Jeff Bridges in The Last American Hero (1973)
Vitals
Jeff Bridges as Elroy “Junior” Jackson, Jr., moonshine runner and aspiring race car driver
Gaston County, North Carolina, Fall 1972
Film: The Last American Hero
Release Date: July 27, 1973
Director: Lamont Johnson
Wardrobe Credit: Alan Levine
WARNING! Spoilers ahead!
Background
Amid the playoffs ahead of the NASCAR Cup Series Playoff Race at Martinsville a week from today on November 3, today’s post celebrates one of the more underdiscussed “mooonshine movies” that also draws on the link between Appalachain bootleggers and stock car racing.
Photographed by cinematographer George Silano against an authentic North Carolina autumn in late 1972, The Last American Hero was adapted from Tom Wolfe’s Esquire essay about moonshiner-turned-NASCAR star Robert “Junior” Johnson, represented on screen by Jeff Bridges (in one of his first starring roles) as Elroy “Junior” Jackson, Jr., who speeds through the mountains of North Carolina in his ’67 Mustang to run moonshine for his father Elroy (Art Lund) and brother Wayne (Gary Busey). Jim Croce’s “I Got a Name” plays over the opening credits as Junior grumbles his souped-up Mustang through autumnal back roads to the Jackson family farm, where his family awaits him to load the car with the white mule for his “hot-doggin'” run that night.
Like the real Junior Johnson whose father spent decades in and out of prison on bootlegging charges, Elroy Sr.’s eventual arrest motivates Junior to take his talents to the race track to earn money to support his family. Junior’s career begins with a demolition derby promoted by the cheapskate Hackel (Ned Beatty) and grows to stardom on the stock car racing circuit, including the movie’s culminating race at Martinsville.
What’d He Wear?
The Denim Jacket
Junior’s go-to jacket is made from a dark blue denim, which shows the wear and distress from years of regular use, with a collar faced in brown pinwale corduroy. Unlike the familiar trucker jacket style popularized by the likes of Levi’s and Lee, this waist-length jacket has a straight front-zip and two set-in hand pockets with curved openings. A third set-in pocket over the left breast has a zippered closure that slants slightly downward toward the center.
Unlike many contemporary denim jackets, Junior’s jacket lacks any clear branding. This style was mostly popular through the 1950s and ’60s, produced by a range of brands from general outfitters like J.C. Penney to denim specialists like Maverick and Blue Bell/Wrangler.
Based on the additional chest pocket, plain cuffs (sans buttons or straps), and buckle-adjusted side straps, I suspect Junior’s jacket was made by Blue Bell/Wrangler as these details align with their contemporary blanket-lined chore coats—like this one on on Etsy.
Shirts
Junior begins The Last American Hero wearing a red-and-white shadow-plaid sports shirt made from a lightweight cotton gauze. The short-sleeved shirt has a spread collar, breast pocket, and a plain button-up front that he wears open-neck to show the top of his usual white cotton crew-neck undershirt.
For some tough conversations with his family, Junior later wears a mid-weight flannel long-sleeved shirt in a navy-and-olive plaid with a dark-red overcheck. This straight-hemmed sports shirt has a four-button front that he wears totally open, with a fifth button tucked under the right collar leaf at the top to coordinate with the loop collar on the left side.
As Junior’s racing career takes him to tryouts for the NASCAR circuit at Hickory, North Carolina, and a first encounter with “Georgia peach pit” Marge Denison (Valerie Perrine), he wears a solid indigo short-sleeved shirt designed with a long point collar, front placket, and two box-pleated chest pockets—each with a flap that closes through a single button in indigo plastic to match those up the placket.
Everything Else
These are all the shirts that Junior wears with his dark indigo denim Lee jeans, distinguished by the brand’s signature “lazy S” stitch across the two back pockets as well as the yellow-embroidered black brand tab sewn along the top of the back-right pocket. Junior holds up his jeans with a dark-brown leather belt that closes through a squared gold-toned single-prong buckle.
