Stowing your Stetson at the Theater...Under Your Seat!

[Orvil Newton]

It's amazing what a large part of our culture we've lost.

Like the once ubiquitous ash trays, cigarette boxes and table lighters in offices and homes, and spitoons.

 

[Pilgrim]

Here's a contemporary hat rack for police officers - many in law enforcement wear western or campaign=style hats:
http://policehatrack.com/products.html

 

[csheehan]

The Royal Alexandra theatre in Toronto (which had its centenary last year) has hat racks under the orchestra and first balcony seats but not in the upper balcony. The seats there are also not as well appointed.

 

[Marc Chevalier]

I have never seen anything like this before. Does anyone know if, back in the day, it was common for theaters to have this kind of hat rack under the seat?

Yes, it was very common. Theatres and opera houses had them; they held collapsible top hats as well as fedoras and homburgs.


Here in Los Angeles, the massive Angelus Temple (Aimee Semple MacPherson's 1923 pentecostal church) still has its original wooden seats ... and the hat holders underneath them.

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