The Straw Hat Riot begins in New York City as people protest the right to wear straw hats - September 13th, 1922

In New York City, a group of teenage boys grabbed the straw hats of some factory workers. stomped them flat on the sidewalk, and then ran like mad.

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Episode Transcript

Speaker 1 (00:00):
This Day in History Class is a production of I
Heart Radio. Hello and welcome to This Day in History Class,
a show that gives a quick look it's something that
happened a long time ago. Today I'm Gabe Louzier, and

(00:21):
this episode we're talking about the high cost of a
very specific crime of fashion. The day was September nine.
In New York City. A group of teenage boys grabbed

(00:41):
the straw hats of some factory workers, stomped them flat
on the sidewalk, and then ran like mad. Later that evening,
the boys did the same thing to some dock workers,
but this time the hat wearers fought back. The ensuing
brawl grew so large it stopped traffic on the Manhattan Bridge,

(01:04):
and police had to be called in to break it up.
The following day, The New York Times reported that quote
scores of rowdies on the East Side and in other
parts of the city started smashing hats. Police reserves were
called out, straw hat bonfires were started, and seven men
were convicted of disorderly conduct in the men's night court.

(01:28):
And here's the thing is wild as all that sounds.
The straw hat riot was just getting started. By now, though,
you're probably wondering, what's with all the hat smashing. To
answer that, we have to talk a little about men's
fashion in the late nineteenth and early twenty centuries. At
the time, buildings didn't have air conditioning or central heating,

(01:52):
so men's wear tended to follow a seasonal shift, going
from heavier fabrics in the fall and winter to lighter
fabrics in the spring and summer. This changeover also applied
to hats. Most men of the time war hats every day,
typically felt ones, but they would switch to straw hats
in the summer as a way to stay cool. Over time,

(02:15):
an unwritten rule emerged, similar to the idea that you
shouldn't wear white after Labor Day. In this case, a
man could only don his straw hat between May fi
and September. When the fifteen rolled around, it was time
to switch back to felt hats for another eight months.
This became such an accepted norm that a tongue in

(02:38):
cheek New York Times article proclaimed that any man who
wore a straw hat passed the cut off date was
quote a communal enemy and a potential subverter of the
social order. In most cities, wearing a straw hat out
of season made a man appear unrefined or careless, and
it may have gotten him some judgmental looks strangers. But

(03:01):
in New York City, non compliance with the straw hat
and mandate was a much more serious offense. There. If
a man hadn't switched back to a felt hat on September,
he was practically begging for someone to yank it off
his head and stomp it to bits. But in nineteen two,
this annual hat snatching tradition went from annoying to dangerous.

(03:26):
If you'll recall, the straw hat riot began on September
of that year, a full two days before the universally
accepted cut off for wearing straw hats. For whatever reason,
the hat smashers of New York got an early start
that year, and this violation of the rules prompted a

(03:48):
violent response from men whose hats should have been off
limits for two more days. Despite pushback from law enforcement,
the chaos continued night after night for a solid a week.
The roving gangs of hat hunters moved from the East
Side to the Upper West Side, whereas many as a
thousand boys and young men were said to have gathered,

(04:10):
grabbing and stomping straw hats wherever they found them. To
make that job easier, many of the attackers carried sticks
lined with nails so they could hook the hat right
off a stranger's head and then crush it flat in
one smooth motion. But since encounters usually turned violent, the
sticks were just as often used to beat the victim,

(04:33):
not just as hat. Dozens of arrests were made over
the course of that week. Some of the perpetrators were
fined five dollars for a legal hat smashing. Others were
jailed for assault. The younger delinquents arguably incurred a harsher punishment.
According to the New York Tribune, when one lieutenant caught

(04:53):
some young kids smashing hats, he quote invited the boys
fathers to come to the station and spank them. No
word on if the dads took him up on the offer,
but I'm sure the kids would have much preferred the fine.
This was not the city's finest hour, needless to say,
but it was a very profitable one for hat stores.

(05:16):
They reportedly stayed open late that week and made a
small fortune selling felt hats. Two men desperate to ditch
their straw ones. Things finally calmed down by the end
of September, but the hat smashing custom continued for another
few years, including one fateful day in ninety four when

(05:36):
a man actually died in defense of his straw hat.
One year later, in nineteen, President Calvin Coolidge dared to
wear his straw hat on September well passed the cutoff date.
Once the commander in chief had rejected the rule, the
rest of the country followed suit, and hat smashing became

(05:57):
a thing of the past for the most art Soon
straw hats would fall out of fashion entirely, and then
the Great Depression would start, making everyone pine for the
days when the biggest thing to worry about was whether
you were wearing the right hat. I'm Gabe Bluesier and
hopefully you now know a little more about history today

(06:19):
than you did yesterday. If you'd like to tell me
which hat you'd most like to smash yourself, you can
write to me at this day at I heart media
dot com. Thanks to Chandler May's for producing the show,
and thank you for listening. I'll see you back here
again tomorrow for another Day in History Class. For more

(06:46):
podcasts from I Heart radio, visit the iHeart Radio app,
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