Western hat with brim upturned in front anyone ?

[ukali1066]

After watching the cracking TV Mini-series Broken trail, I really liked Thomas Hayden Church's characters hat style, the brim had an unorthodox curl in the front brim....I've tried to copy it with some steam on my summer fishing Cowboy hat....

Any other loungers have any in this style ?

 

[gtdean48]

Lot of brim styles were modeled after soldiers. Look at cavalry slouch hats in Ft Apache, Hondo, etc. & you'll see the front & rear brims turned up. I think Henry Fonda actually quotes the regulation to John Wayne about proper slouch hat brim sets.
Remember working cowboys wanted sun, wind & rain protection from their hats but needed to see well to throw a loop. Also, lots of pictures were taken with hats set up for the photo, not how they were typically worn. The cameras had weak flashes & folks wanted to see the faces in the pictures. Lots of folks thought hats were worn certain ways but lots were changed to get the picture taken.

 

[jwalls]

Grand dad called this brim up 'the rifleman's flip'. So that you could use your scope I suppose.

 

[LocktownDog]

The way I heard it was that the upward brim was popular with cavalry, due to the fact that fast riding and high winds were less likely to blow them off.

[huh]

 

[Wolfmanjack]

Big Bad John wore his that way. Good enough for me.

But because of my beard, when I try it, I always turn out looking like this guy.

 

[ukali1066]

Haha cheers guys....I think I'm more in the Gabby Hayes camp than the big John one sadly

 

[gtdean48]

... I think Henry Fonda actually quotes the regulation to John Wayne about proper slouch hat brim sets....

Which seems to be an anachronism =
Approximately one hour into the film, when Colonel Thursday and Captain York prepare to leave the fort to protect the wagon-team led by 2nd Lieutenant Michael O'Rourke from an anticipated Indian attack, the class-conscious Thursday criticizes York's soldiers for their sloppy uniforms, pointedly telling York himself that York's hat should be creased "like a fedora." The action of "Fort Apache" takes place during the lifetime of Cochise, the famous Apache chief who died in 1874. The word "fedora" does not enter the language until 1882, when the hat worn by Sarah Bernhardt as Princess Fedora in Victorien Sardou's hit play "Fedora" became the rage of the fashion world. Thursday's use of the word is an anachronism.

 

[Mr. Paladin]

gtd, you are quite the western hat historian. Interesting stuff.

 

[frussell]

Wind and Rain

If you've ever worn a cowboy hat enough to wear it in lots of rain and extreme weathers, you will know that the brim overall tends to get pretty curly, as well as soft. If you are a working cowboy that rides in the wind a lot, with your favorite super soft worn in hat, sometimes the brim just starts to go up, expecially if you ride fast a lot. I've got an old photo somewhere of my great grandfather in his buffalo hunter outfit, and he's got the huge "Buffalo Bill" hat with the upturned brim, so that might give some credence to the theory that it was beneficial to the rifle shooter. Interesting theories. I don't put much faith in anything I see in western movies, even as much as I love John Wayne. My grandpa used to sit with me and point out all the anachronisms in old and modern westerns, from hat styles to spurs and saddlery. Frank

 

[Cigarband]

F Troop to the Rescue

Larry Storch as Cpl. Agarn and Forrest Tucker as Sgt. O'rourke.