# NPR's Weekend Edition about to make the Hatless JFK mistake
**URL:** https://boards.straightdope.com/t/nprs-weekend-edition-about-to-make-the-hatless-jfk-mistake/284796
**Category:** Cafe Society
**Created:** [January 15, 2005, 12:12am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/nprs-weekend-edition-about-to-make-the-hatless-jfk-mistake/284796 "2005-01-15T00:12:13Z")
**Posts on this page:** 4
**Page:** 1
### Author:  [@AskNott](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/AskNott)
#### Post date: [January 15, 2005, 12:12am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/nprs-weekend-edition-about-to-make-the-hatless-jfk-mistake/284796/1 "2005-01-15T00:12:13Z")
NPR’s Weekend Edition is running a promo for the January 15th show that seems to say that a feature will claim John F. Kennedy was hatless at his inaugural. Now, I made that mistake myself in the past, so it’s not like I’m better than them. However, I don’t have a newsroom to do my research for me, either. If their story turns out the way the teaser implies, somebody dropped the ball. Here’s the teaser in print; the audio version is different, but makes the same point.
[http://www.npr.org/programs/wesat/](http://www.npr.org/programs/wesat/)
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### Author:  [@AskNott](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/AskNott)
#### Post date: [January 15, 2005, 12:17am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/nprs-weekend-edition-about-to-make-the-hatless-jfk-mistake/284796/2 "2005-01-15T00:17:16Z")
I forgot the Snopes link.
[http://www.snopes.com/history/american/jfkhat.htm](http://www.snopes.com/history/american/jfkhat.htm)
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### Author:  [@Torgo](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Torgo)
#### Post date: [January 15, 2005, 12:18am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/nprs-weekend-edition-about-to-make-the-hatless-jfk-mistake/284796/3 "2005-01-15T00:18:22Z")
I’m sure he wore a tophat during the motorcade. He tipped it to his father as the motorcade passed.
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### Author:  [@carlb](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/carlb)
#### Post date: [January 15, 2005, 3:53pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/nprs-weekend-edition-about-to-make-the-hatless-jfk-mistake/284796/4 "2005-01-15T15:53:23Z")
Actually, they didn’t make the mistake. The lead-in to the piece mentioned that most people _believe_ that JFK didn’t wear a hat at his inauguration, and that that spelt the demise of men wearing hats. In fact, they made a point of the facts that:
1. JFK _did_ wear a hat for part of the time, and,
2. Hats had been in decline since the '30s.