I’ve often wondered why most old black and white photos of sports spectators depicted a throng of humanity dressed to the nines in the 1920’s and up to the 1950’s. Men would don a suit and tie and top it off with a fedora or a straw hat also known as a boater. Some went with a vest or even a bow tie to mix things up a bit. The typical woman’s wear usually consisted of a summer dress and possibly a sun hat or a bell shaped cap also known as a Cloche hat.
Whatever the particular style, the one thing for sure was people looked nice. Some of the reasons that the trend of the time was so formal, especially the 20’s and 30’s, was Hollywood and professional sports. Movies other than westerns and war movies depicted well dressed characters. From Charlie Chaplain and Mary Pickford to the Marx Brothers to Bogart and Ingrid Bergman …. most scenes were filmed in a dapper garb. Women were also dressed for the ball, unless they were on a boat or a horse or camping. Another influence in style was the sports figures. For example, on the local theater newsreel, Babe Ruth was always dressed in a coat and tie when not in pin stripes, as well as the great boxers of that time, Joe Louis and Jack Dempsey.
After WWII the trend continued until around the late 50’s when casual became the fashion. The dressed up look in men went from dark suit, tie and hat to the loud colored leisure suit to the bold colored coveralls to jeans and t-shirts to today’s typical male spectator in a sweat suit or an untucked t-shirt, multi-pocketed shorts partially covering leg that shouldn’t be seen in public, flip-flops or crocks and a baseball cap turned backwards. And woman’s fashion has “de-evolved” too but not nearly as drastic as the typical male neanderthal sports fan.
There are many who still respect the sport and others enough to look and act respectable. To the many men and women who do so, thank you for making the sport more enjoyable.
What’s my point? Well, the point is more of a question, and that is, why do some of our race goers have to look like such slobs at the track? Could we dress just a little nicer? I know we have nice threads somewhere in our closet… but why don’t we wear them out in public? If horse racing is the “Sport of Kings” then why are there so many kings dressed like peasants?
Thank goodness some tracks have dress codes in certain areas of the grandstand. Some, like Keeneland, even have different degrees of such codes like sport coat in one and collared shirt and dress pants in another. I’m in favor of the “casual look” as much as anyone else but there is a big difference in casual and pig-sty sloppy.
Someone once told me that you should always dress for success…. well, that must explain why so many of the slobs at the track are tearing up so many of their tickets.
