Anita O'Day's Singing and High Fashion in the Film 'Jazz on a Summer's Day'

Overview of the film...

The Newport Jazz Festival, held in Newport, Rhode Island, in the northeastern United States, is a traditional annual summer festival that has been running since 1954.
This work is a "hot" documentary film that captures the 5th festival, which was held over three days starting on July 3, 1958, in the midsummer 67 years ago.
It depicts the overwhelming and powerful performances of legendary musicians such as Sonny Stitt, Thelonious Monk, Anita O'Day, Gerry Mulligan, Art Farmer, Jim Hall, Dinah Washington, Chico Hamilton, Louis Armstrong, and Chuck Berry, as well as the stylish audience enjoying them. It is a work filled with a mysterious charm, where each scene feels like a completed photograph.

Bert Stern, who directed this film, was 30 years old at the time. He was a photographer who was also making waves with his cutting-edge advertising photography, including for fashion magazines like "VOGUE".He later became a major topic of conversation for his work "The Last Sitting," which captured "Marilyn Monroe six weeks before her death," and he became a master photographer mentioned alongside the likes of Richard Avedon and Irving Penn.

Many of the women visiting the venue are dressed in elegant dresses or modern one-piece dresses, reflecting the "real high-society fashion" of the time. It may be Bert Stern's instinct as a fashion photographer that led him to intersperse shots of these women throughout the film.

Anita O'Day, who shone particularly brightly...

Anita O'Day (1919–2006) is a singer said to have been blessed by heaven with two gifts: "beauty and singing ability."
She sings songs like "Sweet Georgia Brown" and "Tea for Two" on this stage, but along with her singing, what the audience focused on was her fashion.

Anita's turn was late on the afternoon of Sunday, July 7, 1958.
She appeared wearing a sleeveless, form-fitting black dress.
The hem is trimmed with black embroidered lace on a white background. Her black hat also features a wide brim adorned with glamorous white ostrich feathers. And white gloves. Until around the 50s, hats and gloves were a part of a woman's grooming.

A jazz festival held at a high-class summer resort in midsummer. It is the perfect outfit for a late Sunday afternoon, one that charmingly accentuates Anita's singing. What made that outfit even more perfect were the "glass-heeled mules" she was wearing. Normally, one might choose white stiletto pumps, but her sense of style was on a high level.

Mules are footwear that covers the toes and has no fasteners at the heel. She brilliantly dressed down the formality of her semi-formal attire with these mules. Perhaps the added casual feel helped bridge the distance with the audience at the midsummer resort.

She stretches her long arms, extended from her sleeveless dress, much wider than the width of her hat, to appeal to the audience. The audience must have been glued to Anita's beautiful figure and singing voice that day.

Unlike the flashy and gorgeous stage costumes of previous eras, Anita O'Day's chic and glamorous attire is a noteworthy style that will remain in both jazz and fashion history.
Such a costume created a wonderful performance and film.

The identity of the overly stylish audience...

The biggest feature of this film is that it focuses heavily on the "festival audience." The musicians' performance scenes make up about half of the total, with the rest devoted to the audience and landscape descriptions. Furthermore, what is worth noting is that these audience members are "too stylish." Elegant people who make you wonder if they were hired extras are shown one after another.

However, it's not as if the jazz scene at the time was always like this. There is a reason why such graceful and sophisticated people gathered at the Newport Jazz Festival...

Newport, where this festival is held, is a port city that has flourished as a major North American port since the 18th century. It was once a base for the abhorrent slave trade, but in the 19th century, it became a popular summer resort and vacation spot.
At that time, wealthy tycoons known as railroad kings and coal kings, as well as influential political figures, all built luxurious villas here, and along with that, casinos, golf courses, and yacht harbors were built. Newport is also where the America's Cup, the U.S. Open in golf, and the first U.S. Singles Championship in tennis (the current U.S. Open Tennis) were held, all of which are captured in this film.

Observations on audience fashion...

The audience's fashion is very interesting. First, what catches the eye are the sunglasses. As it is an outdoor summer event, the rate of sunglasses usage is very high, but for example, female guests wearing fox-shaped sunglasses that tilt up along the corners of their eyes appear repeatedly.

On the other hand, male guests often wear traditional clothing such as summer suits and jackets, which is the same for the jazz musicians on stage. Most of the male guests are not wearing ties, wearing their suits in a rough, unbuttoned style.
Since this was before the arrival of the Beatles, many white men wore crew cuts with the sides shaved short. And they are wearing Ray-Ban "Wayfarer" sunglasses. They go well with the plastic frames and look stylish.

The social background of this film...

Incidentally, in the United States, after the film's release in 1960, a series of major events shook American society, including the Cuban Missile Crisis, the assassination of President Kennedy, and full-scale military intervention in Vietnam... Dark shadows began to fall over an America that had seemed so robust and prosperous. The period when this film was made was, so to speak, a "
brief moment of peace" that arrived after World War II and the Korean War. With the war barely touching the mainland and the country holding an overwhelming economic advantage, the wealth of the world concentrated in 1950s America, and people were able to enjoy material abundance. This film depicts people who embody such a "prosperous America" as they enjoy music and yacht racing.The reason the atmosphere and fashion of "Jazz on a Summer's Day" remain an object of longing today is perhaps because it captures the "
final glimmer of America's golden age" within it.

Thank you for watching until the end!