Stories from the Golden Age Blog

Why is a bowler hat called a bowler? Does it have something to do with bowling pins? Actually, no, it doesn't.

In several of the pulp fiction stories, including Brass Keys to Murder by L. Ron Hubbard, characters wear what were once very popular and fashionable bowler hats. 

Now a bowler hat is also known as a derby hat; a hard felt hat with a rounded crown and narrow brim, created by James Lock & Co, a firm founded in 1676 in London. The prototype was made in 1850 for a customer of Lock's by Thomas and William Bowler, hatmakers in Southwark, England. At first it was dubbed the iron hat because it was hard enough to protect the head, and later picked up the name bowler because of its makers' family name. In the US it became known as a derby from its association with the Kentucky Derby horse races.