Addams says Fester wears ‘a black greatcoat with an enormous collar’. I never gave it much thought, watching The Addams Family. Growing up in San Diego I had no experience with such coats, and it was just part of the character.
But The Shop Around The Corner is playing now, and one of the characters is wearing a similar garment. This was an actual fashion in the '30s? (Or possibly '20s, since Addams portrayed his characters in '20s garb.)
The coat in The Shop Around The Corner appears to have an Astrakhan collar (although the term seems to connote furriness rather than a specific design). The Astrakhan style seems to have caught on in Western Europe around the time of the Crimean War — though it’s undoubtedly been around much longer — and has been in and out of vogue in middle to high couture ever since.
That said, neither Coogan’s or Addams’ collars appear to be fur, so I couldn’t call them Astrakhan. For want of anything better, I’d call them “mutant turtleneck.”
The collar in TSATC is fur. I couldn’t find a better picture of it, but it looks almost exactly like Fester’s. Maybe it stood a little more upright, and maybe it looked a little looser, but that might be because a skinny guy was wearing it. On second look, you’re right that Fester’s doesn’t appear to be fur. It looks more like a mouton collar. But the design of the collar and coat are the same.
FWIW, TSATC took place in Hungary.
Not having actually watched an old AF for a few years, my memory fooled me into thinking Fester’s neck attire was perhaps part of a cowl.
To hijack a bit, the character descriptions are somewhat similar to the TV versions but not always- Fester, Gomez & Morticia’s are most accurate, Grandmamma & Lurch middling & Pugsley & Wednesday not much. The TV show & especially the movies all have Wednesday as the smarter & more diabolical of the two. The movies practically make Pugs a non-entity.
The King of Bohemia in the first Sherlock Holmes short story, “A Scandal in Bohemia,” was described as wearing an Astrakhan collar: http://ecx.images-amazon.com/images/I/41qdJic-RBL._AA300_.jpg
Nothing about the collar, but I have a novelization from the '60s and it refers to the coat as being an ulster. I think I know where the book is; I’ll look to see if it says anything about the collar.
Uncle Fester’s Collar - band name.
OK, found it. From the 1965 classic The Addams Family by Jack Sharkey, who also wrote the classic Cinderella Meets the Wolfman:
Later, as Fester has reported to the draft board:
I must say that this book is very funny and quite subversive, well worth the quarter I probably paid at a yard sale decades ago (the previous owner’s name is written inside the front cover). The copyright is held by Filmways TV Productions Inc.
