Comments on: what hat does chico marx wear?

Question: what hat does chico marx wear?

rebent — Fri, 01 Jan 2010 21:35:27 -0800

What hat does Chico Marx wear? Is it an Alpine Hat? A phrygian cap?

By: OrangeSoda

OrangeSoda — Fri, 01 Jan 2010 21:46:24 -0800

Chico always played an Italian so I am guessing it is an Italian style hat? He also might have modified it and punched out the top to be round.

By: Ironmouth

Ironmouth — Fri, 01 Jan 2010 21:53:43 -0800

It is neither of those two. Looks like a small-brimmed fedora to me.

By: i_am_joe's_spleen

i_am_joe's_spleen — Fri, 01 Jan 2010 22:18:57 -0800

To me it looks a felt hat, maybe a fedora or a trilby, that's so old and battered and rain-damaged that the crown and peak have lost their shape. You can see the remnants of the peak in some of those photos.

I imagine to the original audience it signaled being down on your luck pretty effectively.

By: rebent

rebent — Fri, 01 Jan 2010 22:39:57 -0800

I don't think it is a fedora or trillby. Check out this video

By: Taurid

Taurid — Fri, 01 Jan 2010 22:44:29 -0800

Looks most like one of the Alpine hats from your link.

By: charlesv

charlesv — Sat, 02 Jan 2010 00:47:14 -0800

Looks like an Alpine hat, like what an Italian from the mountains might wear.

By: Sallyfur

Sallyfur — Sat, 02 Jan 2010 01:07:59 -0800

This page is cracking me up. Look at those hat guys.

Anyway, they have loving and intimate photos of a series of velour hats that look a lot like the classic Chico chapeau.

And here they claim it is a Borsalino, which gets you a maker, if not a model.

By: Emperor SnooKloze

Emperor SnooKloze — Sat, 02 Jan 2010 05:19:07 -0800

I've always known the "alpine hat" as a Tyrolean hat. That said, I don't think that's what he's wearing -- too much brim in a number of the pictures. Fedora, says I.

By: gjc

gjc — Sat, 02 Jan 2010 06:17:23 -0800

Remember that their gimmick was that they (at least Chico and Harpo) were always very poor. So whatever hat he's wearing will have been beaten up and missing all the "correct" dimples and whatnots.

It might not be any particular style. Some hatmaker just made a hat that looked good to him. I've always had the impression that a lot of these specifications were post-facto.

By: rebent

rebent — Sat, 02 Jan 2010 08:28:37 -0800

I've never seen a fedora with a top that pointed, even if it was worn out.

By: bonobothegreat

bonobothegreat — Sat, 02 Jan 2010 08:52:54 -0800

I always thought it was just supposed to be and old fedora that had been soaked in the rain and hung to dry on a bedpost or somewhere.

By: dhartung

dhartung — Sat, 02 Jan 2010 11:00:37 -0800

Notably, it's a green hat, which to me suggests an Alpine/Tyrolean type of felt hat rather than a mis-shaped fedora.

This contemporary review (i.e. from the era of hats) calls his costume "his familiar green velvet hat and jacket".

This critical biography of the Marx brothers says

Chico developed his Italian immigrant character early in vaudeville, supposedly by imitating his Italian barber ... [and] always wore the same costume: a pointed green felt hat (like a dunce cap); a closely fitted, short jacket; and corduroy pants.

I found a photo of a 1920s Italian immigrant society that shows 90% of them wearing a fedora of some type, from the broad Capone style to the battered Indiana Jones. Of interest is that even a beaten-up fedora still retains its characteristics including a roughly horizontal brim and a depressed peak. There's also a guy with you-know-who-else's hairstyle including mustache. It really was a "look"! Just for context -- Chico was representing an outlier.

By: oneirodynia

oneirodynia — Sat, 02 Jan 2010 13:15:13 -0800

He wears different hats. Here's one with a depressed peak. This is not the same. Nor is this.

By: rebent

rebent — Tue, 05 Jan 2010 13:35:23 -0800

I am still not satisfied.

Take a look at their videos: http://video.google.com/videosearch?q=marx%20brothers#

Oneirodynia, this one, this one, and this one all look the same (or close enough) as the hat(s) he wears in movies aka his 'iconic' hat. This hat and this hat look look different - i think that someone just gave him a hat to wear for stock photos, for whatever mysterious reason.