# Movie cowboy costumes - how did they get them so wrong? **URL:** \ **Category:** Cafe Society\ **Created:** [August 11, 2012, 8:36pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/movie-cowboy-costumes-how-did-they-get-them-so-wrong/631214 "2012-08-11T20:36:12Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 15\ **Page:** 2
**Author:** ![wheresmymind](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/w/91b2a8/32.png) [@wheresmymind](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/wheresmymind)\ **Post date:** [August 11, 2012, 11:50pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/movie-cowboy-costumes-how-did-they-get-them-so-wrong/631214/21 "2012-08-11T23:50:01Z")
> [@aceplace57](#): > > look at the California bar photo near the very end. How would you describe those clothes? > > I see a lot of differences in the real people and the hollywood photos. The hats for one thing. Several men look like they are wearing white shirts. Bow ties are very common in the real pictures. Suspenders, suit jackets. Not seeing colors makes it hard comparing real life and hollywood. > > Someone above mentioned how dirty real Western life was. I get that sense in this photos. Some of the saloon keepers wore white aprons. I think that was to emphasize that they kept themselves clean. All the people in that Resort photo looked clean. That must of been a very nice place for the wealthy. I see a variety of modes of dress, from workers in denim overalls to men in 3-piece suits and ties. Overall, a pretty good slice of life in a frontier town at the beginning of the last century. But they are all townspeople, not ranchers or cowboys or LEOs. Most of the people in these pictures are wearing suits, they’re obviously not living on the open range. They look pretty similar to how townspeople are portrayed in your typical 1940’s western, IMO. I appreciate the differences you pointed out, the hat styles are a bit different and suspenders seemed to be en vogue (for practical reasons, I’m sure), but to me they seem like fairly minor details. For instance, to me the bartenders in these pictures look exactly like the stereotypical bartender seen in every western movie. The amount of dirt and grime is impressive though, I agree with you there. The picture of the “Ole Eliot” at the Combination Saloon is particularly gritty. ---
**Author:** ![thelurkinghorror](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/t/7c8e57/32.png) [@thelurkinghorror](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/thelurkinghorror)\ **Post date:** [August 12, 2012, 12:03am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/movie-cowboy-costumes-how-did-they-get-them-so-wrong/631214/22 "2012-08-12T00:03:09Z")
> [@silenus](#): > > A big thing the movies get wrong is the hats. A Stetson was _expensive_, so most cowboys wore something else. It wasn’t until Stetson started mass producing hats that they became the attire of the common cowboy. > > ETA: The crotch rivet was ditched for several reasons: the one **SoP** mentions and the fact that if you are crouched by a campfire for very long, the rivet will spot-weld your balls together! A few wore bowlers/derbies, which fits in in Victorian England, but not so much in the Wild West. A lot of the “murder towns” like Deadwood actually had an extremely low homicide rate, didn’t they? And for the OP: [Back to the Future 3](http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=LvLFGqqCwsg) covers it pretty well. ---
**Author:** ![Loach](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/loach/32/350_2.png) [@Loach](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Loach)\ **Post date:** [August 12, 2012, 12:29am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/movie-cowboy-costumes-how-did-they-get-them-so-wrong/631214/23 "2012-08-12T00:29:10Z")
> [@msmith537](#): > > I remember the 80s movie Rustler’s Rhapsody poking fun at this trope. The good guy (Tom Berringer) always wore the spotless fancy frilly cowboy costumes associated with Roy Rogers, Bonaza, et al. The bad guys OTOH wore dusty spaghetti western outfits with trenchcoats. Actually the bad guy Andy Griffith had henchmen typical of 1940s westerns. When they proven ineffectual he brought in a new bad guy with his spagetti western henchmen. ---
**Author:** ![RealityChuck](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/realitychuck/32/195_2.png) [@RealityChuck](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/RealityChuck)\ **Post date:** [August 12, 2012, 12:55am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/movie-cowboy-costumes-how-did-they-get-them-so-wrong/631214/24 "2012-08-12T00:55:52Z")
One of the first big western movie stars (after Broncho Billy Anderson) was William S. Hart, a man who took pride in the accuracy of his costuming. Here’s [a publicity photo](http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/File:Williamshart.jpg). Note many of the standard cowboy movie costumes: the hat (though not quite a ten-gallon one, it’s similar in style), the neckerchief, and the boots. **[Tumbleweeds](http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=EGyGJ0W2j40#t=01m18s)** shows this even better. When he was making his movies, many of the old western cowboys were still alive; Hart was praised for his accuracy by them. The image was altered slightly – white for good guys, for instance – but it was the basis for the standard costume. ---
