Clark Griswold in National Lampoon’s Vacation

Vitals

Chevy Chase as Clark W. Griswold, Jr., hapless family man

Chicago to Los Angeles, Summer 1982

Film: National Lampoon’s Vacation
Release Date: July 29, 1983
Director: Harold Ramis
Men’s Costumer: Robert Harris Jr.

WARNING! Spoilers ahead!

Background

Why aren’t we flying? Because getting there is half the fun, you know that!

Today is the 40th anniversary of the release National Lampoon’s Vacation, a comedy classic celebrating the great American tradition of the family summer road trip. Inspired by John Hughes’ short story “Vacation ’58” about a fictitious cross-country trip to Disneyland in a lemony station wagon that ends with our protagonist’s Dad shooting Walt Disney in the leg, Vacation introduced audiences to Clark W. Griswold, Jr., a well-intended family man who regularly goes disastrously above and beyond expectations to attempt to create memorable experiences for his family.

National Lampoon’s Vacation sends the Griswold family toward the fictional southern California destination of Walley World, a thinly veiled nomen à clef of Disneyland, though filmed at Six Flags Magic Mountain in Valenica. Clark packs his wife Ellen (Beverly D’Angelo) and their children Rusty (Anthony Michael Hall) and Audrey (Dana Barron) into a clunky conglomeration of American automotive excess for a nightmarish family vacation from the Windy City to Walley World that Clark eventually describes to Roy Walley (Eddie Bracken) as “two weeks of living hell.”

What’d He Wear?

Consistent with the image of success among 1980s consumerism, Clark Griswold’s vacation apparel is conspicuoulsy branded from head to toe in brands like Converse, Izod Lacoste, Members Only, Sasson, and Yves St. Laurent. His clothing sensibilities are shared by most of his family, particularly his son Rusty.

The Day Before: Chicago

Say goodbye to the old gas-guzzler, Russ!

It’s presumably at the end of a workday in food additives—not preservatives—when Clark and Rusty bring the family’s 1970 Oldsmobile Vista Cruiser station wagon to Lou Glutz Motors in Chicago (actually Star Ford in Glendale, California), intending to trade it in for the Antarctic blue “Super Sports Wagon” he ordered… only for the unhelpful Ed (Eugene Levy) to outfit him with a gaudy monstrosity on wheels.

Still dressed for the office, Clark wears a summer-weight cotton suit, hairline-striped in light blue and white. The single-breasted suit jacket has notch lapels that roll to two white buttons matching the three buttons on each cuff, also detailed with a welted breast pocket, flapped hip pockets, and long side vents. The matching flat-front trousers have gently slanted side pockets, jetted back pockets that each close through a loop buttonhole, and flared plain-hemmed bottoms.

Clark wears an ecru oxford-cloth cotton shirt with button-down collar, front placket, breast pocket, and button cuffs that he rolls up while at home doing the dishes and plotting their road trip. His maroon tie has dark navy “downhill”-direction bar stripes, bordered with narrow silver stripes on the top and bottom. He completes the look with dressy brown leather cap-toe oxfords that coordinate with his belt.

Day 1: Chicago to St. Louis

Walley World, here we come!

Once the road trip is underway, Clark leaves the business gear behind as he rotates through a collection of polo shirts and button-ups, jeans and khakis, and sneakers.

As expected of the Griswolds, their trip begins with a singalong on their way out of Chicago before a politically incorrect detour through St. Louis. The dulcet languidity of “Mr. Blue” by The Fleetwoods then lulls Clark to sleep behind the wheel, though his drowsy drive luckily takes the family directly to a motel for the night.

Clark begins the journey wearing a burgundy cotton piqué short-sleeved Izod Lacoste polo shirt, easily recognized by the green crocodile logo embroidered over the left breast in tribute to the nickname of company founder, French tennis player René Lacoste. The brand was technically “Izod Lacoste” from the early 1950s through 1993, but I’ll refer to simply “Lacoste” going forward in reference to its original and restored current brand name.

Held up by a black leather belt, Clark’s dark indigo denim jeans are from the short-lived American outfitter Sasson, as identified by the white-lettered dark red brand strip on the back right pocket. Rather than the standard five-pocket layout on conventional jeans, these have only two set-in front pockets just below the belt line and two back pockets, both decoratively detailed with a “bug-and-wrinkle” stitching in the same brightly contrasting white stitch found along the seams.

Clark also wears white Converse Pro Leather low-top sneakers with ivory suede overlays and a red accent star and chevron on each side. Converse introduced this style in 1976 as the “All Star Professional Basketball Shoe”, available in both high- and low-top models, with Clark favoring at least three variations of the latter.

