. The critiques of the movie in some ways miss this point. I always thought of the Omegas as the up tight middle class guys, and figured that the real preppies were too busy playing lax and squash, doing shrooms, or going off on mid week ski trips, and figuring out how to get an I-banking job to give a hoot about some silly frat. I suppose my reading of the film is hopelessly anachronistic.


I agree. I myself am the uptight type, though not a d-bag like the Omegas.

i know a couple of exeter kids in my college, half of them are literally hippies, the others are spread collar wearers. A lot of tradly dressed kids I know are homosexuals. (no kidding) They rock the OCBD under pink shetland look more than others.

however, the one part I don't agree with is "too busy with figuring out how to get an i-banking job". Most ibanker-wannabes I know from my school are either first/second generation immigrants who see this as the ultimate american dream or the uptight types who want to prove something. I would assume the preppies go for family businesses.


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## Untilted (Mar 30, 2006)

vwguy said:


> Is your life now changed forever
> 
> Brian


haha. I finally understand where a lot of quotes I've been hearing came from, such as:

My advice to you is to start drinking heavily

and

Toga! Toga! Toga!

and many others.


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## septa (Mar 4, 2006)

Untilted said:


> I agree. I myself am the uptight type, though not a d-bag like the Omegas.
> 
> i know a couple of exeter kids in my college, half of them are literally hippies, the others are spread collar wearers. A lot of tradly dressed kids I know are homosexuals. (no kidding) They rock the OCBD under pink shetland look more than others.
> 
> however, the one part I don't agree with is "too busy with figuring out how to get an i-banking job". Most ibanker-wannabes I know from my school are either first/second generation immigrants who see this as the ultimate american dream or the uptight types who want to prove something. I would assume the preppies go for family businesses.


I hope you took no offense at my post. One of my best friends was a banker, and second generation immigrant who worked at Lazard, but decied to go to med school instead, my current girlfriend is herself a second generation immigrant, although because I'm a cradle robber she's still in college, but she also aspires to banking. From what they have told me and what I assumed, they made it sound like while the people at Bear Stearns and Smith Barney were like them, the childeren of immigrants, the people at the boutique/smaller places (cantor-fitz, Lazard when it was private) still tend to be preps. This information could be outdated or just wrong.

You are right about family businesses, although many of them are very unromantic. When I hear how some people's family made thier money (gypsum, plastic cup lids, aeresol spray nozzles) I always think of Maris from Frasier, who's family money was from urinal cakes.


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## Untilted (Mar 30, 2006)

septa said:


> I hope you took no offense at my post. One of my best friends was a banker, and second generation immigrant who worked at Lazard, but decied to go to med school instead, my current girlfriend is herself a second generation immigrant, although because I'm a cradle robber she's still in college, but she also aspires to banking. From what they have told me and what I assumed, they made it sound like while the people at Bear Stearns and Smith Barney were like them, the childeren of immigrants, the people at the boutique/smaller places (cantor-fitz, Lazard when it was private) still tend to be preps. This information could be outdated or just wrong.


no offese taken at all! 

I would agree with you that boutique banks would have some of those preppies than bulge bracket banks. Couple of guys I know who got offers @ greenhill and evercore all have extensive family connections. It is true that a lot of these boutique places are facing the pressure from the lack of diversity.

You can probably tell I aspired to be an investment banker at some point too. haha. I was obssessed about it my first year in college. I kind of got over it now. I'm looking into proprietary trading @ investment banks, instead of traditional M&A, IPO stuff (which I still don't mind).


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## knickerbacker (Jun 27, 2005)

Untilted said:


> just watched it this afternoon. this is the traddest outfit in the movie IMO:
> 
> plaid jacket+pink ocbd+maroon knit tie


I'm guessing that you now understand why it's not at the school library. When it came out, this film was not exactly loved by most educators, especially in the staid institutions of the Old Dominion (ie Virginia). Funny, I was talking about this film at work with a 40 year old tattooed rocker dude. He pointed out that I'm a wee bit uptight and I responded that any friction was purely because he was more Bluto while I was a bit more Needermeyer. Odd as I really tried to emulate the former as a teen.


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## dopey (Jan 17, 2005)

AsherNM said:


> Mr. Mickle,
> . . . Similarly, students at City College of NY dressed pretty trad, if the film Arguing the World is any indication. . .


This is not strictly correct. There are many photos in the film of the featured characters when they were students and also of the other students at City College. In those photos, the students are invariably dressed like what they were - poor kids cobbling together a jacket and tie from whatever they could afford or could cadge from older brothers or family members. It is not until the men get out of school and start earning some money and later become part of the academic establishment that they start to dress trad. But they certainly do adopt trad dress once they can.


