Charlie Chan in Panama and with Panama Hats

Do you know a movie that has Panama hats everywhere in the entire film? You would say there are quite a lot of movies with the Panama hats worn by many actors. However, there is one classic movie, which is famously known for the Panama hats.

In the movie, “Charlie Chan in Panama”, the Panama hat are adorn by the actors all through the movie. The protagonist, Charlie Chan stars as a police detective posing as a Panama hat purveyor, Fu Yuen. In the movie, Charlie Chan is an undercover agent of the US government, posing as a Panama hat dealer.

The film is action packed with lots of Panama straw hats. The film is center in Panama. To make the idea that everything is held in Panama all along, many artists wore the Panama straw hats in abundant. The Panama hats did make a strong presence with the protagonist, Charlie Chan wearing the straw hat throughout the movie. The shop run by Charlie Chan is named "FU YUEN PANAMA HATS”.

One of the signature parts of Charlie Chan’s outfit was the Panama straw hat. Fully logical as he was playing a part of a Panama straw-hat dealer in the movie. The Colonial Panama hat style, also known as Optimo, is often associated with the movie character Charlie Chan. Throughout the movie, you can see the Optimo Panama straw hat adorn by Charlie Chan. The Colonial is a classic Panama hat style, which originated as consequences of people rolling up the hat and the result is a crease on the center of the crown.

The Colonial may be Charlie Chan’s favorite but there were other Panama hat style worn in the movie like the Panama Fedora Hat, the cowboy style and much more. This film is a truly one movie where people can see many Panama straw hat models.

Where are the famous Panama Hats made?

This is a question that I've seen in the board game "Trivia Pursuit" and the famous TV show "Who wants to be a millionaire." The name obviously suggests that the Panama hat is made in Panama, but in reality this hat is exclusively produced in Ecuador. Panama Hats or Toquilla Straw Hats as they are also known have always been handcrafted by artisans from the towns of Montecristi on the coast of Manabi in Ecuador and use a very fine and thin straw called Toquilla Straw, which only grows in this region of the world.

The history of this hat name started when an Ecuadorean businessman named Manuel Alfaro who had his own plantations in Montecristi, decided in 1835 to hire several experienced weavers and build a hat business. His business prospered and when the Ecuadorian market got limited, he decided to extepand his business by exporting straw hats to Panama, since this country was becoming a major center for business. Shortly after he opening stores in Panama, he attracted the attention of many customers around the world that passed through Panama, which was already a major trading port.

Eloy Alfaro, son of Manuel Alfaro and later President of Ecuador took over the family and at the early 1900s, Ecuador was exporting thousands of hats to Panama, taking advantage that the Panama Canal was being built by many workers and American engineers who needed sun protection. The hat then was baptized by all foreigners in Panama as "Panama Hat" because it was linked to the country where it was bought. The popularity grew throughout the world when the world press published a photo of President Theodore Roosevelt using a Montecristi hat during his visit to the channel.

The truth is that since then on, this beautiful Ecuadorian Montecristi Hat it is now known as Panama Hat.

The Gold Rush and the Panama Hat

The California Gold Rush began on 1848 when gold was discovered in California. By the beginning of 1849, word of the Gold Rush had spread around the world, and an overwhelming number of gold-seekers and merchants began to arrive from virtually every continent resulting in some 300,000 men, women, and children coming to California.

The largest group of forty-niners (as referenced in 1849) were Americans, arriving by the tens of thousands overland across the continent and along various sailing routes. Many came by way of the Isthmus of Panama, the easiest way in that time to reach California from the east. While passing through, they often bought straw hats on their way and spread the word about these fabulous Panama Hats in their destinations within California.

Gold seekers never knew that what they thought it was a Panama Hat was really a straw hat that was sold in Panama but that it was originally made in Ecuador. As a matter of fact, these straw hat should have been named Montecristi Hat because it is hand made by master weavers of a small town of Montecristi, in Ecuador.

Anyway, the Panama Hat gained popularity in California and in 1849, Ecuador exported 220,000 hats to California that protected gold seekers from the strong sun since in that time the gold was retrieved from streams and riverbeds using simple techniques, such as panning.

The effects of the Gold Rush were substantial. San Francisco grew from a small settlement to a boomtown, and roads, churches, schools and other towns were built throughout California. On the other hand, the greatest of all straw hats gained popularity within the USA as the Panama Hat. Still today, Panama Hats are more popular in California than any other state of the USA and most of the celebrities that wear them are Hollywood stars.