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Who Killed Men's Hats?
NPR ^ | May 4, 2012 | Robert Krulwich

Posted on 05/13/2012 7:42:53 PM PDT by Eyes Unclouded

...

So what happened? Why did guys stop wearing headgear in midcentury America?

The turning point, most people say, was John F. Kennedy's inauguration. Before Kennedy, all presidents wore top hats on their first day at work. Kennedy brought one, but hardly ever put it on. Fashionistas say Kennedy, one of our most charismatic presidents, made hats un-happen. And, chronologically speaking, after JFK, guys everywhere, even balding ones like astronaut John Glenn, went topless.

But I am the son of a hat designer. And my father, Allen S. Krulwich, had a different explanation. The president who de-hatted America, he thought, was Dwight Eisenhower.

Here's my dad's logic.

In the 1950s — and this was one of Ike's grand accomplishments — he built a vast highway system across America. Interstates went up everywhere. Cities extended roads, turnpikes, highways, and suburbs appeared around every major city. People, instead of taking a bus, a tram, a train to work, could hop into their new Chevy or Ford and drive.

Before Eisenhower, many more people used public transportation. After Eisenhower, they used a car. That, my father thinks, created the critical Head-To-Roof Difference.

A person of average height standing in a bus, tram or subway car has, roughly, three feet between the top of his head and the roof.

(Excerpt) Read more at npr.org ...


TOPICS: Culture/Society; Editorial; Miscellaneous
KEYWORDS: fashion; hat; hats; males; npr; stetson; trends
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To: nickcarraway

Dali was made about him.

He did the first hologram using Alice and a bazillion dollars worth of diamonds.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=gVhi7gi7_OA

Then Alice ‘hologrammed’ himself from the US to a UK concert.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=k9ynLVO6l0w

Can you think of anyone Dali would’ve “gotten” more than Alice?

;D


81 posted on 05/14/2012 12:16:51 AM PDT by Salamander (If I'm too rough, tell me.....I'm so scared your little head will come off in my hands.)
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To: nickcarraway

Dali was *mad* [dammit] about him.

He did the first hologram using Alice and a bazillion dollars worth of diamonds.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=gVhi7gi7_OA

Then Alice ‘hologrammed’ himself from the US to a UK concert.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=k9ynLVO6l0w

Can you think of anyone Dali would’ve “gotten” more than Alice?

;D


82 posted on 05/14/2012 12:17:22 AM PDT by Salamander (If I'm too rough, tell me.....I'm so scared your little head will come off in my hands.)
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To: Captain Beyond
The totally over-the-top top hat

[not sure how he keeps that thing on his head...pop rivets, mebbe]

83 posted on 05/14/2012 12:20:06 AM PDT by Salamander (If I'm too rough, tell me.....I'm so scared your little head will come off in my hands.)
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To: Captain Beyond
Now *this* is 'snakeskin hatband'


84 posted on 05/14/2012 12:22:00 AM PDT by Salamander (If I'm too rough, tell me.....I'm so scared your little head will come off in my hands.)
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To: TheOldLady

I knew you’d like that...:)


85 posted on 05/14/2012 12:23:52 AM PDT by Salamander (If I'm too rough, tell me.....I'm so scared your little head will come off in my hands.)
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To: Errant; LibWhacker

And bikers.

Those friggin’ Harley hats are nailed to hubby’s head and if I had ~his~ full, thick, wavy hair I’d rule the world.

;D


86 posted on 05/14/2012 12:28:14 AM PDT by Salamander (If I'm too rough, tell me.....I'm so scared your little head will come off in my hands.)
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To: Eyes Unclouded

Hat hair. I have fine hair. I don’t look human after I uncover, even with a crew cut.


87 posted on 05/14/2012 12:53:34 AM PDT by ebshumidors ( Marksmanship and YOUR heritage http://www.appleseedinfo.org)
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To: Eyes Unclouded

Here in L.A., a lot of young men are wearing flat caps or trilbys.


