Bowler hat/derby in slapstick comedies

[Hilde D'haeyere]

dear all,

I was wondering if I could appeal once more to your united knowledge and expertise of all things slapstick with the following question: what are according to you early / the earliest appearances of bowler hats in slapstick comedy and what are the connotations to that type of hat for the character wearing it?
Also, there seem to be different meanings attached to such hats in US and UK/European contexts. Is is white-collar, middle-class, financial world, or more upper class / aristocratic, or something else entirely, would you say?
Any references to early comedies and comedians in the 1910s in which bowler hats appear prominently (apart from Chaplin) are very welcome!
Thanks a million times for your help!

Summer greetings from Belgium to everybody here,
Hilde

[Rob Farr]

I'm not sure you will ever find a definitive first use of a bowler hat for comedic purposes since they were doubtless handy props in vaudeville. In Laurel & Hardy's 1927 Do Detectives Think?, their hats are meant to connote that they were tough gumshoes. But I think when you go back to the first decade of the 20th Century, the derby was simply the fashion of the day.

[Ed Watz]

I'm not sure you will ever find a definitive first use of a bowler hat for comedic purposes since they were doubtless handy props in vaudeville. In Laurel & Hardy's 1927 Do Detectives Think?, their hats are meant to connote that they were tough gumshoes. But I think when you go back to the first decade of the 20th Century, the derby was simply the fashion of the day.

Agree with Rob; and here's visual examples from images that were archived by my former employer. These men are blue collar regular Joes, Street Department Workers from the early 1900s:

Brooklyn Union Gas Co 1909.jpg (143.73 KiB) Viewed 7700 times

Peoples Gas Company 1905.jpg (201.39 KiB) Viewed 7700 times

[Richard M Roberts]

The only time a Bowler Hat becomes an upper-class headwear is on those British Stock Market and Banker-types in "The City" in London, and they indeed look silly on them.

Before Chaplin? I think I've seen some of the European comics like Andre Deed or Little Moritz wear them from time to time, but they are just fashion of the period, not making any sort of statement comedically or class-wise. Max Linder wore a top-hat most of the time, that was the first film-comic to have a trademark hat. Bowlers were usually middle or lower-class headwear at the turn of the 20th Century.

Is this really what we're down to in academic circles these days? Hats? Have we exhausted the moustache's first, or are those of no interest because men are out of fashion in academic circles, and moustache's are only on the male comedians (well, for the most part). I think the moustache is more pertinent to silent comedy than the hat.

RICHARD M ROBERTS

[Hilde D'haeyere]

Thanks for the replies!
Hilde

[Ed Watz]

Thanks for the replies!
Hilde

Everything you ever wanted to know about derbies/bowlers and then some:

https://youtu.be/AKV0kFCnWbs?si=UvLJQs670YQ29zCu