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## BeauJest (May 19, 2007)

I was out of school a few years when "AH" premiered. I watched it with some contemporaries and we laughed but also sat there nodding, "Yep. Been _there,_ done _ that..._ The only thing we _didn't_ do was shoot a horse.

Our clothes at the time were "Trashed Trad:" beautiful blazers and OCBD's with abused jeans and the most lurid neckties we could find.


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## septa (Mar 4, 2006)

BeauJest said:


> Our clothes at the time were "Trashed Trad:" beautiful blazers and OCBD's with abused jeans and the most lurid neckties we could find.


Sounds like you could have been an inspiration for Ralph.


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## AsherNM (Apr 3, 2006)

> This is still true on college campuses, all the kids I know from NY who were Exeter legacies dressed like sh*t, and those from upper middle/middle middle backgrounds (parochial schools, good publics, and second tier day schools) often placed more of an emphasis on decorum than the uppers.


I've seen at least one similar case, a Choatie who actually came to class high once. Preps are now hardly the exception in being slovenly.

The notion that much learning occurs in college is superstition. Even intelligent conversations seems dreadfully rare. A good summary of my thoughts, from The Rector of Justin: "For all my emphasis on the humanities and his [a headmaster at another school] on God, we both turn out stockbrokers!"

Dopey, thanks for the correction. I'm actually good friends with a guy who went to Brooklyn College in the fifties, who said there wasn't much Ivy League style at his school. There was in droves next door, at Columbia, he told me.


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## dopey (Jan 17, 2005)

AsherNM said:


> I've seen at least one similar case, a Choatie who actually came to class high once. Preps are now hardly the exception in being slovenly.
> 
> The notion that much learning occurs in college is superstition. Even intelligent conversations seems dreadfully rare. A good summary of my thoughts, from The Rector of Justin: "For all my emphasis on the humanities and his [a headmaster at another school] on God, we both turn out stockbrokers!"
> 
> Dopey, thanks for the correction. I'm actually good friends with a guy who went to Brooklyn College in the fifties, who said there wasn't much Ivy League style at his school. There was in droves next door, at Columbia, he told me.


AsherNM: You might enjoy this thread if you haven't already seen it. The very line you quoted is part of what I had in mind in the particular post to which I linked.


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## rojo (Apr 29, 2004)

There's no such thing as a preppy. It's an imaginary ideal. It's a Platonic form. That's why this thread includes half a dozen contradictory explanations of what the true preppies think and what the true preppies do. You can look at whatever sampling of prep school graduates you like and generalize them into virtually anything you want.


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## Bradford (Dec 10, 2004)

Animal House is one of those films that I watch whenever its on and I own on DVD. It's on AMC right now, and I have to say it is quite possibly the most Trad movie of all time. 3-button sacks, OCBD's, knit and rep ties, madras, etc...

It's also the exact lifestyle that we tried to emulate back in college.


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## Hayek (Jun 20, 2006)

Patrick06790 said:


> I love the bit in the dean's office when the Mayor is visiting to complain and the guy is measuring the distance between the horses' feet, then the door...


That's one of my 2 favorite scenes.

The other is towards the end, during the parade, when the marching band is lead into a brick wall, where there all fall down on top of each other.


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## Zot! (Feb 18, 2008)

This film set me up for a lot of disappointment, as I left high school thinking "wow, college is going to be awesome!" When I got there most people made the _Delta's_ look wild, crazy and witty. On the lighter side, in addition to being an excellent film to this day (the line, "Was it over when the Germans bombed Pearl Harbor?" is my own, personal call to action), I really admire how they got the "look" of the early 60's down. This proved elusive for a lot of movies and TV shows from the late 70's/ early 80's. Take the later seasons of "Happy Days," for example.


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## Rossini (Oct 7, 2007)

Brooksfan said:


> Animal House is one of the three movies (Caddieshack and Stripes being the others) that could provide one with all the answers to most of life's pressing questions.


Yes, I was thinking that surely Caddyshack has an element of Trad to it?


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## Beefeater (Jun 2, 2007)

Bradford said:


> Animal House is one of those films that I watch whenever its on and I own on DVD. It's on AMC right now, and I have to say it is quite possibly the most Trad movie of all time. 3-button sacks, OCBD's, knit and rep ties, madras, etc...
> 
> It's also the exact lifestyle that we tried to emulate back in college.


I stayed up late last night exactly because I was watching it on AMC! Turned the late toddy into 2 or 3. . .


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## Thom Browne's Schooldays (Jul 29, 2007)

Never seen it in it's entirety, many of my friends college age and younger also have not.

