Warner Baxter as Jay Gatsby in The Great Gatsby (1926)
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Warner Baxter as Jay Gatsby, mysterious millionaire
Long Island, New York, Summer 1926
Film: The Great Gatsby
Release Date: November 21, 1926
Director: Herbert Brenon
WARNING! Spoilers ahead!
Background
The Great Gatsby, F. Scott Fitzgerald’s generation-defining novel of the Jazz Age, was first published by Scribner’s 100 years ago tomorrow on April 10, 1925. While it’s often claimed that the novel flopped on release, Gatsby was actually fairly well received; the real tragedy is that Fitzgerald died in 1940 believing his greatest work had been forgotten. One can only wonder how he’d have reacted knowing that, decades later, Gatsby’s yellow touring car would become the subject of countless high school essays on symbolism.
The novel’s rich themes and lush imagery have inspired multiple screen adaptations, the best-known being the lavish 1974 and 2013 versions starring Robert Redford and Leonardo DiCaprio, respectively. Less prominent are the 2000 made-for-TV version starred Toby Stephens as the doomed millionaire and a curiously sanitized 1949 adaptation with noir regular Alan Ladd in the title role. But the story’s screen legacy actually dates back much earlier—nearly to the novel’s initial publication.
Just a year after Gatsby hit shelves, George Cukor’s stage adaptation premiered on Broadway in February 1926. Famous Players—Lasky Corporation and Paramount Pictures purchased the rights and adapted it into a silent film that same year, with writers Becky Gardiner and Elizabeth Meehan shaping the screenplay.
Warner Baxter, who would become the second entertainer to win the Academy Award for Best Actor two years later, starred as the enigmatic Gatsby—ultimately shot down by the mechanic George Wilson, portrayed by Baxter’s real-life friend William Powell. The cast was rounded out with Lois Wilson as Daisy Buchanan, Neil Hamilton as the observant Nick Carraway, Hale Hamilton (no relation) as Daisy’s hulking husband Tom, Georgia Hale as Myrtle Wilson, and Carmelita Geraghty as Jordan Baker.
Sadly, the 1926 film is now considered lost—save for a brief trailer—but contemporary accounts suggest that while it kept the skeleton of the story intact, director Herbert Brenon emphasized the spectacle over the substance, trading Fitzgerald’s melancholic critique of the American dream for glamorous party scenes for a product that Scott’s wife Zelda later summed up as “rotten and awful and terrible.”
What’d He Wear?
While it’s true that no one may ever see the full 1926 version of The Great Gatsby again, enough production stills survive to reveal how Warner Baxter was dressed as Jay Gatsby, with many offering just enough context for anyone familiar with Fitzgerald’s novel to identify the scenes. As the limitations of 1920s filmmaking rendered Fitzgerald’s vivid descriptions of caramel, white, and pink suits meaningless on black-and-white film, the filmmakers instead dressed Baxter to evoke Gatsby’s wealth and flash through sharp silhouettes, unique details, and tonal contrast that read clearly on screen.
Warner Baxter in the 1926 version of The Great Gatsby, contrasted against a colorfully dressed Leonardo DiCaprio (inset, top) and Robert Redford (inset, center and bottom) in the 2013 and 1974 versions, respectively.
Gatsby’s Reunion with Daisy
Rather than the “white flannel suit, silver shirt, and gold-colored tie” that Fitzgerald dressed Gatsby in for his long-awaited reunion with Daisy in Nick’s home (and featured in all subsequent color film adaptations), Baxter’s Gatsby signals his affluence with a brashly monogrammed blazer worn with white trousers and shoes.
The dark double-breasted blazer is almost certainly made from a navy-blue wool, styled with a ventless skirt and peak lapels that elegantly taper to the square 4×2-button configuration of flat metal shank buttons, similar to the two or three buttons decorating each cuff. The jacket has appropriately sporty patch pockets, with the breast pocket detailed with the angular white “JG” monogram. Gatsby further dresses the breast pocket with a colorfully printed display kerchief, rakishly arranged.
“With blue and white as the imperatives of nautical dress, navy blazers and white trousers made a dashing sports outfit for the wealthy American man of the 1920s,” writes Alan Flusser in Dressing the Man. Baxter’s Gatsby balances his dark blazer with bright white (or off-white) slacks, echoing this contemporary fashion. The stills only show a comfortably full fit through the legs, finished with turn-ups (cuffs) on the bottom that break over the tops of his white oxford shoes.
