Hats of the Urban Cowboy / Mickey Gilley Era

• Nov 28, 2015

• #1

Hurricane Jack

Messages

17,582

Didn't want to derail the other thread so I thought I'd start a new one. Joao said his country missed out on the Urban Cowboy / Mickey Gilley era of the early 1980's. How many here remember that time & still have the hats to prove it? The real feather headdress/hat band I wore on this Stetson fell apart long ago but I still have the hat. All the Country Western entertainers of the day wore those hatbands; Richard Petty still rocks one. But it was all the young bucks lookin' for love in all the wrong places who put them on our hats with deep dips front & back. Long before Dwight Yoakum or Kid Rock. It was the epitome of masculinity & virility back then. Seems so silly now.

This hat probably has a million miles on it; all on some dance floor somewhere. How about yours?

 

• Nov 28, 2015

• #2

Joao Encarnado

I'll Lock Up

Messages

7,776

Location

Portugal

Hurricane Jack said:

Joao said his country missed out on the Urban Cowboy / Mickey Gilley era of the early 1980's.

Click to expand...

Western hats are not common or popular here (well... nowadays I see more western-a-like straw hats and some made of suede but when I started to wear a hat, those were very very rare).
Typical wide brim hats from my country are very low crown (almost like a ballcap with a flat big brim) that almost can't take a crown crease.
I don't like the "taco brim" nor a front/back deep dip on my brim. Also feather hatbands are a no-no for me. Yuck. Hats I got with one, were promptly removed as I got my hand on them.

 

• Nov 28, 2015

• #3

Hurricane Jack

Messages

17,582

Those were great times! It was how we lived.

 

• Nov 29, 2015

• #4

Joao Encarnado

I'll Lock Up

Messages

7,776

Location

Portugal

That a no for me. It even have eyes.

 

• Nov 29, 2015

• #5

javadave61

Practically Family

Messages

891

Location

Harrisburg, PA

HurricaneJack. Thanks for the video link. Imagine if he hadn't pulled that song out of that box of cassettes (Video 2, 3:37). We'd have never known that song.

 

• Nov 29, 2015

• #6

Hurricane Jack

Messages

17,582

Very true, Dave. And I'm sure Johnny Lee is very glad he did also! Until the movie and that song he was just a house musician at Gilley's club. In those days I traveled to Houston on business regularly. Mickey Gilley's club & rodeo arena, and a little later Billy Bob's nightclub were both something very unique and for a time it really did become a lifestyle for the regulars.

 

• Nov 29, 2015

• #7

RJR

Messages

10,620

Location

Iowa

People who never visited don't believe what those places were like,Jack.

 

• Dec 9, 2015

• #8

F

FrankMc

Familiar Face

Messages

56

Location

memphis

I no longer have my straw, but still wear my western hats. The crease that Bud had on his looked like the bull riders crease from back then, is that the crease that's on yours?

 

• Dec 9, 2015

• #9

HudsonHawk

I'll Lock Up

Messages

4,381

Location

Heaven for men and dogs, Hell for women and horses

Somewhere I have a picture or two of me on the mechanical bull. My parents still live a stone's throw from where the old Gilley's once stood (it closed in 1989 and burned down a year later). Pasadena, Texas in the late 70s early 80s was a culture unto itself.

 

• Dec 9, 2015

• #10

Hurricane Jack

Messages

17,582

FrankMc said:

I no longer have my straw, but still wear my western hats. The crease that Bud had on his looked like the bull riders crease from back then, is that the crease that's on yours?

Click to expand...

Yes I think it is that same crease. The crease was popular because it left that big front panel for the headdress feather hat band. I had a hat band on there that I know at least one prairie chicken, two quail and a squirrel or two gave their lives to make. A few yrs ago when looking thru hat boxes for something else I noticed the hat band had literally fell apart.

 

• Dec 9, 2015

• #11

Hurricane Jack

Messages

17,582

HudsonHawk said:

Somewhere I have a picture or two of me on the mechanical bull. My parents still live a stone's throw from where the old Gilley's once stood (it closed in 1989 and burned down a year later). Pasadena, Texas in the late 70s early 80s was a culture unto itself.

Click to expand...

I rode the mechanical bull a few times myself. I remember the boxing bags & machines also. I had forgotten the place had burned down. Probably lost lots of Mickey Gilley memorabilia with it.

 

• Dec 10, 2015

• #12

HudsonHawk

I'll Lock Up

Messages

4,381

Location

Heaven for men and dogs, Hell for women and horses

Hurricane Jack said:

I rode the mechanical bull a few times myself. I remember the boxing bags & machines also. I had forgotten the place had burned down. Probably lost lots of Mickey Gilley memorabilia with it.

Click to expand...

It was long rumored that Gilley himself set the fire (or it was done at his request), but ultimately they convicted a 16-year old firebug, who had previously set his junior high school ablaze.

 

• Dec 11, 2015

• #13

moehawk

I'll Lock Up

Messages

5,669

Location

Northern California

When I found my Resistol 3X beaver Top Rail, it had this thing on it.

I thought it may have been put on by a cowgirl but having looked at this thread it my have been an Urban Cowboy inspired lid.

I think I'll leave it off.

 

• Dec 11, 2015

• #14

Joao Encarnado

I'll Lock Up

Messages

7,776

Location

Portugal

Yuck. Any hat that I got with one I removed it. I don't even recall if I ever taken a picture with the feathers.

 

• Dec 11, 2015

• #15

moehawk

I'll Lock Up

Messages

5,669

Location

Northern California

I only kept it in case I made a cowgirl hat for one of my nieces.

 

• Dec 11, 2015

• #16

Hurricane Jack

Messages

17,582

moehawk said:

...snip...

I thought it may have been put on by a cowgirl but having looked at this thread it my have been an Urban Cowboy inspired lid.

Click to expand...

Believe it or not that was a sign of virility & masculinity for all us young bucks of the day. No telling how many times the bearer of that very headdress got lucky!

 

• Dec 11, 2015

• #17

scottyrocks

I'll Lock Up

Messages

9,161

Location

Isle of Langerhan, NY

I had a straw Shady Brady with a thick, orange feathered band on it. The edge of the brim had a wire in it, and was shaped just the way it is described in the OP - low in front, and up on the sides.

After a while, the hat started to lose its structural integrity, became too loose, and fall down onto my ears, so I tied a piece of leather string beneath the band and tightened it so the hat stayed up on my head.

After a while, the weight of the big feathered band began to get on my nerves, so I removed it and left the string.

I wore out that hat, and replaced it with another Shady Brady with a slightly less ostentatious band. I've had this one probably about 10 years by now, but don't wear it much so it's still in like-new shape. But I had put the leather string on this one, too, to tighten the hat up on my head. It's knotted in the back, with a black and white feather attached to the end of one of the strings.

 

Last edited: Dec 12, 2015

• Dec 11, 2015

• #18

RJR

Messages

10,620

Location

Iowa

I' ve had and loved several Shady Bradys.

 

• Dec 12, 2015

• #19

T Jones

I'll Lock Up

Messages

6,615

Location

Central Ohio

Mickey Gilley was classic. He's 1rst cousin to both, Jerry Lee Lewis and Jimmy Swaggert. He plays piano and sounds a bit like Jerry Lee Lewis too. As Jerry Lee got older, that is....I didn't care much for the Western hats from that era, though.

 

Last edited: Dec 12, 2015

• Dec 13, 2015

• #20

Hurricane Jack

Messages

17,582

We were all there hopin' we didn't have to "sail our ship alone".