I'll put the next one in jail!

September 23, 2019 9:13 AM

The 1922 New York City Straw Hat Riots SLYT, 10:40
posted by Bee'sWing (11 comments total)

TIL that those old Laurel & Hardy movies were, essentially, documentaries.
posted by non canadian guy at 9:47 AM on September 23, 2019 [3 favorites]

Straw Hat Riots previously.
posted by zamboni at 10:10 AM on September 23, 2019 [3 favorites]

Hats where such an important part of your class costume in the US and UK that they just dissolved away from use in a single generation is kid of amazing - straw hats where part of a summertime, athletic culture that tended to even out class markers (Maurice is, at least partly about how everyone is equal in tennis whites) that I wonder if this ...vehemence was a way of reasserting class markers and the increasingly large influence of athleticwear in menswear* sealed the hat’s fate

*Brooks Brothers famously courted controversy by selling polo collars, button down style, as EVERYDAY WEAR how brash and modern and youthful, those were for playing sports in!
posted by The Whelk at 10:29 AM on September 23, 2019 [3 favorites]

Sure, laugh at the silly buffoons of the older generation with their pig ignorant ways and their random senseless violence. What if it was MAGA hats?
posted by Naberius at 11:53 AM on September 23, 2019

People used to riot over the strangest things.

The Astor Place Riot occurred on May 10, 1849, at the now-demolished Astor Opera House in Manhattan and left between 22 and 31 rioters dead, and more than 120 people injured. It was the deadliest to that date of a number of civic disturbances in Manhattan, which generally pitted immigrants and nativists against each other, or together against the wealthy who controlled the city's police and the state militia.

The riot resulted in the largest number of civilian casualties due to military action in the United States since the American Revolutionary War, and led to increased police militarization (for example, riot control training and larger, heavier batons). Its ostensible genesis was a dispute between Edwin Forrest, one of the best-known American actors of that time, and William Charles Macready, a similarly notable English actor, which largely revolved around which of them was better than the other at acting the major roles of Shakespeare.

posted by sjswitzer at 11:55 AM on September 23, 2019 [6 favorites]

Huge chunks of New York City's history are just parades or public events just turning into the large rolling riots
posted by The Whelk at 12:03 PM on September 23, 2019 [2 favorites]

“But they were fucked up in their turn
By fools in old-time hats and coats
Who half the time were soppy-stern
And half at one another’s throats. ”
posted by clew at 12:14 PM on September 23, 2019 [3 favorites]

Hat haters gonna hate hats.
posted by GenjiandProust at 12:37 PM on September 23, 2019 [1 favorite]

STRAW HAT = THAT’S WAR
posted by GenjiandProust at 12:42 PM on September 23, 2019 [5 favorites]

I'm not able to watch the video here, so apologies if I'm repeating something — but the Wikipedia article on the riots mentions, just in passing, that a man was murdered for wearing a straw hat two years later.
posted by nebulawindphone at 3:18 PM on September 23, 2019 [1 favorite]

Actually, from that bit at the end, sounds more like hatters gonna hat.
posted by ckape at 7:06 PM on September 23, 2019