Please remove your hat

Please remove your hat, or perhaps your head? The dark side of hat wearing several years ago is that hats were very intrusive at the movie theatre and there was simply no place to put them other than on your lap. Putting them on the seat beside you was a sure invitation for some unwitting person to sit on it inadvertently.

TCM showed a very funny movie clip tonight.

It was a short from 1944 called Movie Pests. All the annoying things that people do in the movie theatre to wit … Stand and talk, put their feet in the gangway, keep moving seats, not move a seat over, chewing gum under the seat etc. Of course the obstruction of view by a big hat is definitely on the list in 1944. In 2009 we may not have the big hat problem. We do have most of the annoying problems over 60 years later. Ours are worse. We have the cell phone ringing problem and even worse the cell phone answering and talking problem. Well we have a solution now – that is just watch the movie when it comes out on DVD, especially if you own a giant flat screen TV.

The movie is a comedic representation that was meant to be shown in movie theatres to educate patrons on proper behaviour. We still need it now nearly 65 years later. The movie short does shatter the illusion that people were more polite in the old days.

The hat scenes were really funny. You have to visualize a young woman with a very plumed hat – somewhat reminiscent of an Edwardian Hat (for effect?).

There was a little man sitting behind this woman. The narration went as follows:

This unhappy little man cannot see the screen because he’s behind a mountain of millinery. Once in a while he takes a peek to be sure he’s missing something.

Actually the man looks either side of the hat and parts the feathers even.
Eventually the man gets the woman to remove the hat and then exposes a humongous hairdo You just cannot win eh?

Imagine such a selfish man asking a lady to remove her hat? Yeah! He should have asked her to remove her head!

It was really funny. At the end there was a piece – what if you could do what you wanted to the offenders? The scene shows someone with shears cutting off the hat feathers. Instead of road rage we had hat rage!

You cannot get the short on a separate DVD but it is an extra with the DVD Thirty Seconds over Tokyo (1944) starring Spencer Tracy. Its worth buying the DVD to have this wonderful short that was nominated for an Oscar in 1945 (it did not win).

The Oscars are coming up next Sunday February 22 and I am working on a post to nominate three classic movies for the best hat in a supporting role in a movie. Yes you say you get hat envy just looking at the great hats in those old movies. However, in the case of the three movies I will cover a hat plays a supporting role in the plot of the movie itself. Stay tuned.

Actually I believe that most of the hats in the 1940s were not as feathery as the one depicted in the movie short. Yes,in the thirties there were some very dramatic hats.

For your eye candy here is a picture I believe to be from the 1940s (the woman has a severe perm).Oh yes, it can still be a significant obstacle in a movie theatre! Enjoy