BUSTER KEATON Tells You How to Make a PORKPIE HAT

[Marc Chevalier]

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Has this ever been posted on the Fedora Lounge before?


In his own words, Buster Keaton explains how you, too, can make a porkpie hat like his. Lots of interesting history here:


http://www.busterkeaton.com/howto.htm

 

[Philip Adams]

Great post Marc. Thanks.

Very interesting.

I'm a real fan of Buster Keaton.

'One Week' (1920) is a fabulous short film.

 

[Marc Chevalier]

Who knew how important sugar was to that hat?

 

[zetwal]

This line is little puzzling ~

And felt disintegrates if you get it wet enough!

 

[scottyrocks]

It's a good thing he went through the hats so quickly. I know I wouldn't want a sugar coated hat in my closet. It's an invitation for too many little visitors in the middle of the night.

 

[scottyrocks]

This line is little puzzling ~

And felt disintegrates if you get it wet enough!

I was wondering about that, myself. What type of felt? Did he use wool?

 

[Viper Man]

Lester Young makes 'em too

http://jazzatelier.files.wordpress.com/2011/07/lester.jpg

 

[Marc Chevalier]

http://jazzatelier.files.wordpress.com/2011/07/lester.jpg

Wow! HEP!

 

[Oldsarge]

I'm not sure whether that's a statement of genius or just blood-curdling . . .

 

[job]

In most of his feature films he did not wear a pork pie hat. After television was created he wore the hat a lot as an older man. He did wear the hat in all his short films if I remember correctly.

 

[nvilletele]

The link in this old thread is no longer working. This one should work:

http://www.busterkeaton.org/porkpie/?rq=Porkpie

But it’s so short anyway, here is the gist:

How to make a Porkpie Hat
In the words of Buster Keaton...
In those days,almost every comedian you saw affected a derby hat. Even Harold Lloyd, when he was playing his Lonesome Luke character in 1917, wore a derby - which he later deserted for his signature straw hat and horn-rimmed glasses. So I decided to get a hat that was my very own. I knew straw was too fragile for my kind of antics, so I chose felt and designed this particular porkpie.

I took a good Stetson and cut it down, then I stiffened the brim with sugar water.

My recipe calls for three heaping teaspoons of granulated sugar in a teacup of warm water.

You wet the top and bottom of the brim, and then smooth it out on a clean, hard surface and let it dry to a good stiffness.

I did the earliest ones myself, always - and then I trained my wife. Now she does them for me.

In the old days, the Stetsons cost me $3.50 each- I pay $12.50 for the same one now. It gets to be expensive - as I've used up thousands of them through the years.

In the first place, I used to do more water stuff - stunts where I got dumped into water - than most comedians. And felt disintegrates if you get it wet enough! So the mortality was high. I was lucky if I only used half a dozen in each picture. Then people want them for souvenirs - they snatch them off my head, so I have to have extras on hand. Then, when I started making feature pictures, they showed them at the biggest city theaters, and always had all the usherettes wearing my porkpie hats - somehow I never had one returned to me!