Day 2: Through Dodge City to Coolidge, Kansas

Personally, I’d rather see a pile of mud than Eddie…

The Griswolds make their first planned stop in Dodge City, Kansas, complete with a recreation of the Long Branch Saloon. The dreaded journey to visit Cousin Eddie (Randy Quaid) also includes roadside attractions such as the world’s largest mud house and Christie Brinkley at the wheel of a bright red Ferrari.

Eventually, the family arrives at Eddie and Catherine’s homestead outside Coolidge, Kansas (in fact, filmed outside Pueblo, Colorado, as the mountains in the distance reveal) for an evening of lower-class living that results with Clark and Ellen agreeing to take the cantankerous Aunt Edna (Imogene Coca) to Phoenix… and not agreeing to loan Eddie his requested $52,000.

Given the Western theme of the day and Clark’s comfort with corniness, he may have intentionally selected a checked shirt in the hopes of channeling some cowboy style,  in this case wearing a navy-and-green Black Watch tartan plaid cotton long-sleeved shirt with a button-down collar (which he wears undone), front placket (with the top few buttons undone), breast pocket, and button cuffs (which he also wears undone and rolled up past his elbows).

Like many of his casual shirts, Clark’s tan cotton flat-front trousers are also made by Lacoste, indicated by the green alligator embroidered on the small button-donw flap of the set-in coin pocket just below the right side of his belt line. The straight-leg trousers also have side pockets, back pockets, and belt loops, through which he wears a medium-brown leather belt that closes through a gold-toned squared single-prong buckle.

He completes the Western-themed look with a souvenir cowboy hat in a silverbelly felt with a round, telescope-style crown, curved brim, and a black, brown, and tan-braided leather band. His sneakers are another set of Converse Pro Leather sneakers, with tan uppers and burgundy star-and-chevron detail.

Day 3: Coolidge, Kansas to South Fork, Colorado

Rusty: Dad, he bites!
Clark: Bite him back.

Eddie and Catherine don’t let the Griswolds leave without taking Aunt Edna and her aggressive, Family Feud-loving dog Dinky… and a pair of Eddie’s flashy white patient leather loafers that Clark had facetiously been “admiring” during a previous visit.

At a roadside picnic, Clark gets to ogle at something he actually admires—the Ferrari-driving blonde from the day before—who seems to be paralleling their cross-country journey. Unfortunately, Clark learns one bite too late that the prized baloney-and-cheese sandwich he’s been modeling for her has received some additional seasoning via Dinky’s urine. After the family crosses into Colorado and its lush mountains, they set up camp at the rustic tents offered at Kamp Komfort.

Clark wears another Lacoste short-sleeved piqué polo shirt, this one in pink but otherwise identical to the two-button burgundy shirt he had worn at the start of the trip. He again wears it with dark indigo Sasson jeans and a black leather belt, and he debuts a third pair of Converse Pro Leather sneakers in pale-gray with navy-blue star and stripe detail on the sides.

For an additional layer, Clark dons a stone-colored polyester Members Only racer jacket, the iconic outerwear that dominated the ’80s. Inspired by classic racer jackets, these zip-up jackets were characterized by a belted strap around the short standing collar and similar epaulet-style straps looped on the shoulders, all with snap closures. The cuffs are ribbed-knit to match the rest of the jacket, as are the welting on the slanted hand pockets and the set-in breast pocket. A small white rectangular patch with “MEMBERS ONLY” embroidered in black is sewn just below the breast pocket ribbing, indicating to the rest of the world that its wearer has indeed joined the special club of “members” who spent $55 on a polyester jacket.

Day 4: South Fork, Colorado to New Mexico

I think the worst is behind us.

Excitement is high with Clark’s promise to take his family to visit “the second largest ball of twine on the face of the earth,” only to learn of Dinky’s accidental death—as alerted by an emotional highway patrolman (James Keach).

Clark: Despite all the little problems, it really is fun, isn’t it?
Ellen: No.

Our hero again wears his indigo Sasson jeans and ivory-on-white Converse Pro Leather sneakers with red star and chevron, but this time with a muted teal cotton piqué Yves Saint Laurent polo shirt. With its short two-button placket, the short-sleeved shirt is styled like the Lacoste polos, with the obvious exception of a mint-embroidered “YSL” logo at the end of each sleeve instead of a crocodile over the breast.

Day 5: “Somewhere in Arizona”

This is no way to run a desert!

