Union Suit Fans in the Limelight:

Marx Brothers' Horse Feathers features Chico in his Union Suit and Harpo in his BVD's. 
       Guest Contributor: L. Jackson Gilbert

1932 Horse Feathers was a very popular Marx Brothers Paramount Pictures' film starring all four Marx Brothers: Groucho, Zeppo, Harpo, and Chico. This movie is still one of my favorites.

Some of the scenes in this movie were based on various antics from the Marx's vaudeville comedy acts. In the early 20^th century “Horse Feathers” was an expression meaning “Nonsense” or more recently “Horse Sh*t.”

Union Suit Fans will appreciate the scenes wherein Chico and Harpo were reduced to their underwear by a couple of football thugs. The boys had been assigned to kidnap two football players so as to make them miss their big game. They had planned to lock them in their hotel room. The table was soon turned and the boys themselves were captured instead. The thugs were much larger and stronger than Chico and Harpo. So, they easily stripped them to their underwear to keep them in a locked hotel room. This scene takes place about 50 minutes or so into the movie:

Tap or Click to see the entire film:

https://ok.ru/video/333295848099

When the bruisers told Chico to take off his clothes, he refused so they stripped him of his coat and shirt. Then they told him to take off his pants. He said, "no, I have a date!" The football players then turned him upside down and shook him right out of his pants. He ended up on the floor in his union suit. 

Here are some favorite scenes from this movie...

The ruffians next told Harpo to take off his clothes which he immediately did by himself, revealing that he was wearing BVD's. 

What to do? The boys were left stranded in their underwear!

In the next scene of Horse Feathers, Chico and Harpo attempted to escape from the hotel room by sawing their way out. These numb skulls ended up falling through the floor into the room below clad only in their underwear. High society ladies, busy playing bridge, were at first surprised and then horrified at this interruption. Yikes! 

How ghastly! The Boys were out of there!!

Thanks, Jackson, for providing these amusing underwear scenes from this movie. Thanks to Paramount Pictures as well. I love slap stick and this is a favorite film of mine too... Chris

The Marx Brothers 

Added December 15, 2018 from Seth of Bangor, Maine:

Hi Chris, The scene of Harpo and Chico dropping in on the ladies' card game in their underwear reminded me of Cesar Romero running around in his union suit in the movie, "Wintertime." He interrupted a bridge game as well.

Yes, Seth, he sure did! Romero didn't drop through the ceiling like the Marx Brothers but he did inadvertently enter a door to the women's suite in his union suit. I posted his long underwear clip in my blog, Union Suit Fan, on September 22, 2017: "Cesar Romero -  Union Suit Fan."

Yesteryear - Clark and Kettle

Union Suit Fans in the Limelight

Countless actors over the years have appeared in movies and on television in their Union Suits. Two enormously popular thespians from the past Suit the bill, Clark Gable and Percy Kilbride.

In MGMs 1950's Boom Town, it's evident in short order that Clark Gable (1901-1960) and Spencer Tracy (1900-1967) are antagonists from the get go. Within the first ten minutes these Titans of the Screen have a verbal altercation, are shot at, dive into a deep watery mud hole, and end up sharing a room in a saloon / brothel, stripped to their long underwear. Thus, their continuing dust up begins in this rather convoluted romantic drama / comedy in which the boys go from oil “wildcatters” to moguls. 

Boom Town was Gable's second highest grossing film in terms of ticket sales. His highest? Gone With the Wind, of course. Here, filmed in Bakersfield, CA, are some memorable scenes of Big John McMasters (Gable) and Square John Sand (Tracy) in the classic, Boom Town, courtesy of Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer; Tracy appears in his two piece long johns while Gable has stripped to his Union Suit (Click on or tap any photo to enlarge).

Union Suit  -----  Union Suit  -----  Union Suit  -----  Union Suit  -----  Union Suit  -----  Union Suit  ---- Union Suit  -----  Union Suit  -----  Union Suit  

Percy Kilbride (1888-1964), actor, was best known for playing a country bumpkin riding his Union Suits to stardom. He appeared in a number of movies and shorts as Pa Kettle playing opposite Marjorie Main as Ma Kettle. They were brilliant together in those films as a married couple with 14 rambunctious children. Kilbride appeared in his Union Suit so often it can easily be argued that he was at least partially responsible for Union Suits becoming a comedic article of clothing. Who doesn't laugh at a guy caught in his long, one-piece underwear, having buttons all the way up the front and an essential escape hatch in the rear?

In 1950's Universal-International Pictures Ma and Pa Kettle Go to Town, Kilbride wins a jingle-writing contest and a trip to New York City. There he is taken for an organized crime figure, is charged with poisoning monkeys, is mistaken for an underwear mogul, and gets mixed up with dangerous gangsters.

In one favorite scene, Pa walks out of his hotel suite's bathroom in long underwear. He is conversing with Ma when the phone rings. Answering, it is a case of mistaken identity. The caller believes he has reached the chairman of the board of a major underwear manufacturer. Surprised at some of Pa's answers, he finally asks, “Aren't you, sir, the Kettle in Underwear?”

Pa looks around before answering, “Yeah, but how did you know?” Pa then politely excuses himself and lays down the phone receiver. He proceeds to the window of his room located about 50 stories up, high above the big apple. He looks out and, after deciding that the phone caller must have actually seen him standing there in his union suit, pulls down the window shade before returning to the phone to resume the conversation.

Kilbride was enjoyed by millions of movie goers from the 1940's thru the 1950's for appearing in films where he seemingly was always running around in his Union Suit. Following is a scene with him in tattered long underwear along side Ann Sheridan and Jack Benny (in boxer shorts). At the end of this 1942 movie, George Washington Slept Here, the men were attacked by thousands of locusts  which devoured their clothes and a good portion of their underwear:

From decades ago Clark and Kilbride were Union Suit Fans in the Limelight!