# Norman Jewison popularized wearing baseball hats? **URL:** \ **Category:** Factual Questions\ **Created:** [September 10, 2002, 7:26pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/norman-jewison-popularized-wearing-baseball-hats/127834 "2002-09-10T19:26:13Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 16\ **Page:** 1
**Author:** ![Morbo](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/morbo/32/389_2.png) [@Morbo](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Morbo)\ **Post date:** [September 10, 2002, 7:26pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/norman-jewison-popularized-wearing-baseball-hats/127834/1 "2002-09-10T19:26:13Z")
While reading Roger Ebert’s article [here](http://www.suntimes.com/output/eb-feature/cst-ftr-ebert10.html), I came across this interesting tidbit: > [@](#): > > **TO CAP IT OFF:** And by the way: Does Eminem or anyone else know who started the ubiquitous modern custom of wearing baseball caps while not playing baseball? > > It was Norman Jewison who discovered in the late 1950s that the caps kept the sun out of his eyes while he was lining up outdoor shots. Other directors and cinematographers followed, actors copied them, and a fashion fad was born. Fact. Now, while I admire Ebert for his writing, and respect him (usually) as a critic, I’m curious about this. Is it, indeed, a “fact” that Norman Jewison is responsible for this fashion? Can someone back him up here? ---
**Author:** ![fiddlesticks](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/fiddlesticks/32/18129_2.png) [@fiddlesticks](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/fiddlesticks)\ **Post date:** [September 10, 2002, 8:15pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/norman-jewison-popularized-wearing-baseball-hats/127834/2 "2002-09-10T20:15:20Z")
This site: [hispeed.com - This website is for sale! - Hi speed Resources and Information.](http://histclo.hispeed.com/style/head/cap/style/cap-style.html) dates the baseball cap fad to only the 1960s. > [@](#): > > Baseball caps were worn almost exclusively for playing baseball and in the United States. As recently as the 1950s it was not common to see Amerivan boys wearing baseball caps except for actual play. Since the 1960s baseball caps have become virtually the only headgear worn by American boys and in the 1990s worn backwards. Actually, I heard from a friend that it was because JFK didn’t wear a hat at his inauguration. (ducks) 😃 ---
**Author:** ![Morbo](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/morbo/32/389_2.png) [@Morbo](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Morbo)\ **Post date:** [September 11, 2002, 1:47am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/norman-jewison-popularized-wearing-baseball-hats/127834/3 "2002-09-11T01:47:07Z")
So, that site doesn’t say. Can anyone else help out? I have a hard time believing that director Norm Jewison started this trend, if for no other reason than I’d expect everyone to know it. Nothing in his bio on IMDb…nothing on the web…this is ultimate bar trivia if it’s true. ---
**Author:** ![Manduck](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/manduck/32/256_2.png) [@Manduck](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Manduck)\ **Post date:** [September 11, 2002, 3:15am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/norman-jewison-popularized-wearing-baseball-hats/127834/4 "2002-09-11T03:15:47Z")
[Huntz Hall](http://www.oldb-movies.com/Monogram/boweryboys.jpg) was wearing a ball cap back in the forties, if not earlier. I am suspicious of Ebert’s “fact” ---
**Author:** ![Hodge](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/h/5f9b8f/32.png) [@Hodge](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Hodge)\ **Post date:** [September 11, 2002, 3:25am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/norman-jewison-popularized-wearing-baseball-hats/127834/5 "2002-09-11T03:25:37Z")
Hmmm…I can’t answer the question, but it sounds like Ebert has been partying at the Canadian Film Institute (Jewison’s pet project for developing home-grown talent) during the Toronto International Film Festival. It sounds like just the sort of rumour that would float around at this type of shindig (not that I would know first-hand). I did a half-hearted google search and came up empty handed. The only thing I know for sure is that I don’t think I’ve ever seen Jewison bare-headed. ---
**Author:** ![Morbo](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/morbo/32/389_2.png) [@Morbo](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Morbo)\ **Post date:** [September 11, 2002, 5:56pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/norman-jewison-popularized-wearing-baseball-hats/127834/6 "2002-09-11T17:56:43Z")
Thank you for the link **Manduck**! I’ll preesnt this evidence to the Movie Answer Man. ---
**Author:** ![samclem](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/a9a28c/32.png) [@samclem](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/samclem)\ **Post date:** [September 12, 2002, 2:20am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/norman-jewison-popularized-wearing-baseball-hats/127834/7 "2002-09-12T02:20:17Z")
Just because Huntz Hall wore a ball cap in those wonderful movies doesn’t mean he started a trend. Obviously, he didn’t. Jewison _may have_ started a fashion trend. All someone has to do is find out _when_ Jewison started wearing ball caps, and whether actors started doing it in imitation(not hard to believe)… The public would follow. ---
