The Fall of the Moustache

[LuvMyMan]

Bingo! And why worry about what other people are doing or what they think about what you are doing? If I decided I wanted to grow my hair into a mullet I'd grow a mullet with no regard as to what is in style now.

Damn Straight!

 

[LuvMyMan]

Odd that anyone would make a blanket statement that the Moustache is not around any longer, or on the delcine. Many top celebrities sport them, most men that have allowed a Moustache to exist from younger days, still have them today. Most men make their own determination regarding a Moustache and in no way would some "trend" have all that much of an affect to make them change having one. My Husband has sported a "stash" since he was in the US Navy and has had no reason to want to change from having one. In fact really aside from some individuals that we are banned from discussing here, just where is the indifference for any man to sport one? The debate on this to me is similar to a worn out fad, for some men to not wear socks with expensive dress shoes.....as if that would alter the "sock making" market!

 

[Inkstainedwretch]

I think WWII had a lot to do with the short-hair-clean shaven look that prevailed until the late 60s. In the military beards were forbidden and mustaches were pretty much restricted to officers. During a popular war, even the civilians imitate military style so wearing a beard became the mark of an eccentric. During my boyhood in the 50s-early 60s I saw maybe half a dozen bearded men and not very many mustaches. A few British actors like Sebastian Cabot and James Robertson Justice wore beards and, well, they were Brits, what did you expect? There was Maynard G. Krebs, but he was an aspiring beatnik. Incidentally, none of the early Beats were bearded, that was pretty much a tv cliche.

 

[LuvMyMan]

I think WWII had a lot to do with the short-hair-clean shaven look that prevailed until the late 60s. In the military beards were forbidden and mustaches were pretty much restricted to officers. During a popular war, even the civilians imitate military style so wearing a beard became the mark of an eccentric. During my boyhood in the 50s-early 60s I saw maybe half a dozen bearded men and not very many mustaches. A few British actors like Sebastian Cabot and James Robertson Justice wore beards and, well, they were Brits, what did you expect? There was Maynard G. Krebs, but he was an aspiring beatnik. Incidentally, none of the early Beats were bearded, that was pretty much a tv cliche.

There were still many celebrities and other men that continued to have a Moustache. My Father was in the WWII, so was my Father in Law, both had a Moustache . I don't really find that it was a factor one way or another. I just do not see the "times" of what was going on socially or even in fashion, to have altered whom would wear or not wear a Moustache.

 

[KILO NOVEMBER]

Chester Conklin approves.

As does Billy Bevan.

And Snub Pollard.

And far less obscure (props to you for you command of the remoter regions of antique pop culture) is the one, the only ...

whose painted-on mustache was replaced in later years by the real thing. You Bet Your Life!

 

[Hurricane Jack]

Odd that anyone would make a blanket statement that the Moustache is not around any longer, or on the delcine. Many top celebrities sport them, most men that have allowed a Moustache to exist from younger days, still have them today. Most men make their own determination regarding a Moustache and in no way would some "trend" have all that much of an affect to make them change having one. My Husband has sported a "stash" since he was in the US Navy and has had no reason to want to change from having one. In fact really aside from some individuals that we are banned from discussing here, just where is the indifference for any man to sport one? The debate on this to me is similar to a worn out fad, for some men to not wear socks with expensive dress shoes.....as if that would alter the "sock making" market!

I love your post! I didn't realize there even was a "sock market"! LOL! Should I invest in "sock market futures"?

I was first influenced by moustaches & beards when I was <10 yrs old & I "found" a tintype picture of my great-great grandfather from the Civil War. He wore a full Victorian beard. I later learned that his son, my great-grandfather wore a full beard all his life as well, but that's where it seemed to stop. Neither my grandfather nor my dad ever had any facial hair. But even at such a young age I somehow already knew that I was going to favor my g-g-grandfather in my stature & physical appearance more than the following male generations in my family. My wife says that if there is such a thing as reincarnation then she knows who I am & where I came from.

