Jumping on the spring Band Wagon

"Blige me!", as my father would say*, nearly a whole month without a peep out of yours truly and I haven't even been anywhere near a hospital (actually that's not strictly true, but only for routine tests)!  I'd forgotten how all-consuming full-time work can be.  I can only apologise for not sticking to my once-a-week promise.

Anyway, the new job hasn't worked out after all that so I'm back to being a gentleman of leisure for now.  I'm not too sorry, though, because it wasn't really for me (literally - towards the end I was doing things that weren't in the job description and completely outside my remit as they struggled to find work for me.  That and other business practices that would make your hair turn white.).  Ergo I'm slightly glad to be out of it; one door closes another opens and all that, too, is what I say!

So, now I can devote my time to this blog again (how I would love to make a job out of that, if only!).  How are you all on this lovely May day (I hope it's as nice wherever you are as it is here)?  Tickety-boo, I trust?  I've got three or four posts lined up to write that otherwise would have appeared in April but for now here's a little something to tie in with the beautiful spring weather we've (finally!) been having here, as I get going again and see if I've still got the blogging knack.

I recently dug out an old recording of one of my favourite films, The Band Wagon, starring Fred Astaire - who else? - and Cyd Charisse (who always reminds me in this of our own dear Fleur).  It never fails to brighten my mood and doubly so at this time of year thanks to a number of outfits sported by Fred that are not only perfectly light and spring-like but also easily attainable.  Two at least are my go-to styles for spring/summer and if I can [just about] pull them off then anyone can!

The first tip-top ensemble makes its appearance at the beginning of the film, as washed-up movie star Tony Hunter (Astaire) arrives back in New York.  The double-breasted suit looks as good here as ever, perfectly complemented by the matching shirt and tie, contrasting pocket square (naturally!) and the icing on the cake - or rather the hat on the head! - the jaunty straw boater.  I haven't had a chance to try this particular look yet mainly because I don't have a double-breasted suit (for shame!), but that is the only thing from it missing in my wardrobe so watch this space!



Skipping forward to about half way through the film and Astaire's wonderfully put together pieces are only marred by the fact that he makes his ballet dancer partner Gaby (Charisse) cry(!).  My attempt might also make you cry, but only for its woeful inadequacy next to the original.

No pocket square for me I'm afraid,
because on this jacket it isn't a real pocket(!) ;-(

I've just realised none of my pictures show anything below the waist (oo-er missus!) so let me assure you that not only am I wearing trousers, but they are also white cotton ducks just like Fred's.  I've always loved how his trews and jacket are just ever so subtly different in shade, set off perfectly by the yellow shirt and tie plus the red pocket square.

Trying a "pose" for a change, rather than just
always grinning dementedly into the camera

But then Tony & Gaby go for a walk in the park, share a dance.. and all is forgiven.

So to the final dance number, Girl Hunt Ballet, and a suit that has passed into legend.  Has Astaire ever looked more effortlessly cool?  Another splendid light-coloured two-piece and hat, beautifully contrasted with a blue shirt and white tie.  Looks familiar?  Seen it somewhere before since?  Indeed you probably have, for a certain Mr Michael Jackson was also a huge fan of Fred Astaire and one of Jacko's biggest homages to Fred was... the music video for Smooth Criminal.  This, sadly, renders the following outfit difficult if not impossible to wear in public, unless you don't mind having Smooth Criminal sung (or just "Oi, Michael Jackson!" shouted) at you by every other person you meet.  The way I look at it, though, is that if Jackson was paying tribute to Astaire by dressing like him so these people are in fact complimenting me by unwittingly likening me to Fred Astaire.  At least, that's how I try to rationalise it.

Cooler...

...than...

...Jackson

I'm sure I used to have a white tie many moons ago but I must have disposed of it before I realised it could have been used in making a [barely] passable Fred Astaire-inspired outfit, so the next-lightest pattern in my tie collection has had to fill in.

Well, I think I've proved to myself that the blogging bug is still very much in evidence with this returning film fashion post.  I hope you've all enjoyed my continued [painful] attempts to emulate the style of the great Fred Astaire in one of his best films.  Enjoy the rest of the Bank Holiday (those of you in the U.K.) and I hope to be back within the week this time!  Cheero!

