''Those Awful Hats'' is a 1909 American short

comedy film The comedy film is a film genre that emphasizes humor. These films are designed to amuse audiences and make them laugh. Films in this genre typically have a happy ending, with dark comedy being an exception to this rule. Comedy is one of the o ...

directed by

D. W. Griffith David Wark Griffith (January 22, 1875 – July 23, 1948) was an American film director. Considered one of the most influential figures in the history of the motion picture, he pioneered many aspects of film editing and expanded the art of the n ...

and starring

Mack Sennett Mack Sennett (born Michael Sinnott; January 17, 1880 – November 5, 1960) was a Canadian-American producer, director, actor, and studio head who was known as the "King of Comedy" during his career. Born in Danville, Quebec, he started acting i ...

. It takes place in a small, crowded movie theatre, where the patrons are perpetually distracted by people - primarily women - wearing large, ostentatious hats that obstruct everyone else's views of the screen.

Slapstick Slapstick is a style of humor involving exaggerated physical activity that exceeds the boundaries of normal physical comedy. Slapstick may involve both intentional violence and violence by mishap, often resulting from inept use of props such as ...

disorder ensues. The film ends with a title card reading, "Ladies Will Please Remove Their Hats." A print of the film survives in the film archive of the

Library of Congress The Library of Congress (LOC) is a research library in Washington, D.C., serving as the library and research service for the United States Congress and the ''de facto'' national library of the United States. It also administers Copyright law o ...

Cast

as Man in checkered jacket *

Flora Finch Flora Finch (17 June 1867 – 4 January 1940) was an English-born vaudevillian, stage and film actress who starred in over 300 silent films, including over 200 for the Vitagraph Studios film company. The vast majority of her films from the sile ...

as Woman with largest hat *

Linda Arvidson Linda Arvidson (born Linda Arvidson Johnson, July 12, 1884 – July 26, 1949; sometimes credited as Linda Griffith) was an American stage and film actress. She became one of America's early motion picture stars while working at Biograph Studios ...

as Theatre Audience * John R. Cumpson as Theatre Audience *

George Gebhardt George Gebhardt (September 21, 1879 – May 2, 1919) was an American silent film actor. He appeared in more than 120 films between 1908 and 1922. He was born in Basel, Switzerland and died in Edendale, Los Angeles from tuberculosis. Select ...

as Theatre Audience *

Robert Harron Robert Emmett Harron (April 12, 1893 – September 5, 1920) was an American motion picture actor of the early silent film era. Although he acted in over 200 films, he is possibly best recalled for his roles in the D.W. Griffith directed fil ...

as Theatre Audience *

Anita Hendrie Anita Hendrie ( – April 15, 1940) was an American actress who appeared in 67 silent films between 1908 and 1912, and in several stock theater and vaudeville plays since 1899. Hendrie was born in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, the daughter of ...

as Theatre Audience *

Charles Inslee Charles Edwin Inslee (January 6, 1870 – September 17, 1922) was an American actor. He appeared in 127 films between 1908 and 1921. Biography Born in New York City, Inslee was the son of Mr. and Mrs. Robert C. Inslee ...

as Theatre Audience * Arthur V. Johnson as Theatre Audience *

Florence Lawrence Florence Lawrence (born Florence Annie Bridgwood; January 2, 1886 – December 28, 1938) was a Canadian-American stage performer and film actress. She is often referred to as the "first movie star", and was long thought to be the first film act ...

as Theatre Audience *

Gertrude Robinson ''For the composer, see Gertrude Ina Robinson.'' Gertrude Robinson (October 7, 1890 – March 19, 1962) was an American actress of the silent film, silent era. Biography She appeared in 164 films between 1908 and 1925. She was born in New ...

as Theatre Audience *

Dorothy West Dorothy West (June 2, 1907 – August 16, 1998) was an American novelist, short-story writer, and magazine editor associated with the Harlem Renaissance, a cultural movement in the 1920s and 1930s that celebrated black art, literature, and mu ...

as Theatre Audience

References

External links

*
''Those Awful Hats''
on

YouTube YouTube is an American social media and online video sharing platform owned by Google. YouTube was founded on February 14, 2005, by Steve Chen, Chad Hurley, and Jawed Karim who were three former employees of PayPal. Headquartered in ...

Those Awful Hats
available for free download at

Internet Archive The Internet Archive is an American 501(c)(3) organization, non-profit organization founded in 1996 by Brewster Kahle that runs a digital library website, archive.org. It provides free access to collections of digitized media including web ...

1909 films 1909 comedy films 1909 short films 1900s American films 1900s English-language films American black-and-white films Articles containing video clips English-language comedy short films Short films directed by D. W. Griffith Silent American comedy short films Surviving American silent films Hats in popular culture {{1900s-US-film-stub

Cast

See also

References

External links