Pork pie hat
A pork pie hat (a.k.a. porkpie) is a type of hat made of felt or straw. It is a type of fedora which has a cylindrical crown and flattish top. This style of crown is called a "telescopic crown", but the hat overall resembles the boater hat. It is short (usually 3" to 4" in height) and has an indentation all the way around its top, allowing it to pop upward slightly when worn.[1] Furthermore, as stated in a newspaper clipping from the mid-1930's: "The true pork pie hat is so made that it cannot be worn successfully except when telescoped." The same clipping refers to the hat also as "the bi crowned" [sic].[2]
The pork pie hat originated in the mid-19th century. Originally a ladies’ hat, it is named for its resemblance to the pork pie dish.[3] According to the American fashion reporting of the 1930's, the smooth dark brown felt was the original popular model, but the "fuzzier" green model came in close second.
The pork pie hat was a staple of the British man-about-town style for many years. Commonly worn by American Civil War soldiers and the US Army (unofficially) throughout the 1880s. Pork pie hats are often associated with jazz, blues and ska musicians and fans. Charles Mingus wrote an elegy for jazz saxophone great Lester Young called "Goodbye Pork Pie Hat", since Young was noted for his ever-present, broad-brimmed porkpie. Originally, the hat was seen as a sporting cap, popular at tennis matches.
In Jamaica, the hat was popularized by the 1960s "rude boy" subculture, which traveled to the United Kingdom, influencing both the mod and skinhead subcultures.
Physicist Robert Oppenheimer frequently wore a Stetson cowboy hat which he modified into a wide-brimmed porkpie. Singer Dean Martin was known to be partial to the hats, and they became a trademark of the silent film comedian Buster Keaton, who handmade his by modifying stetson hats[5]. Architect Frank Lloyd Wright was often seen wearing a porkpie. The hat was prevalent in New Guinea in January 1944, when Australian troops defeated a Japanese stronghold at Kankiryo Saddle.[6]
The porkpie hat enjoyed a slight resurgence in exposure and popularity after Gene Hackman’s character Jimmy "Popeye" Doyle wore one in the 1971 film The French Connection.[7] Doyle was based on real-life policeman Eddie Egan, who played the captain in the film, and his exploits in 1961; Egan was famous all his life for wearing a pork pie hat, and refused to surrender his hat to Gene Hackman for the film. The producers were forced to obtain Hackman's hat elsewhere.[8]
Bryan Cranston's character Walter White wears a porkpie hat in the AMC series Breaking Bad. White also goes by the alias "Heisenberg" whose persona is associated with the hat.
The animated Hanna-Barbera characters Top Cat, Huckleberry Hound, Hokey Wolf and Yogi Bear all wear porkpie hats. Fozzie Bear from The Muppets wears a pork pie hat.
Joaquín Monserrat, known as Pacheco in Puerto Rico, is the host of many children's TV shows and is known for his porkpie hat and bow tie.
The term is also used in reference to brimless hats worn by sailors of the United States, the United Kingdom and other nations. This hat is typically round, flat on top and wider at the crown. This type of hat is also known as a "square rig".
[edit] References
- ^ Kilgour, Ruth Edwards (1958). A Pageant of Hats Ancient and Modern. R. M. McBride Company, 1958.
- ^ http://www.appalachianhistory.net/2008/03/true-pork-pie-hat.html
- ^ Article in online etymological dictionary
- ^ How To Make A Porkpie Hat Buster Keaton, interviewed in 1964 at the Movieland Wax Museum. Henry Gris
- ^ http://www.busterkeaton.com/howto.htm
- ^ Australia in the War of 1939—1945: Series 1—Army, Volume VI—The New Guinea Offensives (First ed.). Canberra,: Australian War Memorial. 1961. p. 766. OCLC 254562463.
- ^ http://www.britannica.com/EBchecked/topic/470642/porkpie
- ^ http://www.people.com/people/archive/article/0,,20065832,00.html
