Is the Stetson hat in movie westerns a fraud? Is the Derby/Bowler really The Hat That Won the West?

[Spoke]

Background: I was researching an old photograph, which featured a lot of men in derby hats. Trying to date the photograph, I went to the Wikipedia article on the derby hat (a/k/a the bowler, coke hat, billyhat and bombin) (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bowler_hat).

There, I was surprised to read this:
The bowler, not the cowboy hat or sombrero, was the most popular hat in the American West, prompting Lucius Beebe to call it "the hat that won the West." Both cowboys and railroad workers preferred the hat because it wouldn't blow off easily in strong wind, or when sticking one's head out the window of a speeding train. It was worn by both lawmen and outlaws, including Bat Masterson, Butch Cassidy, Black Bart, and Billy the Kid. It is in America the hat came to be commonly known as the "Derby."

Now, I had of course seen the famous photos of Bat Masterson (http://www.kshs.org/portraits/graphics/masterson_bat.jpg) and Butch Cassidy (http://noblebandits.asu.edu/Bio/Butch.jpg) wearing derby hats, but it was news to me that the derby was in fact the predominant head accessory of the old West. (You mean Hollywood has lied to us???)

I looked up the first cite, which turns out to be a newspaper article from 1957: The Hat That Won the West (http://news.google.com/newspapers?id=xQQpAAAAIBAJ&sjid=PkgDAAAAIBAJ&pg=7036%2C5636283). It appears to be well-researched:

A few years ago the writer was engaged in preparing for book publication a pictorial record of the Old West.

He examined literally thousands upon thousands of contemporary illustrations, especially photographs, and time after time he became haunted by what at first seemed a recurrent and indefinable but ever present anachronism.

At length it dawned on him that a formidably large proportion of the population of the Old West, the Wild West, the West of everybody but Frederic Remington and his imitators were wearing derby hats and not Stetsons.

Does anyone have reason to doubt the truth of this statement?

Are there any Westerns which have depicted the majority of men in derby hats rather than Stetsons?

And what of the cowboy boot? Is Hollywood lying to me about that, too?

Is the entire self-image of Texas built on a fraud?

[aceplace57]

I'm pretty sure the Calvary wore the blue stetson.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Stetson

I think you're right about most Western men wearing the Derby.

The stetsons advantage was out on the plains herding livestock. The extra wide brim shaded the face & neck. Those work hats would get dirty and sweaty. They may have worn derbys in town.

[Woeg]

My problem with this theory is that relying on old photographs is not an accurate means of tracking "every day" wear versus "Sunday-go-to-meeting" clothes. Photos were relatively new, relatively pricey, and people tended to dress in their best for them. I know for a fact that people often had different hats for different purposes; my great-grandfather (who eventually ran a shoe store in Bisbee AZ during the famous gunfight at Brewery Gulch but also worked a small ranch) passed down two hats to my grandfather - a bowler type that was his "store" hat, and a cowboy type that was his "field" hat.

The bowler *was* a much nicer hat, and the one he'd wear for pictures, strolling with his lady about town, or going on a nice train trip (people used to dress up for travel), but the cowboy hat was better at protecting him from the sun when he was working out in the field. My own personal experience (I love hats!) has been the same - I love the look of a bowler, but it doesn't keep the sun off the back of your neck.

[Woeg]

Dangnabbit, aceplace57, you beat me to it! That's it, you varmint - pistols at noon! You wear yer derby, I'll wear the stetson. ;)

[Enright3]

No proof to offer either way; but it was always my assumption that the derby was the hat worn in town; and a traditional cowboy hat was worn while working. Much like a ball cap today, worn frequently by people working outdoors.

From hatistory.com: "Bigger brimmed soft felt hats became the fashion of fall and winter, and the derby became a hat for special or formal occasions."

[Spoke]

After posting this thread it occurred to me that I have some anecdotal evidence from my own family to offer. My grandfather spent the 1890s in Bell County, Texas and Martha, Oklahoma. I have two photos of him from that period, and in both he is wearing a Stetson. Pic 1 (http://i9.photobucket.com/albums/a74/spoke-/SDMB/JMWattsinfrontofbrotherHarveysstoreMarthaOK.jpg). Pic 2 (http://i9.photobucket.com/albums/a74/spoke-/SDMB/JimWatts2.jpg).

