Patrick Swayze as Dalton in Road House (1989)
Vitals
Patrick Swayze as James Dalton, professional bouncer
Jasper, Missouri, Spring 1988
Film: Road House
Release Date: May 19, 1989
Director: Rowdy Herrington
Costume Designer: Marilyn Vance
WARNING! Spoilers ahead!
Background
The recent announcement of a sequel green-lit for the 2024 remake of Road House came just in time to celebrate the anniversary of the original, released 35 years ago this week on May 19, 1989. Patrick Swayze famously starred as Dalton, a New York City cooler who has mastered a zen-like approach to his work to overcome being haunted by having ripped a guy’s throat out several years earlier.
As is wont to happen with guys who rip out other guys’ throats, Dalton’s reputation has followed him around the country, leading to Missouri businessman Frank Tilghman (Kevin Tighe) tracking him down to the Big Apple. Since this was at least 20 years before Bar Rescue ever aired and Jon Taffer was busy patenting a color-coded music selector, Tilghman hires Dalton to clean up his rowdy road house, the Double Deuce.
Negotiating for $5,000 up front plus $500 a night, all medical expenses paid, and the terms that “I run the show, completely,” Dalton drives his metallic-blue Merecedes-Benz more than a thousand miles across the country—his fear of flying being one of the few traits that I share with the character—until reaching the parking lot of the Double Deuce in the small Missouri town of Jasper, just across the border from Kansas and definitely not in California.
“You know I heard you had balls big enough to come in a dump truck, but you don’t look like much to me,” the rough Morgan (Terry Funk) greets him. “Opinions vary,” the stoic Dalton responds, though his blind guitar-playing pal Cody (Jeff Healey) later assures Morgan: “You fuck with him, and he’ll seal your fate.”
Dalton takes up residence in Jasper, romancing the local emergency doctor Elizabeth Clay (Kelly Lynch) and training the Double Deuce staff in his particular philosophy around bar management (“I want you to be nice until it’s time to not be nice.”) It’s not long before this antagonizes the crooked crime lord running the town, Brad Wesley (Ben Gazzara), so Dalton calls in his trusty old pal and perhaps even cooler cooler Wade Garrett (Sam Elliott) for backup.
What’d He Wear?
Costume designer Marilyn Vance developed some of the most iconic costumes of the 1980s and ’90s through her work on projects like The Breakfast Club, Pretty in Pink, The Untouchables, the first two Die Hard movies, and Pretty Woman. Her designs for Road House seem deliberately at odds with what a “tough guy” bouncer would be expected to wear, as Dalton’s attire more closely reflects his rational attitude than his ruthless skills.
As soon as Dalton arrives at the Double Deuce, he pulls on not a distressed denim jacket or a worn-in leather flight jacket but a light sand-colored sport jacket with a soft suede shell. Framed by the trendy padded shoulders, the unstructured jacket is fashionably oversized for the late ’80s. The lapels are dramatically notched with low gorges, tapering down to the three suede-covered shank buttons, closely spaced in a low stance.
A seam circles the waist, positioned between the top two buttons in the front and a few inches above the top of the short vent, which aligns with a vertical seam that extends up the center of the back—perpendicularly intersecting the horizontal seam of the back shoulder yoke. The set-in sleeves are plain at the cuffs, and the four front pockets gape open: two narrow-welted chest pockets and two open-top hip pockets.
Patrick Suede-ze.
Dalton arrives in Jasper wearing a mustard-brown silky camp shirt that he wears a few more times during his tenure in town. The shirt has a loop collar, plain button-up front, two set-in chest pockets, and long sleeves with button cuffs that he keeps undone and rolled up to his elbows, even when he layers the suede jacket over this shirt.
The day after his arrival, Dalton goes shopping for new digs and wheels to establish himself in Jasper. He wears a plain violet crew-neck T-shirt under his suede jacket, which he eventually takes off to reveal the shirt’s set-in short sleeves with banded ends.
Dalton tucks his shirts into his mid-blue denim jeans, styled with a button-fly and the traditional five-pocket layout of two curved front pockets, a coin/watch pocket inset on the right, and two patch-style back pockets. The cut and arcuate stitch over the back pockets suggest Levi’s, though they lack the signature red tab—or any other tab used by the brand—on the back-right pocket. He wears a smooth mid-brown leather belt that closes through a gold-toned single-prong buckle.
Dalton rotates through several sets of footwear in his wardrobe, though he typically pairs this suede jacket with boots that have nearly identical sand-colored suede uppers.
