The Oscars are on Sunday and it occurred to me that there should be a special award for where a hat plays a supporting role in a movie. I am a keen watcher of classic movies. I watch TCM (Turner Classic Movies) all the time and I get hat envy watching the actresses wear such wonderful hats. They are so inspiring. I just watched Goodbye Mr Chips. Greer Garson who plays the wife in the movie wears great hats (it’s set around the turn of the century – a golden age). I particularly love the bird winged sloping style she wears while meeting Mr Chip’s colleagues in the common room of the prestigious school. Well no place for a woman you say? Not unless you are the fabulous Greer Garson with a wonderful hat! More about Greer Garson later.

There have also been movies where hat style has been predominant. Who can forget My Fair Lady, especially the Ascot scene? I will write about that in a future post. Hats were the backdrop in many movie scenes. Did you notice the La Valle Millinery Shop as the backdrop in Gene Kelly’s iconic song and dance number “Singing in the Rain“?

I thought that you might want to consider situations where a hat has played a role in the movie itself – a part in the plot as it were rather than a part of “costume” per se.

I have three nominees for all time oscars for a hat in a supporting role.

The Bishop’s Wife, Mrs. Miniver and Witness for the Prosecution are my nominees.

The Bishop’s Wife (1947)

This is the story of a Bishop (played by the handsome David Niven) who prays for help to build a Cathedral and gets more than he asks for. God moves in mysterious ways! An Angel (played by Cary Grant – wow) comes to his aid in very interesting ways. Don’t we need an Angel now – I’ll settle for a Cary Grant look alike. The Bishop’s Wife is played by Loretta Young. It won an Oscar for best sound recording in 1947 and had four other nominations. A charming story.

What about the hat? In the beginning the wife is admiring a hat in the shop window. It’s kind of symbolic that she is looking for the fun that has gone from her life. Cary Grant observes her looking in the shop and also in a later scene. As a Bishop’s wife she apparently does not feel that she has the permission for extravagance especially during a fund raising Campaign to build a new Cathedral.

The hat was a very fancy hat with a mountain of curly ribbons, tied with a bow under the chin in a manner similar to the Regency bonnet. This hat longing all happens in the first five minutes and it is an integral part of the story line. In the end Cary Grant persuades Loretta to buy the hat. You can view an extract on You Tube (minute 5 in the excerpt). I love the other customer trying on the “desired” hat and Cary’s remarks to her – hilarious. Loretta buys the lovely hat and she transforms into a happy go lucky person. She goes on the lam on an adventure skating with Cary. It’s a glorious scene and truly cheers everyone up! The hat was a symbol of lifting the Wife out of her doldrums. Don’t we need that now?

Mrs Miniver (1942)

In Mrs Miniver the hat in question comes into play in the very first few minutes of the movie.It is symbolic of a diversionary extravagance at a time of great trouble. It is set in the early part of World War II when the outcome of the war seemed far from certain and the possibility of Britain losing the war seemed to be in play. An uplift was surely needed. Greer Garson (Mrs. Miniver) boards a bus on the way home. She is already wearing a fabulous hat by the way. She feels an irresistible urge to return to a Millinery Store to buy a hat she had apparently seen during her shopping expedition. It was a lovely hat with feathers – lucky it had not been sold!

All this seemed very foolish and extravagant during the war. She was worried about her husband’s reaction. She need not have worried. The husband, played by the suave Walter Pigeon, had just bought a car! Really could either item be afforded at that time? It is a charming story. I love this movie.

Mrs. Miniver won six Oscars in 1943 including best picture and best actress (Greer Garson). There were six other nominations including one for Walter Pidgeon. If you have not seen this why not?

Witness for the Prosecution (1957)

Another little known hat scene that plays a pivotal role in the movie plot is in Witness for the Prosecution.

In the movie Emily French (played by the very under rated Norma Varden) meets Leonard Stephen Vole (played by Tyrone Power – a suave lady’s man) while she is trying on hats in a hat store. Vole is window shopping (I’m not sure why he was looking in the window of a woman’s hat store – surely not a gift for his wife as he seems to say) and sees French trying on hats. One hat in particular strikes her fancy. It is an outlandish hat with a huge bow on the side. Maybe it would be fashionable now? (You can see the seen at minute 6.20 approx in this You Tube Clip) In a later scene Vole meets French again in a movie theatre where the infamous hat is obstructing the view (minute 8.20 approx). Vole befriends French. It’s 1957 and we do not actually see anything – it’s all innuendo and in any event we are not sure if it is more than good friends. Was cougar popular then? It was in Victorian times when Disraeli had an older wife.

Vole is an out of luck inventor  looking for a break – support to commercialize his improved egg beater? His wife is played by Marlene Dietrich, my all time role model. She had such presence and style and is great in this movie. Vole is later accused of murdering French.