But I am still intrigued by the notion of dusty cow-towns populated by men in bowlers. (Even if those were only their going-into-town hats.) It would be interesting to see a Western depicting that.

[Tapiotar]

I've nothing to say about the hats, Spoke, but oh, how handsome your grandfather is in photo two.

[Spoke]

Thank you Tapiotar. Yes, he was a pretty striking dude, I guess. He died years before I was born, so I never got to know him. Would have loved to have heard stories of Texas in the 1890s.

[kelly5078]

Screwed up the format. So just forget it.

[aceplace57]

I just remembered bowlers in a Western. ;) Far and Away, Tom Cruise and many of the men wore bowlers or caps.

The flat cap has been around since the middle ages. I bet a lot of immigrants wore them even after coming to the west. A accurate Western movies would show people in bowlers, caps, and stetsons.
http://fashionsfrontline.blogspot.com/2011/07/must-have-looks-hats.html

The style can be traced back to the 14th century in Northern England namely Grimsby and parts of Southern Italy, when it was more likely to be called a "bonnet", which term was replaced, except in Scotland, by "cap" before about 1700.[1] When Irish and English immigrants came to the United States, they brought the flat cap with them.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Flat_cap

[Spoke]

Yes, no doubt there would have been wool caps. I have seen references to working class men of that era as "wool cap boys." (In the context of describing a political constituency.)

[Gary T]

Please note that Stetson is a brand, not a design. Stetson (http://www.stetsonhat.com/) made, and still makes, dress and casual hats in addition to cowboy hats.

In aceplace57's link, we see that Stetson's "Boss of the Plains" (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Stetson#Boss_of_the_Plains) model seemed to be the beginning of the cowboy hat. It could be reshaped into various configurations, many of which would be recognized as cowboy hats, but in its factory shape it looks like a bowler with a wide flat brim.

Reading the Wiki articles on Stetson (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Stetson) and Cowboy hat (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Cowboy_hat), it appears that the truth lies somewhere between Hollywood and bowlers.

[Spoke]

Here's a Remington piece featuring two Stetsons, a bowler, and a wool cap (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/File:MVI_2802_Remington%27s_The_Right_of_the_Road.jpg).

[Spoke]

Please note that Stetson is a brand, not a design. Stetson (http://www.stetsonhat.com/) made, and still makes, dress and casual hats in addition to cowboy hats.

Kind of a pedantic point. I think we all know we're talking about "cowboy hats." See the 1957 article I linked using Stetson generically.

[Gary T]

Kind of a pedantic point. I think we all know we're talking about "cowboy hats."True, true. I couldn't help myself. :D Mea culpa. :(

[Spoke]

No worries. :)

Interestingly, Remington himself seems to have been a derby man (http://images.fineartamerica.com/images-small/frederic-remington-granger.jpg).

[Bridget Burke]

I'm sure the men who settled the West wore all sorts of hats. The ones popular Back East like the bowler & the top hat, plus caps & whatever else immigrants might wear.

But most of cowboy culture came from Mexico--where they wore broad-brimmed sombreros & pointy-toed riding boots, often with tooled leather decorations. I'll bet Texans & other southwesterners had adapted these fashions before Mr Stetson designed his first hat. Texas Rangers started wearing the Stetson early on.

The artists & showmen (like Buffalo Bill) who began romanticizing the West even before the frontier closed probably thought the cowboy hat was more dashing than Eastern styles. As film & TV carried on the story of The Old West, who wanted to see guys wearing those old fashioned bowlers? Even when men still wore hats, styles had changed....

[SeldomSeen]

I'm sure the men who settled the West wore all sorts of hats. The ones popular Back East like the bowler & the top hat, plus caps & whatever else immigrants might wear.

But most of cowboy culture came from Mexico--where they wore broad-brimmed sombreros & pointy-toed riding boots, often with tooled leather decorations.

This is correct. People wore whatever headgear was appropriate for their work, or just whatever they had. Bowlers were popluar as a "dress-up" hat; they were also something of a trademark for railroaders, as mentioned above, especially for locomotive engineers. They were also preferred by miners who worked underground and would coat them with tar or resin to form a primtive "hard hat". Laborers commonly wore cloth caps....the "flat cap" or "pub cap" types were univeresally popular, and a lot of vintage photographs show men wearing soldier caps (http://ep.yimg.com/ca/I/yhst-70332640723715_2186_802925). Riders and farmers usually used some kind of broad-brimmed sombrero or stetson type of straw, felt or leather to shade the face & neck, or to shed rain.

