The Good Old Summertime: a history of the Boater hat
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- เผยแพร่เมื่อ 29 มิ.ย. 2024
- Associated with summertime elegance and entertainment, the boater hat was once the most popular straw hat around, and is still seen as a symbol of elegant yet carefree good times, with its easygoing style, association with vaudeville and barbershop quartets, and its general comfort.
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The boater I wear comes from Meyer the Hatter in New Orleans
meyerthehatter.com/
Title sequence designed by Alexandre Mahler
am.design@live.com
This video was done for entertainment and educational purposes. No copyright infringement of any sort was intended.
I never once thought to myself. "Know what I need? A historical analysis of hats." BUT my goodness was I wrong! I love the content and seeing how all these iconic items came to be, and ultimately decline. I tip my hat to you!
:)
One of the most important steps in life is learning enough to know how little you know. You never know when something might come in handy.
I think part of the reason we watch is because of his extensive scholarship and charming delivery. I would be inclined to watch him discuss any subject. He's got to run out of hats to research someday -- I hope he has a good follow-up plan.
Me too - I so enjoy his videos!
If you told me I’d be addicted to watching hat history videos, I’d have said you were crazy. But here I am, watching hat history videos.
My everyday hat is the boater hat. Thank you for this history lesson
As a member of the school rowing club in the 60's at a posh English school, I wore one of these as part of the summer uniform for my final three years. I can confirm that they are a) bloody uncomfortable and b) not good to wear on a bicycle or on a windy day.
I have worn the skimmer to church on Sundays during summer season for over 50 years, with bowtie, of course. My grandpa taught me this. He was born in 1900, and is long gone, but the hat lives on!
i kind of want one now, the idea of a hat with specific days to wear and stop wearing as a symbol of the summer months sounds like such a beautiful thing, no wonder the summer was remembered so fondly by that generation
Love your hat with the seersucker suit jacket. As a Longshoreman for 43 years, dock workers are absolutely the wrong folks to mess with. Surprised the hat riot lasted more than a day. I'd bet the stretcher bearers were a busy lot.
I was wearing my Coburg boater once when an amish guy said to me that he really liked my hat..
To which I responded, "I like your hat a great deal as well."
You see, I have several amish straw hats as well.
You forgot the comedian WC Fields...
Not a boater of course, but the Amish men where straw hats in the warmer months even today. At age 72, I've only seen a boater once in my life, owned by an uncle who was born around 1890.
I've always associated a boater with long-ago summers and couples enjoying rowboat rides on lazy rivers. Of course, I also think of Maurice Chevalier, who was a charming singer and actor.
A smashing video, I must say the existence of the Straw hat riots was a most whimsical revelation.
A very entertaining series. I would never have thought how satisfying it is to know more about hats. I will make one small correction. Cambridge is not criss-crossed by canals. There is just a river - the Cam, to punt up and down. So at least you can't get lost, no matter how drunk you are.
He's probably got it confused with Oxford...
Yep, I've never punted in Oxford, but I have been on (and in) The river Cam many times@@emmgeevideo
@emmgeevideo - Oxford isn't criss-crossed by canals either. There is a canal, but nobody punts on it. Most punting takes place on the River Cherwell; bolder spirits punt on the River Isis (the local name for the Thames), but it's too deep in the middle for a punt pole.
I bought a high quality boater hat and wear it with pastel cotton or linen shirts. It looked casual and fresh but still very stylish. You dont need to wear it with a 3 piece suit. Short sleeve tattersall, madras, seersucker and terry cloth shirts are great textures to mix with straw. I even wore it with a yukata (mens summer kimono). This hat adds a lot of style without any effort
In Peru the boater is called "Sarita" in honor of Sarah Bernhardt. She visited Lima in the early 1900s and she wore and popularized it.
I have a boater, made by German firm Ottmar Reich. I did wear it earlier during Summer season. Must dig it up and use again next Summer! Thank for a good video full of "Hat Science"!
