Cary Elwes as Thomas Ince in The Cat’s Meow (2002)
Vitals
Cary Elwes as Thomas H. Ince, Hollywood movie mogul
USS Oneida off the coast of southern California, November 1924
Film: The Cat’s Meow
Release Date: April 12, 2002
Director: Peter Bogdanovich
Costume Designer: Caroline de Vivaise
WARNING! Spoilers ahead!
Background
One hundred years ago this weekend was the mysterious party aboard media tycoon William Randolph Hearst’s luxury yacht that resulted in the death of pioneering filmmaker Thomas H. Ince.
Known a “Father of the Western” with more than 800 producing and directing credits to his name, Ince was celebrating his 44th birthday on Sunday, November 16, 1924 with Hearst’s invited guests aboard the USS Oneida when he reportedly suffered indigestion that led to his death of heart failure three days later. However, Hollywood lore persisted that Ince’s death was actually the result of foul play.
This suggestion was perpetuated at the time by Charlie Chaplin’s valet Toraichi Kono, who claimed to see Ince bleeding from a head wound as he was removed from the yacht. A theory emerged that Hearst himself had actually shot Ince, mistaking him for Chaplin, who was one of his guests for the weekend and who he suspected of maintaining an affair with Hearst’s mistress Marion Davies.
The rumors persisted for generations thanks to the likes of Orson Welles, whose clear disdain for Hearst formed the basis for his groundbreaking 1941 debut feature Citizen Kane. In the late 1960s, Welles shared the tale with then-rising filmmaker Peter Bogdanovich, who never forgot the scandalous story. Decades later, Bogdanovich brought the material to the big screen when Steven Peros adapted his own play The Cat’s Meow into a screenplay that formed the basis for Bogdanovich’s film of the same name, which starred Kirsten Dunst as Davies, Edward Herrmann as Hearst, Eddie Izzard as Chaplin, and Cary Elwes as the ill-fated Ince.
The real Thomas H. Ince, circa 1922.
What’d He Wear?
On the first night of the weekend, all of the men are clad in conventional black or midnight-blue tuxedoes, though the next evening—Ince’s birthday party—many of the male guests except for Hearst himself have embraced the party atmosphere and the warmth of the southern California sea in their off-white dinner jackets. The Cat’s Meow is set in late 1924, about a decade before white dinner jackets rose to wider acceptance as warm-weather evening wear, though one could argue that Hollywood has always been fashionably ahead of style trends.
Much to Ince’s ultimate misfortune, the party’s appreciation for white dinner jackets also extends to Charlie Chaplin, dressed in an almost identical ivory dinner jacket—differing only with its neo-Edwardian cuff sections.
Ince wears an ivory tropical worsted wool dinner jacket with a ventless back and wide, padded shoulders, emphasized with roped sleeve-heads. The peak lapels are faced in satin silk, though many style experts and black tie code purists insist that white dinner jackets look best with self-faced lapels, aligning with the less formal contexts where they are accepted. His lapels roll to a single sew-through button, which matches the two smaller buttons decorating each cuff. (An extreme close-up of the end of Ince’s left sleeve shows three buttons place very close to the edge, though this is likely an insert shot using a different jacket.)
The straight hip pockets have jetted openings, and Ince dresses the welted breast pocket with a white silk display kerchief.
The black tie dress code grew increasingly popular in the early 20th century as a less formal offshoot of the elegant white tie and tails, though obviously styled with black neckwear that gave the code its nomenclature. For Ince, this means a self-tying black silk bow tie in a classic butterfly (or thistle) shape.
Certain elements of white tie dress code were adapted for black tie, including white evening shirts with all of the parts that show woven in a stiff marcella (piqué). For Ince, this means a marcella front bib and double (French) cuffs—the pair of small round studs on the bib and rectangular cuff links are gold-framed with black onyx facings. Ince attaches a detachable stiff white wing collar to the neckband, secured with gold studs on the front and back.
White dinner jackets are typically paired with the same dark formal trousers worn with a matching tuxedo, made from either black or midnight cloth and styled with silk galon down the sides. Ince’s black wool evening trousers are reverse-pleated with side pockets and double black satin galon down the side seams to the plain-hemmed bottoms. He holds them up with white silk suspenders (braces) that have gold-toned adjusters and white leather ears that connect to buttons along the inside of the waistband, though he generally keeps his waist covered with a wide black silk cummerbund without the traditional pleats.
Ince’s shoes are the black patent leather oxfords considered among the most formal footwear, naturally worn with black dress socks.
Ince refreshes himself while talking to Margaret Livingston (Claudia Harrison), his mistress for the weekend and the Utah-born actress who would later famously co-star in F.W. Murnau’s 1927 masterpiece Sunrise: A Song of Two Humans.
Hearst, his dozen guests, and the birthday boy himself accessorize for Ince’s birthday dinner in festive party hats that often reflect their professions or passions. For example, Chaplin sports a black bowler hat, in keeping with his iconic Tramp character, while Ince dons a decorative cowboy hat that nods to his reputation as the “Father of the Western”. Ince’s black hat is adorned with a wide black-and-white double-checked band, with fringed edges woven in shiny silver.
Already similarly dressed to Chaplin in his ivory dinner jacket, Ince unknowingly seals his fat by donning the derby that Chaplin had discarded during his conversation with Marion—thus giving a crazed Hearst reason to suspect that the man in his Walther’s sights is the same comedian who had been pursuing his own mistress.
Chaplin’s black bowler hat has the festive touch of a silver band, though Ince playfully choosing to put the hat on while talking to Marion gives Hearst reason to believe he’s actually shooting Chaplin when he takes aims at the back of Ince’s head.
Ince wears a gold ring on each hand, including an ornate ring with a black stone on his right pinky and a plain wedding band signifying his marriage to Elinor Kershaw on his left ring finger.
Wristwatches were still newly en vogue by 1924, when Ince is depicted sporting a gold watch on his left wrist. Strapped to a thin gold bracelet, this elegant timepiece has non-numeric hour indices positioned within a ring along the outer edge of its round champagne dial, which also has a seconds-counting sub-register at the 6:00 position.
While I suspect it may actually be a post-1920s timepiece, can anyone ID Ince’s watch?
How to Get the Look
Cary Elwes as Thomas Ince in The Cat’s Meow (2002)
One drawback of the uniformity of black tie dress code is that it could be very easy for your host to mistake you for the man sleeping with his mistress and, thus, shoot you in the head. To prevent this, make sure any cuckolding third parties present at your upcoming functions don’t plan on wearing the same festive apparel as you… and definitely don’t put on their distinctive party hat!
- Ivory worsted single-button dinner jacket with satin-faced peak lapels, welted breast pocket, straight jetted hip pockets, 2-button cuffs, and ventless back
- White silk pocket square
- White cotton formal shirt with detachable wing collar, marcella front bib (with two studs), and marcella double/French cuffs
- Gold-framed black-faced studs
- Gold-framed black-faced rectangular cuff links
- Black silk butterfly/thistle-shaped bow tie
- Black wool reverse-pleated formal trousers with side pockets, double side galon, and plain-hemmed bottoms
- Black flat silk cummerbund
- White silk suspenders with gold adjusters and white leather hooks
- Black patent leather oxford shoes
- Black dress socks
- Black cowboy hat with black-and-white checked band and silver-fringed edges
- Gold pinky ring with black stone
- Gold wedding band
- Gold wristwatch with round champagne dial (with non-numeric hour indices and 6:00 sub-register) on thin gold bracelet
Do Yourself a Favor and…
Check out the movie.
The Quote
You know, partnerships of any kind are based on two things: trust and sharing.
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