Men never tipped their hats to other men in the Old West. It was like calling them a woman. A common greeting when not shaking hands, was a simple nod. A tip of your hat would have resulted in either a gunfight at “High Noon”, or an invitation to leave town,……..QUICK!!!

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In a New York City auction given by GUERNSEY‘S, starting bid for The Wicked Witch of the West’s hat worn by Margret Hamilton in “THE WIZARD OF OZ” (1939, MGM) was $30,000. After numerous bids, it eventually sold for the unbelievable price of $170,000!!!!!

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A Beret, popular in many countries today, was actually worn in Mesopotamia thousands of years ago.

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In Ancient Rome, the wealthy wore hats only for hunting and travel.

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A leather hat is a good hat to be worn by a man that drives a jeep.

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In the Edwardian age, it did not matter if you were poor or rich, old or a child;whatever the status of a person, wore a hat. Only beggars went bareheaded. Even militant suffragettes did not campaign without a hat. The hat would be fairly functional in style and form, but a hat was still worn.

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If a Cowboy wears his hat tilted to the left, he's more than likely drunk.

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The Fedora, a soft felt brimmed hat, comes from the Austrian Tyrol, and was named after the play, FEDORA by the French playwright Victorien Sardou, which was on stage in Paris in 1882.

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The Gatsby is a soft brimmed hat (cap) popular in New York after the turn of the century made from eight quarter panels. The style, very similar to a beret, was popular in Europe and the United States in the late 19th and early 20th centuries among both boys and adult men. As the name suggests, it is now associated with newspaper boys, and it is sometimes associated with wealthy golfers as well. This was the chosen cap to wear for the movie called "The Sting", staring Paul Newman and Robert Redford.

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The original "cowboy hat," manufactured by John Batterson Stetson, and called the "Boss of the Plains," was a light-weight, high-crowned, wide-brimmed, waterproof, fur-felt hat. It had a rounded six inch crown with a flat seven inch brim. A plain hatband was fitted to adjust head size.

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Greta Garbo wore a soft felt hat in several of her movies thus giving this style of hat its name...The Garbo Slouch Hat.

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Abraham Lincoln's hat is on display at The Smithsonian Institute. His hat size was 7 1/8.

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The Mexican Sombrero, usually made of felt or straw, owes its name to the Spanish word Sombra, "shade," for reasons obvious to anyone who's been south of the border.

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The Audubon Society was founded in order to protect the bird population from Edwardian millinery trends, sometimes whole birds were put on the hats.

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Traditional Cowboys never cleaned their Cowboy Hat - other than a simple slap with their hand, or against their leg as they picked themselves up. A rinsing was something rain or snow provided, or the hat got a bath when it's owner did.

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In 1814, Louis Conte, a court entertainer in France, became the first person to pull a rabbit out of a hat.

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The original Indiana Jones' hat lives at George Lucas' 5,156-acre Skywalker Ranch in Marin County California. It is priceless.

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The Hat Act of 1732 - In the early 1700s, hat making had begun to thrive in America. Britain responded with the HAT ACT of 1732, which forbade the export of beaver felt hats made in the colonies. Britain forced Americans to buy British-made goods and pay heavy taxes on them.

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The baseball cap is America's most significant contribution to the world of the modern hat. Originally vizorless, the current version first gained widespread popularity when it was worn by Babe Ruth.

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The Anchorage Daily News ran a story on Kasilof Bar's Cap collection making the Guinness Book of World Records. 22,014 and growing. They are in Tustumena Lodge, Kasilof, Alaska.

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One hat that is DISTINCTLY AMERICAN is the broad brimmed Ten Gallon hat of the Southwest.

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The more :"X's" in a hat, the more Beaver. The more beaver, the better the hat. If you're purchasing a 20X Beaver, be prepared to spend upwards of $400.00!! Can you figure what a 100X Beaver would cost? ARE YOU SITTING DOWN? ANS: CLOSE TO $2000.00!!!!!

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In an attempt to Westernize Turkey in 1920, The Fez was abolished. Those who insisted on wearing the hat, changed their minds very quickly, after a few of the other lasting Fez wearers were executed by hanging.

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It is said that the higher the crown, and the bigger the roll on a man's hat, the more cattle he has.

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An "OLD" Rancher from Seguin, Texas wearing a 100x Beaver Silver Belly at a show I was doing, said "Son, if you wear a straw hat after Labor Day, you're considered a Farmer". When I was told this, it was in October- dusty and hot. There were a lot of Farmers walking around there ....including myself!!

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The more Beaver in a hat, the lighter it is.

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In the 16th century, hat styles changed so quickly that a frustrated King Charles ll of England declared no further changes to hat fashion would be permitted at his court.

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Annie Oakley, Buffalo Bill, Calamity Jane, and Wild Bill Hickock all wore Stetsons.

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The basic function of a hatband is to tighten the crown of a hat.

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The safest place for your hat is on your head.

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The decoration for a hatband is always displayed on the left side of the hat as word goes, because the Knights in the Middle Ages wore his lady's feather on the left side of the hat to show his affection.....and it stuck!!

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If you're thinking about buying a ten gallon hat in Kentucky, you might be advised that a law still on the books in that state forbids a man to buy a hat without his wife along to assist in the selection. (Believe it, or not!)

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Ninth-century Frankish ruler Charlemagne, owned some 500 berets!

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The oldest hat in the world may well be the familier "chef's" hat, which was worn in ancient Assyria as a badge of office in the kitchen.

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Italy gave us the word Millinery, which now refers to the women's hat industry.

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The first head gear worn by primative man was a simple band worn around the head to keep hair from falling in front of the eyes.

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The first hat factory in the United States opened in Connecticut late in the 18th century produced crude fur caps.

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In the 14th century, the Beaver hat first appeared in Flanders, and spread around Europe, and at the time womens hats took on fantastic shapes.

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The three cornered hat, or the "tricorn", was the universal mens hat in Europe for most of the 18th century!

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"Hold on to your hat" is an expression that originated in Scotland in the 18th century. Scottish soldiers were advised to keep their hats on in battle so they would recognize one another

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The smallest hat worn by men in the 18th century was a tiny tricorn worn on top of a wig. It measured just two inches by four inches!

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The phrase "A Feather in your Cap" comes from the 17th Century, and may be related to the custom of sticking feathers in a soldier's cap to indicate the numbers of enemy slain.

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Hats became a part of high fashion in the 14th century. Men at that time wore hats shaped like the fez, or a brimmed hat remarkably similar to the top hat.

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The older a hat is, the lighter it is.

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The most expensive hat in the world was a hat worn by Napoleon, which recently sold at an auction for $30,000.

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The Straw hat was first produced in America in 1798 by a 12-year-old girl in Rhode Island.

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The Panama hat, made from the Jijippa plant, has never been made in Panama. It's made in Ecuador.

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The most common hat in the world today is the so called "coolies hat" of China which is worn by one-third of the people on earth!!

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A ten gallon hat only holds three quarts of water!!

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