As Brad Wesley ramps up his reckless aggression against any townspeople that stand up to him, Dalton joins a group gathering to witness Wesley’s monster truck-driven destruction of a car dealership. It’s one of the few times we see Dalton wearing sunglasses, sporting a pair of all-black aviator-style sunglasses. The white scripted logo in the upper right corner of the right lens identifies them as Ray-Ban, with the reinforced brow bar (also in black) and rounded ear hooks characteristic of the Ray-Ban Outdoorsman frame launched by Bausch & Lomb in 1939 and eventually incorporated into the design of the AN6531 specs adopted by the U.S. government for Army and Navy pilots during World War II.
Ray-Ban continues to manufacture the Outdoorsman, now officially designated the RB3030 and—as of May 2024—available in polished gold or Dalton-style polished black frames.
Dalton’s stainless steel chronograph looks similar to the TAG Heuer 3000 Professional watch sported by fellow ’80s tough guy John McClane (Bruce Willis) in Die Hard, reinforcing this Swiss watchmaker’s place among the consideration set for cinematic ass-kickers of the era.
Almost certainly either the quartz-powered ref. 232.206 or automatic ref. 132.206, Dalton’s TAG Heuer features a 38mm stainless steel case with a rotating steel bezel encircling a round gray dial that boasts a trio of sub-dials at the 12, 9, and 6 o’clock positions with a white-wheeled date window at 3 o’clock. Dalton wears the watch on its stock steel three-piece bracelet.
Before I watched Road House for the first time, I really only knew two things about it:
- Patrick Swayze says “Pain don’t hurt” and
- Patrick Swayze pushes Kelly Lynch up against a wall to have sex with her.
What I certainly didn’t expect was that Swayze pulled off the latter dressed like my 3rd grade school photo.
Getting memorably laid in a baggy sweater vest on a white T-shirt should rest any doubts that Swayze absolutely had the sauce.
Dalton started his shift wearing his usual sand-colored suede jacket, now layered over a beige sweater vest and a plain white cotton crew-neck short-sleeve T-shirt. The sleeveless sweater has a then-fashionably roomy fit like his jacket, trimmed in taupe around the armholes and the plunging V-neck line. Rather than his blue jeans, Dalton wears dark-brown cotton five-pocket jeans.
Aside from a few instances where he wears a suit of a similar color, the sand suede jacket is actually Dalton’s go-to outerwear throughout Road House, including a black high-necked T-shirt that he wears with both black and white pleated slacks, but we’ll reserve that focus for its own post down the road.
What to Imbibe
“Coffee, black,” is Dalton’s preferred drink while maintaining order. He’s hardly a teetotaler, as the bottles of Miller Genuine Draft and Miller High Life that pile up during his night out with Doc and Wade confirm, but he keeps himself sober and alert while on duty.
The Car
To protect his three-year-old Mercedes-Benz coupe from the wrath of the Missourians he knows he’s sure to antagonize, Dalton quickly stashes it and buys a considerably used 1965 Buick Riviera with plenty of dents and chips in its burgundy mist poly paint job.
“She’s a runner!” the salesman gleefully tells Dalton before demonstrating the Riviera’s hidden headlights to his new customer.
1965 was the last model year of the Riviera’s first generation as this personal luxury coupe had only debuted two years earlier but would remain continuously produced by Buick through 1999—with the exception of 1994.
When Dalton finds the Riviera on the lot, the windshield is painted with “V-8 4BRL”, which technically refers to both the 401 cubic-inch “Wildcat” V8 and the 425 “Super Wildcat” that were the only available engines for the ’65 Riviera, both mated to GM’s three-speed Turbo Hydramatic automatic transmission.
Dalton’s next stop is to a local junkyard to load the Riviera’s spacious trunk with spare tires, anticipating the preferred method of revenge from the Double Deuce staff members he’ll need to fire.
How to Get the Look
Patrick Swayze as Dalton in Road House (1989)
Especially when he adds the intermediate layer of a sweater vest, Dalton’s tan suede sport jacket and baggy shirts are more what you’d expect to see on a nice guy rather than a tough guy—which just makes him all the more effective when it’s time to not be nice.
- Sand suede unstructured single-breasted sport jacket with closely spaced 3-button front, low-gorge notch lapels, two set-in breast pockets, two set-in hip pockets, plain cuffs, and single vent
- Mustard-brown silk long-sleeved camp shirt with loop collar, plain button-up front, and two set-in chest pockets
- Mid-blue denim jeans with button-fly, belt loops, and five-pocket layout
- Brown smooth leather belt with gold-toned single-prong buckle
- Sand suede boots
- Black-framed Ray-Ban Outdoorsman aviator-style sunglasses with black brow bar
- Stainless steel TAG Heuer 3000 Quartz Professional ref. 232.206 chronograph watch with 38mm case, rotating steel bezel, dark-gray round dial (with 3 sub-registers and 3:00 date window), and steel three-piece link bracelet
Do Yourself a Favor and…
Check out the movie.
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