TIME says JFK Killed The Hat

[scotrace]

Still more of this hogwash:

John F Kennedy: The Cool Factor.

Among other things, Kennedy banished hats for men, even disposing of the top hat for his inauguration speech.

Not so. He wore or carried one all day, as did everyone else, and there are hundreds of photographs to prove it.

Another incorrect bit:

J.F.K. went to the trouble of having much of it [his wardrobe] made by a tailor in London,

Not after about 1960, when he switched to New York tailors for obvious reasons.

It gets my goat when authors who should know better (they're writing for TIME, after all) just tap out whatever comes into their heads as fact, without the most cursory research.
I sent Ms. Betts a note.

 

[Prairie Shade]

I believe that was beyond his authority

Going collegiate was around long before, but I suppose people stopped wearing hats because they wanted to stop. The 50's were a time of great change and the 60's speak for themselves. Greatful Dead hats did spring forth from the decade!! I'll pass.

 

[Fredo]

Thought the JFK myth is the most popular, my research (based on stories told by old timers and other hat afficiandos) indicates that men's hats such as the Fedora began declining as a result of WWII. So many American young men went off to war and for five years they did not wear hats unless it was a helmet or regulation military caps/slanted side fold up hat (not sure of the name). When they returned, many did not return to the old ways. I am not trying to say WWII single handly ended the era of the fedora but in my opinion it began the change. By the time JFK forgot his top hat for the inauguration, the barbarians we already settled within the gates.

 

[Feraud]

Again with JFK and this hat business!
It is annoying to read the same folk tale stated time (no pun intended) and again to the point where it becomes fact.

 

[PADDY]

They give JFK far too much credit on this one.

Even powerful men, don't have 'that' much power. But if people circulate stories for long enough, sadly hear-says become gospel..[huh] Such is the art of spin doctoring.

 

[scotrace]

Read "Hatless Jack."

The peak year of hat production was around 1910 or so. By the 1930's, the hat industry was starting to panic. Hatlessness gained legs on 1920's college campuses and never looked back. JFK was just representative of his generation.
The 20th century moved inexorably from start to finish toward casualness. Felt hats were just one of the casualties - replaced by ballcaps.

 

[scotrace]

By the time JFK forgot his top hat for the inauguration, the barbarians we already settled within the gates.

That's just the point. He didn't. He wore one that day, carried it when he didn't, except for the time it spent on the chair behind him as he delivered his inaugural address.

Oddly, the first to "banish" top hats at his inaugural was President Eisenhower, who switched to Homburgs for his second. JFK was returning to this tradition.

 

[Fletch]

So many American young men went off to war and for five years they did not wear hats unless it was a helmet or regulation military caps/slanted side fold up hat (not sure of the name). When they returned, many did not return to the old ways.

Says something about the nature of mechanized warfare, too, that the brimmed hat was rendered an impractical option. You needed to maneuver in tight spaces, wear headphones, crawl. After 1941 the campaign hat was no longer the salty bashed-in companion of the rough and ready citizen soldier. When it returned it was as the stiff, immaculate symbol of the drill instructor who imparted the values of the warrior class.

After the war, all this feeling of practicality somehow became part of Being A Modern Man, even if he would never hit the dirt or don a pair of cans again. The fedora was no longer the emblem of masculinity it had been - if you were wearing one during the war, obviously, you weren't serving. There was also the regulation that one must wear a cover - who wouldn't want to go without after that? At least sometimes, maybe all the time.

I think this explains a lot of the movement towards the billed cap (practicality) or bare head (freedom).

 

[Feraud]

Oddly, the first to "banish" top hats at his inaugural was President Eisenhower, who switched to Homburgs for his second. JFK was returning to this tradition.

Correct, Kennedy was more traditional in his headwear at this event than he is given credit for.
Wasn't the comment by Kennedy himself that he did not want to wear a homburg because he felt like "an Irish gangster"?

 

[Undertow]

And besides, how lazy an excuse that one man, regardless of status, could single-handedly disrupt a tradition in men's fashion. Surely the people at TIME could have at least given some additional information.

Well...surely they could have given correct information...then the additional would have been nice too.

 

[Fletch]

Wasn't the comment by Kennedy himself that he did not want to wear a homburg because he felt like "an Irish gangster"?

Mr. President, if you ever did feel like an Irish gangster, it wasn't because of your hat.

(DGMW, I like the guy, but let's be upfront about who he was and what he was.)

 

[HungaryTom]

TIME - that was not great this time

It was not JFK, just the "spirit of his age" - being hatless ment to be "free" not going conform with 'the system' - whatever system it was...

