- Messages
- 18,180
The Amon Carter Borsalino; Stetson Shady Oak Farm; Peters Bros Shady Oaks, Bankers Special & Shady Pines hats.
This thread is for pictures, the documentation & preservation of the above listed hats. Information is scattered throughout various threads & needs to be consolidated here. There doesn't seem to be a lot of hats so this may not get many posts. That's why I'm asking for the help of all owners & former owners (@buler, @carouselvic, @jimmy the lid) for your help. I'll open by quoting a great paragraph from a 2008 post by Jimmy the Lid, which helps to begin establishing a timeline & some order. The bold highlighting below is mine.
QUOTE:
"An excellent source of information on this topic is a book by Jerry Flemmons entitled Amon: The Texan who Played Cowboy for America. According to Flemmons, the hats passed out to dignitaries visiting Carter's Shady Oak Farm were originally supplied by Borsalino. These hats were rather large, wide-brimmed and high-crowned, as reflected in some early photos. After Mussolini declared war on Ethiopia (1935), Carter turned to Stetson to produce hats for him. Flemmons reports that "after months of design research," Stetson began producing the Shady Oak Open Road. In a previous post here on the Lounge, Jimmy Pierce has noted that Tom Peters of Peters Brothers was involved in the design of the hat. According to the Peters Brothers web site, Tom Peters left Fort Worth for Philadelphia in 1921 in order to work for Stetson, where he learned his craft from Stetson's master hatters. Thus, it seems like a relationship existed between Tom Peters and Stetson that could well have served as a basis for collaboration. Jimmy Pierce also confirms that the hats resulting from Tom Peters' design efforts were produced by Stetson. According to Flemmons, Amon Carter "bought them through Washer Brothers, an old-line Fort Worth store, and later through Peters Brothers, a downtown hat shop." Flemmons estimates that, at the very least, Amon Carter gave away "many, many thousands" of Shady Oak hats. Apparently, Hat Life magazine proclaimed Carter the "world's greatest retail hat customer."
END QUOTE
And I'll close for now with a pic of the Stetson Shady Oak Farm hat presented by Amon Carter to fellow Texan & International pianist Van Cliburn. Cliburn died in 2013 & the hat was put on display at the museum for the first time in 2019.
This thread is for pictures, the documentation & preservation of the above listed hats. Information is scattered throughout various threads & needs to be consolidated here. There doesn't seem to be a lot of hats so this may not get many posts. That's why I'm asking for the help of all owners & former owners (@buler, @carouselvic, @jimmy the lid) for your help. I'll open by quoting a great paragraph from a 2008 post by Jimmy the Lid, which helps to begin establishing a timeline & some order. The bold highlighting below is mine.
QUOTE:
"An excellent source of information on this topic is a book by Jerry Flemmons entitled Amon: The Texan who Played Cowboy for America. According to Flemmons, the hats passed out to dignitaries visiting Carter's Shady Oak Farm were originally supplied by Borsalino. These hats were rather large, wide-brimmed and high-crowned, as reflected in some early photos. After Mussolini declared war on Ethiopia (1935), Carter turned to Stetson to produce hats for him. Flemmons reports that "after months of design research," Stetson began producing the Shady Oak Open Road. In a previous post here on the Lounge, Jimmy Pierce has noted that Tom Peters of Peters Brothers was involved in the design of the hat. According to the Peters Brothers web site, Tom Peters left Fort Worth for Philadelphia in 1921 in order to work for Stetson, where he learned his craft from Stetson's master hatters. Thus, it seems like a relationship existed between Tom Peters and Stetson that could well have served as a basis for collaboration. Jimmy Pierce also confirms that the hats resulting from Tom Peters' design efforts were produced by Stetson. According to Flemmons, Amon Carter "bought them through Washer Brothers, an old-line Fort Worth store, and later through Peters Brothers, a downtown hat shop." Flemmons estimates that, at the very least, Amon Carter gave away "many, many thousands" of Shady Oak hats. Apparently, Hat Life magazine proclaimed Carter the "world's greatest retail hat customer."
END QUOTE
And I'll close for now with a pic of the Stetson Shady Oak Farm hat presented by Amon Carter to fellow Texan & International pianist Van Cliburn. Cliburn died in 2013 & the hat was put on display at the museum for the first time in 2019.
