The Shadow's Fedora...

[Warbaby]

I was looking at some old illustrations of The Shadow from the 30s and became fascinated by his fedora. It has an interesting bash that I've never seen on a real hat and I'm wondering if there was ever a real hat like this. In the illustrations, which are very consistant over several years, the bash seems to be sort of squeezed in near the top of the crown.

Forget those Indiana Jones fedoras - I want a Shadow Hat.

1932

1934

1935

1937

 

[randooch]

Better start with a tall hat and a full kettle o' water!

 

[RBH]

From the Baldwin film..

 

[fedoralover]

I've seen some western hats with that squeezed indent at the top of the crown on the front and back.

fedoralover

 

[Dinerman]

tall, square, shallow domed '20s style crown, deep, wide centerdent, shallow pinches front and back. I have something that gives a similar effect on a '20s widebrim transitional homburg/fedora type deal.

 

[Colby Jack]

In all those illustrations above...it looks like he's sportin' a thin ribbon...though Baldwin has the wide ribbon.

 

[Jerekson]

From the Baldwin film..

Yuck.

 

[de Stokesay]

From the way I look at it, the old pictures make it look like it was a much wider than standard brim (3.5" maybe?).

For what it's worth, I have an Akubra Bushman that I bashed myself, that looks very similar to this hat (pure chance as this is the first time I have seen any old pictures of the Shadow) but it's brown rather than black.

 

[Fredthecat]

The Shadow knows........that's the look that started me on hats. Wonder how wide that brim is.

 

[Warbaby]

Estimating from the illustrations, I'd guess at least 3.5" - maybe more. I can see how one could convert a high-crown cowboy hat into a Shadow Hat. I still wonder, though, if anyone ever wore a hat like that back in the day or if it's purely a figment of the illustrator's imagination.

Either way, I'm gonna start watching eBay for a black, high-crown cowboy hat...

 

[Duck]

My version I used a black, tall crown Resistol Western hat.

 

[Warbaby]

That's one beautiful Shadow Hat conversion! Are you going to go for the nose job, as well? lol

 

[tonyb]

That's way cool, Duck. The way the brim dips down just outboard of the bandline is a vestige of its Western origins.

You replaced the ribbon, I take it?

 

[Justdog]

Brim

The Shadow knows........that's the look that started me on hats. Wonder how wide that brim is.

Has to be at least 3 1/2 as it is pretty much the same wiidth as my gus western.

 

[Justdog]

Yep

My version I used a black, tall crown Resistol Western hat.

Right on the button:eusa_clap

 

[Craig Robertson]

That's a very nice hat, Duck. But I think one of the definitive things about the Shadow's hat (and it IS a painting!) is the relatively straight sides and that flare on the top AND IN THE BACK. Plus, it seems like the left side of the crease on top is higher than the right...?

Don't do the nose job, man. Don't go there.

 

[RBH]

My version I used a black, tall crown Resistol Western hat.

Sweet fedora Duck! I had forgotten about this one!

 

[Belegnole]

Found a couple of things that may help in the quest....
Of course the series took a number of forms from radio to pulp to tv to the movies. The most idealized hats were the comic or pulp covers where the crown of the hat is deformed. It almost apears as if the hat has had a wee bit if shrinkage. In the serials and earlier movies it was a more normal fedora.

1940's series:

A bust of the comic/pulp Shadow:

 

[Marcus Brody]

I've heard of The Shadows hat as a slouch hat, but in some incarnations as in the film, it appears to be a fedora.

 

[duggap]

Lordy, what a brim in that pic. It would take light weight steel to make a brim that big and get it to stay up like that.lol