We usually think of the pull-on "cowboy" boots as being typical western wear. Of course the pointed toes and high heel were important for riding, but the slip-on type, if used at all, were mostly for dress-up wear. Working cowboys, then and now preferred a lace-up riding boot. (http://www.drewsboots.com/images/Whites/Whites695C.jpg) for better support. Laboring types wore something similar but with a lower heel and rounded heel.
SS

[Peter Morris]

I can think of one Western where the heroes wore derby hats.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_SvuNcPx2dg

[mlees]

I can think of one Western where the heroes wore derby hats.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_SvuNcPx2dg

In "Butch Cassidy and the Sundance Kid", the boys were shown to wear bowlers when they wanted to dress up.

http://www.imdb.com/media/rm476354560/tt0064115

[Speak to me Maddie!]

Russel Crowe went for a derby style hat (http://baronhats.com/Yuma_repro.htm) in 3:10 to Yuma thinking the traditional cowboy hat didn't fit his character.

[sqweels]

Are a derby and a bowler the same thing? In A Clockwork Orange ( http://www.fanpop.com/spots/a-clockwork-orange/images/20833552/title/korova-milk-bar-fanart), the hats worn by Alex and Dim are slightly different, with the latter having a taller crown. I concluded that Alex's is a derby and Dim's is a bowler. Am I correct?

[mlees]

Russel Crowe went for a derby style hat (http://baronhats.com/Yuma_repro.htm) in 3:10 to Yuma thinking the traditional cowboy hat didn't fit his character.

And yours for only $1200! :p

[mlees]

Are a derby and a bowler the same thing? In A Clockwork Orange ( http://www.fanpop.com/spots/a-clockwork-orange/images/20833552/title/korova-milk-bar-fanart), the hats worn by Alex and Dim are slightly different, with the latter having a taller crown. I concluded that Alex's is a derby and Dim's is a bowler. Am I correct?

The dark on dark coloring make's it tough to make out McDowell's hat in that animated shot.

I typed out "derby hat" in wikipedia, and I got the article for the bowler. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Derby_hat

[SeldomSeen]

Laboring types wore something similar but with a lower heel and rounded heel.
SS

What I meant to say was "a lower heel and rounded toe"

[Jack Batty]

I'm reading The Lost City of Z right now, about Percy Fawcett's Amazon jungle exploration (and his disappearance therein) and there are plenty of mentions of his favorite Stetson with pictures to back it up. This is a little past the old west, somewhere around WWI and not actually in the American west but, close enough for gun shooting.

[sqweels]

This is a hijack, but here's a fairly interesting article on the origin of the Jughead Hat. (http://learning2share.blogspot.com/2009/04/search-term-jugheads-hat.html)

[Northern Piper]

Are a derby and a bowler the same thing? In A Clockwork Orange ( http://www.fanpop.com/spots/a-clockwork-orange/images/20833552/title/korova-milk-bar-fanart), the hats worn by Alex and Dim are slightly different, with the latter having a taller crown. I concluded that Alex's is a derby and Dim's is a bowler. Am I correct?

My understanding is that this style of hat is called a bowler in the UK and a derby in North America.

[LonesomePolecat]

Yes, no doubt there would have been wool caps. I have seen references to working class men of that era as "wool cap boys." (In the context of describing a political constituency.) The phrase is "wool hat boys," and refers to a populist, agrarian movement in the South during the late nineteenth and early twentieth centuries. It was a farmers-vs.-bankers kind of thing, and the wool hat boys called the bankers the silk hat boys.

[Inthewater]

But I am still intrigued by the notion of dusty cow-towns populated by men in bowlers. (Even if those were only their going-into-town hats.) It would be interesting to see a Western depicting that.

I am not sure it was bowlers or any specific hat, but I know when watching the behind the scenes stuff on the new True Grit, they mentioned what we are discussing.

That most actual pioneers and citizens in those old frontier towns just wore whatever they had, and it usually wasn't the iconic cowboy style stetson hat.

There aren't many people in the film with that sort of hat on, I don't think the on Jeff Bridges wears is even really one, more of a fedora.

Anyway, just something I had noticed.

[Spoke]

The phrase is "wool hat boys"...