Vole relates the hat scene in a flash back to his barrister, played by Charles Laughton. My favorite quote from the scene from Laughton:

“I am constantly surprised that women’s hats do not provoke more murders”

It’s a great movie and was nominated for six Oscars in 1958. Norma Varden carries the hat well. As I say she was seen a lot in a lot of movies and does not seem to get much credit.

……………………………………..

Please let me know your choice. My personal favorite is the Bishop’s wife since the hat symbolized the achievement of joy. Let’s bring back wearing of fancy hats as a symbol of bringing joy to the world and take us out of these terrible doldrums and depression we have got ourselves into. Will you join me?

UPDATE Feb 20 8pm EST
Amazon Links

©2012 Many Hatty Returns. All Rights Reserved.

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

©2012 Many Hatty Returns. All Rights Reserved.

I am looking for movies where hats have played a significant supporting role. I will be posting more on this very soon as the Oscars are coming soon.

I posted a request for suggested movies on my group The Hat Revivalist League on Face Book. Right now the group is really just starting up. I am looking for people to join up right now and by joining expressing their desire to bring hat wearing to daily wear. Please come over and give your support and join in the conversation.

I am asking for people to post pictures of themselves in their favorite hats as well as other pictures in the public domain or those they own the right to publish. Please take care when posting pictures. You have to have the permission of the subject and also the right to publish.  I am looking for suggestions as to what to do with the group. One idea is that we could adopt a charity to support? Please submit your suggestions here or in the group discussions on Face Book.

I asked for nominees for hatty movies. One of the members of the Face book Group came up with the Secret Life of Walter Mitty a movie from 1947. I do not remember having seen this movie. The movie seems to be out of print and otherwise hard to obtain. Someone has posted the scene in question on You Tube. The movie is based upon a 1939 story by James Thurber. It is about a mild mannered dreamer. The Walter Mitty character has crept into popular culture to describe a personality of an ineffectual, hapless dreamer – one who is unrealistic and achieves nothing. It’s too bad it’s a great story and the bits of the movie I have seen are wonderful. I am reading stories that the Secret Life of Walter Mitty will be remade with Mike Myers in the starring role in 2010. I love Mike Myers but I am very partial to Danny Kaye. Let’s hope that the old version will be re-released. I wonder if hats will feature as much in the remake. We must express our views strongly.

Danny Kaye (Walter Mitty) walks in on a wonderful presentation of delightful hats from Anatole of Paris. They are truly a feast to the eye. He goes into a dream musical scene with even wilder hats from Anatole. What a great sequence and really dated today. My personal favourite is the “Striptease hat” that is actually several different hats in one – very clever idea. I wonder if someone can bring back “the Striptease Hat”?  The Wikipedia page about the movie provides the following very interesting background about Anatole of Paris:

…one of his (Danny Kaye’s)  best remembered dream characters, “Anatole of Paris”, a fey women’s milliner whose inspiration for the ridiculous chapeaus he creates is in actuality his loathing of women. The Anatole character is based on “Antoine de Paris,” a women’s hair-salon professional of the era, known for creating preposterous hairstyles. The lyrics to the song Anatole of Paris were written by Kaye’s wife, Sylvia Fine.

Sadly the love of hats has become faded. We are out to change that here. Please give us your support. Bring your hats out of the closet and wear them proudly and join the Hat Revivalist League.

The Walter Mitty Story has been posted on the Internet and is extremely short. It seems to me that there is a lot of “poetic” licence here and hats may well be cut out of the story line that appeared in 1947 – I don’t know? There have been other movies where hats have been cut out of the story line when the movie is remade. Ninotchka, starring the wonderful Greta Garbo, featured a great hat as the desire of the assistant Commissar from Russia (Garbo) in 1939. The movie was remade in 1957 when the object of desire was Silk Stockings – the movie Silk Stockings featured Cyd Charisse as the assistant Commissar from Russia in a similar but not identical plot. What happened to the hat idea? Probably stockings were more an object of desire since they were not available at all in World War II since silk was a valued war material for parachutes. Memories were still fresh in 1957 when Silk Stockings came out. Perhaps stockings were chosen in honour of Cyd’s famous legs – they were outstanding!

Oh please join the Hat Revivalist League and let’s bring hat wearing back!

©2012 Many Hatty Returns. All Rights Reserved.

Forget your troubles come on get happy -- or is that Get Hatty!

The wonderful Judy Garland appeared in a 1950 movie called “Summer Stock“. This sequence featured Judy Garland in an iconic performance. She wore a fedora and a Jacket and left her pants at home! If you got the legs show them off. Her daughter, Liza Minnelli, also did a great number that was sort of similar -- Mein Herr from “Cabaret” - all hat and minimal clothing!

Judy appeared with the incomparable Gene Kelly in the movie. It was to be her last musical at the studio.