Caught a couple clips last night and was impressed by the film and the clothing.
A trad movie list would be nice.
It's weird I never really knew how widespread "trad" was, and how much is our imaginations running wild, or indeed how many people dress like this now (tilt's points seem to indicate it's alive and well on at least one campus)


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## eyedoc2180 (Nov 19, 2006)

This is one of the great long-standing threads. I have just a few observations. First, I have seen "Animal House" from start to finish more than any other movie except for "Caddyshack." In fact, I saw it at a party given by a friend's mom, who worked at a theatre and brought the flick home on "reel to reel" the week the movie was released! Second, much as Digby Baltzell has taken some heat, he expertly chronicled both the dress and the shift in power in the Philadelphia area in the mid-20th century. Thirdly, and to Digby's point, I observed that my Jewish friends at Penn in the late 70's dressed far better and more "preppie" than we WASPS did. Bill


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## PittDoc (Feb 24, 2007)

Animal House happened to be on TV yesterday on one of the obscure local cable channels. I surprised and disturbed my wife by still being able to recite the entire movie. I was a freshman in college in '78 so, of course, this movie shaped my life at a critical time.

Ever play Animal House trivia? I'm always surprised by how many 40-something males are quite good at this.... My favorite; "What is the inscription at the base of statue of Emil Faber in the opening scene?" (no Googling, please)


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## Preu Pummel (Feb 5, 2008)

I saw it in theaters when I was 11. Loved it. For a kid it is the height of ridiculously puerile humor, and gives hope to a great future in higher ed.

Looking back, it is a film where everyone is an utter ass, end to end. There isn't one redeeming character in the entire experience. A statement about society, perhaps, but a horrid set of characters to emulate in any way.

It's a parody of S.E. Hinton books, on crack. When you think of it in that context, it's a brilliant film.


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## donk93953 (Feb 8, 2007)

PittDoc said:


> Animal House happened to be on TV yesterday on one of the obscure local cable channels. I surprised and disturbed my wife by still being able to recite the entire movie. I was a freshman in college in '78 so, of course, this movie shaped my life at a critical time.
> 
> Ever play Animal House trivia? I'm always surprised by how many 40-something males are quite good at this.... My favorite; "What is the inscription at the base of statue of Emil Faber in the opening scene?" (no Googling, please)


"EDUCATION IS GOOD"


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## PittDoc (Feb 24, 2007)

donk93953 said:


> "EDUCATION IS GOOD"


Close...but not quite.


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## Literide (Nov 11, 2004)

Untilted said:


> just watched it this afternoon. this is the traddest outfit in the movie IMO:
> 
> plaid jacket+pink ocbd+maroon knit tie


I think thats Otter's GTH outifit for the hearing.


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## xragman (Jan 27, 2007)

Knowledge is Good


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## PittDoc (Feb 24, 2007)

xragman said:


> Knowledge is Good


 - we have a winner! Bluto, give that man a beer!

A little more trivia 'bout "Otis"... (from )

*Otis Day & the Knights* perform at the toga party and again on the road trip at the _Dexter Lakes Club_. Both of the songs were lip-synched by Dewayne Jessie to recordings produced by Mark Davis (composer of _Shama Lama Ding Dong_) in Los Angeles before filming began. The lead singer heard on the two songs is Lloyd Williams. A few years ago Dewayne Jessie had his name legally changed to Otis Day, and he now tours college campuses and other venues doing over 100 shows a year as Otis Day _& the Knights_.


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## ds23pallas (Aug 22, 2006)

Brownshoe said:


> There is a truly dreadful 80s comedy starring noted method-nostril actor Judd Nelson called "Making the Grade"--Juddster, a tough hood, poses as a preppy at an elite boarding school to escape the wrath of loan shark Andrew "Dice" Clay.
> 
> The movie is unwatchably terrible, but with judicious use of the mute and fast forward buttons, you will get an eyeful of some of the most exquisite trad clothing ever collected on film.
> 
> The writer, director, and actors were hopeless, but the wardrobe people were spot on.


A couple of pics from this movie:

Baracuta G9 on the left and hefty cuffs on the right

Some nice lapel rolls and what looks like Weejuns and Topsiders


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## Doctor Damage (Feb 18, 2005)

Nice photos, but you didn't mention the patch "fun" pants!


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## Bradford (Dec 10, 2004)

_Making the Grade_ isn't trad, it's 80's preppy. It fits right in with films like _St. Elmo's Fire_, _Oxford Blues_ or _Class_.

_Animal House_ is a much better representation of this board's interpretation of trad.

Another (somewhat) contemporary movie representing trad would have to be _Love Story_.


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## pinkgreenpolo (Jul 15, 2005)

Has anyone seen the E- Hollywood true stories episode about the making of Animal House? It was great hearing the inside scoop about the movie. There was a part about wardrobe, man would I like to have a few hours to look around in there. Try to catch it if you can.


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