Right you are. Thanks.

[An Gadaí]

IIRC Heaven's Gate had a wide variety of headgear.

[Esox Lucius]

Dangnabbit, aceplace57, you beat me to it! That's it, you varmint - pistols at noon! You wear yer derby, I'll wear the stetson. ;)

To add another Western myth to the thread, slick gunfighters with lightning quick draws were a Hollywood fable, as a European film director found out when he was doing research for a Western. Revolvers were so big and heavy in those days that both hands were needed to hold it up if you wanted to shoot anywhere near your target.

[Johnny L.A.]

Revolvers were so big and heavy in those days that both hands were needed to hold it up if you wanted to shoot anywhere near your target.
That depends on the revolver. Perhaps the most popular revolver for a very long time was Colt's Navy Caliber of 1851. (Hickok used them.) These .36 caliber cap-and-ball revolvers are quite easy to shoot one-handed. I don't have the Army model of 1860, which is a .44, but they are of similar size and weight of the Navies. I have a Ruger Blackhawk with a 7-1/2" barrel in .45 Long Colt, which is a copy of the Colt Peacemaker (1873). It's not hard to shoot single-handed, though a former coworker who used a .38 thought it was huge and kicked a lot.

Another popular handgun was Colt's Pocket Pistol of 1849. These were particularly popular in Gold Rush-era California, as were other 'pocket pistols'. (Compared to modern pocket pistols, they were pretty big.)

Military pistols before the Colt Army and Colt Navy were large and heavy. These were guns such as the Dragoon and the Walker .44 caliber revolvers. (IIRC, the Dragoons were developed with a smaller chamber because the Walkers occasionally blew up.) I have a Walker, but haven't had a chance to fire it lo, these many years. It weighs something like 4.4 pounds. No doubt I'd shoot it two-handed. But the Walker and Dragoons were sometimes called 'pommel pistols'. They were commonly held in a holster attached to the pommel of a saddle. As such, they were intended to be usable one-handed while riding a horse.

None of which negates the Hollywood-style gunfight as a myth. Only, the Weaver stance didn't come along until about 100 years later.

[Johnny L.A.]

To add another Western myth to the thread, slick gunfighters with lightning quick draws...

There were some quick shooters. But Hickok said that the important thing is to remain calm and take careful aim while someone is shooting at you. Chances are that the other guy is going to try to get off a quick shot and miss. That gives you time to plug him.

[Slithy Tove]

They were commonly held in a holster attached to the pommel of a saddle. As such, they were intended to be usable one-handed while riding a horse.

As This photo (http://www.old-picture.com/old-west/pictures/Cavalry-Soldier.jpg) shows, (although not a pommel holster) cavlary wore them on their right hip, butt forward. Troopers reached across and used the pistol with their left hand, and drew the saber from its left-side scabard with the right hand, while guiding the horse with their knees.

Later, in WWI, when pistols were better suited than rifles for trench raiding, aside from a few infantry officers' right-hip/butt-back holsters, they were encumbered with these old cavlary holsters that required the average right-handed man to draw the pistol with his left hand and then transfer it to his right.

[Johnny L.A.]

As This photo (http://www.old-picture.com/old-west/pictures/Cavalry-Soldier.jpg) shows, (although not a pommel holster) cavlary wore them on their right hip, butt forward. Troopers reached across and used the pistol with their left hand, and drew the saber from its left-side scabard with the right hand, while guiding the horse with their knees.

That photo seems to be later than the period I'm talking about. The carbine appears to be a Spencer, or maybe a Sharps. If that's a Civil War photo, then I'd suspect the handgun is a smaller Colt Army instead of a Dragoon or a Walker.

I don't have the time to look for images from the 1840s/1850s (which would probably be illustrations), but I did find these images (http://www.victorianwars.com/viewtopic.php?p=19920&sid=f1a92d6847ffae0d82c8a2c1ad37fa77#p19920) showing British soldiers with pommel holsters.

[Esox Lucius]

That depends on the revolver...

I bow to your impressive knowledge of the subject. Sergio Leone should have looked you up (I think it was him).

"the Weaver stance..." My first thought was Dennis Weaver in Gunsmoke, but he didn't play a gunfighter so I looked it up and became a little more educated.

