So when did the boater sink from popular wear?

[Torpedo]

I wore a more accurate hat when I went to see the movie...

 

[Widebrim]

There's a 3 Stooges short, from about 1950, in which one of the characters wears a skimmer. I have also seen photos from that time in which invariably one man out of a crowd of a thousand is wearing a boater. I have one from an Italian company, looks to be 1930s, but I never cared for them.

 

[skyvue]

I'll go along with the general idea that they were less popular in the Forties than in the Twenties and Thirties, but based on photographs and movies, there were plenty of people still wearing them then.

 

[Absinthe_1900]

What the well dressed helicopter pioneer wore in June 1944.

 

[Widebrim]

^^Nice...

 

[AtomicEraTom]

I like boaters, but think one would look silly on me.

 

[Pompidou]

The Lumiere Brothers made one of the earliest movies in 1908, I have a thread somewhere deeper in the forums with the Youtube movie, and it's just recordings of every day life, and there were tons and tons of boaters.

 

[Alex]

[video=youtube;qBlyHSXbMAE]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qBlyHSXbMAE[/video]

 

[brspiritus]

My grandmother was born in 1913 and died in 2001. I once asked her when the boater went out of fashion and she told me it was after '36 when Dillinger got shot down while wearing one. After that the hat became "unlucky".

 

[fmw]

Torpedo, unpopular or unlucky aside, that hat is a pretty good look for you.

 

[David Conwill]

there are lots of boaters in Elmer Gantry the movie was made in 1960, of course it may be set in an earlier time dose anyone know? (great movie for hats and a good movie all around i think) getting off topic i better stop now.

The novel was written by Sinclair Lewis (he of Main Street and Babbitt fame) about contemporary culture in the 1920s. I assume the film is set in the same period.

In the 1967 film How to Succeed in Business Without Really Trying the group executives from the World Wide Wicket Company are shown wearing a variety of straw hats, including at least one boater. Of course, this may be meant to show the conservatism of their corporate culture.

-Dave

 

[Doctor Strange]

David is right: Elmer Gantry was published in 1927 and was primarily set in its present, though the film only covers the middle 60% of the novel. (It's a great film... but the book is even better!) The film's twenties costumes are pretty good - though, as usual, the hairstyles are very much 1960.

Just for the record, I thought I should mention that when I was in my teenage hat collecting phase, I bought a couple of brand new boaters (for around $10 - $15 each) in approximately 1966 and 1969. This was at a modest hat store in "downtown" Yonkers, NY, and there were whole display cases full of them, along with panamas and other straws. So, while not exactly "common", boaters were still easily available at standard-product prices in the sixties... even though the hat biz was in serious decline.

 

[1961MJS]

Hi

I don't know when Boaters became less popular, but I know that they won't be popular soon. Levine's in StL was selling theirs for over $100.00, and they were the "regular Boater brand". 1. You can get a nice straw hat from Panama Bob for a lot less, including shipping; 2. Right now, only Barbershop Quartets wear boaters; 3. Humphery Bogart didn't wear a boater (from my knowledge, and please don't post a picture ;^( ).

 

[Doctor Strange]

Actually, I'm pretty sure that Bogie did... in his "Tennis, anyone?" juvenile-lead phase on Broadway in the twenties, before he joined the exodus of stage actors to Hollywood after talkies came in.

And since nearly all decent new hats of any kind now cost over $100, I don't get your initial point. Economies of scale (back when 90% of all men wore hats and making them was a huge industry) and the less-inflated economy of the past were what made boaters inexpensive. It wasn't that they were in any way considered "lesser" hats than felt ones.

 

[skyvue]

Right now, only Barbershop Quartets wear boaters

That's patently untrue. A number of Loungers wear them, and I see them on the streets of Manhattan with some regularity.

Not many people wear fedoras nowadays, either, and that doesn't stop us, so why should the fact that few people wear boaters impact us one way or the other?

