Marc Fennell
speaker
1,887 appearances
18 recordings
2 series
first heard Apr 2026
last heard 5d ago
Marc Fennell’s voice in public audio — every appearance, attributed to the second.
Trend
recordings per month · last 12 monthsRecordings per month over the last 12 months — 18 in all, peaking in Sep 2026 with 5.
Appearances
Now, it's not just the crazy pants and the jacket.
The accessories were also very important if you wanted to get your zoot suit right.
The suits weren't only excessive just because they were large, they were also visually provocative.
Now, when Clyde Duncan ordered his custom suit in 1940, the thing you've got to know is there's a lot of movement in America.
And I don't just mean on the dance floor.
We're talking about one of the largest movements of people in US history.
It was dubbed the Great Migration.
So starting from the 1910s, approximately 6 million black people in total left the American South, escaping racial violence, the oppression and the legacy of Jim Crow laws.
And where they were headed were opportunities, education, money, freedom.
And on the way to their new lives, these people, these families, they were carrying hope and optimism, but they were also carrying something else.
Most importantly for our story, the Zoot suit spreads to Los Angeles.
So young people of color, they're wearing this oversized, fashionable suit, but not everyone's wearing it for the same reason.
But to gain this affinity and to look good at these jazz clubs, it had cost you.
Like, these suits were not cheap, just for the fabric alone.
Going back to our friend Clyde Duncan, he worked as a busboy at the time and what he paid for his bespoke garment would be around $400, $500 in today's dollars.
But as time wore on, young people would find ways of dealing with this cost.
Nothing says rebellion like traveling around with your own sewing kit, right?
Now, this is all happening around the early 1940s.
World War II is heating up, and, of course, in 1941, America enters the war.
And then in 1942, because there's so many army uniforms that need to get made, the U.S.
Showing 941–960 of 1,887 · page 48 of 95
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