Who wears/wore porkpies?

[adamgottschalk]

Being a jazz buff, I know full well that Lester "Prez" Young was also informally known by the name of the hat he was virtually always seen in (as in the Charles Mingus tune "Goodbye Porkpie Hat"). I don't happen to think that his hat looked all that great on him, but I've seen porkpie styles that I like. I have a straw porkpie (Goorin) which isn't the best quality but has a certain flair. There's a very interesting navy Dobbs porkpie right now on an auction site which I won't name.

What other well-known folks wore porkpies? Who in this forum wears a porkpie?

Is it true that the majority of nice straw hats are a porkpie or "panama" (telescope but no dent around the crown?) style? If folks happen to see the Dobbs porkpie mentioned above, I'd be interested to hear what you think of it.

 

[spiridon]

I have 3 or 4 straw porkpies/flat tops that I wear in the Summer....I LIKE 'em!

 

[The Duke]

Thelonious Monk

Wardell Gray

wore porkpies, I wear a porkpie similar to the prez.

 

[adamgottschalk]

Monk w/hat reversed

Thelonious Monk

Wardell Gey

wore porkpies, I wear a porkpie similar to the prez.

Thanks for the pics. Of course, I've seen Monk in every type of hat/top imaginable (I just love him in a trraditional Chinese hat , but the pork pie looks good on him. I noticed he's got it turned backwards--how very Monk! Maybe the photo got reversed over the years?

 

[Flitcraft]

Mickey Spillane wore porkpies when he was portraying his own fictional private detective, Mike Hammer, in a series of movies he made in the '50's.

 

[Doctor Strange]

Jumping from jazz to film... Don't forget Buster Keaton back in the twenties! The porkpie was his trademark, just like Chaplin's bowler or Lloyd's glasses.

 

[Flitcraft]

Just watched "My Favorite Wife" and Cary Grant has a porkpie. I don't think he actually wears it, but you do see him carrying it out of a restaurant.
If i can find it on DVD, I'll post some screen grabs.

I do remember reading somewhere that he didn't really like hats too much, which is kinda funny considering his reputation as a clotheshorse, but that he liked the low crown of the porkpie and thought it was more flattering than a fedora.

 

[adamgottschalk]

low crown on porkpies

Just watched "My Favorite Wife" and Cary Grant has a porkpie. I don't think he actually wears it, but you do see him carrying it out of a restaurant.
If i can find it on DVD, I'll post some screen grabs.

I do remember reading somewhere that he didn't really like hats too much, which is kinda funny considering his reputation as a clotheshorse, but that he liked the low crown of the porkpie and thought it was more flattering than a fedora.

Interesting that Cary Grant liked the low crown of a porkpie. I think tall crowns look best on me, and I think the porkpie, the way it fits tight right on the top of your head, makes for a more casual look. My straw porkpie is definitely casual. The high crowns look more formal to me (and sometimes, more "boss", mor gangster (whatever exactly that means and whatever it's worth)).

 

[Fu Manchu]

Buster Keaton

That's a porkpie? His hat is so shallow - maybe only an inch or so thick?

http://upload.wikimedia.org/wikiped...ster_Keaton_01.jpg/250px-Buster_Keaton_01.jpg

I thought it was a strictly custom job. Is it possible to get a hat like that today?

Fu Manchu

 

[adamgottschalk]

Wicked shallow porkpie!

That's a porkpie? His hat is so shallow - maybe only an inch or so thick?

http://upload.wikimedia.org/wikiped...ster_Keaton_01.jpg/250px-Buster_Keaton_01.jpg

I thought it was a strictly custom job. Is it possible to get a hat like that today?

Fu Manchu

My goodness, that is an unbelievably shallow hat, both on your link and in the photos that followed your post. It's so shallow, it's almost...almost...comical. Maybe that was the point?

 

[budward]

I think Buster Keaton made his own hats by re-vamping fedoras. Canadave knows all about it, but I don't think Keaton's was a hat you could go out and buy.

Bud

 

[budward]

take a look at this re his "recipe" for a hat:

http://www.busterkeaton.com/howto.htm

 

[Fedora]

In the first place, I used to do more water stuff - stunts where I got dumped into water - than most comedians. And felt disintegrates if you get it wet enough! So the mortality was high. I was lucky if I only used half a dozen in each picture

My o' my!! Do you mean that a guy, speaking to us from the era of fine vintage hats, says that felt will disintergrate if you get it wet enough???? Had to chunk em'??? Well, you heard it from the horses mouth fellows. Perhaps the modern high beaver content felt is better felt. (Ducks oncoming hard objects with great speed and agility) Afterall, most good modern felt hardly disintergrates with a bit of a dunking in water. :cheers1: Fedora

 

[adamgottschalk]

Felt disintegrates?

take a look at this re his "recipe" for a hat:

http://www.busterkeaton.com/howto.htm

What a great page! The low-down on Keaton's hats. I'm interested that he says "felt disintegrates if you get it wet enough". Is he talking wool felt? I know he's talking about full-on submersion in water, but my impression is that you can get no better water repellency and rain protection than from fur felt. Dunking a hat in water enough will ruin it I guess?

 

[Stanley Doble]

My guess is he bought the cheapest hats available, regarding them as props to be used up, smashed or lost in the filming of his stunts.

Yes I realize this thread is 8 years old. Just saying.

 

[hatsRme]

We need time to gather and organize thoughts sometimes... well done!

 

[KingAndrew]

Stanly Dobs, you are absolutely right. When you look at the crazy stunts Keaton did, and his own admission that he would lose or destroy at least a half dozen hats a picture, then he surely wasn't going to purchase a high-end model.

Moviemaking in the teens and 20s was very different from today's 200 million dollar budget special effects pageants. Keaton was filming with a single camera, at pick-up locations, often on very short timetables. And he had to do all his own stunts, which is amazing when you look at all the crumpled cars, sinking boats, and crazy jumps from high places in his films. So they surely didn't have the budget to destroy a dozen Knox Forties or other expensive hats.

 

[KingAndrew]

He really emphasizes stiffness in the interview. It is possible that when he says felt "disintegrates" he means that it gets really, really floppy and loses its shape. Which would make it lose the trademark shape he wanted to use. And surely there wasn't time in the middle of filming to re-block and re-stiffen a single hat multiple times.

 

[cchgn]

S. Stallone wore a leather porkpie as Rocky Balboa. Dean Martin;
Currently, Bruno Mars and John mayer(singers) wears porkpies. Johnny Depp. Bryan Cranston as Walter white in Breaking Bad

 

[scottyrocks]

My first exposure to a porkpie in a modern movie (I was about 12):

This one^^ looks like what I did to my 2" Dobbs '60s fedoras. The pinches are still evident.



This hat is back to being a fedora again.