Ah, the forties. The War Years (or the New War Years, I suppose, as opposed to the Great War Years, no one as yet anticipating the subsequent wars the United States would be involved in —or involve herself in—one after another). In such changing times, when the nation’s women went to work with a will, what was a fashion-conscious ‘girl reporter’ supposed to wear? Great heavens! What should she place upon her head?
Most of the period I’m going to cover is technically pre-war for the U.S., although towards the end of this run Superman will begin beating the drums, so to speak, and at the very end begin to give whole-hearted support to the U.S. effort. I think it gives an interesting insight, to those who notice such things, into the fashion of the era. While I myself am not especially a fan of style, I do find myself capable of being amused by it, and, as I watch the parade of headgear Lois dons and often loses, I can’t help but chuckle and wonder, too.
One reason for my merriment is that this is all, so far as I know, Joe Shuster’s work. Even after the Shuster Shop was up and running, Shuster himself did the pencil and ink work on Superman’s, Clark’s, and Lois’s heads (if this is incorrect, please let me know) in the early years of both the Action Comics stories and Superman, so I’m guessing that Lois’ headgear was his work, and if not, at the very least met with his approval.
Clearly Joe enjoyed variety.
Not that we got much of that at first. The stories that appear in Action for the first few years aren’t exactly devoid of Lois, bus neither does she have the costarring role she soon takes on in Superman. Her hats, I suppose, reflect this.
First up: a rather ordinary brim slouch.
Next, either a very plain turban or else, heaven help us, a snood. Oh, Lois! Did you leave in that much of a hurry?
Lois next dons a rather subdued if stylish picture hat:
And then some sort of day hat:
The first issue of Superman featured reprints from Action, and it took over half a year (Superman was at first a quarterly magazine) to get its legs under it. But by the end of the magazine’s first year, Lois was ready with, ah, this:
I think that’s a pillbox hat of some sort, but frankly, it looks like a jar lid, knurls and all.
Two issues later, perhaps to celebrate Superman going bi-monthly, Lois would get a little more stylish with a tan fascinator:
And a smart green skimmer as well:
In the next issue, Lois sports either a red small saucer hat or a beret—I suspect the former—with a sporty bow on top:
And in the next story that issue, “The Gay City Plague” (No, it’s some sort of gas turning people into glass. Really. Hush), she wears the same hat, but in green:
Bored? Lois has the cure! Again, I’m not sure what this thing is, although my guess is some sort of ‘Robin Hood’ Tyrolean hat.
(Incidentally, for those artist enthusiasts among you, these stories in Superman #7 were mostly penciled and inked by Wayne Boring as Joe Shuster began to find himself incapable of carrying the ever-increasing art load.)
And for election night in that story, Lois spruces up in, well…
Look, online research can only get you so far, folks. All I know is that if it’s the same hat, Lois has fed it too much and it has now grown and is ready to reproduce, tribble-style.
(If any fashion-literate person recognizes this thing perched on Lois’ noggin, please let me know.)
Now and then Lois does repeat, of course. In “The Giants of Professor Zee,” she seems to have donned the same green saucer hat she wore in “The Gay City Plague.”
Then again, sooner or later she has to, right? Plus, Lois is about to pull one of her crazier stunts (details at another time, I hope), so she probably isn’t thinking much about her appearance.
Later that issue, Lois wears either some sort of flop beret or more likely a turban. It’s strange, either way.
In the next story, our intrepid ‘girl reporter’ sticks with red, but returns to saucers. Not one of the earlier hats, though. No, indeed! This one has a skullcap.
Bored? Just wait! As the series gets more popular and the relationship between the ‘triangle’ (or perhaps helix) of Clark, Lois and Superman gets more intense, Lois’ hats become much more extreme. Clark has some definite feelings about that, by the way:
Oh, he says it’s about her infatuation with Superman, but I think Clark is laughing about Lois’ hats.
As for me. I’m not done with them yet. We’ve only begun to plumb Lois’ collection, and I know you’re as eager to see more as I am.
You see, we need the laughs, too.
Note: If you’re interested in the hat terms I use, here are my sources: Vintage Dancer’s “Women’s 30s Hat History” and “1940s Hats History,” and the Art Deco Society of California’s Deco Life page “The Mad Cap.” I wouldn’t have known where to begin without them other than ‘Hee-hee, lookit that!’ so they are all much appreciated.
I do not claim ownership of any of the partial image representations posted here.