The Good Old Summertime: a history of the Boater hat

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.
Version française: • L'élégance au soleil: ...
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.

Пікірлер: 127

  • @roidragecow
    @roidragecow2 жыл бұрын

    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!

  • @hathistorianjc

    @hathistorianjc

    2 жыл бұрын

    :)

  • @silverjohn6037

    @silverjohn6037

    3 ай бұрын

    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.

  • @emmgeevideo

    @emmgeevideo

    2 ай бұрын

    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.

  • @charlotteillustration5778

    @charlotteillustration5778

    Ай бұрын

    Me too - I so enjoy his videos!

  • @earnestwanderer2471

    @earnestwanderer2471

    23 күн бұрын

    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.

  • @dizfoster8726
    @dizfoster872622 күн бұрын

    My everyday hat is the boater hat. Thank you for this history lesson

  • @nemesislooms6315
    @nemesislooms63153 ай бұрын

    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.

  • @gretalaube91
    @gretalaube913 ай бұрын

    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!

  • @Vexation4632
    @Vexation46322 ай бұрын

    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.

  • @dguy0386
    @dguy03862 ай бұрын

    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

  • @rogersheddy6414
    @rogersheddy64142 ай бұрын

    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.

  • @fp3359
    @fp33593 ай бұрын

    You forgot the comedian WC Fields...

  • @christianblack2916
    @christianblack29163 ай бұрын

    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.

  • @emmgeevideo

    @emmgeevideo

    2 ай бұрын

    He's probably got it confused with Oxford...

  • @christianblack2916

    @christianblack2916

    2 ай бұрын

    Yep, I've never punted in Oxford, but I have been on (and in) The river Cam many times@@emmgeevideo

  • @chriswalker2753

    @chriswalker2753

    28 күн бұрын

    @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.

  • @jeromemckenna7102
    @jeromemckenna71023 ай бұрын

    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.

  • @mrs.g.9816
    @mrs.g.981610 күн бұрын

    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.

  • @mortdecai6655
    @mortdecai66552 жыл бұрын

    A smashing video, I must say the existence of the Straw hat riots was a most whimsical revelation.

  • @rodrigodepierola
    @rodrigodepierola2 ай бұрын

    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.

  • @CanetCinema2024
    @CanetCinema20243 ай бұрын

    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"!

  • @Green4CloveR
    @Green4CloveR6 ай бұрын

    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

  • @wstimo
    @wstimo3 ай бұрын

    I wore a boater as a young butcher in london

  • @Irish37
    @Irish37Ай бұрын

    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.

  • @Philobiblion
    @Philobiblion2 ай бұрын

    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.

  • @AB-ye7bw
    @AB-ye7bw3 ай бұрын

    W.C. Fields 😊👍

  • @johnbiddle1829
    @johnbiddle18293 ай бұрын

    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!

  • @spankyharland9845
    @spankyharland98452 ай бұрын

    i LOVE hats, however I hate wearing them- it is sure nice to be able to know the history of hats.

  • @vitalyvolkov1618
    @vitalyvolkov16183 ай бұрын

    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.

  • @robanze6972
    @robanze69723 ай бұрын

    I have three of them...

  • @fredsalfa
    @fredsalfa Жыл бұрын

    We had a school boater hat in those exact colours at Barker College in Sydney! We only stopped wearing them in 1980

  • @hathistorianjc

    @hathistorianjc

    Жыл бұрын

    Shame they stopped!

  • @jonathanvermillion7263
    @jonathanvermillion726310 ай бұрын

    I LOVE hats! They are certainly making a comeback!

  • @525Lines
    @525Lines Жыл бұрын

    In America, the boater is often associated with political campaigns, as cheap plastic boaters with political ribbons attached worn by supporters and campaign staff.

  • @CeliaZA
    @CeliaZA3 ай бұрын

    In the 1960s in Cape Town called school boys' boaters, "cheese cutters"

  • @annwagner5779
    @annwagner57792 ай бұрын

    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!

  • @JeremiahsFiles
    @JeremiahsFiles9 ай бұрын

    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.

  • @Engelhafen
    @Engelhafen2 ай бұрын

    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

  • @MrToasterWaffles
    @MrToasterWaffles2 жыл бұрын

    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!

  • @brittakriep2938
    @brittakriep29384 ай бұрын

    In Germany this hat is called , Kreissäge' ( circular saw blade).

  • @lindsayheyes925

    @lindsayheyes925

    3 ай бұрын

    A good one would certainly have been useful in the martial art called Bartitsu, for a more cultured 'Peaky Blinder'.

  • @brittakriep2938

    @brittakriep2938

    3 ай бұрын

    @@lindsayheyes925 : Know this photos of fighting gentlemen.

  • @carlupthegrove262
    @carlupthegrove2622 ай бұрын

    I wear mine on Independence Day July 4th in the USA.... and a few other occasions.