* No, I'm not sure what it means either.  I think it's his own variation of "blimey".  Anyway...

All aboard the song train

The starting of a new job seems to have coincided with a bit of a downturn in vintage news (not to mention my third cold in as many months!) - hence I have been absent from the blogging circuit for nearly two weeks, for which I must continue to crave forgiveness!  I still haven't forgotten about you all though (I read all your posts of an evening, or at the weekend, as something very much to look forward to) nor this blog of mine.

Sitting on the train during the commute into work I often find myself thinking of potential subjects for this site and, while listening to my portable i-gramophone last week, it occurred to me that the very mode of transportation I was using - and the music I had playing - would make an excellent topic.



The railway train has always had an instantly recognisable rhythm and one that naturally lends itself to a musical beat.  There have been countless songs over the years featuring trains and rail travel to some extent or another but it is the half-a-dozen or so favourites in my music collection that I intend to focus on here.

The first song, Choo-Choo, neatly sums up the steam train in typical Thirties onomatopoeic style and is wonderfully redolent of period rail travel.  Written and recorded by American bandleader Frankie Trumbauer in 1930, it was almost immediately cut by a multitude of other bands on both sides of the Atlantic.  While the original Trumbauer recording is excellent, my favourite from the U.S. is Paul Whiteman's version, above, made in the same year.



In the U.K. the two Jacks - Jack Payne and Jack Hylton - both recorded versions of Choo-Choo a year later in 1931 and again, while Jack Payne's version is wonderful, Hylton's arrangement just shades it for me.



Arguably a more famous "Choo-Choo" is Glenn Miller's brilliant 1941 record - Chattanooga Choo-Choo, a song that instantly conjures up images of transcontinental railway journeys in the 1940s and '50s.



A year or two earlier Glenn Miller had had similar success, reaching number 1 on the U.S. Billboard chart with another train-themed number - Tuxedo Junction.  The song had actually been written in 1939 by American bandleader Erskine Hawkins and while his original version made it to number 7 in the charts it remains less well-known today than the classic Miller arrangement.



Another railway tune that has become inextricably linked to its [co-]composer - so much so that it is invariably called his "signature song" and found in every compilation of his music - is Duke Ellington's Take The 'A' Train.  It is a reputation that it thoroughly deserves, being one of the defining examples of 1940s big band music never mind rail-based songs.



One of my very favourite "songs of the track", though, is this one - Honky-Tonk Train Blues.  Although written and first recorded as long ago as 1927 by the noted early boogie-woogie pianist Meade Lux Lewis, this 1938 arrangement by Bob Crosby (Bing's brother) with Bob Zurke on the piano really rolls along splendidly.

For me all of these help rekindle some of the fun and romance that seems to have been lost from modern train travel, as I commute to and from work in a characterless and brightly-coloured plastic tube.  Sometimes I can even imagine seeing something steaming past the station platform, or pulling the far more luxurious carriage I picture myself travelling in... porter! My case please!

Retired detective starts club for fans of the bow tie

Retired detective starts club for fans of the bow tie

I was in two minds about posting this story when I first read it on a local news site a few months ago, partly because like so much regional journalism it was rather badly written (so people didn't wear bow ties before the 1960s, then, for example?!) and partly because it propagates the age-old cliché of painting anything or anyone who chooses to deviate even slightly from "society's norms" as odd and "eccentric".

Source: blogging2fun5444.blogspot.com via Juliette on Pinterest

Dr Who's Matt Smith gets Bow Tie Society invitation

But then just today the B.B.C. covered the same story (hopefully they don't think it's an April Fools' joke!) tying it in (no pun intended!), of course, with the latest Doctor Who who has - very welcomely, I might add - been acting as something of a "poster boy" for the resurgence of the bow tie in the public's consciousness (beyond its continued prevalence at formal dinner engagements) since his first appearance in 2010.  Bow ties are indeed very cool!  (Although I must point out that while in early outings of the current Doctor it appeared that he was utilising a proper self-tie bow, in later episodes it seemed quite evident that pre-tied versions were being used (!) - and if I'm not much mistaken most recently... one of a clip-on variety!  Still at least he is popularising them in one form or another, as well as braces - although there again ideally they would also be button-on rather than clips - plus to a lesser extent the noble fez.  Let's not forget that he has done wonders for the Harris Tweed market too.)

