I can’t remember seeing anyone besides Adolph Hitler (except maybe Charlie Chaplin) wear that particular moustache. Was it actually popular in the day and has since been shunned by society or was it unique to him (which I find hard to believe)?
‘Blakey’ (played by Stephen Lewis) from godawful 70’s (well according the site it was first broadcast in 1969) UK sitcom ‘On the Buses’ sported a simlair tash, though this may of been by design:
http://members.lycos.co.uk/busesfanclub/newpage5.html
Oliver Hardy sported a similar moustache.
Ron Mael of Sparks also had the Toothbrush moustache.
My guess is that it went out of fashion in 1945…
Mugabe is sporting a hitler-tache these days.
Of course John “Schultz” Banner had to wear one for his character.
I’ve seen pictures of my (2x?) great-grandfather before the war (Quite a while before the war… the 20s I think) And he was sporting the afformentioned moustache.
I’ve seen pictures of one of my other G-Grandfathers, who could have been a moustache-double for Stalin.
In the 1920’s, these mustaches were popular in the US Military Academies, as they were the only type permitted under regulations. Ditto for OCS.
The rise of Hitler put the smell on them, & they were abandoned en masse by the cadets before the regs could be changed.
How did they trim them? I hear they used some sort of…Death Ray…
No doubt it was - you might remember that the bus drivers called him “Hitler”.
The former president of Ecuador, Alberto Bucaram sported a ‘hitler mustache’. He was also a complete nutcase.
http://www.info-regenten.de/regent/regent-d/pictures/ecuador-bucaram.gif
In the twenties and thirties, “styled” mustaches were fairly common (sort of like different sideburn variants from the 50’s to the 70’s or all the goatee and “soul patch” fad of the last 10 or 12 years). The pencil mustache was another partial 'stache style that now strikes us as particularly fey. Chaplin, Hardy, and others used it for comic effect because it was often associated with rather inept “dandies” of the time.
One theory I have heard about the odd mustache is that Hitler was very self conscious of his nose. The mustache was supposed to make it appear less prominent.
To be honest I’ve hardly ever watched it, 'cos I think it’s crap.
From 1935, one of the extras in the Rogers and Astaire musical Top Hat has a prominent example. I don’t think it was intended as a joke.
What has struck me as odd in the past is that none of the audience in Triumph of the Will seems to have a moustache in the style. Were there no imitators amongst party members?
There were. But Triumph of the Will was filmed in September 1934, only 19 months after Hitler’s rise to power. Probably this was too early. In addition to that we can’t be sure his propaganda staff liked the idea of imitators showing prominently in that movie.