New in Town

[Shanghailander]

Gentlemen:

Allow me to introduce myself. I am a new member but have been wearing real hats for the last 25 years. I currently own three fedoras, a Homburg, a Tyrolean, a straw boater, two Panamas, a newsboy cap, a Derby, a beaver top hat, a pith helmet, and a French Equitorial Africa bush hat.

I can't wear good clothes at work - everything is ruined within a month or so. So when I go out, even on my day off, I like to look sharp, and that includes a hat. I especially like spectator shoes and sharp looking shirts - maybe a crossover collar and a stickpin for my tie.

When on outside business in the winter, I will often wear my Homburg with a Chesterfield coat, and once in a while, the top hat.

Now to the subject of this post. I have never had any interest in cowboy hats. (In fact I am mildly annoyed when people ask about my Stetson fedora - they think a Stetson is only a cowboy hat). But I was watching Broken Trail with Robert Dubvall last night and saw two hats which looked interesting.

The first was Robert Duvall's hat. Looked a little more formal and shaped than the usual buckaroo's lid. Can anyone tell me anything more about it?

The second hat which caught my eye was worn by the character Hank, the hired hand who accompanies Duvall (not Duvall's nephew, who is also on the team and has a much bigger role.) Can anyone identify this style of hat? Narrow brim and taller crown.

I'm heading out to the Dakotas in August and thought I might get a new hat more appropriate for the territory while I am there.

Greg

 

[scotrace]

Glad You've Found Us!

Welcome to The fedora Lounge.

I'm sure you'll have your answers in a flash!

(sounds like a nice collection. Pictures?)

 

[Shanghailander]

Haven't figured out how to post pics yet but I imagine it shouldn't be too hard.

Let me see if I can find a screen shot of Duvall's hat first, and the other character's, for those who didn't see the show.

Greg

 

[Caledonia]

Hi Shanghailander and welcome. Go to the FAQ at the top. I spent ages trying till I was helpfully pointed in that direction. Just follow the instructions exactly - and the easiest place I found to store photos to make the transfer is Photobucket.

 

[Kaleponi Craig]

Is this the hat...

Check out Rocky Mountain Hat Company, they have all sorts of cowboy hats...

http://www.rockymountainhatcompany.com/

If he doesn't have the exact style, I'm sure John can make one for you.

Welcome to the Lounge...KC

 

[Pilgrim]

That hat is almost a copy of the one he wore in Lonesome Dove, so I'm very tempted to say that it's a shape Duvall personally prefers. It sure looks good on him.

The hat worn by the nephew is a bit different - reminds me a bit of the hat Clint Eastwood wore in Pale Rider (see picture here) but it has a much lower crown and narrower brim. It's almost like a derby, but with a squared-off crown. It also reminds me of the hat James Caan wore in the movie El Dorado with John Wayne and Robert Mitchum, when he played Alan Bourdillion Traherne ('Mississippi').

When I see a hat like this in a western, I always imagine it to be a town hat worn by a guy working as a cowboy - but better than no hat at all. Of course, when you see pictures of working cowboys, you see a wide variety of hats. many of them alternated between jobs, and I suspect they didn't buy new hats as they did so.

 

[Kaleponi Craig]

Pretty darn close..

 

[Shanghailander]

Yes, that photo of the hat Robert Duvall's character, Print Ritter, is the one I was talking about. Here is another shot. Looks a little sharper than the usual beat up hats you see - such as the one worn by his character's nephew, Tom Harte, played by Thomas Hayden Church.

 

[Shanghailander]

Now, here are some shots of the character Heck Gilpin, played by Scott Cooper. Try as I might, I had a heck of time finding screen shots showing good views of him WITH the hat. These were actually captured from flashplayer video on the Broken Trail site.

 

[DanielJones]

Welcome Shanghai!

Yep, I'd say that looks a lot like the Gus hat with a pencil roll brim. As far as Heck's hat it looks like a gambler with a cut down brim. You may be able to get both a Jackson Hole Hat Company. Not only do they have their catalog variety they will also do custom hats apon request. Good friendly service there.
http://www.jhhatco.com/

Cheers!

Dan

 

[Solid Citizen]

Welcome Greg

Greg,

Hello & have fine time out West!!!

SC

 

[feltfan]

I like that "gus" design I see around.
But that hat Duvall is wearing in those
pictures looks like it has plumber's crack.

No offense intended, but each time I look
at it, that's what I see!

Okay, okay, I'll stick to threads about the
Golden Age of hats...

 

[Tony in Tarzana]

Welcome aboard, fellow Homburg-wearer! (Homburger? Homburgian?)

 

[SteaminPete]

Greetings and welcome to the lounge.:fedora:

 

[Andykev]

Weclome

Greg, welcome to the lounge. Gee nice hat collection. I have a top hat, and a bunch of straw and felts, vintage...it's an addiction.

Beware, you may end up buying lots of hats if you sink in too deep herelol

The Robert Duvall hat is very close to the one he wore in Lonesome Dove..it's generally referred to as the "Gus", which was the name of the character he played in the film. Don't know if that is why that style is called the "Gus" or the movie came after.....

Again, have fun here. This is a classy place.

 

[mthatter]

erased by mt

 

[Pilgrim]

For those of you who don't live in the west, it was true for many years that you could tell what part of the country that a gent came from by the shape of his western hat. It's still true in many cases; note the Montana crease mentioned above - it's not named that way just for fun. A Texas hat is invariably almost flat (think George Strait, but even flatter). At one time, you could sometimes tell where a cowboy came from within a few hundred miles by the shape of his hat.

Right now the Greeley Stampede is underway, and my daughter's boyfriend is the "hat shaping expert" for a major vendor at the event. He is fast becoming a real expert at shaping on the run - in one hour this week, he sold 43 hats! Many of his customers are from Mexico, and he says they invariably ask for the brim to be shaped with the side up, "like a taco". So regional styles and preferences are far from gone.

Incidentally, thanks to this boyfriend's being around our house, he has learned a lot about traditional hats. He saw two gents walking by wearing Open Roads, and asked them how they liked them. They were stunned that an 18 year-old would know what an Open Road was! (And he was a little smug about it when he reported it, too.)

As recently as the 70's, when an Idaho cowboy friend of mine helped me shape my 5x Beaver brand hat (which I still have), he referred to the shape as "an Owyhee flat top", which was CLEARLY an indication of a regional shape. The word is pronounced oh-WY-hee, and is an indian word common to Oregon and Idaho; in fact, there is an Owyhee county in Idaho at the farthest SW corner of the state. The shape is basically a c-crown pinch front with a fairly flat brim, and it's one I have adopted ever since, as I feel a strong connection to the Pacific NW.

There's some interesting information about hat materials such as felt, straw and "Shantung" at www.cowboyhatinfo.org.