Can anyone provide me with any information on Charlie Chan's Hat? Want to have a reprodcution made and need to know what it was made out of and so forth. Any help you can provide this humble investigator will be appreciated.
Preston,
Rush can tell you more about "Newt at the Royal" because he and "Mrs. Rush" visited there a few years ago when they were in Honolulu. I hope he tells you about the surprise Mrs. Rush gave him!
But I happened to get some informaion in the mail today about that very subject.
I had sent an e-mail to them at www.newattheroyal.com and clicked to have them mail me some of their information about the Panama Hats like you'll see Chan (Oland and Toler, at least!) wearing them--not to mention CC in Panama.
But check the website first since it has the most that you'll want to know about, short of being able to get there!
Virginia is correct, regarding the Panama ht that Charlie Chan wears on occasion. A great source for the best quality Panama hats is, as mentioned, Newt at the Royal, which is a little shop that specializes in Panama hats, and is located, to add some "authenticity," on the grounds of the Royal Hawaiian Hotel in Honolulu. They have a Web site that you can easily find through Google or any search engine.
Now, as for the numerous felt hats that Chan sported, you need to find a seller who has fedora hats with an UNFORMED crown. This is what Charlie Chan wore with the brim, of equal diameter all the way around, left turned up (same with the Panama, by the way). I have not found anything new that is close to "exact" here, but did have some mosest luck with a "Christies" hat. You may have to take a few pictures of Chan and the desired hat to a hat maker and see if they can come up with a custom hat for you. Costly, probably, but worth it in the end, probably!
