World-famous hat

Press, Volume CXII, Issue 33077, 18 November 1972, Page 12

World-famous hat

(By DAVID GUNSTON)

How many of the worlcTs distinctive hats can you think of. in 30 seconds, staining now? The beret, the bowler, the fez, the skull cap, the cloth cap? Fine. But don’t forget the sombrero, the top hat, the coolie hat, the trilby, the Stetson.

That’s 10, and of these only the Stetson is named after its inventor. Both in history and use it’s easily the most interesting and romantic of all hats. And thanks to countless books and films about the American Old West, it is undoubtedly the world’s best known.

There is no mistaking the Stetson, with its soft felt slouch crown and very wide brim. It began as a simple idea in the mind of John B. Stetson, and although he was both surprised and delighted to see his hat become worldfamous, he never knew of its continuing fame, dying in 1906, almost before the first Western film had been made.

The son of a Philadelphia hatter, John was sick with tuberculosis when he first went to the West in the 1860 s in the hope of finding a cure in the healthy outdoors there. One evening on a camping trip in the chilly Colorado prairies he and some friends were discussing the best type of clothes for the American West. The first Their talk put the germ of an idea into Stetson’s mind. Next day, with hatchet and knife, he made some rabbit fur into crude felt and shaped it into a big, wide hat — one that would keep off sun, rain, wind and cold. He wore the world’s first Stetson himself as he wandered about the country, and his strange, new hat became the subject of much amused talk in the mining camps arid cattle ranches. Then one day a giant figure of a cowboy, on a silverdecorated saddle on a fine horse, rode up and asked Stetson if he could try the hat on. The hatter agreed. He liked the look of it on a real, typical Westerner. So did the cowboy, for he bought the hat for $5.

Eventually Stetson got better and returned home to Philadelphia and the ordinary hat trade. But he never forgot that striking picture of the horseman wearing his hat. The image haunted him. He knew the West was opening up and that ranchers and cattle-men had no special kind of hat.

So in his little shop he made a few big hats to the same design, in naturalcoloured felt. He decided to name his hat "The Boss of the Plains,” and he sent his samples to various dealers out West.

Within three weeks the West had adopted the Stetson as its very own special hat. Cowboys loved it and would wear no other. The Texas Rangers quickly took it up. Sheriffs and badmen, ranchers and farmers all found it admirably suited to their climate and way of life. “The Boss of the Plains" swiftly took over. Orders poured into Philadelphia for more.

In under a year Stetson founded his own hat factory making no other kind of hats. Before long, he began to hear of uses for the Stetson that even he had never dreamed of. .

Here are some: Beating out grass fires and fanning sluggish camp-fires into life; slapping troublesome cattle into line; blind-folding stubborn or unbroken horses; drinking out of it from mountain stream or pool. Tire Stetson felt good, it looked good, it served its purpose as no other hat could, and yet with a bit of a dusting it was fine for wearing to the local Saturday barn-dance, or even the wedding.

The hat’s only disadvantage to its inventor was that its owners got so attached to their Stetsons that they seldom bought new ones, preferring to keep them as they mellowed and weathered, for they never wore out. And what if one did attract a few bullet-holes in its crown? To the true Westerner that only made it an even more prized possession.

When John B. Stetson died as an old man he was still busily turning out hundreds of thousands of hats each vear. And even if the West has changed since he knew it, with ranchers often using cars and even planes instead of horses, they still prefer his hats to all others. Added to which the Stetson can never die so long as Western movies remain popular. In more recent years, it has become a trendy headgear many miles from Colorado, a fashion hat, a leisure hat, and it is even worn by airline stewardesses! How John B. would have blinked!