Pork pie hat

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A pork pie hat or porkpie hat is a felt hat, similar to a Trilby, dating from the mid 19th century, much the same as a fedora, but with a flattened top. The crown is short, and has a characteristic indent all the way around, rather than the "pinch crown" typically seen on fedoras and homburgs. It gets its name from its resemblance to a pork pie. The brim on a pork pie hat is generally on the smaller side, and is worn up, though it can be worn down in the front. The hats can also be made of straw.

Pork pie hats are often associated with jazz and blues culture, though more recently they have had strong associations with ska. Charles Mingus wrote an elegy for jazz saxophone great Lester Young called "Goodbye Pork Pie Hat". In Britain they were popularized in the 1960s Rude Boy movement in Britain; then later adopted by the skinheads. The Pork-Pie was a staple of the British "man-about-town" for many years, before its association with any particular youth subculture.

Silent film comedian Buster Keaton often wore pork-pie hats. So did physicist J. Robert Oppenheimer. In May 1948 Vol. 1 No. 1 of Physics Today showed a pork-pie hat laid on some physics equipment. Most knew this was a reference to Oppenheimer.

An interesting part of the pork pie hat heritage comes from New Guinea in January 1944 where Australian Troops had just defeated a Japanese stronghold at Kankiryo Saddle. The following is quoted from "Australia in the War of 1939 - 1945 Series 1 - Army Volume VI - The New Guinea Offensives (1st Edition 1961)" p766:

"According to the historian of the 2/10th Battalion, when word was received that General Vasey
would visit the area on the 2nd a signal was sent to all companies : "Other ranks will cease
calling officers by their Christian names and will cease wearing pork-pie hats ."
The historian adds that "although not lacking anything in discipline or morale, many of the troops
had taken on the guise of bushrangers, and as such must have struck terror into the hearts of their
enemies " . F . Allchin, Purple and Blue—The History of the 2/10th Battalion, A .I .F . (The
Adelaide Rifles) 1939-1945 (1958), p . 349

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