Michael Mallory
One of the Regulars
- Messages
- 283
- Location
- Glendale, California
Just sit right back and you'll hear a tale...
I got an incredible, and incredibly unexpected deal today in the most unusual of places. There's a venerable toy store in Hollywood called the Hollywood Toy Store (boy, are the owners clever or what!) that has a large costume trade, including a large costume hat trade. The hats generally range from low-end-passable, like Golden Gates, to okay-for-Halloween,-but-only-Halloween, to I'd-rather-have-a-price-on-my-head-than-this-piece-of-trash. So I'm in there today, killing time until the bookshop next door finally decides to open, and scanning the hat rack, taking in examples of all of the three above-mentioned categories. And then, at the very end of the shelf, is something different: It's a subtly golden straw fedora with an azure, pleated pugaree band. As I'm gazing at it, the dulcet tones of Bob McGrath from "Sesame Street" echoes through my head: "One of these things is not like the others..." I ask the nice silver-studded clerk to see it and she hands it to me, and on first weigh I can tell it's old. The Milan straw is tightly braided and tightly sewn, firm yet supple. The crown is straight as a redwood blocked in a teardrop, with an optimo ridge in the center, and the band is made of expensive fabric. I peek under band and find no darker color -- no evidence of sun exposure. Clearly it has never been worn. Then I turn it over and find that it is a Cavanagh from a men's shop in Fort Worth, Texas. The block is absolutely perfect. There are no cracks, no holes, no nothing. What's more, it fits my zeppelin-shaped head perfectly. The ONLY things wrong are a couple of tiny pin-points of white on the blue band, which may be paint specs, or perhaps White-Out. The store is asking $19.95 for it -- only marginally more than the asking price for those crappy J-Hats.
Needless to say, I wore it out.
My first question is: Why is the Hollywood Toy Store, the place where one goes to get J-Hats made from hair vaccumed up at the Leader Dogs training center, selling a beautiful vintage Cavanagh? My second question is: Why should I care? My third question is (and this is where some of you come in): Do any of the scholars out there know when Cavanaghs ceased to be, so I can try to pinpoint a date for it?
Since we're here, what are your most unusual and unexpected finds?
I got an incredible, and incredibly unexpected deal today in the most unusual of places. There's a venerable toy store in Hollywood called the Hollywood Toy Store (boy, are the owners clever or what!) that has a large costume trade, including a large costume hat trade. The hats generally range from low-end-passable, like Golden Gates, to okay-for-Halloween,-but-only-Halloween, to I'd-rather-have-a-price-on-my-head-than-this-piece-of-trash. So I'm in there today, killing time until the bookshop next door finally decides to open, and scanning the hat rack, taking in examples of all of the three above-mentioned categories. And then, at the very end of the shelf, is something different: It's a subtly golden straw fedora with an azure, pleated pugaree band. As I'm gazing at it, the dulcet tones of Bob McGrath from "Sesame Street" echoes through my head: "One of these things is not like the others..." I ask the nice silver-studded clerk to see it and she hands it to me, and on first weigh I can tell it's old. The Milan straw is tightly braided and tightly sewn, firm yet supple. The crown is straight as a redwood blocked in a teardrop, with an optimo ridge in the center, and the band is made of expensive fabric. I peek under band and find no darker color -- no evidence of sun exposure. Clearly it has never been worn. Then I turn it over and find that it is a Cavanagh from a men's shop in Fort Worth, Texas. The block is absolutely perfect. There are no cracks, no holes, no nothing. What's more, it fits my zeppelin-shaped head perfectly. The ONLY things wrong are a couple of tiny pin-points of white on the blue band, which may be paint specs, or perhaps White-Out. The store is asking $19.95 for it -- only marginally more than the asking price for those crappy J-Hats.
Needless to say, I wore it out.
My first question is: Why is the Hollywood Toy Store, the place where one goes to get J-Hats made from hair vaccumed up at the Leader Dogs training center, selling a beautiful vintage Cavanagh? My second question is: Why should I care? My third question is (and this is where some of you come in): Do any of the scholars out there know when Cavanaghs ceased to be, so I can try to pinpoint a date for it?
Since we're here, what are your most unusual and unexpected finds?