Anything that helps the cause of the bow tie is aces in my book, however, and I'm delighted to see a local group springing up to celebrate this often-overlooked item of neckwear.  Maybe when my collection numbers more than one or two I may  just look in to joining myself!

By far and away one of the best sources on the interweb for quality (i.e. self-tied, sensibly patterned, silk/cotton) bow ties at reasonable prices, Tom Sawyer Waistcoats will be my first port of call for when I can start filling out my bow tie drawer.  Two examples that have caught my eye include:

Source: tomsawyerwaistcoats.co.uk via Bruce on Pinterest

Navy with multicoloured squares self-tie silk bow tie,

£14.99 [+£4.25 p&p] @ Tom Sawyer Waistcoats

Blue paisley self-tie cotton bow tie,
£19.99 [+£4.25 UK p&p] @ Tom Sawyer Waistcoats

Elsewhere Charles Tyrwhitt do a particularly jolly gingham number, proving that that pattern is not just for the ladies(!):

Royal and white cotton gingham check bow tie,
£24.95 (reduced from £50) [+ £4.95 UK p&p] @ Charles Tyrwhitt

The articles rightly mention other famous bow tie wearers past and present, the latter of whom it is hoped will grace this new club with their membership.  To finish off this post, here are some more famous people both real and fictional who have sported bow ties:

Source: images4.fanpop.com via Michael on Pinterest

Probably the most famous [fictional] bow tie-wearing detective, Hercule Poirot needs no introduction here!

Source: agathachristie.com via Dover Public Library, on Pinterest

While one half of Agatha Christie's sleuthing duo Tommy & Tuppence, Tommy Beresford is often seen (in the 1980s ITV series, at any rate) sporting a bow tie.

In that other master of mystery and suspense Alfred Hitchcock's seminal work The Lady Vanishes, male characters also wear that particular style of neckwear - often while fighting off evil foreign types.  Gilbert (Michael Redgrave) and Charters (Basil Radford) (the latter of whom, along with Caldicott - Naunton Wayne in the 1938 film - were criminally left out of the B.B.C.'s recent adaptation) in particular:

Source: idlesuperstar.tumblr.com via Leaf on Pinterest

Source: timeout.com via Jacqueline on Pinterest

Noted British political broadcaster and commentator Robin Day was well known as much for his bow tie as for his strong interviewing style during the thirty-odd years that he was a television journalist from the 1950s to the 1980s:

Source: theredlist.fr via Livia on Pinterest

Finally, British racing driver Mike Hawthorn (below right) famously wore a bow tie even while racing in Grands Prix and at Le Mans in the 1950s earning him the nickname "Le Papillion" in the French press.  Flamboyant and fun-loving, he won the Formula One Championship in 1958 but was tragically killed less than a year later in a traffic accident.

Source: Uploaded by user via Enrico on Pinterest

These then are just some of the many champions of the bow tie who are known to me and I hope you've enjoyed reading a little about them.  Do you like to see a chap wearing this other type of necktie and who are your favourite bow tie wearers?

Pullover, it's Captain Hastings!

When I first started doing posts on the wardrobe of Captain Hastings a little over 2 years ago I good-naturedly complained that, unlike many of Miss Lemon's outfits including that ubiquitous bow cardigan, I (or rather those in the family with the requisite skills, i.e. mother) couldn't knit the good Captain's numerous 3-piece suits and other similar ensembles.  Although the second episode to receive my attention, Murder in the Mews, did feature two items of clothing that could be more easily recreated it wasn't until recently that I was able to have something similar made up in the same style.  Those two items were the lovely jumpers sported by Captain Hastings during the golf course scenes and later at the dénouement (as seen above and below). 

