Hat ads present and future

[jamespowers]

Is it just me or has anyone noticed that ads in general today are just plain boring and unimaginative? Hat ads in magazines are probably the worst. They just slap a couple of pictures together and bang there is an ad. Whee.
I have two here to make the comparison. They are both Stetson ads. One is from 1938 and the other is from 1992. See if you can see a difference in style. :kick:

Regards to all,

J

Cool

Stinky

 

[K.D. Lightner]

I guess hatmakers feel the only way they can peddle their hats in this modern era is to show it on someone famous. They did it back then, too, but it was somehow more stylish and interesting.

The guy's mullett hairdo doesn't help matters either.

Of course, now they show Kenny Chesney and he is as bald as a cucumber.

karol

 

[Slicksuit]

 

[Slicksuit]

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Found a few vintage ads myself.

 

[jamespowers]

Now see? That is another great ad. I would bet it is from the 1950s or before. I actually have a hat like the guy on the right. Mine has a brown ribbon though. The second ad looks like me today! I don't have that particular pipe today but I have one just like it though.
As for hats being advertised with stars of the day, I have several ads of that as well. They still don't look as cheesy as that 1992 Tracy Lawrence ad. PU!
Take this ad from Mallory.

I have no idea who this actor is but it is clearly using celebrity appeal in a high end ad. I suppose 1922 was a long time ago.

Then there were the really witty ads such as this:
Don't do this with your vintage hats by the way.

and then the nice color ads such as this 1952 ad:

Perhaps I am being an elitist snob but I like ads that require a bit of thought not just slick packaging.

Regards to all,

J

 

[K.D. Lightner]

Wallace Reid was a silent film star who was a matinee idol in the late teens and twenties. He died in 1923 after having gotten addicted to morphine after a train accident. A tragic Hollywood story and scandal back then.

He was in lots of silent films, had parts in Intolerance and Birth of a Nation. He was the son of Hal Reid.

karol

 

[jamespowers]

Wow! That is some good information. I would have to choose that actor as an example wouldn't I? Gee, that means that picture was taken within one year of his death. Hmmm.
Here let's try another:

Regards to all,

J

 

[K.D. Lightner]

Sid Luckman was a pro football player and is in Hall of Fame. He played college football (Columbia U) in the 1930's, and was quarterback for the Chicago Bears from 1939-1950.

Judging from the drawing, that ad appeared some years after he retired. He looks older than the photos one sees of him on the internet when he was playing football.

Early to mid-1950's?

karol

 

[jamespowers]

That is good research there. I think you are right about the age of the ad.
Here is another one that I am sure of:

Regards to all,

J

 

[K.D. Lightner]

Well, there were two "Dixie" Walkers, father and son. The father played early in the century; the son was born 1910, died 1982.

Dixie Walker, the son, played ball with various teams throughout the 30's and 40's, he was a Yankee outfielder, then a Dodger, and a Pirate also. He played until 1949, then coached the minor leagues.

Judging from his looks, this drawing may have been made after his ball playing career was over. He looks older than 40 to me, or maybe he just has lots of crow's feet in the picture (standing in outfield in a ballcap will do that). I can't read the ad, but I think it says something about Flatbush, which is a part of Brooklyn.

If it was done when he was still a Dodger, mid-40's; if I go by the crow's feet, I would think early 50's.

karol

PS I really like that B-17 hat in the lower left hand corner. I want one! Was that named after an airplane? -- kdl

 

[jamespowers]

Very good but you are off a little bit. That ad is dated 1947 so he was still playing ball although it was at the end of his career.
The B-17 hat was named after the plane. You are right. If you happen to find one in 7 5/8 let me know. It ranks up there with the Dobbs Palomino on my want list. I would take the Diplomat too though.

Regards to all,

J

P.S. Here are a few women's hats for you.

 

[K.D. Lightner]

Wow, they had some Big Hats back then. The women look somewhat Gibson girlish, so that would be turn of the century or maybe a litte before.

The early rodeo cowgirls also wore huge hats, a-la Tom Mix hats. They were in their heyday from the early teens up to the mid-thirties, when, due to the death of two women bronc riders, women were banned from the sport -- except for (of all weird things) trick riding. Go figure.

Thanks, that was fun.

karol

PS Glad you are a 7 5/8. I am 7 1/8; we won't be bidding rivals if a B-17 ever appears on ebay. -- kdl

PPS With our luck, it will probably be a 6 7/8. Why are there so many of those in cool quality hats?

 

[Slicksuit]

JP -- I agree that ads sometimes try to be too slick today. If my knowledge is correct, advertising can appeal to its target by 2 venues: either by logic, or by visual appeal. It seems that alot of the older ads used the former, contemporary ads the latter.

I would add (pun intended) that our culture is less of a thinking culture than it was back then, which is sad. Sure celebrity endorsements are still around, but I sometimes long for ads like the old ones that have a story to tell. Not to say that the old ads might come off as hokey by today's standards.

P.S. I share your sentiment about the new ad with the cowboy hat..PU!

