Public Morals TV Series Hat Accuracy

[Christopher Smith]

Hi everyone,

I was watching the series Public Morals recently and had a thought about the hat accuracy. The show takes place in the 60''s. The hats worn by Ed Burns and Brian Dennehy who play an Irish-American police officer and mob boss respectively are Borsalino's. They both have the gold branding on the bow which I thought didn't appear until the 70's. Also, what interested me was that Ed Burns, as an Irish-American police officer, would he have had the salary at the time to afford a Borsalino? I mean, I can see the mob boss being able to afford one, but the police officer I question. And also I was interested from a cultural perspective. Would an Irish-American have worn an Italian made hat. I always thought historically Irish and Italian-Americans were kind of at odds with each other. Maybe from the movies I watch, my perception may be wrong, but that was always the way I understood things. Basically what I'd like to ask everyone's thoughts on is 1) does hat accuracy in modern day media bother you and do you think film/TV companies could do better 2) to people's knowledge what were the cultural preferences for hats and would people have bought within their own culture (ie would the Irish-Americans have bought Irish made hats or from companies that had Irish American ownership)?

 

[Rmccamey]

While you have a topic worthy of discussion between hat nerds like us, to 99.999999% of the population, hats are very small elements of fashion and work life. In the world of fashion, it is often more about "the look" rather than the technical details of hat construction, age of the hat, hat maker or provenance.

Other than some focused historical films, viewers see hats as very generic and pay no attention to the exact details as long as the hats are typical (or stereotypical) of the setting. In western movies, people expect to see cowboy hats. In many Scotch-Irish settings, people expect to see flat caps, newsboys and berets. In British-European films set in the late 1800s to WWII, people expect to see bowlers and homburgs.

Occasionally there will be a hat in a movie that is obviously out of place, but you and I are one of a handful who will ever notice. The biggest goof I usually see in films is a modern liner in what should be a very old hat.

When being complemented on a hat I am wearing, I used to say something about the age of the hat or where it was made. Over the years as I continued to watch people's eyes glaze over, I now just say "thank you".

 

[jlee562]

Don't expect too much in terms of accuracy. I mean, I've seen backwards hats on background actors before. The costume designer probably found an off the shelf Borso and called it a day. I thought Boardwalk Empire did a pretty decent job, though I am not at all an expert on period clothing. Several of the hats were vintage, if from a slightly later decade. Off the top of my head, one of Gyp's hats definitely had an old Royal Stetson liner. I also liked Public Enemies so much that I bought that Dillinger hat.

The inaccuracy doesn't really bother me except when it is something obviously out of place, I forgot which Chinese historical film I was watching, but it was like pre-WW1 and everybody had modern hats with pressed in creases. My other pet peeve being modern cowboy hats in westerns. Even though there is a relatively well known photo of the Dodge City Peace Commission, the bowler hat isn't really seen as a "cool" hat, despite it being historically accurate. Somehow I don't think Tom Mix would have been as popular with a Bat Masterson bowler. Kurt Russel's Wyatt Earp wouldn't have cut such a striking silhouette in the real Wyatt's hat. Which is the other thing, in addition to what Randy notes above about most people not knowing, sometimes the things we 'know' in the popular imagination aren't actually historically accurate to begin with and sometimes it's a deliberate character choice by the costume designer.

Side note: I knew Wyatt Earp was buried down the road in Colma, but never knew exactly where. I had a delivery a few weeks ago to another funeral home, so I looked it up, and it was literally across the street from my delivery. Unfortunately the cemetery was closed that afternoon! And apparently Levi Strauss is also buried there.