88 posted on 05/14/2012 12:56:27 AM PDT by Maven
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To: Graybeard58

I had the same dream after being out 20+ yrs.


89 posted on 05/14/2012 12:59:58 AM PDT by ebshumidors ( Marksmanship and YOUR heritage http://www.appleseedinfo.org)
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To: Eyes Unclouded

This guy ruined it for everyone else.

-PJ

90 posted on 05/14/2012 1:01:11 AM PDT by Political Junkie Too (If you can vote for President, then your children can run for President.)
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To: marron
People who are regularly out doors, as they go about their daily business, still tend to wear hats. What has gone away is the hat as an affectation among people who work indoors. If you are out in the sun all day, or out in the sprinkling rain all day, you wear a hat and it becomes part of your normal attire.

I think that's right. I had been hatless all my life until I started walking my daughters home from school. This is in DC, with subtropical summers. Within a year, I was wearing hats. I also went seasonal on suits, although I never got all the way back to summer whites.

I think what killed the hat was mass suburbanization, which put most people into their cars for commutes. If your exposure to the outdoors is limited to the walk in from the parking lot, hats are an unnecessary encumbrance. People who still spend quality time outside still wear them.

91 posted on 05/14/2012 2:34:17 AM PDT by sphinx
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To: Cicero

When I was a kid in the fifties, older males “dressed up” when they went outside. Except for when they were working around the house. If you look at photos of crowd scenes from the early twentieth century, you can see that most of the men wore suits and ties and hats. But by the end of the fifties, as I recall with my sometimes faulty memory, it seems only the males sixty and older really dressed up for casual occasions. I never saw old guys in bermuda shorts. Times change.


92 posted on 05/14/2012 4:45:00 AM PDT by driftless2
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To: Eyes Unclouded
Not only hats, but SPATS!

Nobody wears spats anymore, WHY???

Let's talk about this, people, it's much more interesting than talking about the Recovery That Never Was...

93 posted on 05/14/2012 5:17:22 AM PDT by Kenton
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To: Eyes Unclouded

“The chicken or the egg”. When men began to stop wearing hats, the early 60’s then the automakers began to lower the tops. Hats lost there luster in the 50’s. Actors and rock and roll stars set the pace. James Dean( rebel without a cause), Elvis, etc. This was the beginning of the LOSS OF “CLASS” in society


94 posted on 05/14/2012 6:18:56 AM PDT by capt B
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To: Eyes Unclouded

Modishly hatless men are the reason for the upsurge in skin cancer!


95 posted on 05/14/2012 6:34:27 AM PDT by IbJensen (If you don't read the newspaper you are uninformed, if you do read the newspaper you are misinformed)
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To: WilliamofCarmichael

LOL! He wasn’t called “Give ‘em he!!, Harry” for nothing!


96 posted on 05/14/2012 6:53:18 AM PDT by knittnmom (Save the earth! It's the only planet with chocolate!)
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To: Revolting cat!
Absence of hat racks?

That's a bit of it.

I have a fedora that I really like to wear. Most places have no place to hang your hat like a civilized human being.

97 posted on 05/14/2012 7:36:08 AM PDT by zeugma (Those of us who work for a living are outnumbered by those who vote for a living.)
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To: Theoria

Mrs. Z really hated Larry the Cable Guy as well. Then she watched a couple of episodes of his “Only In America”. His apparently genuine love of his country warmed her up to him.


98 posted on 05/14/2012 7:51:21 AM PDT by zeugma (Those of us who work for a living are outnumbered by those who vote for a living.)
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To: Kenton
Scrooge McDuck pulled off both very well ;-)
99 posted on 05/14/2012 8:01:14 AM PDT by TheBigB (Hippie liberal chick: "What do I do about birth control?" Me: "Just use your personality.")
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To: TheBigB
The Man with the Hat...


100 posted on 05/14/2012 8:04:20 AM PDT by TheBigB (Hippie liberal chick: "What do I do about birth control?" Me: "Just use your personality.")
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