A hat box?

Is that what you call those old fashioned boxes that people used to carry their newly purchased goods in? They're not really just for hats, are they? 8o

Of course they're for hats. They're round, and they're tall enough for a hat. Even one with feathers and stuff sticking out of them.

Why do you ask?

What else would you put in a hat box?

Gloves?

I have a 16mm print of a film from 1947 called THE HAT BOX MYSTERY starring Tom Neal of DETOUR fame.



Susan Hart (Pamela Blake), assistant to private detective Russ Ashton (Tom Neal), is given a camera concealed in a hat box and assigned to take a picture of a woman. A gun is accidently hidden in the box and the woman is killed. Susan is charged with murder, but Russ and his less-than-useful associate, Harvard (Allen Jenkins), get on the case and prove that the fatal shot was fired by the killer from across the street. - IMDB

In the 1940's and earlier, women used hat boxes to carry their hats along on trips. Remember the scene in Murder on the Orient Express? Fashionable women in those days always wore hats, and had a different one for each outfit.

Now ask me what an Easter Parade is.

What is an Easter Parade?

I presume you don't really want to know, but since I have been pondering anachronisms in films lately, I shall explain anyway...

Every year on Easter Sunday it was customary for ladies to celebrate the coming of Spring by donning fashionable new outfits and hats and walk with their families to church in a sort of "parade." Some churches even sponsored an actual event where the ladies modeled their outfits and the most beautiful was awarded some sort of recognition or prize; hence old fashioned songs with lyrics like, ".. put on your Easter bonnet, with all the frills upon it. You'll be the finest lady in the Easter parade..."

Don't you miss the good old days?

I can only guess that the proximity of Easter and the mention of ladies' hats made me think of this. I believe senility is staring me in the face.

Nowadays, about the only hat boxes around are made for dude cowboys who travel with an extra $500.00 hat in their baggage. Yes, for real. No, I don't own one.

http://www.millerhats.com/productimages/181b.jpg

*misses those good old days*

When women looked like women and men didn't.

My grandmother used to keep her knitting supplies in a wicker hat box.

Ah the good old days, when women bathed once a month and guys once a year.

R28