Here it is forget your troubles come on get happy. “Get Happy” (by) Harold Arlen and Ted Koehler.

Other artists who performed this number were Doris Day and Ella Fitzgerald.

Forget your troubles c’mon get happy
Ya better chase all your cares away
shout Hallelujah, c’mon get happy
Get ready for the judgment day

Do we ever need this uplifting after 2008 -- the year from hell -- unless of course your name is Barack Obama. May your dreams come true in 2009. Good luck to Barack by the way we wish him the best.

www.youtube.com/watch?v=2U-rBZREQMw

Here is the URL for RSS readers.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2U-rBZREQMw&eurl=&feature=player_embedded

©2012 Many Hatty Returns. All Rights Reserved.

If you are like me you have a huge collection of hats and are constantly on the look out for hat boxes. Hat boxes are often not found at milliners or hat shops. I bought a very expensive hat and it was given to me in a very flimsy box. Most hats are easily crushed and need proper protection. Please make sure you pack them securely with tissue paper.

The picture above shows some boxes that were not purchased from hat stores.

The red stripe box on the bottom was purchased from Indigo Books, a bookstore in Toronto. The middle brown box, marked “wreath box” was purchased at Winners, a sort of mini Wal Mart, in Toronto. The green box on top was purchased at Second Cup in Toronto. Second Cup is a chain of coffee shops.

The red striped box box is quite large at  15 3/4 inches in diameter and 8 inches in height. It holds a large hat. The box is from Indigo on sale and cost a little over $15 Canadian, on sale. Indigo also had smaller sizes.

The brown box is a medium sized box at 17 7/8 inches in diameter. But it is only 6 3/8 inches in height. It does hold a wide brim hat with a low profile. Remember it is intended to store a wreath. It was purchased from Winners store for around $15 Canadian

The green box comes from a coffee shop called Second Cup, it’s their large size. It cost around $12 Canadian. As hat boxes go it’s small. You can fit an average size military hat into the box. It measures 12 3/4 inches diameter and is 5 1/2 inches in height.

As you are hectically Christmas Shopping look for your hat boxes in all the strange places. You might get some bargain hat boxes in post-Christmas sales. Please let us know where you got your boxes. Were they called something else – like “wreath boxes”?  And please send us pictures and information.

You might get really lucky and get a gift packed in a hat box.

©2012 Many Hatty Returns. All Rights Reserved.

The Tam o’ Shanter is a Scottish bonnet  originally worn by men. However, women have adopted a form of this hat and it is often known as a “Tam” or a “Tammy”.

The hat is named after the Robbie Burns poem Tam o’  Shanter, written in 1790 and six pages long; this is regarded as a classic like many things by Burns. The poem is often illustrated by a character wearing a hat in this style. You can read the original and a translation on the Robert Burns UK site.

The hat is usually made of wool and has a pompon ( known as a toorie) in the centre. It is quite a floppy type of hat with the crown sometimes twice the diameter of the head. They are available in many colours and tartans. Originally they were dyed blue ( the famous “blue bonnets”), owing to the limitation of available dyes.

The Tam is referred to as a “bonnet” from old French ( and not as a “beret”) although it does not look like the very fashionable bonnet worn by ladies in the late 18th. and early 19th. centuries (reminiscent of Marie Antoinette) . A beret on the other hand refers to a rounder more tighter fitting hat. This is confusing – just call it a “Tam”.

The Scottish Tam o’Shanter is sometimes worn with a feather plume that is known as a “hackle”. This plume adornment is now mostly worn by bandsmen (or perhaps women as well?).

Here is a charming photograph of a baby wearing a Tam complete with hackle. It was originally a cabinet card from late Victorian vintage. The baby is posing in a lovely wicker baby carriage (“pram” as we called them in Britain). It’s a great image. Probably the baby carriage was a prop in the photographer’s studio. Of course, babies did not generally wear Tams complete with plume – that would be a bit unsafe don’t you think?

The Tam is very popular  in Scottish Regiments and was worn as battle dress in World War II. Of course, don’t confuse this with the beret made famous by Field Marshal (Monty) Montgomery. During the War they were plain khaki but now the dress Tams are more stylish.

I am obliged to various pages of the Wikipedia for some of the information in this posting. Their articles are interesting but vary in quality.

Women wear a form of Tam This one is made by Betmar, picture courtesy of Aaron hats.

©2012 Many Hatty Returns. All Rights Reserved.

One of my idols is Greta Garbo. She wore her hats with dignity and style. I posted two videos of hers in the “Hat Nostalgia” Blog the visuals and music bring tears to my eyes.

