The Stratoliner Society {VINTAGE}

[GWD]

Unfortunately, I see your point.

 

[Absinthe_1900]

Boeing is clearly in this advertisement.

Actually you are showing a cropped, zoomed excerpt of the ad, the Boeing logo on the aircraft tail is incidental to the Stetson hat ad, I doubt Stetson did an ad buy to promote Boeing Aircraft.

I'm surprised no one ever asked Stetson if they have an original Stratoliner pin in their archives. [huh]

 

[Dixon Cannon]

Of Pins and pin____s....

My hat pin which I wear on a Borsalino is indeed the Boeing 307 'Stratoliner'. The Boeing 377 was a larger tricycle gear known as the 'Stratocruiser'.
The two engine, conventional gear airplane pin is in fact the Douglas DC-3.
The Douglas DC-6 is the expanded, pressurized version of the popular Douglas C-54 Skymaster transport. It has no nickname of it's own.

Next question...

-dixon cannon

 

[jimmy the lid]

Stetson also wasn't in the business of advertising for Boeing, why should they mention another company brand in their own advertising.

Because Stetson was launching an entire hat line that derived some commercial benefit from its association with the other company's product. In fact, with regard to the ad posted by GWD, it's impossible to look at the hat itself (the focus of the ad) without seeing "Boeing Stratoliner." It's there for a reason. This kind of mutual advertising is actually fairly common in Stetson ads -- witness the number of ads tied to an actor, promoting the release of a particular studio's new film.

Stetson certainly was not alone in associating its hats with the glamour of the new age of commercial aviation. Other hat manufacturers did the very same thing, and mounted advertising campaigns tied to air travel for "men on the move." I'll try to pull a couple of ads together for posting.

Cheers,
JtL

 

[Mark G]

Here's one I found that doesn't show the pin. I don't know the exact date.

 

[jimmy the lid]

The pin is still there in 1942:

Cheers,
JtL

 

[AlanC]

We often view the Strat as a more casual hat because of the thin ribbon, but Stetson clearly was marketing it as a city/business hat. It's why Al is on his way up. Apparently green was also 'in' that year, as Al is wearing green shirt, tie, socks and hat. Of course, he is wearing brown shoes, which tones the formality down a bit, but I digress.

 

[HatDoc]

In an effort to combine information on the pin, plain, and hat in this thread:

one

two

three

Thanks, Lefty.

Lots of good info there.

Randy

 

[Lefty]

Score. Thanks, DC.

I take this to mean that, for whatever the reason, Stetson was putting a Douglas DC-3 pin on a Boeing Stratoliner hat. A Strat pin on a Strat hat, though they were seemingly never sold together, is a more aviation proper, but not historically accurate (to Stetson), combination.

Does this sound right?

My hat pin which I wear on a Borsalino is indeed the Boeing 307 'Stratoliner'. The Boeing 377 was a larger tricycle gear known as the 'Stratocruiser'.
The two engine, conventional gear airplane pin is in fact the Douglas DC-3.
The Douglas DC-6 is the expanded, pressurized version of the popular Douglas C-54 Skymaster transport. It has no nickname of it's own.

Next question...

-dixon cannon

 

[Baron Kurtz]

We often view the Strat as a more casual hat because of the thin ribbon, but Stetson clearly was marketing it as a city/business hat.

Eh? Is that why they never have city/business backdrops to the ads?

Everything about every ad i've ever seen for this hat suggests that the Stratoliner was a casual hat. most of them suggest that it is a hat perfect for travelling - lightweight etc. for ease of dealing with it while travelling. For businessmen - or rather successful men, whatever their livelihoods - sure, but not in the city/business context. I've never seen a Stetson Stratoliner advertisement (check through the ones in this thread for starters) which would suggest it was for a "business" context, rather than maybe a "travelling to do some business" context … And mostly with no business connotation at all.

bk

 

[jimmy the lid]

Forgot to mention...

The Pine Green "pinless" Strat ad posted above by Mark G dates to 1946.

Cheers,
JtL

 

[AlanC]

Most of the ads seem to have a Stratoliner in the background for some reason.

Al is moving up in the world, a pun for sure, but one assumes he's not 'moving up' in his vacation options. He's wearing a pinstripe suit, which is a business suit. He's carrying a briefcase (well, underarm portfolio) and getting on the plane with other men carrying briefcases. They're not off to Aruba. The men in the 1942 ad are also businessmen on a plane.

If you prefer travel hat to business hat, fine, but it's for the traveling businessman. I wonder how many business hats they packed for the trip?

 

[Lefty]

I've been reading old threads and found a few more on the strat that I felt should be consolidated here.

1
2
3

 

[AlanC]

You're quite the archivist of late, Lefty.

 

[Lefty]

Yeah. I've been going through the old threads and realizing that there's about a 6 month cycle on most discussions. Rather than look through all the books in the library, I think it's more helpful to have a good encyclopedia.

Here are some ads, courtesy of RBH in this thread.

 

[Dixon Cannon]

Here's one I found that doesn't show the pin. I don't know the exact date.

And, oddly enough, that's the Douglas DC-3 airplane in that ad - not a Boeing 307 'Stratoliner'! I can see why it is so confusing; 'Stratoliner' hat - Douglas airplane. Hmmm..

-Dixon Cannon

 

[HatDoc]

And, oddly enough, that's the Douglas DC-3 airplane in that ad - not a Boeing 307 'Stratoliner'! I can see why it is so confusing; 'Stratoliner' hat - Douglas airplane. Hmmm..

-Dixon Cannon

Dixon,

I'm sure you know more about airplanes than I do, but how do you know it's a
DC-3? To my eye, the tail section and markings look identical to this one:

Whaddya think?

 

[Mark G]

The plane in the air looks like a DC-3.

Jimmy, thanks for dating the "pine green" ad.

 

[Absinthe_1900]

The aircraft on the ground is a Stratoliner, the one in the air in the background is a DC-3 type.

 

[HatDoc]

The aircraft on the ground is a Stratoliner, the one in the air in the background is a DC-3 type.

Got it. That makes sense now.