Gracie, Mary and Hats

[shimp scrampi]

"...so, I ran into Mary Livingstone, and she had on a new hat. She said that whenever she's down in the dumps, she buys one. And you know something? It looked as good as the ones I've been buying in stores!"

That's from a B&A TV show, and it reminded me of a George Burns story, that Gracie, Flo Haley and some of their other social circle would sometimes tease Mary about her 'putting on airs' in real life - once they switched labels in two hats, one from a pricey store (Bonwit's) and one from a discount store, and asked Mary which she preferred - and she looked them over and chose the cheap hat with the expensive label sewn in. I wonder if the writers were maybe alluding to this real-life incident in the script.

[LLeff]

"...so, I ran into Mary Livingstone, and she had on a new hat. She said that whenever she's down in the dumps, she buys one. And you know something? It looked as good as the ones I've been buying in stores!"

For a while back in the 30s, Jack will comment on-air about Mary's hat with something like, "That's some hat. You ought to see it, folks. It looks like (punch line)."