Nick oversees Gatsby’s reunion with Daisy, their first time meeting since he left for World War I. In case she wouldn’t recognize the poor lieutenant she had loved nearly a decade earlier, the “JG” on his breast pocket should jog her memory.
The famous scene from the book of Daisy sobbing over Gatsby’s “beautiful shirts” evidently made it to the screen in ’26, and Gatsby himself regularly wears a white shirt uniquely detailed with dark hairline stripes irregularly broken up by small designs that add an eye-catching visual contrast. The shirt has a stiff point collar that presents a handsomely structured visage, framing the knot of Gatsby’s sharply contrasting two-toned tie in its Deco-informed geometric pattern.
Fitzgerald outlined the scene, awkwardly witnessed by Nick: “‘They’re such beautiful shirts,’ [Daisy] sobbed, her voice muffled in the thick folds. ‘It makes me sad because I’ve never seen such — such beautiful shirts before.'”
Gatsby’s Confrontation with Tom
Later in the story, Gatsby’s flirtation with Daisy comes to a head with her husband Tom. Fitzgerald described Gatsby’s clothing in the novel as “his gorgeous pink rag of a suit,” which Tom cited as part of his dismissal that Gatsby could possibly have attended Oxford.
Again, a pink suit would not be as clearly discernible as unique to viewers in the 1920s, so Baxter’s Gatsby retains his go-to outfit of a dark jacket and white trousers, though he appears to have swapped the monogrammed blazer for a more conventional jacket that has softer Parisian-style lapels, a fuller 6×2-button double-breasted front, and straight jetted hip pockets and a welted breast pocket rather than the blazer’s sportier patch pockets—though he again dresses the breast pocket with the same kerchief.
Gatsby and Tom quarrel over which gent has a mustache thin and wispy enough to truly earn Daisy’s affections, while Nick accepts that he doesn’t stand a chance with his bare upper lip.
Curiously, the rest of Gatsby’s outfit remains exactly the same with that uniquely striped shirt, Deco-printed tie, white slacks, and white shoes. He also dons a dramatic white Panama hat that has a flat crown, a dark silk puggaree band that wraps widely around most of it, and a brim totally turned down like an umbrella to shade him from the summer sun.
Presumably, this is Gatsby watching the Buchanan home after the downtown confrontation.
Alan Ladd in 1949
The same aesthetic would be mimicked for the 1949 adaptation of The Great Gatsby nearly a quarter-century later. Supervised by legendary costume designer Edith Head, Alan Ladd stepped into Gatsby’s two-toned spectator shoes and donned a navy blazer with white slacks and a tie for his portrayal of the enigmatic millionaire.
Alan Ladd maintains the dark blazer-and-white trousers look for the 1949 adaptation, as this was also filmed in black-and-white.
How to Get the Look
Warner Baxter and Lois Wilson in The Great Gatsby (1926)
Looking to incorporate a dash of Gatsby into your style without the risk of stepping out in crisp white or bold pink tailoring? Bring back that handsome roaring ’20s style of a navy double-breasted blazer with white slacks, summer shoes, and a dazzling tie. Who knows… maybe it’ll impress your old flame enough that you won’t need to throw lavish parties to try to attract her attention anymore!
- Navy wool double-breasted blazer with peak lapels, 4×2-button front, monogrammed patch breast pocket, patch hip pockets, 2- or 3-button cuffs, and ventless back
- White (with fancy hairline stripes) shirt with stiff point collar and front placket
- Light-and-dark Deco-informed geometric-printed tie
- White trousers with turn-ups/cuffs
- White oxford shoes
- White Panama hat with dark silk puggaree band
- Colorful silk pocket square
Do Yourself a Favor and…
Read the novel, as—unfortunately—this 1926 silent adaptation is lost to history. But fans of the story can always revisit the 1949, 1974, 2000, and 2013 versions… and read more about the intentional costuming in the latter three versions from my
The post The Great Gatsby at 100: Warner Baxter’s Monogrammed Blazer as Gatsby appeared first on BAMF Style.