For The Ones Who Like Westerns..

[pegasus216]

Can you answer some questions for me?
I notice that no matter how hot it is, the men will wear a 3 piece suit, and not sweat! What's up with that? Come out of some of those clothes!
All the men wear vests. Why?
Why do the Indians make some much noise?? Whooping, and hollering as they ride.
How is it that the cowboys always look clean? I doubt they bathed much back then. And they are clean shaven!
Why is it when they got into fist fights, they hardly ever lost their hats?
Did they really carry all their pots, and pans around with them? If so, they never made any clanking noise when the cowboy rode his horse.
If I think of any more, I'll ask..

 

[fljoe0]

Can you answer some questions for me?
I notice that no matter how hot it is, the men will wear a 3 piece suit, and not sweat! What's up with that? Come out of some of those clothes!
All the men wear vests. Why?
Why do the Indians make some much noise?? Whooping, and hollering as they ride.
How is it that the cowboys always look clean? I doubt they bathed much back then. And they are clean shaven!
Why is it when they got into fist fights, they hardly ever lost their hats?
Did they really carry all their pots, and pans around with them? If so, they never made any clanking noise when the cowboy rode his horse.
If I think of any more, I'll ask..

I've noticed people used to wear a lot of clothes a long time ago. Look at all the old photos from the 1800s and early 1900s and people wore coats and heavy clothes (to make things even hotter, everything was probably made of wool too). Look at photos from baseball games in the Babe Ruth days and you will see most of the guys wearing coats and ties. I've often wondered how hot that must have been. They didn't bath everyday back then (or wash their clothes every time they wore them) either so the smell must have been awful.

 

[GNTLGNT]

I've noticed people used to wear a lot of clothes a long time ago. Look at all the old photos from the 1800s and early 1900s and people wore coats and heavy clothes (to make things even hotter, everything was probably made of wool too). Look at photos from baseball games in the Babe Ruth days and you will see most of the guys wearing coats and ties. I've often wondered how hot that must have been. They didn't bath everyday back then (or wash their clothes every time they wore them) either so the smell must have been awful.

...like workin' around pigs.....after a while you don't notice the stench....

 

[GNTLGNT]

Can you answer some questions for me?
I notice that no matter how hot it is, the men will wear a 3 piece suit, and not sweat! What's up with that? Come out of some of those clothes!-you are right, very few Westerns ever showed people sweating....though, unless they were gunslingers of a "dandy" sort, banker or businessman-they didn't seem to wear suits...
All the men wear vests. Why?- the vests were a normal piece of fashion then...
Why do the Indians make some much noise?? Whooping, and hollering as they ride.-intimidation, sure wasn't because they wanted to sneak up on anybody
How is it that the cowboys always look clean? I doubt they bathed much back then. And they are clean shaven!-only in some that I watched
Why is it when they got into fist fights, they hardly ever lost their hats?-it was in the script
Did they really carry all their pots, and pans around with them? If so, they never made any clanking noise when the cowboy rode his horse.-the chuckwagons made a hell of a racket...but a coffee pot and fryin' pan would fit in a pack-so not much noise.....
If I think of any more, I'll ask..

 

[Haunted]

And in those days if everyone followed the 'bath on Saturday' rule, everyone would have a scent of some kind, eh? So it prolly wasn't an issue.

 

[Grandpa]

Can you answer some questions for me?
I notice that no matter how hot it is, the men will wear a 3 piece suit, and not sweat! What's up with that? Come out of some of those clothes!

Dress-up day used to be a lot more popular.

All the men wear vests. Why?

Vests have a slimming effect.

That's what I tell myself, anyway.

Why do the Indians make some much noise?? Whooping, and hollering as they ride.

For the same reason they ride in circles around the place they're attacking, waiting to get shot off their horses.

How is it that the cowboys always look clean? I doubt they bathed much back then. And they are clean shaven!

They shaved with straightrazors, and when they were done with the whiskers, why, they just went ahead and did the rest. They didn't bathe. They shaved off the dirt.

Why is it when they got into fist fights, they hardly ever lost their hats?

For the same reason they never break their knuckles or jaws.

Did they really carry all their pots, and pans around with them? If so, they never made any clanking noise when the cowboy rode his horse.

No, those were the prospectors, and they rode mules that had girls' names, because that's who they envisioned would carry the pots and pans.

If I think of any more, I'll ask..

Warning: If you ask any more, I'll keep making this stuff up.

 

[GNTLGNT]

Dress-up day used to be a lot more popular.

Vests have a slimming effect.

That's what I tell myself, anyway.



For the same reason they ride in circles around the place they're attacking, waiting to get shot off their horses.



They shaved with straightrazors, and when they were done with the whiskers, why, they just went ahead and did the rest. They didn't bathe. They shaved off the dirt.



For the same reason they never break their knuckles or jaws.



No, those were the prospectors, and they rode mules that had girls' names, because that's who they envisioned would carry the pots and pans.



Warning: If you ask any more, I'll keep making this stuff up.

...but you do it so well....

 

[not_nadine]

All the men wear vests. Why?

I will go with grandpa's answer, and it looked mighty fine next to the old timey casket pictures.