**Author:** ![terentii](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/terentii/32/212_2.png) [@terentii](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/terentii)\ **Post date:** [August 12, 2012, 1:06am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/movie-cowboy-costumes-how-did-they-get-them-so-wrong/631214/25 "2012-08-12T01:06:58Z")
> [@aceplace57](#): > > I’d love to know what colors these people were wearing. I know denim has always been blue with brass rivets. Mauve, a product of Victorian chemistry in the 1850s, was the first artificial dye; indigo was grown widely in the American South and in India for export. They would probably have been most common colors, along with basic black. Colors were dark as a rule, both because the dyes of the period were harsh and clothes simply were not cleaned that often; they had to camouflage dirt and stains. John Molloy talks about this at one point in _Dress for Success_ to explain the origins of “blue collar” and “white collar” clothing. Interestingly, the summer service uniforms of the US Army in the early 19th century were made of white cotton. This was because (a) the Army employed laundresses (usually married to the soldiers) who washed the uniforms regularly and (b) dyed cotton would have faded rapidly. Cleanliness was enforced in garrison because a correlation between hygiene and disease had been noted. ---
**Author:** ![Lumpy](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/lumpy/32/446_2.png) [@Lumpy](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Lumpy)\ **Post date:** [August 12, 2012, 2:39am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/movie-cowboy-costumes-how-did-they-get-them-so-wrong/631214/26 "2012-08-12T02:39:37Z")
> [@thelurkinghorror](#): > > A lot of the “murder towns” like Deadwood actually had an extremely low homicide rate, didn’t they? One historian, Roger McGrath, published a book titled Gunfighters, Highwaymen, & Vigilantes, looking at violence in the west. ( [quoted here] ([http://www.davekopel.com/2A/LawRev/ShallIssue.htm#c35](http://www.davekopel.com/2A/LawRev/ShallIssue.htm#c35))). His research showed that while the absolute homicide rate was very high, it was almost entirely drunken young men in saloons upholding their “honor” against real or imagined slights- almost “consensual” as McGrath puts it; while random violence against people who weren’t looking for trouble was surprisingly rare. Pretty much like what you see with inner-city youths today. ---
**Author:** ![Johnny\_L.A](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/johnny_l.a/32/1084_2.png) [@Johnny\_L.A](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Johnny_L.A)\ **Post date:** [August 12, 2012, 4:19am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/movie-cowboy-costumes-how-did-they-get-them-so-wrong/631214/27 "2012-08-12T04:19:41Z")
> [@thelurkinghorror](#): > > A few wore bowlers/derbies, which fits in in Victorian England, but not so much in the Wild West. [Bat Masterson wore a bowler](http://www.peoplequiz.com/images/bios/Bat-masterson.jpg-5630.jpg). Wiki cites [an article](http://news.google.com/newspapers?nid=336&dat=19571026&id=xQQpAAAAIBAJ&sjid=PkgDAAAAIBAJ&pg=7036,5636283) that claims the bowler was ‘the hat that won the West’. ---
**Author:** ![TriPolar](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/tripolar/32/3008_2.png) [@TriPolar](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/TriPolar)\ **Post date:** [August 12, 2012, 5:06am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/movie-cowboy-costumes-how-did-they-get-them-so-wrong/631214/28 "2012-08-12T05:06:09Z")
The Old West being discussed here didn’t exist. It’s a fictional place. Railroads, telegraphs, and steam driven printing presses changed the world in those days. The majority of the real tales of the west were rarely told because they were boring. The few great stories of the actual west were run through the minds of creative writers who built a fantastical universe that was later visually illustrated in film and television. There is plenty of authenticity in the way people dressed in many movies and TV shows, but the world those people lived in didn’t really exist in the way it was portrayed. But that’s the way all period pieces are. You have to build a story out of well understood concepts that people can relate to. Stereotypical moments in westerns, the days of yore and knights of the round table, the opulence of Rome, and so many other themes follow along this same line. Considering how fantastical some movies and television shows were, the typical western wasn’t that horribly errant. ---
**Author:** ![Nava](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/n/da6949/32.png) [@Nava](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Nava)\ **Post date:** [August 12, 2012, 2:33pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/movie-cowboy-costumes-how-did-they-get-them-so-wrong/631214/29 "2012-08-12T14:33:37Z")
> [@aceplace57](#): > > Someone above mentioned how dirty real Western life was. I get that sense in this photos. Some of the saloon keepers wore white aprons. I think that was to emphasize that they kept themselves clean. All the people in that Resort photo looked clean. That must of been a very nice place for the wealthy. There’s another reason for why white clothing became common in many professions: white is the one color you can bleach to your heart’s content. ---
