movie hats that inspired you...

[JohnTheHat]

Walter Matthau in The Sunshine Boys

 

[T Jones]

Love this hat that George Raft is wearing in the 1939 movie, "Each Dawn I Die". Any idea what hat this is?

 

[Worf]

Love this hat that George Raft is wearing in the 1939 movie, "Each Dawn I Die". Any idea what hat this is?

View attachment 4263

Just saw that movie on TCM amazing hats, coats, suits and style!

Worf

 

[T Jones]

Just saw that movie on TCM amazing hats, coats, suits and style!

Worf

TCM had a lot of nice old movies on this week. I recorded a few to get a good look at the old Newsboys and Fedoras.

 

[mingoslim]

Don't laugh . . . But Bud Abott was a natty dresser and always had terrific fedoras.

 

[Red Lizard]

Hi Russ
Just to confirm, is the hat Bryan Brown wears in Shiralee an Akubra Fedora? Does it have any other name? I love it and need to make a purchase... Thanks!
Red

 

[Red Lizard]

Hi Russ
Just to confirm, is the hat Bryan Brown wears in Shiralee an Akubra Fedora? Does it have any other name? I love it and need to make a purchase... Thanks!
Red

"The Shiralee" with Bryan Brown, 1987. It was an Australian movie -- actually a TV mini-series that got turned into a movie. I saw it on TV here in Tokyo around 1990. Great movie even without the hats!

When I saw Bryan Brown walking down a dusty country road with battered fedora and suspenders, my life was changed forever -- it sparked an obsession with hats (I've bought nearly 20 hats since then including two Federations last month -- thanks to you all for the heads up!).

Lots of Fedoras and Australian bush hats in that movie, combined with both suits and dirty work clothes.

Unfortunately the DVD is only available in PAL for region 4, so there's no sense in my buying it :cry:

Maybe one of the Australian hat dealers ought to invest in having it converted to NTSC; it's the ultimate Akubra commercial.

On a different note, the original "Miracle on 34th Street" had a lot of great hats as did "It's a Wonderful Life" with James Stewart. Tis the season to watch these two if you're ever gonna do it!

Additional comments four months later: I finally broke down and bought the Shiralee DVD via ebay from an Australian seller plus a region free NTSC-PAL DVD player from a local shop. Incredible! For 16 years I've been watching the video of the movie I taped from the 2 hour edited TV broadcast, and last night I saw an extra 70 minutes that I never knew existed. New characters, story elements, plus more great hat scenes. This DVD is well worth the investment in a new DVD player.

 

[fedoracentric]

I am alternately pleased and mad at HBO's "Boardwalk Empire." Its great to see all the fedoras. But it is a bit annoying to see all the 1940s fedoras in a show depicting the late 20s and early 30s! Nearly every hat is a 2-1/2 inch brim or larger when most men's hats (especially in eastern state New Jersey) would have been 2-1/4 inch or so. There are too many large brimmed hats in this show and not enough bowlers and homburgs.

Also, one of the characters in this latest season was a dandy dressing gangster from New York who keeps wearing a thin ribbon, Open Road style hat all the time with his natty double breasted suits. This is a bad mismatch. Not only would he not be wearing a thin ribbon with all those fancy suits, but he would likely have viewed 3/8 inch ribbon hats as causal/western type hat. He'd more likely have been wearing 2 inch ribbon hats, not thins, with a 2-1/4 or 2-3/8 inch brim, and a tall crown in 1933-34.

 

[jhe888]

"Casablanca." You have to love Sidney Greenstreet in the fez.

 

[Ghost Rider]

Any of the films with Alain Delon in the 60s or 70s, and for a more modern film, "Gangster Squad"

 

[Ghost Rider]

... and of course, the classic Alain Delon film...

 

[BaDhaT]

Obvious choice for me

 

[Tedquinton]

I watched The Ipcress File yesterday. The film was made in 1965, and although their were a number of hats on display, they were worn by the older, establishment characters. To my eye they also looked badly made and poorly bashed. was it at this time that things began to go wrong?


There were a couple of nice bowlers on display however.

 

[Joshbru3]

I am alternately pleased and mad at HBO's "Boardwalk Empire." Its great to see all the fedoras. But it is a bit annoying to see all the 1940s fedoras in a show depicting the late 20s and early 30s! Nearly every hat is a 2-1/2 inch brim or larger when most men's hats (especially in eastern state New Jersey) would have been 2-1/4 inch or so. There are too many large brimmed hats in this show and not enough bowlers and homburgs.

