Elliott Gould in California Split (1974)
Vitals
Elliott Gould as Charlie Waters, garrulous gambler
Los Angeles to Reno, Winter 1973
Film: California Split
Release Date: August 7, 1974
Director: Robert Altman
Costumer: Hugh McFarland
WARNING! Spoilers ahead!
Background
If I had a nickel for every great 1974 movie where the male lead had a bandaged nose for a significant portion of its runtime… well, California Split and Chinatown would yield me only 10 cents, but it would be well worth it for their shared existence.
Robert Altman’s excellently chaotic meditation on gambling, California Split, was released 50 years ago today on August 7, 1974, starring Elliott Gould and George Segal as a pair of two-time losers who meet over an L.A. card game. Initially more of a recreational gambler, Segal’s Bill Denny grows increasingly addicted through his friendship with Gould’s Charlie Waters, a charismatic hustler constantly on the make between card games and the horse track for his next big score.
What’d He Wear?
Consistent with his itinerant nature, Charlie Waters maintains a limited wardrobe seemingly restricted to whatever he’s wearing at the moment and a rotation of shirts. He makes up for this lack of variety by keeping everything interesting, from his distinctively detailed single-breasted sport jacket and two-toned loafers to the handful of bold shirts that led to Pete Anderson describing Charlie as his “print shirt spirit animal” for a 2017 Put This On post.
Charlie’s two-button sports coat is a rich tan, likely a blend of wool and synthetic polyester as was increasingly popular in the 1970s and would have fit his budget while also withstanding the rigors of his scrappy existence. The jacket features a darker brown contrast stitch along many of the edges, including the lapels, pockets and pocket flaps, and the curved seams that extend from behind each armhole straight down to the hem.
The full-bellied and fashionably wide notch lapels are supplemented with an extended trapezoidal throat latch tab that Charlie keeps buttoned to the stone-felted underside of the left collar. The set-in breast pocket and bellows hip pockets are all covered by flaps which present the same contrast-stitched welted edges as the lapels. The straight, padded shoulders have roped sleeveheads, and each sleeve is finished with two vestigial cuff buttons. The long single vent resembles an arrow with a triangular patch reinforced at the top and the unique addition of a short, pointed tab with a single button to close the vent.
When Bill and the audience meet Charlie over an L.A. poker table, he’s wearing a slate-colored rayon shirt with a tropical print of white clouds, green palm trees, and colorful flowers. The short-sleeved shirt follows the typical aloha shirt design with a loop collar, plain button-up front (with clear plastic buttons) and a breast pocket. Layered under his jacket over the shirt, Charlie wears an unbuttoned maroon velour vest styled with pockets and matte satin lining.
Charlie’s next shirt also features a Hawaiian-style tropical print but is styled more like a mid-century sports shirt with its long-pointed convertible collar, twin flapped chest pockets, and long sleeves that each fasten with a single button—dark-brown to match the buttons fastened up the plain front. The red, purple, yellow, and green all-over print evidently depicts a series of jungle birds against the pale-lilac ground.
Another of Charlie’s shirts that he wears on several occasions has a dark-gray tribal-printed ground, overlaid with coral and yellow flowers. Likely also short-sleeved, this shirt has a narrower camp collar and faux pearl buttons up the plain front.
“Don’t mean a fuckin’ thing, does it?” Charlie quips after he and Bill tally up their $82,000 payday in Reno. For the trip, he wears a brown aloha shirt covered in a purple, yellow, and white floral print, styled as expected with a camp collar, plain front, and straight hem.
During the brief sequence back in L.A. when Charlie joins a basketball game, we see his sport jacket folded next to his loafers as he hoops in a stone-colored aloha shirt worn open over one of his regular white undershirts. The all-over print features maroon-plumed white birds in flight. The shirt also has a loop collar, plain front, and breast pocket.
Charlie evidently takes the pickup game seriously enough to change out of his regular loafers to pull on a pair of Converse Chuck Taylor All-Star basketball sneakers with dirty white canvas high-top uppers each emblazoned with the Chuck Taylor-autographed star logo over the ankles. His white crew socks are striped with black and orange bands around the tops.
When not on the basketball court, Charlie’s usual shoes are his heavily worn two-tone loafers. These low slip-on shoes are crafted entirely of dark-brown leather, save for the contrasting white vamps framed by the wingtips, full-brogue quarters, and the strap over each respective instep.
Charlie exclusively wears white cotton crew-neck short-sleeved T-shirts as undershirts. He also keeps a simple silver disc pendant on a gold chain-link necklace.
Charlie’s dark-brown trousers are self-suspended and lack pleats, likely styled with a flat-front or front darts. The full-top “frogmouth”-style pockets were most fashionable through the late 1960s into the ’70s, and the bottoms are plain-hemmed.
Lounging at home, Charlie often wears a lilac terrycloth bathrobe patterned with large salmon-colored squares, styled with a shawl collar, waist sash, cuffs, and patch pockets over the breast and hips.
For the 2015 spiritual update Mississippi Grind, costume designer Abby O’Sullivan followed a similar template when dressing the Charlie-like gambling addict Curtis Vonn (Ryan Reynolds) in a hardy throat-latched sports coat with his rotation of shirts.
What to Imbibe
Plenty of beer flows through California Split, starting with Charlie’s order of “cold beer… keg draft,” after the first poker game where he meets Bill, establishing the duo’s tradition of buying the other a beer. From there out, it’s a parade of classic American 5% ABV lagers like Budweiser and Coors Banquet, both seen in the basket of beers that they bestow to Charlie’s prostitute roommates, Barbara (Ann Prentiss) and Susan (Gwen Welles), after a successful day at the track.
Of those two, Budweiser may be Charlie’s favorite, and he even enjoys it with breakfast after Barbara tastes it for him and serves it up with “your favorite, Lucky Charms.”
Charlie finally opts for something stronger during their trip to Reno, ordering “a J&B Scotch straight, with some soda water on the side.”
Go Big or Go Home
In one of the character’s defining moments, Charlie can’t believe he’s being robbed for the second night in a row and refuses to give in to the gun-toting robber’s demands, instead making a counter-offer that the thief only takes half of his and Bill’s money—totaling $780—so that our heroes wouldn’t be emptied out again. It’s just so bold that… it actually works.
Don’t try this at home—or at the casino.
How to Get the Look
George Segal and Elliott Gould in California Split (1974)
Charlie’s idiosyncratic wardrobe fits his vibe, with a rotation of tropical printed shirts only contributing to the chaos within his template of a uniquely detailed tan sports coat and two-tone loafers.
- Tan polyester single-breasted 2-button sport jacket with wide notch lapels (with throat latch), flapped set-in breast pocket, flapped bellows hip pockets, 2-button cuffs, curved back seams, and long back vent (with single-button pointed tab)
- Tropical-printed aloha shirts with loop collar, plain button-up front, and breast pocket
- White cotton crew-neck short-sleeved undershirt
- Maroon velour button-up vest with pockets
- Dark-brown flat-front trousers with beltless waistband, full-top “frogmouth”-style front pockets, and plain-hemmed bottoms
- Brown-and-white leather wingtip strap loafers
- Gold chain-link necklace with perforated silver disc pendant
Do Yourself a Favor and…
Check out the movie.
The Quote
Listen, you let a man rub some hot shaving cream on your ribs, you can take a shot with him at the track.
The post California Split: Elliott Gould’s Tan Sport Jacket and Printed Shirts appeared first on BAMF Style.