Junior regularly wears plain black leather cowboy boots with low-heeled leather soles and calf-high shafts under the boot-cut legs of his jeans.
For his moonshine runs, Junior typically pulls on a khaki canvas bucket hat.
The Cars
A ’70s movie about moonshiners and NASCAR is naturally going to feature plenty of great American muscle cars, demonstrated by the handful of vehicles that Junior races along mountain roads and race tracks throughout The Last American Hero.
Junior’s Mustang(s)
Junior’s personal ride is a midnight-blue Ford Mustang fastback, suggested at IMCDB to be either a 1967 or 1968 model modified to resemble a ’67 with its “Nightmist Blue” exterior paint and distinctive side scoops. Indeed, both model years were cosmetically similar as the first significant redesign since the Mustang was introduced for what enthusiasts call the “1964½” model year.
Though a 200 cubic-inch straight six engine remained an option, Junior’s Mustang would certainly be powered by one of the V8 engines available in these model years, ranging from the 289 cubic-inch small-block up to the 428 cubic-inch “Cobra Jet” introduced for ’68 that was rated at 335 horsepower. Of course, a gearhead like Junior could have also modified the engine as his mother (Geraldine Fitzgerald) asks “did you get the Holley hooked up?”, which suggests he may have installed an engine like the beastly 429 “Super Cobra Jet” J-code V8 rated at 375 horsepower which was the only first-generation Mustang engine with a Holley carburetor.
Though Junior’s race-ready Mustang is implied to be the same car, it has been identified as a different 1967 model, marked up with his name above the doors (now emblazoned with the number 70) and sponsor stickers over the rear fenders.
Competition Cars
Rather than punish his Mustang, Junior purchases an old bullet-nosed 1949 Ford Custom to drive in the demolition derby—a far cry from when Ford introduced the redesigned model during a swanky gala at the Waldorf-Astoria in New York a generation earlier.
Junior’s matte black-painted two-door sedan needs plenty of work including a new engine, though the stock options would have been either the 226 cubic-inch straight six or a 239 “Flathead” V8, both mated to a three-speed sliding-mesh manual transmission as Ford wouldn’t introduce an automatic option until the 1951 model year.
Though he made his bones driving Fords, Junior switches to General Motors for his NASCAR participation, spending $3,000 on a white 1965 Chevrolet Chevelle two-door hardtop that would be painted with his new “00” number and sponsors like the Asheboro, North Carolina-based “Thomas Bros. Country Ham” over the fenders.
The hood paint describes a 350 cubic-inch engine, though this small-block V8 would have been custom installed by Junior and his mechanics as Chevy didn’t introduce the performance-oriented 350 until 1967.
By the end, Junior is racing a red-and-gold 1970 Chevrolet Monte Carlo, with Coca-Cola logos prominently detailing the rear fenders while automotive brands like Autolite, Goodyear, Grey-Rock, Moog, and STP are repreesnted on the front panels.
How to Get the Look
Jeff Bridges in The Last American Hero (1973)
When not in his racing jumpsuits, Junior maintains a hardy workwear wardrobe expected from a youthful mountain moonrunner in a rotation of shirts to accompany his regular denim jacket, jeans, and boots.
- Indigo-blue denim straight-zip chore jacket with brown needlecord collar, slanted zip-up chest pocket, curved-entry hand pockets, plain cuffs, and buckle-tab side adjusters
- Red-and-white shadow-plaid cotton gauze short-sleeved shirt with spread collar, plain front, and breast pocket
- White cotton crew-neck T-shirt
- Dark indigo denim Lee jeans
- Dark-brown leather belt with squared gold-toned single-prong buckle
- Black leather calf-high boots
- Khaki canvas bucket hat
Do Yourself a Favor and…
Check out the movie.
The Quote
If you had gas for brains, you couldn’t back a piss-ant out of a pea-shell, boy.
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