The Wagon Queen Family Truckster meets its ultimate challenge “somewhere in Arizona” when Clark accidentally jumps it fifty yards into the desert, resulting in considerable damage and leaving the family relatively stranded for quite some time.

“Everything on this safari has cost twice as much as you figured out,” Ellen comments, perhaps a subtle dig at his dated safari jacket. Clark indeed layers a light khaki cotton five-button safari jacket over his polo shirt, a continuation of the hold that safari-style clothing had over ’70s casual-wear, though fashion icons like Roger Moore’s James Bond were still wearing safari jackets (albeit, in more safari-like contexts) as seen in Octopussy. Though Clark’s jacket lacks the belted waist often found on safari jackets, it has the military-informed epaulets (shoulder straps) and quartet of flapped pockets—two inverted box-pleated chest pockets with gently pointed flaps and two somewhat larger patch-style hip pockets with scalloped flaps.

Clark wears a lilac cotton petit piqué Lacoste short-sleeved polo shirt, naturally styled with two-button placket and green embroidered croc over the breast. He again wears his usual dark indigo Sasson jeans with a black leather belt as well as his blue star-and-chevron pale-gray Converse Pro Leather sneakers.

When he rolls up the bottoms of his jeans (and eventually pulls them off) during his desperate crawl through the desert, we see he wears them with white ribbed cotton crew socks. He completes the look with a plain bottle-green cotton twill baseball cap that has brass-finished ventilation eyelets through each of the six soft panels comprising the crown, though he evidently ditches this hat somewhere in the desert. (He also ditches the safari jacket, though he evidently goes back to retrieve it as we see him wearing it at Walley World in the candid photographs during the credits.)

At the service station, he changes out of his desert-distressed gear into a nondescript ecru OCBD shirt, his Lacoste khakis, and the tan Converse Pro Leather sneakers with the burgundy star and chevron.

Day 6: Grand Canyon to Phoenix, Arizona

I think you’re all fucked in the head. We’re ten hours from the fuckin’ fun park and you want to bail out! Well I’ll tell you something, this is no longer a vacation. It’s a quest. It’s a quest for fun! I’m gonna have fun, and you’re gonna have fun. We’re all gonna have so much fuckin’ fun we’ll need plastic surgery to remove our goddamn smiles! You’ll be whistling “Zip-A-Dee Doo-Dah” out of your assholes! I gotta be crazy, I’m on a pilgrimage to see a moose! Praise Marty Moose! Holy shit!

Cleaned out of cash after the service station swindle and unable to use credit cards or personal checks, Clark rushes his family out of the historic El Tovar Hotel at the Grand Canyon (hey! I stayed there!) and then it’s on to Phoenix to drop off Aunt Edna.

Clark wears another Yves Saint Laurent short-sleeved polo shirt, this one in mint-green with a blue-embroidered YSL breast logo. He again wears his khaki Lacoste trousers with the brown leather belt, and he briefly re-dons the silverbelly cowboy hat while glancing at the Grand Canyon.

Rain greets the Griswolds as they roll into Phoenix, so Clark and Ellen don matching nylon rain slickers from Lacoste (this family really likes Lacoste), though Clark’s is blue while Ellen’s is tan. These simple zip-up rainproof jackets have a drawstring hood and hand pockets.

Night 6: Phoenix, Arizona

You only go around this crazy merry-go-round once!

By the time they get to Phoenix, nearly a week of compounding calamities on the road has crushed the Griswold family’s morale. After an argument with his wife, Clark finally catches up with Christie Brinkley, whom he joins for a night of skinny-dipping. The cold water triggers his inability to keep his cool and his loud yelps awaken the rest of the motel, resulting in a confrontation, reconciliation, and late-night swim with Ellen.

Clark dresses in—you guessed it!—his dark indigo Sasson jeans and another Lacoste short-sleeved polo shirt, this time in light blue cotton piqué. He also brings back the tan Members Only previously worn during the family’s roadside picnic in Kansas. This being the ’80s, the Members Only seems to be a beacon for gorgeous supermodels as both times he wears it, he ends up in the same place as Christie Brinkley… though it may be his decision to wear Eddie’s sparkling white patent leather horsebit loafers that brings the two even closer. These slip-on shoes have an apron-toe and gold horsebit detail across the vamp straps.

Through their evening at the motel, Ellen wears a pink Lacoste polo shirt that appears to be Clark’s shirt he wore for the third day of their journey.

Day 7: Phoenix, Arizona to Los Angeles

First ones here!