I really enjoy your videos. Thank you. A number of years ago, I attended a Kentucky Derby Day party, to which we were encouraged to wear a hat. I opted for a straw hat, and paired it with a navy blazer, bow tie, summer slacks, and brown-and-white spectator shoes. It looked very 1907. I loved the look.
W.C. Fields 😊👍
Brilliant, as usual. One additional detail. Fifty years ago I was with my girlfriend (now wife) at her family's Finger Lake property that had already been in the family fifty years, and was a summer gathering place for this prosperous, old family. My wife's elegant, leathery, lean and obviously unwell uncle told me that the skimmer acquired its name because that was the end of the summer when you tried to skip your boater across the lake to see how far you could make yours go.
I LOVE hats! They are certainly making a comeback!
I wore a boater as a young butcher in london
In America, the boater is often associated with political campaigns, as cheap plastic boaters with political ribbons attached worn by supporters and campaign staff.
I’ve have become addicted to your channel now, I pretty much watched all your videos 3 times over and even the French ones with subtitled on! Keep up the awesome work!
We had a school boater hat in those exact colours at Barker College in Sydney! We only stopped wearing them in 1980
Shame they stopped!
The secondary school I started going to more than 50 years ago in Brisbane Australia had (and still has) the boater as part of its uniform - very old fashioned then and even more so now. Practical from a sun-protection point of view but that's about it for its good points - provided you had the right size it wasn't uncomfortable, but a felt or softer straw hat would do the same job, better. If it was windy it could be difficult to keep on, if it rained and you forgot your plastic cover it could warp or start to fall apart, pretty flimsy at the best of times (unless as some did you put a layer of fibreglass on it, when it became heavy and close to a lethal weapon) and expensive. But certainly distinctive and a tradition stubbornly adhered to!
I have three of them...
i LOVE hats, however I hate wearing them- it is sure nice to be able to know the history of hats.
I love the boater hat, I’ve always known this hat as a hat associated with vaudeville & the turn of the 20th century. I’ve seen some of our Sesame Street friends wear these hats on the vaudeville stage.
Fun fact: in colloquial Flemish, especially in Antwerp, this type of hat was known as ‘tits’ (yes, I know how this sounds to English speakers). It was derivated from the name of Leonhard Tietz, a German merchant who had a large shop in Antwerp around 1900 that supplied these hats along other commodities.
I wear mine on Independence Day July 4th in the USA.... and a few other occasions.
The most elegant gentleman I’ve ever seen on the Washington, DC, metro, or anywhere, was wearing a white suit with a beautiful boater. What a fine fellow!
Always liked the break the brim adjustment gag.
In Chile, this hat was popular in the 20-30s; it was called "sombrero hallulla" - hallulla hat. "Hallulla" is a round and flat (delicious) bread.
Always learning something. Thank you for that.
I wear an Olney Boater at work. It takes a few days (or a rainstorm) to be a comfortable fit. My brother inherited one from an old man we cared for, and it lasted about 10 years of regular use. They are very robust.
Well, this channel’s gonna blow up… enjoy your impending success!
Wonderful program. So well researched!
In Germany this hat is called , Kreissäge' ( circular saw blade).
A good one would certainly have been useful in the martial art called Bartitsu, for a more cultured 'Peaky Blinder'.
@@lindsayheyes925 : Know this photos of fighting gentlemen.
When we did a production of "The Music Man" my senior year in high school (1969) there were lots of skimmers made of compressed Styrofoam left over from the 1968 political conventions. Only Harold Hill and the babershop quartet members got the real thing to wear. The scene where I was among the outraged citizens rushing Harold Hill calling for his tarring and feathering the brim was snapped off of my plastic skimmer.
I'm pretty sure Doctor who the had the folder for the 7th doctor.
