A dickie (sometimes known as a tuxedo front or tux front) is a type of false shirt-front designed to be worn with a tuxedo, usually attached to the collar and then tucked into the cummerbund. The rigid plastic dickie came into fashion in the latter years of the 19th century, and was one of the first successful commercial applications of celluloid. Business shirt Look up Shirt in Wiktionary, the free dictionary. ... Black tie is a dress code for formal evening events that are not formal enough to require white tie. ... A cummerbund is a broad waist sash, usually pleated, which is often worn with black tie. ... Plastic covers a range of synthetic or semisynthetic polymerization products. ... Alternative meaning: Nineteenth Century (periodical) (18th century — 19th century — 20th century — more centuries) As a means of recording the passage of time, the 19th century was that century which lasted from 1801-1900 in the sense of the Gregorian calendar. ... Celluloid is the name of a class of compounds created from nitrocellulose and camphor, plus dyes and other agents, generally regarded to be the first thermoplastic. ...

Dickies were popular for their waterproof and stain-resistant properties. Unlike traditional cloth shirt-fronts, they remained sleek, bright white, and did not wilt or wrinkle. For this reason, they were popular with entertainers, musicians, and other performers. Nevertheless, they were frequently maligned and spoofed for their stiffness, unmanageability, and tendency to pop out of place. In one notable Merrie Melodies segment, Elmer Fudd attempts to conduct an orchestra while his shirt-front keeps popping out of his cummerbund. "The flapping dickie", a famous Vaudeville cliche, involves a dickie which has been intentionally rigged to flap in a comical fashion. Show business is a vernacular term for the business of entertainment. ... Music is a form of expression in the medium of time using the structures of tones and silence. ... Merrie Melodies end title Merrie Melodies is the name of a series of animated cartoons distributed by Warner Bros. ... Elmer Fudd The fictional cartoon character Elmer J. Fudd, now one of the most famous Looney Tunes/Merrie Melodies characters, also has one of the more convoluted and disputed origins in the Warner Brothers cartoon pantheon (second only to Bugs Bunny himself). ... The Boston Pops orchestra performing on the Charles River Esplanade in Boston, Massachusetts. ... Vaudeville is a style of multi-act theatre which flourished in North America from the 1880s through the 1920s. ... Clich (from French, imitative) refers to: an overused phrase or expression, or the idea expressed by it; a situation, theme or characterization which has become common; a thing (as a style of clothing) that has become overly familiar or commonplace. ...

Hard plastic dickies have long since gone out of fashion, but cloth turtleneck-style dickies are still sometimes seen. An example of a classic polo neck. ...

See also

• Michael Quadrino