**Author:** ![Wumpus](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/w/8c91f0/32.png) [@Wumpus](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Wumpus)\ **Post date:** [September 12, 2002, 3:30am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/norman-jewison-popularized-wearing-baseball-hats/127834/8 "2002-09-12T03:30:39Z")
samclem, how do you know it _wasn’t_ Huntz Hall? A generation of baby boomers weaned on old movies on TV may have learned their fashion sense from the Bowery Bows! I suspect this is one of those “facts” like that McDonald’s commercial where the guy says, “You know how you put the ketchup for your fries in the top of the Big Mac box? I invented that!” ---
**Author:** ![Manduck](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/manduck/32/256_2.png) [@Manduck](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Manduck)\ **Post date:** [September 12, 2002, 7:58am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/norman-jewison-popularized-wearing-baseball-hats/127834/9 "2002-09-12T07:58:47Z")
In the 1958 movie “Run Silent Run Deep” (not directed by Jewison :p), Don Rickles’s character is always wearing a baseball cap (Cinicinatti IIRC). Sorry, I couldn’t find a picture on the web, but if you’ve seen the movie you know what I’m talking about. I find the Jewison story hard to believe. Directors (except maybe Hitchcock) weren’t mainstream celebrities in those days; it’s not likely that the general public would imitate them, because they would hardly ever even see them. Also, Jewison wore this cap only when he was working, not when he was out in public. I think it’s more likely that it was a trend that was slowly gathering momentum, with Huntz Hall being one of the more visible early adopters, but not necessarily the inspiration for the whole thing. ---
**Author:** ![Wendell\_Wagner](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/w/8491ac/32.png) [@Wendell\_Wagner](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Wendell_Wagner)\ **Post date:** [September 12, 2002, 10:22am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/norman-jewison-popularized-wearing-baseball-hats/127834/10 "2002-09-12T10:22:42Z")
Farmers have been wearing hats similar to baseball caps with the logos of agricultural companies on them for a long time. Is it possible that this was the source of the trend? ---
**Author:** ![handsomeharry](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/h/e9c0ed/32.png) [@handsomeharry](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/handsomeharry)\ **Post date:** [September 14, 2002, 12:24am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/norman-jewison-popularized-wearing-baseball-hats/127834/11 "2002-09-14T00:24:42Z")
how about beaver cleaver? ---
**Author:** ![samclem](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/a9a28c/32.png) [@samclem](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/samclem)\ **Post date:** [September 14, 2002, 2:53am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/norman-jewison-popularized-wearing-baseball-hats/127834/12 "2002-09-14T02:53:28Z")
> [@](#): > > how about beaver cleaver? Trouble is, the Beaver didn’t start a fashion trend. Kids/young adults around the US didn’t start wearing ball caps during or after the show was on from 1957-1963. It was a later thing. I wouyld love for someone to contact Ebert and ask him just **when** > [@](#): > > Other directors and cinematographers followed, actors copied them, and a fashion fad was born. Fact. he thinks the “fashion fad” was born. What year? ---
**Author:** ![postcards](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/p/8e8cbc/32.png) [@postcards](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/postcards)\ **Post date:** [September 14, 2002, 3:37am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/norman-jewison-popularized-wearing-baseball-hats/127834/13 "2002-09-14T03:37:09Z")
Farmers wear ‘feed hats’, not baseball caps. ---
**Author:** ![Wendell\_Wagner](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/w/8491ac/32.png) [@Wendell\_Wagner](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Wendell_Wagner)\ **Post date:** [September 14, 2002, 5:10am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/norman-jewison-popularized-wearing-baseball-hats/127834/14 "2002-09-14T05:10:38Z")
That’s why I said “similar to baseball caps.” I find it easier to believe that someone wanted to copy farmers (but couldn’t find any feed hats, so they wore baseball hats instead) than that they copied Norman Jewison. ---
**Author:** ![DAVEW0071](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/e19b73/32.png) [@DAVEW0071](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/DAVEW0071)\ **Post date:** [September 14, 2002, 12:01pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/norman-jewison-popularized-wearing-baseball-hats/127834/15 "2002-09-14T12:01:57Z")
FWIW, Ken Burns’s documentary _Baseball_ shows footage of kids from the 40s and 50s wearing baseball caps. Admittedly, this is _at a baseball game or baseball-related event_. Still, they had these caps and they wore them. I would find it hard to believe they didn’t wear them to school or around the neighborhood when they were messing around with Wally and Larry Mondello and junk. Baseball players are not the only people who wear round caps with a bill, as **Wendell Wagner** pointed out. Not only farmers, but military, gas station attendants, and others. The wearing of a hat with a specific team’s logo may be a more recent phenomenon, but I think Ebert swallowed the notion a little too readily. ---
**Author:** ![Earl\_Snake-Hips\_Tucker](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/earl_snake-hips_tucker/32/3269_2.png) [@Earl\_Snake-Hips\_Tucker](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Earl_Snake-Hips_Tucker)\ **Post date:** [September 14, 2002, 7:10pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/norman-jewison-popularized-wearing-baseball-hats/127834/16 "2002-09-14T19:10:39Z")
Scotty Becket (sp?) wore a baseball cap sideways. And bud Spanky McFarland in his younger days wore a golf hat, even when he wasn’t playing. That did not seem to catch on as a fad, though.