Their camaraderie restored, the Griswold family finally makes it to Walley World… only to discover that the park is temporary closed for maintenance. After everything they’ve gone through, Clark determines that this two-week closure certainly doesn’t apply to the Griswolds.

Clark dresses comfortably simple for a day at the amusement park, introducing a new shirt, shorts, and shoes that hadn’t been worn previously on the journey. His cotton short-sleeved sporrts shirt is patterned in a blue-and-gray tartan check against a white ground, styled with a point collar, breast pocket, elbow-length sleeves, and a plain button-up front.

Clark also wears khaki cotton shorts that could have been pulled from the set of Magnum, P.I. These double forward-pleated shorts have a fitted waistband (with no belt loops), side pockets, and a set-in coin pocket on the right side, just below the waistband. These are also Lacoste (of course), informed by the small green crocodile embroidered on the right thigh. He wears dark burgundy leather penny loafers, without socks.

Accessories

Clark’s oversized tortoise-framed glasses are typical of the era. He has both a prescription pair with clear lenses and a pair of identical sunglasses with tinted amber lenses. His eyeglasses would eventually be cracked after accidentally jumping his station wagon in the Arizona desert, requiring him to tape the bridge.

Befitting “the last true family man” as a colleague would describe him in Christmas Vacation (1989), Clark always wears his gold wedding band on the ring finger of his left hand… though he does claim the ring belongs to his brother when talking to Christie Brinkley in the lounge of the family’s Phoenix motel.

Until the incident in the desert, Clark wears a wristwatch with a gold-finished cushion case and a plain white dial with non-numeric hour indices, strapped to a smooth, plain black leather band. The piece looks like it could be one of the inexpensive mechanical watches produced by Timex through the ’80s, which would be consistent with Clark Griswold’s budget and fashion sense.

The Car

Clark had intended to order the “Antarctic blue Super Sports Wagon with the C.B. and the optional Rally Fun Pack” from Leo Glutz Motors but is instead presented with the Wagon Queen Family Truckster in metallic pea-green, a ridiculous station wagon custom-made for the movie by George Barris in an accurate send-up of the late 1970s American auto industry. The salesman Ed (Eugene Levy) describes the monstrosity as “a damn fine automobile… if you’re thinking of taking the tribe cross-country, this is the automobile you should be using, the Wagon Queen Family Truckster. You think you hate it now, but wait ’til you drive it.”

“Vacation ’58” established the family’s ride as a “brand-new 1958 Plymouth Sport Suburban Six station wagon” with only six and three-tenths miles on the odometer when Clark brings it home to the family.

The five wagons featured on screen were built by Barris Kustoms from the two-ton Ford LTD Country Squire station wagon, painted in a metallic pale avocado scheme with imitation wood paneling on the sides, hood, and rear, all consistent with trends of late ’70s design. The distinctive grille was redesigned to be mostly covered with bodywork, leaving only two small horizontal openings positioned above the bumper and an excessive array of eight headlights, including an additional pair that was stacked and mounted upside-down below those already offered on the LTD. Barris further accented the car’s impracticality with an oddly placed fuel tank cap and garbage-liner air bags that deploy at odd times.

The fictional “Wagon Queen” brand is represented with gold crown decals on each side, hubcaps, and an ostentatious crown-shaped hood ornament. I’ve read 1979, 1980, and 1981 as possible model years for the LTD Country Squire, with the case being well-argued in the comments of the vehicle’s IMCDB entry. Given that at least five were made for the movie, it’s possible that Barris pulled from across three model years to complete his five Family Trucksters for the Griswold family.

1980 Ford LTD Country Squire (converted)

Body Style: 5-door station wagon

Layout: front-engine, rear-wheel-drive (RWD)

Engine: 302 cubic-inch (4.9 L) Ford 5.0 “Windsor” V8 with Motorcraft 2-barrel carburetor

Power: 130 hp (97 kW; 132 PS) @ 3600 rpm

Torque: 230 lb·ft (312 N·m) @ 1600 rpm

Transmission: 3-speed automatic

Wheelbase: 114.3 inches (2903 mm)

Length: 215 inches (5461 mm)

Width: 79.1 inches (2009 mm)

Height: 57.4 inches (1458 mm)

You can read more about one of the screen-used Family Trucksters in this 2019 Driving article before it was on the block at a Barrett-Jackson auction. You can also read about a real-life Griswold family’s excellent work recreating a Family Truckster from an ’80s LTD Country Squire for their own cross-country road trip.

An arguably cooler ride featured on screen is Christie Brinkley’s red 1981 Ferrari 308 GTSi, right out of Magnum, P.I.