Also, one of the characters in this latest season was a dandy dressing gangster from New York who keeps wearing a thin ribbon, Open Road style hat all the time with his natty double breasted suits. This is a bad mismatch. Not only would he not be wearing a thin ribbon with all those fancy suits, but he would likely have viewed 3/8 inch ribbon hats as causal/western type hat. He'd more likely have been wearing 2 inch ribbon hats, not thins, with a 2-1/4 or 2-3/8 inch brim, and a tall crown in 1933-34.

Well......here's the thing. At first, I was slightly perturbed that the show was using more "40's" styled hats, but I had to remind myself of a couple of things........

Brim and crown styles, shapes, and heights changed every couple of years in the early part of the 20th century. Hats with 2 1/2 - 2 5/8 inch brims were actually very common in the early 20's. Most men wore them "brim-up" and used side dents, but not all.

The show starts in 1919 and its the 3rd season, so they should be somewhere around 1921 or 1922. Here's a few Schoble ads from 1919 - 1922 which show many hats with 2 1/2 - 2 5/8 inch brims and only 5 1/2 inch crowns. Proportions changed very often in the early 20th century, so its hard to make exact rules for hat stylings. You can see many hats are brim-up with side dents, but several hats are snapped in front. In 1919, there's one hat called the "Corte." Its snapped in front, has a thin ribbon with Open Road style bow, and a very modest crown. This hat could fit in the 1920's, 30's, 40's, 50's, 60's, etc. There were many "timeless" styles that became very popular in the 40's, but were actually styles of decades prior.

1919

1921

1922

Also, here is a Stetson ad from 1920 and the model is called the "Mercury." It pretty much exactly like an Open Road but with the rear brim snapped down. Many here on the lounge like to wear their 1940's/1950's Open Roads in the same Manor.

1920

Thin Ribbons were quite a bit more common in the early days than you may think. Most dress hats did have 2 inch ribbon or MANY times a 2 1/8 inch ribbon. Bow styles varied as well. In the period between 1914 - 1918, bows were VERY wild and winged. By the early 20's, bow styles became fairly simple and straight again.

My biggest gripe about Boardwalks hat selection isn't the proportions, or colors, or styles, its how they crease them. Snap brims with front pinches were worn by men in the early 20th century but the MAJORITY of men wore hats with up-brims and side dents. In the 20's however, being the decade where many young people broke with tradition, we do tend to see more snap brims than in the decades prior.

 

[gtdean48]

Well......here's the thing..........

OUTSTANDING post Josh! Thanks for the time & effort....:eusa_clap:eusa_clap:eusa_clap

 

[T Jones]

Just watched a pretty cool old movie on TCM last week, Hell's Highway 1932. These were pall bearers in the movie, all dressed in black...check out the variety of hats here.

 

[fedoracentric]

I agree with what you posted, Josh. But, note that I didn't contradict what you wrote in my post above. I said "too many" big brimmed hats and "not enough" shorter brimmed ones. I did not say that there should be no larger brimmed hats. As I said, almost every single hat in the show is a large brimmed hat. The main character wears a Homburg, which is good, and one character wears a very odd bowler, which is OK, but nearly everyone else has large brimmed hats. I don't recall seeing a single 2-1/4 or 2-3/8 inch brim with a tall crown in the show.

As to the pinches, I also agree with that. All you ever see is front pinches. Never side dents.

There is a good number of Newsboys, though. That is good. Ans straw boaters show up too, which is good.

Still, the show is very good, though I felt the third season dragged a bit and felt that the Gyp character from New York was a bit gratuitous.

 

[Landman]

Speaking of Boardwalk Empire, I ran across this Youtube video last night.

http://m.youtube.com/watch?v=APrtNX0khzE&desktop_uri=/watch?v=APrtNX0khzE

In case that link doesn't work, the title of the YouTube video is:

"From Buffalo to the Boardwalk: Custom Hat Making For HBO's Boardwalk Empire"

 

[facade]

"There were 9820 different numbers of soft hats alone in the Knox and Dunlap lines" - From The Story of Two Famous Hatters regarding the available selection after WWI.

While certain styles may have been favored, clearly the number of available styles was vast.

 

[Zombie_61]

Just watched a pretty cool old movie on TCM last week, Hell's Highway 1932. These were pall bearers in the movie, all dressed in black...check out the variety of hats here.

View attachment 4436

Hmmm, now where have I seen that shot before...

Well, at least Tombstone "borrowed" from a decent movie.