The Straw Hat Riots of 1922
This is like a declaration of war
Ah, the roaring twenties, the 1920s were definitely not in what would be called the roaring twenties in the future, more like whimpering twenties, depression twenties, the “it didn’t start good” twenties?
Good thing history never repeats itself…. right?
Back when women could finally vote but prohibition was in full swing along with jazz and World War I was still referred to as the Great War. But also back when people took meaningless fashion deadlines pretty seriously.
How seriously? Riots…
White and Labor Day
Have you ever wondered why they say women can’t wear white after labor day? I have and I don’t even own anything white and even worse no one can really trace back the origin to that rule.
Like most fashion do’s and don’ts it’s thought it might have been started by some marketing from clothing companies and fashion magazines. We know for a fact they were at least pushed and promoted by marketing from clothing companies to sell more merchandise in new seasons but that doesn’t mean it started with them.
But wearing white after labor isn’t the only fashion faux pas that was pushed in the 1920s, men were following a social rule regarding hats.
Straw Hats and Summer
See, back then anytime men went outside it was extremely common for them to wear hats. During the summer men would have to wear straw hats, some may know straw hats as boater hats, and others may know it as the hat of the wannabe pirate king Luffy.
Regardless of how you know of them today, back then almost every man would wear one when outside in the summer, and seriously, everyone. So hat companies back then were definitely raking in the money every summer.
But how could they rake in the money every year if people already own a straw hat?
It’s because there was a little tradition back then that would take place on September 15th, many would take their straw hat, toss it on the ground, and stomp on it to signify the end of summer. This again is another tradition that we don’t really know how it started but it’s definitely something the hat people pushed to sell more hats.
Brewing Trouble
For years people just accepted it and those that didn’t participate were ridiculed for still wearing a straw hat. But there was always some sort of trouble brewing. As early as 1910 there were reports of New York City police being called to intervene when a group of teens took it upon themselves to stomp the hats of others.
September 15th was a set deadline, it was followed pretty strictly and if you didn’t take care of your hat situation, someone, usually a teen, would do it for you. At times this resulted in police having to be called.
If your buddy took your hat and stomped on it, it didn’t tend to be a big deal, but if a stranger did it, that didn’t go over so well. So when 1922 rolled around it was no wonder that police were being called again but that year the calls started a little too early.
An Early Start
Many reports claim on September 13th a group of teens were passing by dock workers and noticed they were wearing hats. Now I’m not sure if the teens didn’t own calendars or if they just wanted to get started early on hat smashing but they tried to take the hats of the dock workers.
If Law and Order has taught me anything, it’s that you don’t mess with dock workers. The dock workers didn’t call the police, instead, they fought back.
Soon reports were coming from various parts of the city that teens were going around stealing hats and smashing them. Police would go over to one area, quell the forming mob, and by the time that was done, another would pop up.
Riots Start
There were reports of teens terrorizing whole blocks waiting in doorways and alleys to jump out and attack anyone wearing a straw hat. By the next day it got so bad there were as many as a thousand teens reported in the upper west side going around and fighting for the hats.
Some teens were reported as carrying long sticks with a nail hammered into it to easily remove and destroy hats. Those eventually became weapons when the fights broke out. The third day was just as bad, more teens were out, more fights broke out, and more hat stores were raking in the cash.
Reports say the mobs were so large traffic had to be stopped on the Manhattan bridge. By the end of the third day, police had arrested dozens of teens, though most were under the age of 15 so they didn’t get any jail time. The longest someone spent in jail was three days.
Others still, were punished but not with jail. The judge ordered their parents to spank them right then and there for their actions. And court-mandated spanking is just not something I would have thought was a real thing.
Luckily through the 3 days of rioting, no one was killed. Many were injured and a few men were hospitalized for an extended period of time but I’m assuming many just had their egos bruised.
Aftermath
It never got as bad as 1922 but one man did die in 1924 after he was assaulted by some teens to get his hat. During the assault, he fell hitting his head, and reportedly died later in the hospital.
Other than that the tradition of not wearing straw hats after September 15th started dying down, especially when in 1925 President Coolidge was photographed wearing a straw hat on, my god, September 19th!
No other egregious fashion faux pas would occur in the white house again until President Obama wore a tan suit in 2014, you know as long as we ignore President Reagan and President Clinton doing it too.
Also, straw hat smashing really came to a halt in the 1930s because of that whole Great Depression thing making it pretty hard to spend money you didn’t have.
And that was the last time in history some item of clothing caused a riot… as long as we ignore zoot suits…
