For the first half of the 20th century, hats were for adults. All that changed on December 15, 1954, when the Disneyland TV show premiered an hour-long special called “Davy Crockett, Indian Fighter.”
Born on a Tennessee mountain top, the southern fried cowboy (played by actor Fess Parker) fought Indians with a rifle called Betsy and wore a coonskin cap.
Faster than you can say “king of the wild frontier,” every boy in America wanted a hat just like Davy’s. In 1955 alone, over $100 million worth of the furry things were sold. Life magazine asked, “Which will be exhausted first – the supply of raccoons or the parents who have to buy the caps?” Actually it was the rabbit, not the raccoon, who had population worries; his pelt, dyed and stitched, made the cap.
The Davy Crockett phenomenon – dubbed “haute cowture” – went beyond caps, with his image emblazoned on everything from lunchboxes to jigsaw puzzles to jockey shorts.
By the late 50s, the coonskin cap was an extinct fad, never to be seen again.