Happy Days: Henry Winkler’s Leather Jacket as Fonzie

Henry Winkler as Fonzie on Happy Days

Vitals

Henry Winkler as Arthur “Fonzie” Fonzarelli, cool mechanic-turned-diner owner and high school teacher

Milwaukee, late 1950s and early 1960s

Series: Happy Days
Air Dates: January 15, 1974 – July 19, 1984
Creator: Garry Marshall
Men’s Costumer: Mickey Sherrard (1977-1984)

Background

Happy Days premiered 50 years ago today on January 15, 1974, the start of an impressive 11-season run on ABC chronicling an idealized look at mid-century life in the Midwest. Created by the prolific Garry Marshall, the series initially centered around all-American teenager Richie Cunningham (Ron Howard) and his family and friends until retooling to increase focus on Arthur “Fonzie” Fonzarelli (Henry Winkler), a quintessential ’50s greaser in the mold of Marlon Brando and James Dean who quickly rose to become an audience favorite.

Responding to the show’s low ratings and audience preferences, scripts began focusing more on Fonzie, particularly around the second-season holiday episode “Guess Who’s Coming to Christmas” (Episode 2.11), considered a high point of the series. ABC got a little too excited and eventually recommended renaming the show “Fonzie’s Happy Days” to capitalize on the breakout character, a suggestion promptly shut down by both Marshall and Howard.

With no title change needed, the sitcom’s ratings rose with the Fonz’s elevation to prominence in the show’s storylines, resulting in Winkler’s three consecutive Emmy nominations for his charismatic performance. Winkler would finally win an Emmy Award in 2018 for his portrayal of acting coach Gene Cousineau in the first season of the HBO series Barry. He has been nominated for all four seasons of Barry and will be among the seven actors competing tonight for the Outstanding Supporting Actor in a Comedy Series during the 75th Primetime Emmy Awards.

In addition to Fonzie remaining a quintessentially “cool” figure in pop culture, the landmark series resulted in a number of terms that continue to endure through generations of media literacy and TV criticism, from “Chuck Cunningham Syndrome” (when a TV jettisons a character without explanation) to “jumping the shark” (coined by Jon Hein to reference when a TV show overstays its welcome, named for the three-part fifth-season premiere that culminated in the Fonz literally water-skiing over a shark.)

Through several rounds of set updates and cast changes over the years, including Ron Howard leaving the series just before the eighth season to pursue a directing career, Henry Winkler and Tom Bosley—who played the Cunningham patriarch, Howard—were the only cast members to appear in all 255 episodes of Happy Days, though Ron Howard returned for sporadic appearances across the series’ final season.

What’d He Wear?

Perhaps one of the most famous costume pieces in TV history, Fonzie’s leather jacket almost didn’t happen.

Years before they would totally reverse their position and request naming the show after its breakout star, ABC was so against the idea of “glorifying” a character—even a secondary one—whose leather jacket would look too threatening and suggest criminal affiliations. To compromise, Garry Marshall eventually agreed that the Fonz would wear his less-threatening stone and pale-blue McGregor windbreakers but allowed that he could wear his leather jacket as long as he was in a scene with his motorcycle… and thus, despite the fact that Henry Winkler was far from proficient on a motorcycle, the Fonz was rarely ever seen far from his bike during Happy Days‘ first season.

Even in the first episode, Fonzie actually sitting on his motorcycle wasn’t enough for ABC to allow him to wear a leather jacket, so he wears a stone-colored windbreaker instead… albeit with the collar rakishly turned up.

Fonzie’s popularity won out over ABC’s initial pearl-clutching, and—by the second season—it was firmly established that Fonzie would always wear his now-trademark brown leather jacket, even refusing to part with it while reporting for his Army physical and during the fateful water-skiing shark jump. Marshall and Winkler had the last laugh in 1980 when one of Fonzie’s screen-worn leather jackets was gifted to the Smithsonian Institution and has remained a permanent exhibit at the National Museum of American History.

