Cowboy Hats on the Big Screen

The Western genre in film has been a popular one for decades. Hollywood has done well promoting the rural West to the masses. A good looking, rugged cowboy up on the silver screen has only added to the allure.

Much like the colors red, white and blue, the state fair or mom’s apple pie, a cowboy hat symbolizes the freedom that the Wild West offered. Nothing is more American than a genuine cowboy. It’s a character that is rough around the edges and complex to boot.

One of the first films to feature the cowboy and his famous hat was The Great Train Robbery in 1903. After being played four consecutive times in the theatre that day, the venue turned out the lights and sent patrons home. Film fans have been enjoying western films ever since.

No cowboy is more famous than John Wayne. His coolness was only emphasized by the tip of his hat when he was up on his horse. It’s a hard act to follow, but what’s the harm in trying?

While Western movies are far from the cutting edge of fashion, many hat styles have been made popular by the actors and actresses who wear them. Like Audrey Hepburn in her famous black dress and strand of pearls, a cowboy hat can bring the same classic feeling to the big screen. You instantly know a character wearing one is someone to be reckoned with.

Clint Eastwood, Robert Redford and Paul Newman all carried the hat off well. Their films are wildly popular and their talents highly revered. Although who is to say how memorable their characters would have been without the ultimate western accessory.

John B. Stetson was the first to construct the original cowboy hat in 1865 for a hunting trip. It was so successful to wear and with his traveling companions that he continued to wear it on other travels. He began making them for friends and selling them for a whopping $5.00 a piece!

The main plot of the Western film is simplicity at its best, the goal of maintaining the law and order on the wild frontier. It has a solid foundation of the most basic idea, good vs. evil. You cannot have a Western film without guns and gunfights, horses and train robberies, holdups, shoot-outs, outlaws and of course, the sheriff with the cowboy hat.