List of classic manufacturer's . . .

[RedPop4]

Good call, Mingoslim. Our society is still reaping the crop of 1968.

 

[Marc Chevalier]

Our society is still reaping the crop of 1968.

Ironically, San Francisco's 'first' psychedelic band, THE CHARLATANS, always wore authentic vintage (Edwardian) suits, waistcoats, stiff-collared shirts, ties and hats during their performances. The group formed in 1965; it pretty much disbanded in '68. Coincidence?

 

[feltfan]

Good call, Mingoslim. Our society is still reaping the crop of 1968.

As I have pointed before (here: http://www.thefedoralounge.com/showthread.php?t=14611 ),
the hippies wore hats. It was the "establishment" that
stopped wearing hats.

Hippies are easy targets, but it's simply not an accurate assessment.

And as we know, hat wearing began its decline before World War II.

 

[Dinerman]

I think that Morefelt was not a company name but a type of hat made by a company. It was made of a wool/fur blend that today is called Dynafelt or Furlite by Bailey
Steven
www.bencraft.com

The '40's/ '50's porkpie I saw said "Morfelt Hat Company" on the liner and on the sweatband. There was no other company marking; I believe there was a model name marked on the sweat as well, but I don't recall what it was called. The one I recently sold said morfelt est. 1879? on it ( I don't have the hat any longer, and I can't tell from the picture what the last two digits of the date are) on the liner.

 

[Barry]

Melton

 

[Mr Maltby]

Fedoras, 1961-1968

This is all in fun, mind you, I harbor no ill will, but I still most cordially disagree. No hippes here. All Americana.

1961:

1962:

1963:

1964:

1964(again):

1965:

1966:

1968:

 

[Marc Chevalier]

Two more hatmakers to add to the list. From France: "FLECHET".


And from England: "LINCOLN BENNETT & CO." They made a ton of top hats in their day.


.

 

[DOUGLAS]

And the ever popular

 

[mingoslim]

The list just keeps expanding . . .

I currently have about 90 companies on the list . . .
What I need now is more detailed information on the companies, their products, when they were in business, etc. etc. etc.

 

[feltfan]

This is all in fun, mind you, I harbor no ill will, but I still most cordially disagree. No hippes here. All Americana.

fftopic: Those are ads, not sales. As we know, they didn't sell.
That's why we find ourselves where we are today.

Of course the irony is that it wasn't hippies or executives.
If we're to be honest, the majority of white men stopped wearing hats.
Hippies and minorities continued to wear them, but did not
constitute a big enough market.

Perhaps those ads should have had hippies, blacks, and asians
in them, if they wanted to sell hats. /fftopic:

Getting back on topic, Hat Company of America also sold
hats under their own name (I have one), so that should be
on the list as a separate entity.

 

[Mr Maltby]

Last I checked, Frank Sinatra, and Schlitz werent exactly doing too awfully. Nor were they too terribly counter culture. But Im glad you throw "blacks" and "asians" around like that. Apparently your social candor stopped mid 50's as well. I think talk like -that- is always off topic, regardless of the thread. Yes, I agree, back on topic.

 

[feltfan]

But Im glad you throw "blacks" and "asians" around like that. Apparently your social candor stopped mid 50's as well. I think talk like -that- is always off topic, regardless of the thread. Yes, I agree, back on topic.

Whoa, wait a moment. What happened to,
"This is all in fun, mind you, I harbor no ill will"?

What exactly is wrong with what I said? How would
you have said it? There is nothing wrong with those terms,
terms that I might add were not in use in the 1950s. Nothing
I said was derrogatory or inappropriate. Quite the contrary.
I have no idea how you're reading what into what I wrote,
but I do wish you'd come out and state your opinion rather than make
a nebulous negative inference.

My apologies to all for going off topic, but I hope you understand
that's a heck of an accusation to ignore. Bartenders, feel free to
remove this post, but only if you remove Mr. Maltby's accusation as well.

 

[tonyb]

Back on topic

Don't forget that other Stetson -- Steven Stetson, I think it was (of New York? is that right?), as distinguished from the John B. Stetson Co., late of Philadelphia, PA and St. Joe, MO, but now of Garland, Texas, where the cardboard comes from.

 

[mingoslim]

I owned a Stetson by the "other" guy . . .

Don't forget that other Stetson -- Steven Stetson, I think it was (of New York? is that right?), as distinguished from the John B. Stetson Co., late of Philadelphia, PA and St. Joe, MO, but now of Garland, Texas, where the cardboard comes from.

I actually owned an Stetson of NYC a few years back and thought it was a pretty good hat . . . But I sacrificed it to the Gods of eBay . . . As I remember, it brought a fair price also.

 

[nulty]

Good call, Mingoslim. Our society is still reaping the crop of 1968.

And what a good crop it was that year.......

sorry..had to

as you were

 

[Brad Bowers]

Ideally such a list would distinguish between companies
that made their own felt and those that used felt from
commercial felt makers, a timeline for when companies
became part of Hatco (at one point Mallory, Knox, Dobbs,
Cavanagh, and Stetson were all the same company), and
a distinction between hat makers (e.g., the Stetson of old)
and hat sellers who don't really make their own hats
(e.g., today's Lock hats). But that's ambitious.

Consolidation started before the 1920s, leading me to believe that the hat industry was one of the "Sick Industries" that preceded the Great Depression. After all, sales were sliding since 1903!

Most of this is from Debbie Henderson's fine book:

Knox and Dunlap joined forces in 1918. At some point, (I don't know when), they were bought out by Byer-Rolnick (Resistol). Byer-Rolnick formed in 1927 and were eventually themselves bought by Hatco in the 1960s.

Stetson was in Philly.

Norwalk, CT, was where the high end hatters were located: Knox, Crofut & Knapp, Dobbs, Cavanagh...

Danbury, CT, was the other hat-making center, with Mallory and Lee (probably the most prolific producer of hats for private labeling).

Dobbs and Cavanagh formed Cavanagh-Dobbs in 1928. They added Crofut & Knapp to the fold sometime between March and June 1929. Hat Corporation of America took over in 1932.

Brad

 

[Fletch]

Dunbury, CT, is actually Danbury.
There's still a passenger car on the Metro-North RR named The Danbury Hatter.

Has anybody mentioned Selco yet? Supposedly traceable to 1799 and the Italian (later Czech!) firm of Selentino, my 1940s-early 50s models carry the date "1898" and addresses in Brooklyn. There's still a Selco store there, but I know nothing of any factory connected with it or the 1898 firm.

There's also the Lamson-Hubbard Co. of Boston, of whom I learned only last night.

 

[WEEGEE]

THE PERFECT Hat

The Perfect Hat Company of New York with the slogan "Good as the Name"

 

[Fletch]

Originally Posted by RedPop4
Good call, Mingoslim. Our society is still reaping the crop of 1968.

And what a good crop it was that year.......

sorry..had to

as you were

Apropos of '68, here's Gene McCarthy bareheaded and Hubert Humphrey homburg'd.

U of Minnesota home game, 1958 (sic).

 

[Brad Bowers]

Dunbury, CT, is actually Danbury.

Thanks, Fletch. That's what happens when I type in a hurry before work and don't read what I've written!

Brad