Fonzie’s screen-worn leather jacket, as displayed at the National Museum of American History. (Source: Smithsonian Institution)

According to Henry Winkler’s statement for Bonhams when auctioning one of the remaining jackets in 2021, there were at least seven leather jackets made or purchased for Fonzie to wear over Happy Days‘ eleven seasons, all following the same basic design. The look was inspired by traditional American flight jackets, though the design was simpler than the iconic A-2 that had been famously worn by USAAF pilots during the early years of World War II.

The classic Fonzie jacket is a waist-length blouson with a brown leather shell, though slightly differing shades of brown leather appeared over the years. The straight-zip front fastens up to the neck, where the jacket has a large, edge-stitched shirt-style collar and shoulder straps (epaulets) sewn onto each shoulder. The set-in sleeves are finished with dark brown ribbed-knit cuffs that match the ribbed-knit hem around the waist. The jacket also has two slanted, jetted-entry hand pockets.

Fonzie doesn’t need to change his daily attire of a leather jacket, T-shirt, and jeans when auditioning for a young rebel-type in “Hollywood, Part 2” (Episode 5.02).

For most of Happy Days‘ run, from the first season to midway through the fifth season, then again from the eighth season onward, Fonzie wore a simple plain white cotton short-sleeved T-shirt, echoing the plain white T that James Dean had worn in Rebel Without a Cause (1955). Indeed, the circumstances that led to Fonzie’s trip to Hollywood at the start of the fifth season were auditioning to be “the next James Dean” for Paramount Pictures.

The Fonz works his charms on an Army nurse, Lt. Quinlan (Linda Henning), in “The Physical” (Episode 4.20). Unlike the draconian sergeant overseeing his physical, only the lovely lieutenant can talk him into taking off his leather jacket.

Beginning in the fifth season episode “Bye Bye Blackball” (Episode 5.11), Fonzie actually says bye-bye to his plain white tee and begins wearing a tight black T-shirt, also short-sleeved but with a trimmer fit and higher banded neck. He would continue wearing black T-shirts through the rest of the fifth, sixth, and seventh seasons.

Another instance where Fonzie agrees to take off his jacket for a woman, this time showing off his ballet skills with girlfriend Colleen (Leslie Browne) in “Do You Want to Dance?” (Episode 5.24). By this point in the series, Fonzie had briefly switched from white to black T-shirts.

Blue jeans are an essential aspect of the Fonz’s style. Winkler cycled through several pairs of jeans over the course of the series, typically getting lighter in wash as time went on.

Initially, Fonzie wore medium-dark wash Levi’s 501 Original Fit jeans, identifiable by their recognizable cut, button-fly, and the telltale red tab on the back-right pocket. Through the first few seasons, these jeans often showed the wear and distress expected on a greaser like Fonzie, though his later 501s often looked newer.

The red tab on Fonzie’s Levi’s can be seen as he locks up while pretending to the Cunninghams that he has somewhere to be on Chrismas Eve in “Guess Who’s Coming to Christmas” (Episode 2.11).

From the middle of the fourth season through the fifth season, he wore bright medium-blue jeans devoid of any brand logos or signatures, and the denim appeared to be a tighter, stretchy blend that likely incorporated polyester with the ringspun cotton.

“Do You Want to Dance?” (Episode 5.24)

By the end of the seventh season, Fonzie was back in Levi’s, but in a lighter wash with a creased boot-cut leg more contemporary to the late 1970s production than the now-early ’60s setting. These Levi’s also featured a white tab on the back-right pocket, which the brand typically reserved for their corduroy offerings though these appear to be denim. When Fonzie gets shot while wearing these in the creatively titled episode “Fonzie Gets Shot” (Episode 8.15), he recalls recoiling in horror because “I don’t care about myself, but he ruined a new pair of pants!”

Fonzie models his doomed Levi’s in the Rashomon-like retellings of “Fonzie Gets Shot” (Episode 8.15). Not to worry, as he would continue to wear a similar pair through the remaining three seasons.

The fourth but no less critical element of the Fonz’s costume are his black leather engineer boots, a rugged style dating back to railroad engineers in the 1930s that became associated with youthful rebels in films like The Wild One (1953), Rebel Without a Cause (1955), and The Young Savages (1961). The laceless design and stovepipe shafts made them popular among motorcyclists as they protected the lower legs from heat and drive belts.

