For Union Suit Fans and wearers of long underwear, California Dreamin' may not bring to mind the Golden State as the Union Suit Capital of North America (which it isn't) but wearing such is quite acceptable and necessary there during certain times of the year. And for performers in the limelight, union suits are just the thing.

Presenting the Poontang Wranglers, Union Suit Fans in the Limelight, a slightly off-beat, good time California band! And, these Wranglers don't wear jeans....

Few typically equate Southern California as Union Suit country. But for the washboard scraping, jug blowing, handsaw stroking, ukulele playing Poontang Wranglers band, that's just what you get. Musicians wearing union suits, singing up a storm. Up to eleven men and women have a great time traveling around the state, performing in their long red underwear. They never leave home without 'em.

This amusing, silly-looking and not quite seriously sounding band features Michael Lucas on washtub bass and Henry Rosenthal on ukulele among others. They've enjoyed playing to crowds from backyards to bookstores; from Los Angeles' Mann's Chinese Theater to The Golden Gate area of San Francisco. And, always decked out in their red underwear.

As I mentioned, union suits, or any long johns for that matter, are not the first thing you think of when Southern California comes to mind. 

Yet, think E.T., the Extra-Terrestial. In the1982 Universal Pictures movie, young Elliot spends much of the time at his Los Angeles home  running around in his thermal underwear pj's looking after his new friend, E.T. 

Before visiting the L.A. area and seeing this movie for the first time, I wondered aloud, "what's a little boy living in sunny California doing wearing long thermal underwear?!" I found out on my very first trip to California albeit a few hundred miles north of L.A. Turns out I was quite uncomfortable in the cool, nippy Bay Area because I hadn't packed any long underwear. 

Now each time I visit my son and his family in California, I'm sure to pack a couple of union suits. And, I wear them. You should too on your visits.

As for the union suited wranglers, you can find any number of their strange and wild underwear performances on YouTube including these selections. Listen and enjoy, just copy and paste...

https://youtu.be/rafp7O54N_M?t=128

https://youtu.be/HRBruvQ4ZVA

https://youtu.be/zsgCXf-pFSo

Elliot in his Thermal Underwear PJ's