**Author:** ![Ellis\_Aponte\_Jr](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/e/5daacb/32.png) [@Ellis\_Aponte\_Jr](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Ellis_Aponte_Jr)\ **Post date:** [August 12, 2012, 6:47pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/movie-cowboy-costumes-how-did-they-get-them-so-wrong/631214/30 "2012-08-12T18:47:40Z")
I’ve read in more than one place that the real cowboys, the ones out driving cattle, would most likely have been wearing collarless shirts if the weather was warm. That’s rarely the case with movie/TV cowboys. ---
**Author:** ![Johnny\_Angel](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/j/d26b3c/32.png) [@Johnny\_Angel](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Johnny_Angel)\ **Post date:** [August 12, 2012, 7:49pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/movie-cowboy-costumes-how-did-they-get-them-so-wrong/631214/31 "2012-08-12T19:49:24Z")
I recall seeing a documentary about the famous Gunfight at the OK Corral, in which it said that we can see from court records in the trials that followed, Wyatt Erp and his gang talked about pulling pistols out of their pockets, not out of holsters. This apparently was the common practice among those who weren’t out riding horses. The cowboys in that fight had holsters. Western movies often make reference to the meta-influence they were under. People in the west were getting ahold of the crazy stories about the west that were being written in the eastern pulp magazines. Some people liked to imitate the fiction rather than the fact. I can believe it, seeing how in our own century we see teenagers turning to TV to find out what they’re supposed to be into. But… still many doubt that the influence was that much. Gore Vidal claims that the quick draw contests we like to see in movies never happened even once. ---
**Author:** ![Lumpy](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/lumpy/32/446_2.png) [@Lumpy](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Lumpy)\ **Post date:** [August 12, 2012, 8:41pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/movie-cowboy-costumes-how-did-they-get-them-so-wrong/631214/32 "2012-08-12T20:41:17Z")
One version of the death of Pecos Bill: > [@](#): > > When Bill was gettin’ on in years, a Boston man came down to New Mexico for a visit. He fancied himself a bit of a cowboy. Got himself one of them mail-order suits, don’t ya know. The ones with the lizard skin boots, a shiny brass belt buckle, a new pair of blue jeans and a huge ten gallon hat with not a speck of dust on it. Well, when Pecos Bill saw him trying to swagger into a bar, he jest lay down on the sidewalk and laughed himself to death! ---
**Author:** ![Lust4Life](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/l/ecc23a/32.png) [@Lust4Life](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Lust4Life)\ **Post date:** [August 13, 2012, 1:19pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/movie-cowboy-costumes-how-did-they-get-them-so-wrong/631214/33 "2012-08-13T13:19:45Z")
I’ve noticed that film/tv cowboys aped the fashions of the time in which the film was made. So you get quiffs worn with tight jeans, followed by long hair and flares when they were in fashion and so on, then you got ~Italian style for the Spaghettis etc. ---
**Author:** ![Enright3](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/enright3/32/2897_2.png) [@Enright3](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Enright3)\ **Post date:** [August 15, 2012, 1:59pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/movie-cowboy-costumes-how-did-they-get-them-so-wrong/631214/34 "2012-08-15T13:59:56Z")
[QUOTE=silenus;15373972Cowboys weren’t often white, either. The majority were black or Mexican.[/QUOTE] 😕 When you’re talking about a majority and then grouping subsets together, it’s misleading. It’s just as accurate to say that the majority of people in Wyoming are white or aliens from a different planet. In your case, I’d also say I still don’t think you are correct. Neither black nor Mexican were the majority. According to the census from back then (this is from Wikipedia) blacks and Mexicans combined were only about 30-45% of all cowboys. - “Census records suggest that about 15% of all cowboys were of African-American ancestry—ranging from about 25% on the trail drives out of Texas, to very few in the northwest. Similarly, cowboys of Mexican descent also averaged about 15% of the total, but were more common in Texas and the southwest. Other estimates suggest that in the late 19th century, one out of every three cowboys was a Mexican vaquero, and 20% may have been African-American.” - ---
**Author:** ![TBG](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/t/c89c15/32.png) [@TBG](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/TBG)\ **Post date:** [August 19, 2012, 12:37am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/movie-cowboy-costumes-how-did-they-get-them-so-wrong/631214/35 "2012-08-19T00:37:00Z")
Back to the Future 3 had a funny gag about Doc Brown (1955 version) dressing Marty in flashy 50’s style cowboy gear (complete with shiny pink shirt) which was quite inappropriate for the “real” 1885 Marty ended up in. [Previous page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/movie-cowboy-costumes-how-did-they-get-them-so-wrong/631214.md?page=1)