Berlin, 1927

[Mario]

I was just thinking the same. So much discussion around here on getting a bash just so, but the hats in these old pics look much more utilitarian. And still look great

So true. But I have to admit that I found it pretty hard to just - literally - bash my hat and plop it on my head...

All that aside - I'm glad that you all seem to like those images as much as I did. You really have to watch that film. It's absolutely amazing. Takes you back to a verry different - and difficult - time.

 

[buler]

What everyone else said Mario.... many thanks for taking the time to post these. :eusa_clap

B

 

[Mario]

My pleasure, really!

 

["Skeet" McD]

Great hats...but really: it's not about the hats...

As Fletch and a few others have commented, this is a film like no other...especially for those of us interested in the quotidian life of the earlier 20C. You'll find plenty of great hats...but fixating on them is a little like examining a tack holding the canvas on a great painting: yes, it's there; yes, it's important...but backing up and seeing the whole picture could be a quite different experience.

While there are a few staged scenes in the film (and the one most of these caps came from, a street fight) contains many of them...almost all of the film was shot with concealed cameras, on site--so you don't have people noticing that they're being filmed; they're just doing what they're doing. One of the most amazing scenes takes place in a bar, seemingly LATE at night....they must have hid the camera on the back-bar. "You are there." If you have never seen this film, get a copy RIGHT NOW. You will watch it many, many times.

Dancing on the volcano: yes. Mario, how must it be to watch this and actually BE in Berlin...where you can walk down to your local Eckkneipe and have a Schultheiß in between scenes! (ein Rotes, bitte! sigh) This is the music video to The Comedian Harmonists and Weintraubs Syncopators. To me, the saddest thing in the world is to listen to the CH's singing Ein neuer Frühling wird in die Heimat kommen. It sure did. Not quite what they had in mind, I'm afraid.

Even if you don't have a particular interest in Germany 'tween the wars...go beyond these great screen captures and see the film. You won't be disappointed.

"Skeet"

 

[Mario]

:arated: Yes and amen to all of the above, Skeet!

 

[Cane Rod Maker]

Pics.

Mario,
Those are some really impressive photos. Thanks for sharing them...:eusa_clap

 

[danofarlington]

Here are some screencaps I took from the film 'Berlin - Symphony Of A Great City', an experimental documentary made by Walter Ruttman in 1927.

I wonder who is more responsible for the development and perpetuation of the Fedora style--the Germans, the Italians or the English? One or another of those nationalities probably did more than the others. Fedoras are a European style, as are the principal early variations, I would say.

 

[CRH]

I love all these old shots where the unhatted head is the exception.

What a far cry from where we all are today!