November 14, 2014

"Whenever I'm in the shorts, I feel a real onus to be as deadly serious as I can possibly be, because you can't put those on and act silly."

"If you put those on and act silly, it's a joke on a joke on a joke. It's just an over-decorated cake. So, for better or for worse, whenever you see my performance on the show, that's me doing my most serious acting. In my mind, I'm like Cary Grant in that thing."

From "10 Things Thomas Lennon Wants You to Know About Lt. Dangle's Reno 911! Shorts."

Lennon is speaking of his state of mind, not opining on how he thought he looked, but it does make me wonder if Cary Grant wore shorts. Yes:



But that's consistent with my long-term exception for sports where the traditional attire is shorts.

24 comments:

gerry said...

Is that Fred MacMurray doing the triceps extensions?

hiawatha biscayne said...

looks to be randolph scott

Brian said...

Whoever he is, he needs to stop skipping leg day.

sojerofgod said...

Cary Grant and Randolph Scott were roommates for several years in Hollywood. Roommates. While there were inevitable whispers (you filthy minded...!) They each went on later to marry and carry on normal lives.

Beldar said...

It's finally cold enough in Houston that I've put my shorts away until spring (which should come in February).

I wear shorts most days when I'm not in court or seeing clients. So I'm emphatically not in agreement with Prof. Althouse's fashion preferences.

But at this point, I'm amused by her long-running (if, to my eyes, entirely unconvincing) verbal assault on men-in-shorts. De gustibus non est disputandum, but even if you can't dispute tastes, you can definitely laugh at them.

Heartless Aztec said...

Inlanders - sheesh. Wear long pants or socks around here and people think it's time for an intervention. There have been weeks of hurricane swells where we just lived in our baggies.

Anonymous said...

There are lots of people around here who live in bags all year, surfed. But then again, they are homeless.

MayBee said...

Wow, Cary.

Ann Althouse said...

"Cary Grant and Randolph Scott were roommates for several years in Hollywood. Roommates. While there were inevitable whispers (you filthy minded...!) They each went on later to marry and carry on normal lives. "

Actually, I found the photo via an article titled "Scandals of Classic Hollywood: Cary Grant's Intimate Bromance":

---------------------quote-------------------------

During this first period of success, Grant had been living, on and off, with an actor named Randolph Scott. Grant and Scott had met on the set of Hot Saturday, where both men played suitors to the same leading lady. The two hit it off immediately and shared an apartment until Grant’s first marriage in 1934. After Grant’s divorce, it was 24-hour bro-time, and the two rented a sprawling seven-bedroom Santa Monica beach house, widely known as the “Bachelor Hall.”

Here’s where it becomes unclear whether Grant was just making fun of nosy gossip columnists or actually bisexual. The two had women over all the time — but hey, George Clooney also has many, many (vetted) girlfriends, and Tom Cruise has been married three times. Gossip columnists warned that the couple had “taken things too far”: while other stars posed for fan mag spreads with their wives, Grant and Scott reveled in homosocial domestic bliss....

So here are our options:

1. Grant and Scott were gay and used the lady-parties as a cover. They joked about being gay so as to deflect real anxiety about them being gay.

2. Grant and Scott were not gay, and found the anxiety over close male friendship amusing, playing it up for the press.

3. We’ll never know whether they were gay or not, but Grant’s all the more interesting because of the ambiguity, not to mention the presence of high-waisted boxing shorts. Those calves!

I vote for option number three....

---------------------endquote-------------------------

Lots more great pics at the link.

Carol said...

they clearly didn't know about steroids back then.

Bob Ellison said...

Cary Grant's best line in Bringing up Baby.

Shanna said...

Wow, Cary.

Indeed! I already adored Cary Grant, but I don't remember ever seeing quite that much of him.

traditionalguy said...

Are you suggesting Grant was also really serious in feeling onus?

MadisonMan said...

All day, all night, Cary Grant.
That's all I hear from my wife, is Cary Grant.
What can he do that I can't?
Big deal, big star, Cary Grant.

roger said...

I am sorry. I go lost within: shorts, onus and Reno.

I got nothin

Birches said...

I had no idea Clooney was rumored to be closeted. I guess I learned something new today.

Ignorance is Bliss said...

Birches said...

I had no idea Clooney was rumored to be closeted.

I remember hearing Brad Pitt joke that he and Angelina Jolie weren't going to get married until it was legal for Clooney to marry his partner.

mikee said...

I am reminded of the moment in Blazing Saddles when the Sheriff asks for time to save the town, and the whole town says, "No!."

"You'd do it for Randolph Scott."

"Randolph Scott!" As the town takes off their hats in respect.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=RVGFGmoltDs&t=0m38s

And that was where I learned Randolph Scott was one of the best cowboy actors ever.

Unknown said...

Whenever I'm in the shorts, I feel a real onus. So I stopped wearing them.

richard mcenroe said...

That sure looks like a bad Photoshop. What is that straight seam across Grant's neck? Was he still recuperating from fighting the Thuggees in "Gunga Din"/

dbp said...

Grant's daughter claimed in her memoir that her dad liked to be called gay. This way, women would want to prove the claim to be incorrect.

Sydney said...

Cary Grant certainly was gifted with a wonderful body. Let us all be thankful he went into the movies.

Heartless Aztec said...

@tman - well, that would be where you lived.

RigelDog said...

Oh my. Mr. Grant was built and muscled in a much more appealing way than the typical Hollywood "hunk" of his day.