When it came to male wigs in big-budget epics of the mid 20th Century, the general rule was that men’s hair could never be thin or even thinning — it always had to be thick and wavy and perfectly combed with the application of cans and cans of hair spray. And the styling had to have a kind of high-pompadour, be-bop-bah-luah, James Dean in Rebel Without A Cause attitude.

Consider E.G. Marshall‘s breathtaking wig in this scene from Cecil B. DeMille and Anthony Quinn‘s The Buccaneer. Not to mention Charlton Heston‘s Andrew Jackson wig — white as snow like Jim Jarmusch‘s hair, but much, much thicker. But neither Marshall nor Heston could hold a candle to the black wig worn by Bonanza‘s Lorne Greene….utterly ludicrous.

Marshall played Louisiana governor William C. Claiborne. Inger Stevens played his daughter, Annette. The film went with a fictitious love story between Annette and Yul Brynner‘s Jean Lafitte. Brynner’s wig was not a wavy, high-pompadour thing, but was modestly styled and curled.

The Buccaneer‘s supervising hair stylist was Nellie Manley; she was assisted by Lenore Weaver.