The JFK Conspiracy
Why didn't JFK wear a hat to his inauguration?
This mystery has intrigued us for four decades, and the answer is at hand in this wonderful little book: Hatless Jack: The President, the Fedora, and the History of American Style by Neil Steinberg.
Now, if this is the only reason you might want to read this book, I'll wreck it for you: in actual fact, JFK DID wear a hat at his inauguration. But, for some reason, there was a pervasive myth indicating that he did not.
When he gave his famous address, he had removed his hat, that's true. But he did wear it to the podium. And we learn here that it was a long tradition that, unless the speaker was not going to talk for very long, the speaker removed his hat as a gesture of respect for the crowd.
The book really could be called the history of men's hats. In the bargain, we learn about tipping, servility, fashion and silliness. And, lest you laugh too hard at fashions gone by, look at how many things we do today which are inexplicably linked to no discernable logic other than mindless fashion:
1. We drive SUVs equipped with four-wheel drive and huge towing capacities, and they never leave big cities.
2. We spend $4 for a cup of coffee and regard its cardboard cup as a status statement.
3. We bid up the price of a styrofoam cup Elvis was alleged to drink from to as much as $500.
4. We wear boxer shorts which, a generation ago, would have driven our locker roommates to give us atomic wedgies.
So, the truth is out. JFK wore a hat to his inauguration but removed it to say: "Hat not, what your country can do for you. Hat what you can do for your haberdasher." Or words to that effect.
Feel better, Oliver Stone??
This mystery has intrigued us for four decades, and the answer is at hand in this wonderful little book: Hatless Jack: The President, the Fedora, and the History of American Style by Neil Steinberg.
Now, if this is the only reason you might want to read this book, I'll wreck it for you: in actual fact, JFK DID wear a hat at his inauguration. But, for some reason, there was a pervasive myth indicating that he did not.
When he gave his famous address, he had removed his hat, that's true. But he did wear it to the podium. And we learn here that it was a long tradition that, unless the speaker was not going to talk for very long, the speaker removed his hat as a gesture of respect for the crowd.
The book really could be called the history of men's hats. In the bargain, we learn about tipping, servility, fashion and silliness. And, lest you laugh too hard at fashions gone by, look at how many things we do today which are inexplicably linked to no discernable logic other than mindless fashion:
1. We drive SUVs equipped with four-wheel drive and huge towing capacities, and they never leave big cities.
2. We spend $4 for a cup of coffee and regard its cardboard cup as a status statement.
3. We bid up the price of a styrofoam cup Elvis was alleged to drink from to as much as $500.
4. We wear boxer shorts which, a generation ago, would have driven our locker roommates to give us atomic wedgies.
So, the truth is out. JFK wore a hat to his inauguration but removed it to say: "Hat not, what your country can do for you. Hat what you can do for your haberdasher." Or words to that effect.
Feel better, Oliver Stone??
posted by John Bernat @ 7:06 PM
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