In the 1960's even behind the Iron Curtain it was cool to go without hat youth tried to imitate the 'Beat' generation. In Hungary todays 50's 60's people talk about themselves as the 'Great Generation'...Remember uniforms and conformity were much stricter there!!!

I saw some pics of my father and his youth friends in the 1950-60's NO HATS.
My dad listened all the time to Radio Luxemburg - it was almost a religion to him as he told. He became a doctor and very disciplined-at the same time he liked to be a dandy and spent his last bucks on made to measure shoes.
His brother was the same - when he emigrated in 1956 to Zurich he saw that folks have not made to measure things -it was affordable in Budapest- the asylant had monogrammed shirts etc..
Hatless seemed was a confrontation with the previous generations...

As if in the previous generations in the 20th century were all 'lame' and the youth did not have fun?? With hats on? Blues, Jazz, Swing for example?

JFK will always be a symbol of that age 'that killed the hat' - but the hatmaking industry should really try to seek more creative ways to revive hats instead of kicking that late statesman-one of the greatest in the 20th century!

 

[Brad Bowers]

It started in at least 1928

I've got a NYT article from 1928 that discusses the seemingly sudden emergence of hatlessness, but the hat industry speculated that it was just a fad. Little did they know...

Brad

 

[Fletch]

And besides, how lazy an excuse that one man, regardless of status, could single-handedly disrupt a tradition in men's fashion. Surely the people at TIME could have at least given some additional information.

Well...surely they could have given correct information...then the additional would have been nice too.

Well, you see, no one is likely to sue over an article about fashion, or raise an unholy cry about botched fashion history. It's a part of culture, which is a subjective thing at its best. Information matters less than impression, and as you go back into history, myth.

 

[Feraud]

I've got a NYT article from 1928 that discusses the seemingly sudden emergence of hatlessness, but the hat industry speculated that it was just a fad. Little did they know...

Brad

Does the article elaborate on the cause of this newest fad?
Btw, I am sure many of us would love to see a scan of the article if possible.

 

[RedPop4]

Found it online.
I can send a PDF to you if you want it. I can't highlight and copy from a PDF. I found a second article that says there was, at that time, an active "hatless campaign" going on. This article states that in Syria and Turkey there was legislation to outlaw the fez.

The first paragraph describes peoples' reaction to the hatless man as "slightly eccentric" or "on his way to buy a new hat." The second gives a quick historical precedent for head covering, going back "30 centuries."

The Collegiate Responsibility
Rather abruptly, from that nebulous source in which fashion trends are incubated, there has emerged a vogue for airing the hair.It is doubtful if the most persistent and astute sleuth could ferret out the origin of the movement. There is a well-founded suspicion that it is an outgrowth of an idea conceived by local college students and endorsed by that sprightly coterie of youthful clerks and salesmen formerly known in the city's vernacular as "finale hoppers" but now rejoicing in the more dignified designation "collegiates."

He then goes on to elaborate where, which neighborhoods, are the most "hatless" . Later on he speaks to an NYPD traffic officer who states that he sees many drivers driving without brimmed hats and claims that the roof lines on automobiles is forcing men to doff their hats. He also notes the trend away from formal top hats, and on to more casual styles.

Reproduced with permission of the copyright owner. Further reproduction prohibited without permission.
NEW YORK FACES A HATLESS FAD
By BERTRAM REINITZ.
New York Times (1857-Current file); Sep 9, 1928; ProQuest Historical Newspapers The New York Times (1851 - 2003)
pg. 130

 

[scotrace]

Link us up, please.

(post the link here, if you would)

 

[Fletch]

Could you please? I'd be interested too.

I suspect few Times editorialists at the time went to many baseball games...

 

[RedPop4]

http://proquest.umi.com/pqdweb?inde.../out.pdf&rqt=309&TS=1184859986&clientId=21210

It may not work, though, as you'd need my password to get it from our (university's) online resources.

I can e-mail it to you as an attachment, though, as I have it saved.

 

[duggap]

Just can't help but chime in on this one. There was a program on The History Channel just last week about the Kennedys. There was some great shots of both John, and then brother Bobby, campaigning for office. Finding even a single hat in any of those shots was just about impossible. My conclusion is that the decline of the hat began long before JFK. Consider this, the hat production was in decline by the 1930s. Futher the consolidation of the companies usually means a contraction in the industry. The hat decline came about over a period of decades but long before the 1960s. Or at least that is my story and I am sticking to it.......