Why do the Indians make some much noise??
Whooping, and hollering as they ride.

They rode bare back. musta hurt them down there.


How is it that the cowboys always look clean? I doubt they bathed much back then. And they are clean shaven!

Every cowboy was by the Rio Grande, it had shaving rocks.


Why is it when they got into fist fights, they hardly ever lost their hats?

Little known fact. Mothers raise baby cowboys to regrow them, Lickety split.


Did they really carry all their pots, and pans around with them? If so, they never made any clanking noise when the cowboy rode his horse.

The cowboy horse is actually like a camel. Stores it all inside.

 

[Kurben]

About the hats. Not really an answer but at least a fact. Many of these hats had straps. That was so they would blow off when they rode. It was wastened under the chin. Usually when they came inside they released it but if not the hat would not have fallen of in a fight, at least by just one blow. In Rio Bravo there is a lot of talk from Walter Brennan and John Wayne trying to persuade Dean Martin to take a bath.

 

[muskrat]

What the hail kinda Westerns ya'll been talkin bout? Like, them thair old movies? Reckon ol Leone flicks had they fair share o' stinky, dirty, sweaty, be they good, bad, or ugly. And Peckinpah.

 

[Kurben]

What the hail kinda Westerns ya'll been talkin bout? Like, them thair old movies? Reckon ol Leone flicks had they fair share o' stinky, dirty, sweaty, be they good, bad, or ugly. And Peckinpah.

Yeah, see the Wild Bunch and learn!!!

 

[not_nadine]

Josey josey and josey.

 

[FlakeNoir]

Re: the vests... weren't real cowboy vests made from leather, could they have been (some) protection from knives in a bar brawl, things like that? Maybe fashion sprang from useful, I dunno...

 

[Walter Oobleck]

The vests come from needing a place for your watch. Samuel E Vest, nothing better to do than putter around in the little shack out back, was struck with the idea of vests, little pocket for the watch. His own watch down there in the pit, having fallen out of his Levi Strauss jeans pocket. His initial vest investment was aided and abetted by the local rock groups of the time, barbershop quartets. All the quartets were sporting vests and the movement took off from there. You need to consider the mournful 50s...all those singers walking around looking like undertakers? Sure, you bet. Look at the pics from the ball games...I think Joe mentioned this...and all the people there are undertakers, all in hats and ties and such, white shirts...this of course was before color photographs took off and ran away at the clubhouse turn. After color, all bets were off, the window is closed. Go watch the races.

What gets me is all the movies that Mister Ed had a cameo. He's in almost all the westerns. You see him tied up with all those black stallions, back to the camera, tails swatting flies, irritated and embarrassed by all the 145-shot shooters the cowpoke, good guys and bad guys alike, had holstered. There's that one movie, I forget which one exactly, you see a snippet of Mister Ed, all teeth and gums...while shots are ricocheting off the rocks. There's always rocks. Big hard granite boulders....cowpoke hiding behind them, ducking down when a ricochet careens away. Mister Ed over there hee-hawing by the stallions.

Mister Ed rocks. Go, Mister Ed, go!

 

[not_nadine]

Mr. Ed? really? no way.

 

[blunthead]

...Why do the Indians make some much noise??
Whooping, and hollering as they ride.

They rode bare back. musta hurt them down there...

 

[mjs9153]

Can you answer some questions for me?
I notice that no matter how hot it is, the men will wear a 3 piece suit, and not sweat! What's up with that? Come out of some of those clothes!
All the men wear vests. Why?
Why do the Indians make some much noise?? Whooping, and hollering as they ride.
How is it that the cowboys always look clean? I doubt they bathed much back then. And they are clean shaven!
Why is it when they got into fist fights, they hardly ever lost their hats?
Did they really carry all their pots, and pans around with them? If so, they never made any clanking noise when the cowboy rode his horse.
If I think of any more, I'll ask..

Haha,all legitimate questions..happened to see a Gunsmoke episode the other day,and Festus got his ass kicked,hat knocked off,and what is the first thing he did?Put the hat back on..never mind the baddie looking to blast large holes in his carcass..

 

[Maskins]

Or horse poo. They rarely show all of that but there would have been loads.

 

[CoriSCapnSkip]

Haha,all legitimate questions..happened to see a Gunsmoke episode the other day,and Festus got his ass kicked,hat knocked off,and what is the first thing he did?Put the hat back on..never mind the baddie looking to blast large holes in his carcass..

Here is a wonderful event which I have attended twice, is very enlightening, and for whose continued future I greatly hope! The National Festival of the West

One of the actors explained that no matter what you do, you get the hat back--as the scenes were filmed out of sequence and they didn't want to lose the hat in one scene and have it show up in a later one. Or maybe Buster Keaton said this, or maybe they both did. Anyway I heard that was the reason.

Another thing they will tell you is, many westerns went from black-and-white to color around 1963. The lighting for color was much greater than for black-and-white and therefore much hotter! Some actors described suffering enduring extreme heat!

 

[pegasus216]

Another question..why did they wear kerchiefs around their necks? some was for covering their faces for a hold up, but what about the ones who were good guys.