 

[jamespowers]

KD, you are really doing good today. That ad from Gage Millinery was from 1910. Good guess.
I doubt we will ever even find a B-17. Good thing the ads still survive so we know what was available. Hmmm... a 7 1/8. I might be able to stretch that to fit me. A 6 7/8 just is too small to stretch.
I guess people in the old days didn't eat like we do today. During WWI, the depression and WWII you were lucky to get meat much less be able to afford it. There was a period after WWI when there was a little prosperity but that ended quick. It is no wonder they didn't have weight problems then. They had food problems. Our lives are much more sedentary than they had then also. All our modern appliances and such do the work they used to do by hand.
Here is another Gage ad:

Slick, there is nothing hokey about quality ads. There are just modern ad men who do not have the talent to follow their forebearers. Just look at that modern Stetson ad.
Here is another story ad from 1947:

Regards to all,

J

 

[K.D. Lightner]

They might want to try employing some artists. There is something to an art piece that is too simply expressed in a photograph. When photography was first invented, there were those who thought it would be the end of art, i.e., who is going to paint or draw a picture of a beach at sunset if one could just take a picture of it?

But, the art world survived and did so because people really crave an artist's rendition of something. I recall the J. Peterman catalogues I used to receive, they also used art instead of photos and it complemented Peterman's over-the-top depictions and stories of the merchanise being sold.

Story telling and good art, or even good photography, are always appealing and I think would really sell products. Most TV ads tell little stories, and the very best ads, the ones we remember for the rest of our lives, were those that touched us with some sort of story line. Those hat ads for Stetson tell a story, or they leave the story to our imagination.

Slicksuit -- I wonder about thinking and imagination also in this day and age. Children grow up with all the visuals in front of them and every toy in the universe. My mother was poor and her brother used to make his own toys (and hers). When I was little, we had a radio not a TV (boy, that gives my age away). I had to visualize the action and adventure because I could only hear the story, not see it.

James -- Are Gage hats still around today? I don't recall ever running across them. Love those turn of century or 1890's women's hats.

We were allowed to be more voluptuous then -- it was a sign of wealth if women were hefty and pale, because they had more than enough to eat and did not have to labor out in the sun. In modern times, if you are monied, you can be thin and brown because you can eat well-prepared good food and you can sun in the Caribbean. Fat and white means working all day indoors, no vacations, and (cheap) carbohydrates. We work too hard and don't take our time eating and enjoying our food.

karol

 

[Art Fawcett]

You are so right KD, I have been singing the same song for years. Being in the Vintage clothing business I get the question almost continously, " Why are they so small". My answer is usually with a question. "When was the last time you had to shoot your dinner?" In short, life ( in the physical sense) is SO much easier today that it allows us to get fat, so we are doing so with aplumb.
SO, are you going to be able to make the drive up to Santa Monica this weekend KD, I'd love to meet you!!

Art

 

[Slicksuit]

Art - LOL, I think your response is hilarious! In modern culture, we are continuously bomparded with opportunities to each rich, calorically-dense foods. Our abilities to grow/kill/manufacture, package, advertise, and sell foods in modern culture is without precedent, and has far outpaced our evolutionary adaption to it. And it hurts the poor and wealthy equally. Poor people don't have the knowledge to make nutritious choices and the means to acquire them, rich people are too busy - and thus tend to buy prepackaged and take-out meals. It's a socialogical fact that the more industrialized and modern a society becomes, the higher the incidence of obesity and its concominant effects.

KD - I agree about youth and imagination. Some of my most memorable toys of my youth were simple - crayons and coloring books, legos, GI Joes (I used to stage whole storylines with those figures). I grew up with video games as well, but playing Super Mario for hours on end just doesn't compare to the simpler toys.

And yes, we Americans work too hard (at our relatively sedintary jobs), and don't savor our food. A third of us didn't even take a vacation last year. Compare that to Europe, where several weeks vacation are a mandate and right, not a luxury!

 

[K.D. Lightner]

Art -- Wish I could get up to see your shop and meet you. Alas, I am too busy right now to go anywhere, just like the All American Girl I am. I will be retiring this fall and may be able to travel then. I have seen photos of your store and just drool at all the hats you have.

Slicksuit -- I recall reading or hearing that the French take an hour and a half for lunch, and savor their food. A meal is an event and to be savored. They drink wine and eat the richest food in the world, yet do not have the heart attacks and obesity problems we Americans do. We eat on the run -- I have seen people eating in their cars or walking down the street eating a hot dog.

I will be glad to retire in a few months and be out of this rat race. It really has become one. Very few people at work take more than a week, if that, in vacation time, and most take vacation in days or half-days. Our bosses expect so much of us these days we are afraid to leave. And I work for government, I cannot imagine what it is like in private industry.

How did we get into this topic on this thread? Oh, I know: we have been looking at Jame's elegant pictures of hats in the past and that set us off. lets go back to drawings and story telling!

karol

 

[jamespowers]

I suppose I started us down the road of "today is too sedentary."
I doubt Gage hats are still around today. That last one I posted was from 1906. I don't think they survived the Depression.
Here is another ad

This one kind of gets into Art's point about going out and getting your own dinner with a gun. :beer: If you see one of these in my size, let me know.
KD, I think one of these just might suit you.

Regards to all,

J

 

[Matt Deckard]

"When was the last time you had to shoot your dinner?"
Art

Only the wealthy can afford to take the time to go out hunting for their own food.