In the 1960s in Cape Town called school boys' boaters, "cheese cutters"
I love this channel. I wish I could subscribe twice. Never would I have thought that hats could be interesting
I’ve owned a boater since the 70’s, a friend bought it for me while in England.
A few corrections - Harrow boaters sit in top of the head and we’re not meant to fit like regular boaters. Women’s boaters were called Merry Widow sailor hats
Yay, hats! Bonne chance with the channel.
merci!
I like your videos, informative and entertaining.
Yay a new vid from my favorite hat addict
I really relate it to Amish hats although I can’t make a direct connection
NOW to learn about the Panama :)
I'd love to hear about my favorite hat. The newsboy hat.
I've talked about it in my video on the flatcap
It wont take long for your channel to grow much larger. Great job!
Merci! Here's hoping!
so glad this video was recommended to me, it was delightful :D
I wore one in the 80s and 90s in the meat game quite heavy compared to the nylon trilbies
Buster Keaton always called those flat hats
I wear mine all Summer long!
Great stuff
Hello! Thanks for the informative videos. I never really thought about the history of headwear before, and your presentations made me realize I was missing out.
What happened in the 1960's that caused the general decline in hat wearing?
If I had to guess? In America at least JFK was the first president to forgo the wearing of a hat at his inauguration so possibly it was seen as not required by other circles?
That's part of it, but the trend had already started, Kennedy was more another nail in the coffin. General consensus was a generalized relaxation of dress norms, the automobile rendering them less necessary, and passing fashions as countercultural movements emerged. I might do a video dedicated solely to that subject at some point.
@@hathistorianjc Thanks for the reply! A video on the decline of hat-wearing would be both nifty and appreciated.
Une excellente vidéo comme toujours!
We had to wear it for school events, it was called a cheesecutter then.
Here is my comment for the algorithm. 🧑🌾
Looks like you're ready to do some old-fashioned politicking. Or become a traveling flim-flam man.
hahahaha the hat does give a certain image
My grandfather loved his straw boaters, and in warm weather in North Carolina would never think of going out without one. I always thought he looked particularly dashing in it. I have a collection from political campaigns I've worked on, and the only time I wear a boater is during the political campaign season, especially when I'm working in a candidate's information booth or walking a precinct as part of "Get-Out-the-Vote."
Our First XV rugby team at school here in South Africa used to wear these. They were called bashers as they are extremely rigid and a hard crack on the head from one of these was quite painful
Gives connotations of the long summer of 1913 …
The boater's association with political rallies always led me to believe it was called the voter hat (I had only ever heard the name, not read it). Thank you for this brief history to clear that up.
"My name is Monkey D Luffy, and I'm going to be king of the pirates."
my mother stuffed me into those horrid navy type out fits, each time we went out, till about 1967-68, then it was school. only seniors had boater's! being junior we had like a peaky blinder cap but not a Glasgo cheese cutter type. waza Australia. (note my profile photo, i have my Trilby on / that is my friends dog diesel)
The boater,the first party hat
A new hat video. Noice.
They'll keep coming once a month as long as I can!
@@hathistorianjc And I'll be waiting.
The immensely popular silent comedian, Harold Lloyd, when playing the hapless striver for success and love he normally depicted (usually named Harold) almost invariably sported a jaunty straw boater with a very broad dark band. Just as Charlie Chaplin and Laurel & Hardy wore bowlers/derbies, and Buster Keaton a very flattened out minimialist pork pie. Harry Langdon wore what I assume is a bowler, but with a very pronounced dent in it, as a signifier that something is never quite right with him, mentally speaking. W.C. Fields wore either a light-colored top hat or a boater. Raymond Griffith most often went with a dark top hat, but didn't make that many films. Charley Chase, a less famous but well-respected silent clown, often used the boater as well. But it was most of all Harold Lloyd's trademark. Maybe the single most famous cinema image involving this style of hat is him hanging desperately from the minute hand of a huge clock on a skyscraper--the boater somehow staying on his head as he dangles. A sign that no matter how dangerous his situation, a man must remain true to his brand.
