Coming Next Month: 

Season 2 of Undressed Under Duress, an all new multi-part series. The pint-sized don't go looking for trouble but it seems to find them.

It's time to play Union Suit Trivia! (Answers Below)

Who are these actors and in what movie did each star wear long underwear and corsets? In what year was each movie distributed? Bonus Question: Who are the actors helping with the corsets? Good luck! 

The Prize for winning Union Suit Trivia?  The admiration of your fellow Union Suit Fans!

Trivia Answers:

You fellas who guessed Lee Marvin in Cat Ballou are right on; from the 1965 Columbia Pictures' great western and film classic. The movie was shot at "Buckskin Joes" near Canon City, Colorado and at Columbia Ranch in California. Marvin won an Oscar for Best Actor in his dual role as the drunken gunslinger, Kid Shelleen, and as the killer, Tim Strawn, his brother. 

In his acceptance speech, Marvin said he owed his oscar to a crossed leg horse in Colorado referencing this scene with his four legged co-star:

The actors you didn't guess were Trevor Howard and Jill Bennett in the movie, Charge of the Light Brigade, a United Artists film made in 1968:

Thanks to all who played and submitted your responsed!

Coming in February, 2021: Season 2 of Undressed Under Duress, an all new multi-part series. The pint-sized don't go looking for trouble but it seems to find them.

 

From Vaudeville to the Big Screen, the Ritz Brothers from our early days were "Union Suit Fans in the Limelight."

Brothers Al, Jimmy, and Harry Joachim (born from 1901 through 1907) and later becoming the very popular Ritz Brothers, not only typically wore union suits in their day but, at least on one occasion, danced in them on a movie stage surrounded by chorus girls.

Besides movies, the vaudevillian brothers performed in nightclubs as well as on burlesque stages before breaking into the movies and television. Older brother, George, kept them in line as their manager. The four boys and their sister, Gertrude, were born in Newark, New Jersey where their father successfully owned a clothing store as they were growing up. There is no evidence today that parents, Max and Pauline Joachim, supplied them with union suits as adult performers. 

The Brothers Ritz thrilled their millions of fans by combining comedy with precision dancing. And, I mean precision. Their dancing, first in tuxedos and eventually undressed to their union suits all the while singing the song, Long Underwear, is remarkable. Copy and paste the following for a look at their clip...

https://youtu.be/PesMhAiaAiY

This act, singing and dancing in union suits, seems rather corny in this day and age. But the brothers were highly successful making movies distributed by Twentieth Century-Fox, MGM, and Universal Pictures. It's widely believed they influenced later comedians, Jerry Lewis, Danny Kaye, Sid Caesar, George Carlin, Mel Brooks, and Norman Lear.

Al died this very day 55 years ago. Jimmy died in 1985 and Harry in 1986. No doubt these popular comedic dancers left their mark on American show-biz.

Long Underwear, Music and Lyrics by Samuel Pokrass, Ray Goldent, and Sid Kuller. Sung and Danced by The Ritz Brothers and Chorus (1937).

I don't know for sure which movie this is clip is from. It may be from "You Can't Have Everything." If you know, be sure to email me for identifying in this post.  Thanks to Joe of NYC for introducing me to these talented characters which allows me to introduce them to you.

 Hollywood Briefly: James Dean, Union Suit Fan in the Limelight

Dean in his Union Suit
A Quiet Moment

Young American actor (1931-1955) from Marian, Indiana. Most famous for the movie, "Rebel Without A Cause."  He received an Academy Award for Best Actor, posthumously after dying in a car accident at age 24.