I looked up Hickok too, and to get back on the thread topic, he mostly wore a flatter style of hat with a broad brim, not the traditional Stetson-style hat. It made him look quite a flamboyant character with his long hair and stylish beard.

[Johnny L.A.]

I looked up Hickok too, and to get back on the thread topic, he mostly wore a flatter style of hat with a broad brim, not the traditional Stetson-style hat. It made him look quite a flamboyant character with his long hair and stylish beard.

I have a Stetson that looks a little like this (http://www.buckaroohatters.com/hats/telescoping_crown.jpg), but a lighter shade of off-white. I'm not really into 'cowboy hats', and I didn't want the 'ten-gallon' style. Since the crown came unformed, I had them do the telescoping crown. It was nice shade in the desert, but I don't have a use for it up here. I usually wear a fedora or a pork pie.

[Krokodil]

Is the entire self-image of Texas built on a fraud?

More than one fraud, I'd say.

[BigT]

This is a hijack, but here's a fairly interesting article on the origin of the Jughead Hat. (http://learning2share.blogspot.com/2009/04/search-term-jugheads-hat.html)

All this time i thought he was wearing (a ripoff of the) Burger King crown because he likes to eat so much. And that he was just accepted to be weird (hence the name), so no one made any big deal over it.

[Bridget Burke]

More than one fraud, I'd say.

Texas sawmill workers (http://www.tamu.edu/faculty/ccbn/dewitt/images/YOUNGWIL.jpg) in 1910. Past the Winning of The West (& East Texas was never "The West.") But it illustrates a selection of styles. Including a couple of Stetsons--or Stetson knockoffs.

Stetsons have been widely worn, in Texas & elsewhere, for longer than the brief period of The Frontier. Working men in Mexico like them; the ornate sombreros are for rich charros & mariachis. But we have other hat makers (http://www.pbhats.com/private/PB_WEST_FELT/Default.htm)--would you like a "Gus" hat (from Lonesome Dove, of course)--or maybe a gambler hat--Wild Bill was a gambler. Or maybe you'd like to dress like a blues man (http://www.pbhats.com/private/BORSALINO_FELT/Default.htm)--or want something to go with your zoot suit.

Sorry, I've descended to Hat Porn. Anything is better than those damn ball caps--worn backwards by guys who are old enough to know better....

[Nava]

I don't have my National Geographic collection here, but there was an article (c. 2001) about ranch workers in Colorado which mentioned that there's a variety of styles worn and that people from different areas will wear different ones. The pictures showed all kinds of hat styles; some of them depict what's called a sombrero cordobés in Spanish, with a short cilindrical top and a flat round brim. I've been wondering whether that hat was a case of parallel evolution or the design actually reached Colorado from Cordoba ever since I saw the pic.

[Fir na tine]

IIRC Heaven's Gate had a wide variety of headgear.

So you're the one that saw the movie!

[Tom Tildrum]

When I visited the dude ranch, I wore not only a ten-gallon hat, but a pair of ten-gallon pants.

[Gary T]

I don't have my National Geographic collection here, but there was an article (c. 2001) about ranch workers in Colorado which mentioned that there's a variety of styles worn and that people from different areas will wear different ones. The pictures showed all kinds of hat styles; some of them depict what's called a sombrero cordobés in Spanish, with a short cilindrical top and a flat round brim. I've been wondering whether that hat was a case of parallel evolution or the design actually reached Colorado from Cordoba ever since I saw the pic.That's the style typically shown being worn by Spanish/Mexican gentlemen in California during the period of Spanish and Mexican rule. Most Americans will readily associate it with the fictional hero Zorro (https://www.google.com/search?q=zorro&hl=en&safe=off&prmd=imvnsb&source=lnms&tbm=isch&ei=aaHfTrX6IMOvsAKkxIzeBg&sa=X&oi=mode_link&ct=mode&cd=2&sqi=2&ved=0CBAQ_AUoAQ&biw=1024&bih=567). I'd say it's a good bet the design was brought from Spain.

[LonesomePolecat]

To add another Western myth to the thread, slick gunfighters with lightning quick draws were a Hollywood fable, as a European film director found out when he was doing research for a Western. Revolvers were so big and heavy in those days that both hands were needed to hold it up if you wanted to shoot anywhere near your target.The ammo was very unreliable, too. It was entirely possible that half the rounds in the cylinder would misfire.

[Johnny L.A.]