 

[HudsonHawk]

More than one writer has speculated that this is the reason for the downfall of the stache:

This is what your mustache wants to be when it grows up. But it wont be. It's an impossible dream for most men. As a result, the mustache was relegated to comedic effect, such as:

 

[Inkstainedwretch]

Maybe it should be noted that shaving yourself became much easier post-1900 with the invention first of the safety razor (King Gilette, 1901, patent date 1904) and later the electric shaver. Beards and mustaches are a lot of trouble to tend (I've worn both in my time), and most of us are too lazy or too busy to devote the attention they require. In the teens and 20s many urban men began every day in the barber shop, which had a culture unto itself. You didn't tend that fancy handlebar mustache, your barber did. Much easier to cultivate one that way. The safety razor made shaving at home much less of a chore, but fine-tending is more difficult than with a straight razor and an electric razor is really only good for clear-cutting, though very fast at that one task.

 

[LizzieMaine]

Most famous beards of the Era --

Author/nonconformist George Bernard Shaw

Actor Monty Woolley

Sculptor Jo Davidson

"Nature Boy" Eden Ahbez

Comedian Chic Sale

King George V

And the most famous beards of the Era, the images which came to the mind of most Americans when beards were mentioned --

"Trade" and "Mark," the Smith Brothers.

 

[Trenchfriend]

Salvador Dalí killed the moustache, too.

But in Europe, "beardcremes" are still offered. You can find them in every bigger city.

 

[Inkstainedwretch]

Hemingway probably had the most famous beard when I was growing up, and Einstein the most famous mustache.

 

[Fading Fast]

Hemingway probably had the most famous beard when I was growing up, and Einstein the most famous mustache.

Less a particular person than a archetype was the perception I felt beards and mustaches had growing up in the late '60s / '70s.

Beards = hippies or at least very liberal-leaning men
Mustaches = cheesy swingers / cheesy men on the make / or gay men (the Village People)

Of course there were exceptions - plenty of them (our dentist had a Clark Gable mustache, and was probably his age) - but the narrative I felt was the above and the exceptions were just ignored.

 

[Hurricane Jack]

Most famous beards of the Era --

I've always thought Albert Pike ranks right up there:

If you prefer the more coiffed & manicured look then there is Sigmund Freud:

And if they hurry up & normalize relations with Cuba this could be me playing chess, drinking good rum & smoking good cigars with my friends all day; where the living & the loving come cheap! Jimmy Buffett style!

 

[Trenchfriend]

Yep, Freddie Mercury maybe killed it, too.

 

[LizzieMaine]

I always thought of long, shaggy beards as denoting comic-strip hillbillies and mountain men, thick black bushy beards as the symbol of Paul Bunyan, and trim, pointy beards as being the symbol of a European doctor, psychiatrist, or mad scientist -- usually worn with pince-nez glasses and a white lab smock. In the Era, this latter stereotype was embodied by the Prominent Viennese Specialists who appeared in ads for Fleischmann's Yeast, assuring you that eating three cakes a day would give you new pep and get rid of your ugly facial blemishes.

In the late sixties, the new minister at our church showed up with a trim, dark Evil Spock goatee, which sent the WSCS ladies into an uproar. Half of them thought he was the Devil in person, the rest thought he was the sexiest damn thing they'd ever seen in their lives.

The only hippie I ever actually knew when hippes were an actual thing never had a beard. But he did have wild, frizzy hair worn with a big fat Jerry Colonna moustache.

Beards were not allowed at my high school, but many of the teachers had moustaches, usually those cheesy push-broom ones now associated with Ned Flanders on "The Simpsons." To this day such lip hair says only one thing to me -- "Is your chemistry homework done?"

 

[Trenchfriend]

those cheesy push-broom ones now associated with Ned Flanders

That's the moustache, we call ironically "child-abuser beard", in old Germany.

http://www.bing.com/images/search?q=willi+lemke&FORM=AWIR

 

[Hurricane Jack]

There's nothing shaggy or hillbilly-like about a long Victorian beard.

 

[LizzieMaine]

The advantage of that kind of a beard is that the wearer never has to worry about getting gravy on his shirt.

 

[Hurricane Jack]

The advantage of that kind of a beard is...

It's warm in the winter & cool in the summer.

 

[2jakes]

The beard/mustache....
I don’t recall having any specific reasons
or trying to make a statement of any kind.
Didn’t run around with any party or group.
Although, after my stint in the service.
I did go around with a mean streak as far
as “don’t mess with me & I won’t mess with you.”

Eventually...I got over it,
"live & let live."