Did JFK Single-Handedly Kill the Hatting Industry?

Amazing Tales from Off and On Connecticut‘s Beaten Path

There was a time when a man did not venture out of the house without a hat on his head. He wouldn’t have been considered completely dressed otherwise. When did that change? What killed the hatting industry? And, why? A story that many people have heard is that it was President John F. Kennedy and his lack of wearing a top hat to his presidential inauguration in 1961. Hatting industry expert Bill Devlin sorts the facts from the fiction in this episode that is both historically poignant as well as a fascinating story of presidential intrigue.