The other day I was having breakfast watching a fun movie with Fred Astaire and Burgess Meredith called Second Chorus from 1940. The pair play perennial flunkers at an unnamed East Coast Ivy establishment, who run the college big band and make so much money from it they never want to graduate. Until, that is, Artie Shaw comes to town (cue some cod-classical jazz features) and Fred and Burgess try to outdo each other to get the first trumpet chair job in Shaw’s band.
Imagine my surprise when Meredith (who wears a number of college style duds in the film) props a foot onto a coffee table to kick a metronome and there, large as life is a pair of white buck playboy chukkas!
I’ve seen ads for Hutton’s Original Playboys from 1936 but twenty five years before Steve McQueen, Burgess Meredith, the coolest Penguin ever, was already cool.
Thanks for hipping me to Hutton’s Weejun. I had no idea. Now I have something new to occupy my ‘net time this weekend. Plus I have to track down “Second Chorus” as it sounds like my kind of film. Cheers!
You’ll be a lucky man to find some Nick. Rumour is though that there may well be an imminent revival from the new owner of the nane, but I’ve heard that before!
Second Chorus you should be able to find. I first saw it about 30 years ago, snappy dialogue and some good set pieces from Artie Shaw, and Astaire & Meredith look like they’re having fun…