  • @richewilson6394
    @richewilson63943 ай бұрын

    I'm pretty sure Doctor who the had the folder for the 7th doctor.

  • @MariaMartinez-researcher
    @MariaMartinez-researcher2 ай бұрын

    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.

  • @frohnnielsen
    @frohnnielsen2 ай бұрын

    Always learning something. Thank you for that.

  • @CRUCIFi777
    @CRUCIFi777Ай бұрын

    Always liked the break the brim adjustment gag.

  • @lindsayheyes925
    @lindsayheyes9253 ай бұрын

    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.

  • @dennisatkins9837
    @dennisatkins98372 ай бұрын

    I’ve owned a boater since the 70’s, a friend bought it for me while in England.

  • @tommunyon2874
    @tommunyon2874Ай бұрын

    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.

  • @jerrybaird2059
    @jerrybaird20593 ай бұрын

    Wonderful program. So well researched!

  • @jeffgriffin4239
    @jeffgriffin42393 ай бұрын

    I'd love to hear about my favorite hat. The newsboy hat.

  • @hathistorianjc

    @hathistorianjc

    3 ай бұрын

    I've talked about it in my video on the flatcap

  • @tecumsehcristero
    @tecumsehcristero3 ай бұрын

    Buster Keaton always called those flat hats

  • @spaguettoltd.7933
    @spaguettoltd.79332 жыл бұрын

    Well, this channel’s gonna blow up… enjoy your impending success!

  • @giantred
    @giantredАй бұрын

    NOW to learn about the Panama :)

  • @ramamonato5039
    @ramamonato50392 ай бұрын

    I like your videos, informative and entertaining.

  • @deiniolbythynnwr926
    @deiniolbythynnwr9262 жыл бұрын

    I love this channel. I wish I could subscribe twice. Never would I have thought that hats could be interesting

  • @HNXMedia
    @HNXMedia3 ай бұрын

    "My name is Monkey D Luffy, and I'm going to be king of the pirates."

  • @minigunsniper
    @minigunsniper2 жыл бұрын

    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?

  • @roidragecow

    @roidragecow

    2 жыл бұрын

    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?

  • @hathistorianjc

    @hathistorianjc

    2 жыл бұрын

    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.

  • @minigunsniper

    @minigunsniper

    2 жыл бұрын

    @@hathistorianjc Thanks for the reply! A video on the decline of hat-wearing would be both nifty and appreciated.

  • @renishii6834
    @renishii68343 ай бұрын

    I really relate it to Amish hats although I can’t make a direct connection

  • @timothybruce9366
    @timothybruce93662 ай бұрын

    I wear mine all Summer long!

  • @sticks4632
    @sticks46322 жыл бұрын

    Yay a new vid from my favorite hat addict

  • @Uberspanker
    @Uberspanker2 жыл бұрын

    Yay, hats! Bonne chance with the channel.

  • @hathistorianjc

    @hathistorianjc

    2 жыл бұрын

    merci!

  • @futuristica1710
    @futuristica17102 ай бұрын

    Gives connotations of the long summer of 1913 …

  • @metacomet101
    @metacomet1012 жыл бұрын

    Great stuff

  • @pyenygren2299
    @pyenygren2299Ай бұрын

    Here is my comment for the algorithm. 🧑‍🌾

  • @sunnydayhyuck
    @sunnydayhyuck2 жыл бұрын

    so glad this video was recommended to me, it was delightful :D

  • @emrekarsidag188
    @emrekarsidag1882 жыл бұрын

    Une excellente vidéo comme toujours!

  • @louisvorster3355
    @louisvorster33552 ай бұрын

    We had to wear it for school events, it was called a cheesecutter then.

  • @walterworrall
    @walterworrall2 жыл бұрын

    It wont take long for your channel to grow much larger. Great job!

  • @hathistorianjc

    @hathistorianjc

    2 жыл бұрын

    Merci! Here's hoping!

  • @SamAronow
    @SamAronow2 жыл бұрын

    Looks like you're ready to do some old-fashioned politicking. Or become a traveling flim-flam man.

  • @hathistorianjc

    @hathistorianjc

    2 жыл бұрын

    hahahaha the hat does give a certain image

  • @barrygerman6526
    @barrygerman6526 Жыл бұрын

    I wore one in the 80s and 90s in the meat game quite heavy compared to the nylon trilbies

  • @WelshRabbit
    @WelshRabbit3 ай бұрын

    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."

  • @charlesrb3898
    @charlesrb38983 ай бұрын

    In 74 years I have never seen a boater in Canada.

  • @douglasclerk2764

    @douglasclerk2764

    3 ай бұрын

    Go Canada!