I still follow straw hat day...but i replace a felt hat with a straw panama
Spike Jones wore one
Some say you should avoid this hat in Brockway, Ogdenville and North Haverbrook.
gosh they've gotten expensive I haven't been able to replace mine for years and they turn yellow pretty quickly after exposure to the sun. I think they're $120-$150 now for watt should be a disposable cheap hat. You can always tell someone who doesn't really know what they're doing when they're wearing a dark brown old boater because they haven't replaced it they're supposed to be almost white.
The Victorian boater hats had the wider brim and those are really hard to find by the way I wanted to ask you if you couldn't show us the difference in the way the straws woven the boater hat is thicker or sturdy it is put together differently than your average straw fedora hat. you're right the really inexpensive summer straw hats with the flat brim are very floppy and definitely not a real boater but they do work well for a ladies hat or little kids who are going to tear them up.
I wore one of these as part of my school uniform - very uncomfortable!
In the States, Styrofoam simulacra of these have, since the Sixties, been circulated during political campaigns.
In 74 years I have never seen a boater in Canada.
Go Canada!
Alas ye have ner locked in da raight place for aye ave but three of em, each more lurvly than the next 🤠
Women and Children first
The teens who disrespected the dockworkers f*cked around and found out.
Frustrating that Panama straw hats are so fragile... I found a straw boater in an antique store and was amazed how sturdy it was! Alas, a boater does not suit me and was the wrong size...
Speaking of which, is it my imagination, or were head sizes smaller on average in the past? Vintage and antique hats always seem so small to me...
What are the flags on your wall
Normandy (behind me) and Missouri (to my side), the two places my family is from.
Until this day i would have sworn that this hat was a panama. I was such a fool
I’ve always thought that type of hat was referred to as the campaign hat. Is that another name for the boater?
The campaign hat is the hat that US Army Cavalrymen wear. Though it shares one feature with the boater, its flat brim.
Is THAT a Susquehanna hat?!
OK, but how is it manufactured? From what, exactly, is it made? WHO manufactured it? Where would someone get an authentic NEW one today?
It's tightly woven out of straw. You can get new ones from good hatters today (Mine was new when I got it, I put a link to where I bought it in the description)
"Seep into civilian circles..." Very alliterative of you.
Yeah, that took a couple of tries to get right :p
Had to wear one as part of school uniform, damm uncomfortable .
It makes me think of a monty python skit,, a parody of sam pekinpah movies
Makes Fedora
It's planned
@@hathistorianjc do the stetson first
I'm afraid the fedora will wome first (as it is already written, though not filmed yet), but don't worry, the cowboy hat is planned too and will come!
@@hathistorianjc 😃👍
Being attacked by swarms of kids with nailed baseball bats and planks because you wore a straw hat. New York has always been a terrible place lmao.
I really enjoy your hat histories, but has anyone suggested that you try speaking more slowly? Especially when you are rattling off names, I get lost. I just trailed 0.75 playback speed - and that was a bit too slow but much easier to understand. Maybe if you could slow down to 90% of your normal speed, you would attract more subscriptions. Just a suggestion, but I do love your hat histories even when I have to listen to them twice.
I live in the mid tropics,,,,, and the summer sun is a horror show and Europeans will choose sun screen cream that burns their eyes and pollutes crystal clear cascades and springs so as not to wear some stylish head wear and maybe a sensible long sleeved collared shirt
some hats like this one i understand how it got made and why but i dont understand why people would wear it its just not good looking at all
Oh yeah send it became a symbol of the G-man or FBI in the 1920s.
The boater looks so silly. Elicits images of candy striped seersucker suits, riverboat musicians, New Orleans jazz quartets, and Dick Van Dyke in the Music Man. Absolutely no sense of authority or somber flair.
Lou Gehrig took Babe Ruths hat and took a chunk out of it