The Gun

Rusty: Is that a real gun, Mom?
Ellen: I don’t know, Rusty, but when this is all over, your father… may be going away for a little while.

Christie’s Ferrari wouldn’t be the only reference to Thomas Magnum as Clark claims his newly obtained BB gun is “a Magnum, P.I.” In fact, it’s a non-lethal Marksman Repeater 1010 BB pistol.

Introduced in the mid-1950s, these heavy metal air guns were designed to somewhat resemble the M1911A1 service pistol, to which they were dimensionally similar. A semi-“slide” over the back half of the frame could be pulled back to compress the firing spring, firing .177-caliber steel BBs, pellets, or darts. The pellets and darts had to be loaded one at a time into the muzzle, but the pistol had a capacity for 18 BBs, loaded directly into a chamber above the breech.

“We’re not really violent people… this is our first gun!” Ellen had explained to the nervous security guard Russ Lasky (John Candy).

What to Imbibe

Clark finds plenty of opportunities to enjoy beer while on the road, including when he shares a fictional “Flagler” beer with Rusty during their man-to-man talk in the Arizona desert. Productions like Vacation often use prop houses, including like Earl Hays Press, to provide fictional alcohol brands like “Flagler”, particularly for scenes like that one which depict underage drinking.

Earlier in Vacation, Clark is handed a half-drunk can of the very real Coors Banquet during a visit to Cousin Eddie. At the time Vacation was made in the early 1980s, the Colorado-brewed Coors was still famously only available in 13 states across the western United States, including Kansas where Eddie and his family dwelled. (Had Clark chosen not to proceed to Walley World but to return eastbound and down with a Family Truckster full of Coors, we may have had a Smokey and the Bandit IV situation on our hands.)

What to Pack for the Road

There are more practical ways to pack for a road trip than Clark Griswold’s rotation of Lacoste and YSL polos and Converse sneakers, but if you’re dedicated to replicating that suburban ’80s dad aesthetic on the road…

Shirts:

• Burgundy cotton piqué Lacoste short-sleeved polo shirt with two-button placket
• Pink cotton piqué Lacoste short-sleeved polo shirt with two-button placket
• Light-blue cotton piqué Lacoste short-sleeved polo shirt with two-button placket
• Teal-green cotton piqué Yves Saint Laurent short-sleeved polo shirt with two-button placket
• Mint-green cotton piqué Yves Saint Laurent short-sleeved polo shirt with two-button placket
• Navy-and-green Black Watch tartan plaid long-sleeved shirt with button-down collar, front placket, breast pocket, and button cuffs
• White with blue-and-gray plaid short-sleeved shirt with point collar, plain front, and breast pocket
• Ecru oxford cotton long-sleeved shirt with button-down collar, front placket, breast pocket, button cuffs

Trousers and Shorts:

• Dark indigo denim Sasson jeans with set-in front pockets and decoratively stitched back patch pockets
• Khaki cotton flat-front Lacoste trousers with belt loops, gently slanted side pockets, flapped right-side coin pocket, back pockets, and plain-hemmed bottoms
• Khaki cotton double forward-pleated Lacoste shorts with fitted waistband, side pockets, and flapped right-side coin pocket

Shoes:

• White leather Converse Pro Leather low sneakers with red star-and-chevron accents
• Tan leather Converse Pro Leather low sneakers with burgundy star-and-chevron accents
• Light-gray leather Converse Pro Leather low sneakers with navy star-and-chevron accents
• Dark burgundy leather penny loafers
• White patent leather horsebit loafers with gold bit

Outerwear:

• Stone polyester Members Only zip-up racer jacket with belted neck, belted epaulets, welted breast pocket, welted slanted hand pockets, and ribbed-knit cuffs
• Blue polyester Lacoste zip-up rain slicker with drawstring hood and side pockets
• Khaki cotton five-button safari jacket with epaulets, two inverted box-pleat pockets (with gently pointed button-down flaps), and two large patch-style hip pockets (with scalloped button-down flaps)

Everything Else:

• Green cotton twill baseball cap with ventilation grommets
• Silverbelly felt cowboy hat with telescope-style crown and brown, black, and tan braided leather band
• Brown leather belt with gold-toned square single-prong buckle
• Black leather belt with gold-toned square single-prong buckle
• Tortoise-framed oversized eyeglasses
• Tortoise-framed oversized sunglasses
• Gold-finished cushion-cased watch with white round dial on smooth black leather strap
• Gold wedding band

Do Yourself a Favor and…

Check out the movie.

The Quote

I’m just trying to treat my family to a little fun.

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