At least once a year, I watch what I think is the most famous film clip of the year I was born: Willie Mays’ spectacular catch in game one of the 1954 World Series.

The most amazing thing about it is, well, the catch itself. (Here it is:)

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1vrsg_-dV7Q

The other amazing thing, to me, is in the last frame of this particular clip.

The fact that everybody in the crowd sitting in New York’s Polo Grounds is wearing a jacket, a shirt and tie, or both.

I haven’t worn a tie to a baseball game since I covered Game 5 of the 1978 World Series in Yankee Stadium. That’s because I came from a friend’s wedding. I was the only reporter doing so.

Sometime between the 1950s and 1970s, people stopped dressing up all the time. Because when you look at films from that era, ballgames were not the only things that people wore what we now refer to “dress clothes.”

People wore dress clothes to the park. People wore dress clothes to the theater. Women dressed up to do housework. 

Where you really notice it is on an airplane. Everybody, even the kids, used to dress up to fly somewhere.

The only people wearing dress clothes on the last flight I took were the flight attendants. Even they were somewhat casual.

Of course, another explanation for that is that you practically need to undress to get past security. But that’s a different matter.

I’m not sure why casual became the way to dress. TV? Rock and roll? It’s a waste of time and energy? The rise of designer name clothing?

Your guess is as good as mine.