Here are the videos again and we are very grateful to the poster to You Tube for the wonderful gift.

www.youtube.com/watch?v=10NiLMQNY0Q

www.youtube.com/watch?v=B3_mh2elKCM

I am obliged to Fabienne from Belgium who posted these wonderful videos to You Tube. Here is the URL of her blog in French. Great pictures of Garbo. http://ciccione.blogs.allocine.fr/

A few facts about Greta Garbo

Born Greta Lovisa Gustafsson
18 September 1905(1905-09-18), Stockholm, Sweden

Died 15 April 1990 (aged 84 New York, New York

Her famous saying was “I want (vont) to be alone”. This was said with a heavy accent, you believed she did not really want to be alone.

Some Movies of hers:

Grand Hotel

Mata Hari

Queen Christina (loved the boy dress up but not too convincing)

Anna Karenina

Camille

Ninotchka

In Ninotchka she plays a Russian Commissar, in Communist Days who went to Paris on a mission. She falls in love with a very decadent hat on display in the hotel. The Movie was remade as a musical in the Fifties as “Silk Stockings”- you guessed it the objective of affection were silk stockings. I suppose it was left over from World War II when silk stockings were very hard to come by. Still I believe hats should have been more of a priority.

©2012 Many Hatty Returns. All Rights Reserved.

Some of you very clever people can crochet your hats. Unfortunately I am not one of them. Of course I enjoy wearing hats of all kinds. Coats and Clark the well known and established yarn company has just announced the pre launch of a new exciting website. It is called RedHeart.com (don’t search for it yet you will get a 404 page). They are having a preview party and it looks like fun even if you do not crochet. Perhaps you can persuade a friend or relative to make something. Perhaps a new hobby for a shut in. I have arthritis and it might be difficult for me to do this hobby I don’t know. Right now it is by invitation only. If you are on the Coats and Clark mailing list you would have received an invitation to a private preview. I’ll let you know when it goes live. Stay tuned for more information. It will be free to sign up.

The website has how to videos and show 104 covers hats. It does of course assume you have basic crochet skills that can be learned from other videos. There will be a number of other resources at the site including free patterns. Perhaps you can have crochet parties?

There is plenty of information that will come out including a free newsletter and a blog. One feature I like about the site deals with how you can produce stuff for charity. You might have a need to crochet as a hobby and there is only so much you can make for yourself or relatives. Why not give to charity? You can search for organizations that are in need right from a web page on the Red Heart site. This will be a useful resource for clubs that want to give to charity and are looking for a cause – great work and a good idea!

I look forward to the official release some time at the end of this week.

©2012 Many Hatty Returns. All Rights Reserved.

The Internet is a buzz about the new tour of the newly slimmed down Britney Spears. Her theme based on “Circus” – a throw back to vintage circuses pre-1960. Those who have had a glance of the new music video describe it rather like a fetish scene. Britney is dressed up as a fetish Ring Master, or should we say Ring Mistress. The look features tight outfits, bare midriff and of course, the best thing, the top hat with the feather. Of course there are performers dressed as Circus animals – a throw back to the “Cats” Musical. If you really want to see the look you can find a photograph here.

Of course top hats are sexy. They were worn with style by men in the 19th Century, in Victorian times. Female performers have borrowed the top hat as an accessory from male clothing, similar to the oversize men’s shirt. Reportedly men find this sexy, and Lesbians are also intrigued. Well so they say. Marlene Dietrich was famous for her Top Hat routine in the movie “Morocco” - it was considered to be very sexually ambiguous.

Yahoo recently published a great picture of three women in Top Hats - Britney Spears, Madonna and Heidi Klum. All three looked great! We can look forward I think to a whole lot of top hat influenced designs coming out of this “Vintage Circus Glam”. I do not remember the vintage circus that way. I found it boring and the Ring Master particularly pretentious. The clowns were a waste of space. It was supposed to be a treat to take a kid to the Circus. For me it was worse than a trip to the dentist. That’s saying something – my dentist at that time was an alcoholic and I had to go there since he was a customer of my parent’s store. Crates of empty liquor boxes were piled outside his surgery. Well the Circus was more painful than that to me. I have not seen this video yet but, other than the top hat I am likely to be unimpressed.

Incidentally there is a blog with a Circus theme – Pickled Pink - that looks at the influence of the Circus on fashion, music and movies. It will be a busy place. We need to look at it to see how this affects fashion – if at all. I love top hats and I am certainly rooting for them.

There was a little blurb about the Britney Spears Circus Hat today in Canada’s National Paper The Globe and Mail . It referred to high capitalism (evil landlord) and the “Monopoly” guy as exponents of the art of top hat wearing. Well I paraphrased the article a little bit. A few weeks ago I posted in “Hat Nostalgia” a very amusing Edwardian Postcard that featured a fun little guy driving a vintage automobile. His passengers were not as classy? Here it is again for your amusement.

I will explore Top Hats further in this blog. This is only a little taste!

©2012 Many Hatty Returns. All Rights Reserved.