“The engineer boots I bought in NYC at a sporting goods store around 23rd Street and used them in The Lords of Flatbush,” Winkler explained in the Bonhams auction listing. “When Happy Days was picked up as a series I brought them out from New York to wear as The Fonz.”

Fonzie’s black leather engineer boots feature the standard mid-calf stovepipe shaft uppers, with brass-buckled straps around the ankle and around the top.

Even at the beach in “Hollywood, Part 3” (Episode 5.03), Fonzie continues to wear his signature engineer boots.

When recuperating on the Cunninghams’ couch from a motorcycle accident in “Fearless Fonzarelli, Part 2” (Episode 3.14), Fonzie wears plain white ribbed cotton crew socks. After his boots are briefly ruined by yet another motorcycle stunt gone wrong in “Potsie Quits School” (Episode 6.27), we see Fonzie wearing black socks as he cycles through alternative boots brought into his “office”, including cowboy boots, fur-covered boots, and thigh-highs.

After an accident in “Fearless Fonzarelli, Part 2” (Episode 3.04), Fonzie recuperates on the Cunningham couch, with one boot off to show his white sock… but one boot staying on, likely much to Howard’s horror.

In “The Physical” (Episode 4.20), Fonzie defies the bitter Sergeant Betchler (Warren Berlinger) by refusing to remove his signature leather jacket during his physical, though he does pull off his jeans to reveal a set of red, orange, and pink-striped cotton boxer shorts.

Sgt. Betchler: “Are you afraid someone’s gonna steal your little jacket?”
Fonzie: “Nah, I was afraid maybe I’d get caught in the draft.”

That’s stupid, why would someone wanna jump a shark?

In the fifth season’s three-part premiere, “Hollywood”, the thrill-seeking Fonzie discovers a newfound passion for water-skiing that puts him at odds with “The California Kid” (James Daughton), resulting in the two reluctantly agreeing to the ultimate test of coolness: water-skiing up a ramp to jump over a shark.

The only accommodation that the Fonz makes to his style while on the beach is swapping out his jeans for cornflower blue-on-white short-inseam swim trunks, even wearing his leather jacket—albeit with the lining removed by the costume team—for the notorious stunt. On the beach and boardwalk, he also continues wearing his black leather engineer boots.

Fonzie and Richie may have resumed their friendship after a disagreement in “Hollywood, Part 3” (Episode 5.03), but it’s too late for the show, which has already jumped the proverbial and literal shark.

Far from the beach, the Fonz layers against the cold Milwaukee winters merely by draping a long scarf over his leather jacket. Perhaps the most recognizable of Fonzie’s scarves is the red-and-sage green tartan plaid wool scarf that brings some festivity to his wardrobe in the holiday-set episodes “Christmas Time” (Episode 6.16) and “School Dazed” (Episode 11.20).

Fonzie’s red-and-green plaid scarf brings holiday festivity to his style in episodes like “Christmas Time” (Episode 6.16), while Richie typically wears his classic red tartan plaid hunting jacket during the season.

Of course, someone as cool as Fonzie would wear sunglasses, and he’s occasionally seen wearing gold-framed aviator-style sunglasses with mirrored lenses—perhaps more prominently seen in a vignette from the opening credits than on the show itself.

The Fonz in his element: sunglasses on, thumb up, and motorcycle ready to go.

How to Get the Look

Henry Winkler as Fonzie on Happy Days

One of the most famous costumes in TV history, Fonzie’s ’50s greaser look remains iconic for its simple effectiveness of a patinated brown leather jacket, plain T-shirt, blue jeans, and engineer boots.

• Brown leather blouson-style flight jacket with shirt-style collar, straight front zip, slanted jetted hand pockets, and ribbed-knit cuffs and hem
• White cotton crew-neck short-sleeved T-shirt
• Blue denim Levi’s jeans
• Black leather engineer boots with brass-buckled calf and ankle straps
• White ribbed cotton crew socks

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Check out the series.

The Quote

Ayyy!

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