  • @ProfessionalMusicPartners

    @ProfessionalMusicPartners

    2 ай бұрын

    Alas ye have ner locked in da raight place for aye ave but three of em, each more lurvly than the next 🤠

  • @mikebersiks3280
    @mikebersiks3280Ай бұрын

    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

  • @FreihEitner
    @FreihEitner2 ай бұрын

    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.

  • @wazalee4872
    @wazalee48722 ай бұрын

    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)

  • @ERJones-fd6oh
    @ERJones-fd6ohАй бұрын

    The boater,the first party hat

  • @spamcannon5917
    @spamcannon59172 жыл бұрын

    A new hat video. Noice.

  • @hathistorianjc

    @hathistorianjc

    2 жыл бұрын

    They'll keep coming once a month as long as I can!

  • @spamcannon5917

    @spamcannon5917

    2 жыл бұрын

    @@hathistorianjc And I'll be waiting.

  • @timothylethbridge9805
    @timothylethbridge98052 ай бұрын

    Spike Jones wore one

  • @christopherlyons5900
    @christopherlyons5900Ай бұрын

    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.

  • @sassoy3370
    @sassoy33702 жыл бұрын

    What are the flags on your wall

  • @hathistorianjc

    @hathistorianjc

    2 жыл бұрын

    Normandy (behind me) and Missouri (to my side), the two places my family is from.

  • @randelbrooks
    @randelbrooks2 ай бұрын

    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.

  • @johnmurdoch8534
    @johnmurdoch8534Ай бұрын

    I still follow straw hat day...but i replace a felt hat with a straw panama

  • @infoscholar5221
    @infoscholar52213 ай бұрын

    In the States, Styrofoam simulacra of these have, since the Sixties, been circulated during political campaigns.

  • @RetroSwim
    @RetroSwim2 ай бұрын

    Some say you should avoid this hat in Brockway, Ogdenville and North Haverbrook.

  • @kdingo6596
    @kdingo65962 ай бұрын

    I’ve always thought that type of hat was referred to as the campaign hat. Is that another name for the boater?

  • @Spaibo

    @Spaibo

    2 ай бұрын

    The campaign hat is the hat that US Army Cavalrymen wear. Though it shares one feature with the boater, its flat brim.

  • @douglasclerk2764
    @douglasclerk27643 ай бұрын

    I wore one of these as part of my school uniform - very uncomfortable!

  • @user-wp8pm7nw1c
    @user-wp8pm7nw1c3 ай бұрын

    The teens who disrespected the dockworkers f*cked around and found out.

  • @BobAbc0815
    @BobAbc0815Ай бұрын

    Women and Children first

  • @AceFrahm
    @AceFrahm4 күн бұрын

    OK, but how is it manufactured? From what, exactly, is it made? WHO manufactured it? Where would someone get an authentic NEW one today?

  • @hathistorianjc

    @hathistorianjc

    4 күн бұрын

    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)

  • @bruceeng3376
    @bruceeng33763 ай бұрын

    Is THAT a Susquehanna hat?!

  • @comlitbeta7532
    @comlitbeta75322 ай бұрын

    Until this day i would have sworn that this hat was a panama. I was such a fool

  • @alexsawa2956
    @alexsawa29563 ай бұрын

    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...

  • @aresee8208
    @aresee82082 ай бұрын

    "Seep into civilian circles..." Very alliterative of you.

  • @hathistorianjc

    @hathistorianjc

    2 ай бұрын

    Yeah, that took a couple of tries to get right :p

  • @markrutlidge5427
    @markrutlidge54272 ай бұрын

    Had to wear one as part of school uniform, damm uncomfortable .

  • @mattiasandersson2315
    @mattiasandersson23153 ай бұрын

    It makes me think of a monty python skit,, a parody of sam pekinpah movies

  • @jimmydesouza4375
    @jimmydesouza43753 ай бұрын

    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.

  • @partisans5321
    @partisans53212 жыл бұрын

    Makes Fedora

  • @hathistorianjc

    @hathistorianjc

    2 жыл бұрын

    It's planned

  • @rino09876

    @rino09876

    2 жыл бұрын

    @@hathistorianjc do the stetson first

  • @hathistorianjc

    @hathistorianjc

    2 жыл бұрын

    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!

  • @rino09876

    @rino09876

    2 жыл бұрын

    @@hathistorianjc 😃👍

  • @robwesterly5785
    @robwesterly57852 ай бұрын

    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

  • @davewalter1216
    @davewalter12162 ай бұрын

    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.

  • @karrde5566
    @karrde5566Ай бұрын

    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

  • @randelbrooks
    @randelbrooks2 ай бұрын

    Oh yeah send it became a symbol of the G-man or FBI in the 1920s.

  • @ms.annthrope415
    @ms.annthrope4152 ай бұрын

    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.

  • @user-he3rm6ty5h
    @user-he3rm6ty5h24 күн бұрын

    Lou Gehrig took Babe Ruths hat and took a chunk out of it