Hat Check Girl Episode Two
The movies and TV
The Hat Check Girl was the girl who checked men’s hats and often did double duty as the cloakroom attendant. Your fedora was your prize possession to be placed in safe custody in a cubby hole. It was actually considered a sexy profession, one step above cigarette girl who walked around in the club scantily dressed selling cigarettes from a tray.
In the movies the hat check girl was a common foil for men to flirt with. Often they were in roles where they went from rags to riches through contact with rich men. Sometimes they were a straight person in a comedy part. The famous entrance of Mae West in a night spot in the gangster movie Night after Night is a case in point. Mae West enters dripping with Diamonds:
Hat Check Girl Exclaims: Goodness! What beautiful Diamonds!!
Mae West Retorts: Goodness had nothing to do with it dearie!
Mae West stole the show from George Raft in the entire movie much to his dismay. Mae West went on to be famous for one liners.
In episode one of these hat check girl posts Charlie Chaplin had an encounter with a hat check girl and her suitors.
There were at least three movies where the hat check girl had more than a cameo role
Sally Eilers plays Gerry Marsh, a nice Brooklyn girl who has to work part time as a hat check girl to support her Mother and a ne’er do well brother. This all takes place at the Embassy Club. Gerry gets an invitation to a party where she is asked to sell liquor illegally. There are a series of unfortunate events but she meets a rich man and eventually all works out. (Hey it was the depression and people were looking for good rags to riches stories). Ginger Rogers steals the show somewhat as the best friend of the main character. This was before her leap to fame only a few years later.
The hat check girl at the Stork Club, played by Betty Hutton saves a millionaire from drowning. The millionaire was so grateful that he anonymously gave her a luxury apartment, money and a charge account. Then the fund begins naturally Betty’s GI boyfriend thinks there is monkey business going on.
Here is the trailer of the movie courtesy of Turner Classic Movies (how I love those black and white movies form the thirties and forties so hatty).
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=fClUAac4jww
There was talk that the then famous Stork Club had financed the production but I could find no evidence of that. In the 1980s the movie slipped into the Public Domain and has become a favorite late night classic movie. You can download the movie or just watch it for free on the Internet Archive site. It’s a cute movie but dated, the quality of the production is not good. It needs someone to lovingly restore it.
There’s no business like show business 1954
This was a poorly written movie musical that lost money but got a lot of attention. One of the stars was Marilyn Monroe who we see first at the 30 minute mark. She is a show business singer who is working as a hat check girl waiting for her lucky break. I just loved her French Maid hat check outfit – great for Halloween.
On TV
There was a show called What’s my Line? This show ran from 1950 to 1968 and in a revival again until 1975. There were other versions that appeared in other countries. The main object of the show was for a panel of celebrities (mostly the B list) who would try to guess a contestant’s job or profession. This was done through yes or no questions. Ten nos and the contestant won. On the very first show the first contestant was Hat Check Girl Pat Finch. The panel guessed before the ten nos but Pat won $25 for her trouble. Wow that’s 100 tips! You can search You Tube where there are some uploads of this episode but I am not sure how authorized they are so I will leave that up to you.
Please let me know of any other hat check girl movies.
More on in the Hat Check Girl Episode three.