Rather than put mater to the trouble of knitting both I settled on the idea of having the shawl-collar one (above) in the colour of the golfing one.  As her pattern collection already contained just such a [modern] design it made even more sense and so the Captain Hastings Combination Jumper was born.  Last week it was delivered and these pictures are the result:

I'm afraid even one of Hastings' much-coveted suits wouldn't imbue me with half of his stylishness and ease (although I can easily do "vague and confused"!) but as my first real attempt to replicate the Captain Hastings "look" I'm not at all disappointed.  It might be a slightly chunkier knit than the ones worn by our favourite chap and, as it was pointed out to me, the armholes' positioning differs slightly (mainly a result of the modern pattern, although I don't deny the effect would be lessened if I were a bit more heavier-set!) but overall - and seeing it next to the screen shot of the same design - I think it's very close.  It doesn't show up very well in these pictures (I really need to think about getting a new camera) so you'll have to take my word for it that the colour is almost an exact match for Hastings' first jumper - much more a burnt umber hue than the coral that seems to have come out in the photos. 

Now all I need is a golf course/London flat and a Belgian 'tec with whom to investigate crimes and I'm away, eh?!

In the meantime, I have just this afternoon got off the 'phone with the creator of this garment who tells me that she has found a '50s pattern almost identical to the golfing jumper.  Perhaps that, in the grey of Captain Hastings' shawl-collar example, will become a suitable companion piece.  Certainly with the recent haul of '30s/'40s patterns we picked up I hope to have some more knitteds to show you in the future.



The Captain Hastings posts will also continue, of course, with The King of Clubs next in line when I get a quiet moment (and, ladies, where have the Miss Lemon posts gone?  I'm almost missing that cardi!).

Hewing the wood and drawing the water and so forth...

Since I started this blog at the tail end of 2009 I've been able to devote a good amount of time to it (with the exception of The Great Hiatus of May-August 2011!) and finding the odd stories to write up on here, not to mention reading the myriad excellent blogs that I've discovered down the years, has become a welcome part and parcel of my week.

Alas Life, as it so often does, sometimes intervenes - as it has done now.  A chap has to pay the rent, after all, and to facilitate such I have just this week re-entered the world of full-time employment.

What this means is, sadly, that I shan't have as much time to blog as I used to and while it pains me to cut back on here it is more than likely that Eclectic Ephemera will in future be updated only at weekends (with the odd mid-week post if possible).

So don't despair if this blog goes 5 days at a time between posts (and please don't leave me in your droves!).  I'll still be thinking of you (and of subjects to write about) during quiet moments at my desk and will look forward more than ever to reading your posts when I get home.

In the meantime, I leave you with a topical exchange from Jeeves and Wooster that never fails to make me smile:

Lady Glossop: Do you work, Mr. Wooster?
Bertie Wooster: What, work? As in honest toil, you mean? Hewing the wood and drawing the old wet stuff and so forth?
Lady Glossop: Quite.
Bertie Wooster: Well... I've known a few people who worked. Absolutely swear by it, some of them.

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1930s Art Deco cinema saved by the community

Regal Cinema in Melton Mowbray reopens following closure

Another story of an historic building saved now, although this one keeps its original purpose - as a cinema.  Not only does it remain a film theatre, it also retains its original 1930s Art Deco features both inside and out!  With so many Thirties cinemas succumbing to the wrecker's ball, or else being turned into bingo halls and the like, it's wonderful to see one survive in this way.

Nicknamed "the finest cinema in England" the Regal Melton Mowbray now more than lives up to that moniker thanks the hard work and investment of the local community and owners past and present.  All of them have obviously appreciated the striking Art Deco facade and the general history of the building and I'm pleased to see that this has been added to on the inside with many existing fittings refurbished and sympathetic additions put in elsewhere.

From facing bankruptcy and closure to now reopening in its full glory this latest episode in the history of the Regal Cinema has rightly been described as a "whirlwind" but one that has resulted in a gem of a building being saved by the local community, its function preserved for the town's future enjoyment.  A hearty "well done" to everyone involved - it's great to see what can be achieved when local people pull together.  It is certainly is a splendid cinema you've got there, Melton Mowbray - I'm rather jealous!