Whilst preparing reference material for a current project, "The Golden Age of Cinema", I found myself asking why the archetypal movie director all ways looks like this image. Was there ever a director who dressed this way? Does anybody know or can shed some light on why?

Enquiring minds need to know :)

The idea of this garb harkens back to the silent era, and especially the German Directors who came to Hollywood during the 1920's and 30's. If you replace the sunglasses with a monicle, you have Fritz Lang, the director of "Metropolis." Cecil B. DeMille also adopted this mode of dress.

The purpose of the boots and desert garb was for field work, when the crew was out in the sand and heat.

The megaphone was the best that could be done to amplify his voice so the cast and crew could hear spread out as they sometimes were.

Attached Link: http://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/thumb/d/de/Cecil-b-demille_paramount-pictures.jpg/260px-Cecil-b-demille_paramount-pictures.jpg

Could not find any images for Fritz Lang in this outfit and the best that I could find of Cecil B. DeMille is attached.

Interesting, thank you.

Attached Link: http://3.bp.blogspot.com/-7_M9CACoh8E/TlbCc-NlWYI/AAAAAAAAB3s/UpMOwUoe8K0/s320/Cecil-Demille.jpg

Oh here's a better one :)

And this is what I'm playing around at:-

Yeah, I think it's simply what a well-dressed figure in a position of authority would wear in the outdoors at that time. The riding boots were probably the gentleman's only alternative to town shoes - he wouldn't be seen dead in rough work boots. Once you're wearing riding boots, the jodhpurs are the most comfortable way to go, and khaki is a particularly good colour for spotting ticks on your clothing.

European plantation owners in the colonies would all have been wearing much the same getup, with a riding crop for pointing at minions. Maybe a famous French director started the beret thing.

Phil, while you're on a roll, did robbers ever really wear striped teeshirts and little black Zorro masks?

I do not know but the thieving racoons that constanstanly rake over the trash certainly do :)

maybe they wore those because they hadda play polo after work, or at lunch.

Google Eric von Stroheim... an austrian director and actor... that was the sort of stuff he would wear when he was being interviewed...