The ammo was very unreliable, too. It was entirely possible that half the rounds in the cylinder would misfire.
I read in a Hickok bio that he would discharge his Navies in the morning and reload them each day to ensure that the rather hygroscopic black powder in the chamber was dry. Cap-and-ball firearms that were in wide use before 1873 were front-loaders. Powder was poured into the chamber, and a ball was seated on top of it. Lubricant was smeared over the opening to reduce fouling (black powder leaves a lot of residue), help prevent flash-overs, and to provide a barrier against moisture. Once the chamber was loaded, a percussion cap was put on the nipple at the rear.

Metallic cartridges existed before 1873, of course. The first successful one was the .22 BB Cap around 1845. My recollection is a little fuzzy here, but ISTR that Smith & Wesson had a patent on the 'through' cylinder (i.e., the chamber went all the way through the cylinder, rather than having a solid breach as in front-loaders) that didn't expire until 1873. Many Colt 1851 and 1860s, as well as a plethora of other handguns were modified to use metallic cartridges. By this time I believe that metallic cartridges had achieved pretty solid reliability.

Not that that has anything to do with hats!

[LonesomePolecat]

Not that that has anything to do with hats! It does if we're a-gonna shoot 'em off people's heads, pardner!

[Johnny L.A.]

I think Mythbusters busted that one. ;)

[Johnny L.A.]

So you're the one that saw the movie!

I saw it too.

Liked it.

Bought the DVD.

[Esox Lucius]

I have a Stetson that looks a little like this (http://www.buckaroohatters.com/hats/telescoping_crown.jpg), but a lighter shade of off-white. I'm not really into 'cowboy hats', and I didn't want the 'ten-gallon' style. Since the crown came unformed, I had them do the telescoping crown. It was nice shade in the desert, but I don't have a use for it up here. I usually wear a fedora or a pork pie.

My first thought when I saw that was "riverboat gambler", but that could be an impression I got from movies and TV. Maybe that's a myth, too. :)

[Johnny L.A.]

I think of it as a 'Plains' style. (I don't know if that's an actual term.)

[oliversarmy]

I have no proof, but logically, I would suspect that most cowboys wore what they could afford.

I think there is historical proof that the "boss of the plains" was popular, but a sombrero seems to me to be another good choice while working.

[Bridget Burke]

From a website for shooters: In Search of The Real Cowboy Hat (http://www.curtrich.com/hats.html).

Most SASS members know John B. Stetson invented the cowboy hat in 1865. He made one hat at the time, with a wide 4" brim and low 4" to 4-1/2" crown, flat on the top, rounded edges. It was made of good quality materials, fur felt, not wool, with a satin lining and sheepskin or lambskin sweatband. He called it the Boss of the Plains. These hats made the company. But by 1872 the Boss of the Plains was less than 20% of the company's sales. They sold all kinds and shapes of dress hats for city folks.

We'll come back to Stetson. What else did they wear?

They wore Planters hats, beehives, bowlers, sombreros, caps, whatever they had.

Of course, the men who "won" the West were the dudes who founded towns, opened banks & got signatures on the dotted lines. Mostly, they wore bowlers. (Oh, and wouldn't Planters hats be the choice of riverboat gamblers? Which they kept as they moved West.)

Of course, Stetsons are Cool (http://spinoff.comicbookresources.com/2010/12/27/stetsons-are-cool-watch-the-teaser-for-doctor-who-series-6/),,,.

[Esox Lucius]

(Oh, and wouldn't Planters hats be the choice of riverboat gamblers? Which they kept as they moved West.)

Yep, to my eye, the Planters hat looks close to Johnny L.A.'s hat (at least the pic he linked to that's similar to his hat).

[silenus]

Or they wore one of these (http://www.sheplers.com/scala-little-joe-gambler-wool-hat.html#), which is the one I own. Works quite well outside a gambling hall, too.

[Spoke]

From a website for shooters: In Search of The Real Cowboy Hat (http://www.curtrich.com/hats.html).

Good article. Very informative. Thanks for that.

[hillbillyfox]

in the movie joe kidd , clint eastwood wore a derby in the beginning of the movie, then switched to a different type of cowboy hat when he left town to after being hired to track. I have a derby hat made by Stetson called a bat masterson.

[Enright3]

What's really is sad is when your Ten gallon hat is feelin' five gallons flat. (https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=U3jgo5ea_zc)