And while I take a backseat to no one in my appreciation of all things Humphrey Bogart, I do not, in the course of my day, stop and ask myself, "What would Bogie do?" If I did, I'd smoke like a chimney, drink too much, fight with my wife, and, not to be flip about it, die in my fifties.

Besides, Fred Astaire wore a boater, and that's plenty good enough for me.

 

[1961MJS]

That's patently untrue. A number of Loungers wear them, and I see them on the streets of Manhattan with some regularity.

Not many people wear fedoras nowadays, either, and that doesn't stop us, so why should the fact that few people wear boaters impact us one way or the other?

And while I take a backseat to no one in my appreciation of all things Humphrey Bogart, I do not, in the course of my day, stop and ask myself, "What would Bogie do?" If I did, I'd smoke like a chimney, drink too much, fight with my wife, and, not to be flip about it, die in my fifties.

Besides, Fred Astaire wore a boater, and that's plenty good enough for me.

First of all, let me state that my intention is not to put down boaters or those that wear them. I'm just making the observation that in comparison to the other hats mentioned in this site, they're very expensive, generally limited to the Barbershop part of the place, and aren't generally associated with the most popular of hat wearers. You could insert Indiana Jones for Bogie, as well as many others.

I've never seen a Boater on the street. I did see several out of towners at Levine's in StL buying them, but not wearing them. While I'm one of the few here in Wichita wearing a hat that isn't best described as a cowboy hat, I've still never seen a boater except in Barbershop quartet pictures. Living in NYC, you have the advantage in seeing more people quantity wise than I do, as well as seeing the more urbane (not sure that's the BEST word) of our population.

With respect to the price (it was $1xx.yy and not $10x.yy) it's more than most of the straw hats shown in Hatman Jack's in Wichita, and in Levine's in StL. The use of Straw here for Panama, Sun Body's, and Boaters. The other choices here are substantially less expensive. Yes, Optimo is a lot more expensive, and is worth it, but you'd be hard pressed to sell ten Optimo Panama's in the state of Kansas. Jack sells several hundred Sun Body's and other Panamas here though.

 

[dhermann1]

I think the point about Barbershop quartets is a valid one. But they seem often to wear those stupid Styrofoam boaters with paper ribbons, like conventioneers. They're still pretty rare here in NYC, and they must be totally unknown in Kansas. I've found that I get definite looks when I wear mine in Manhattan.
I think they started getting associated with old fogeyism in the 50's (like many things). Remember the episode of Honeymooners when Ralph gets dolled up in his boater and striped blazer?
But I agree they never really totally died out.
All the above notwithstanding, I hope we all agree that straw boaters are COOL. And if you've worn one on a really hot scorching summer day, you'll know how perfect they are for deflecting the sun and cooling off your noggin.

 

[1961MJS]

Hi

I like the look o.k., but the ones Levine's hat were as hard as the stupid Styrofoam boaters that Shakey's Pizza used to give away on your birthday. Cool look, but hurt my head. I'm a standard oval and the one I had on wasn't I guess. If I wear a 7 3/8, am I supposed to wear a 7 1/2?

One other thing that I remember about the 1950's and before hat wear, is that you wore skimmer's all summer. Isn't a skimmer the same as a boater? You threw (skimmed) the skimmer out onto the baseball field on the last game of the season, which also marked the last day of straw hat wearing. A famous baseball player, Ruth, Mantle, DiMaggio, picked them up and fed them to his livestock. I forget which one, but I'll have to re-read the evil JFK versus the hat book and start marking things. Since the general public was tossing them onto the field every year, they couldn't have cost much, which ties into my $100 plus comment.

Later

 

[brspiritus]

Village Hat Shop has a budget skimmer (boater) for $18. I was thinking of buying one and getting rid of the ribbon and replacing with a grosgrain black ribbon like Johnny Depp's boater in Public Enemies. Baron's makes the exact replica but I'm not about to drop that kind of money on a hat I won't wear too often.

 

[David Conwill]

They are supposed to be rigid.

Where the heck are you guys running into all these barbershop quartets? I'd love to see one in person.

-Dave