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Karl Chmielewski
Karl Chmielewski

Damian Kratzenberg


===Soviet Union===
===Soviet Union===

Revision as of 05:40, 24 July 2022

Charlie Chaplin (pictured in 1921 as The Tramp) thought the moustache gave him a comical appearance.

The toothbrush moustache is a style of moustache in which the sides are vertical (or nearly vertical) rather than tapered, giving the hairs the appearance of the bristles on a toothbrush that are attached to the nose. It was made famous by such comedians as Charlie Chaplin and Oliver Hardy. The style first became popular in the United States in the late 19th century; from there it spread to Germany and elsewhere, reaching a height of popularity in the inter-war years, before becoming unfashionable after World War II due to its strong association with Nazi leader Adolf Hitler. The association has become strong enough that the toothbrush has also become known as the "Hitler moustache".

19th century to World War II

In the United States

The style originally became popular in the late 19th century, in the United States.[1] It was a neat, uniform, low-maintenance style that echoed the standardization and uniformity brought on by industrialization, in contrast to the more flamboyant moustaches typical of the 19th century such as the imperial, walrus, handlebar, horseshoe, and pencil moustaches.[1]

Charlie Chaplin was one of the most famous wearers of the toothbrush moustache, first adopting it in 1914 after his first film, "Making a Living", for his Mack Sennett silent comedies.[1] In a 1933 interview, Chaplin said he added the moustache to his costume because it had a comical appearance and was small enough so as not to hide his expression.[a] Nazi leader Adolf Hitler was a fan of Chaplin films,[3] but according to cultural historian Ron Rosenbaum, "there is no evidence (though some speculation) that Hitler modeled his 'stache on [Chaplin's]".[4] Chaplin took advantage of the noted similarity between his onscreen appearance and that of Hitler in his 1940 film The Great Dictator, where he wore the moustache in a dual role, one of which parodied Hitler.[1][5]

Comedian Oliver Hardy also adopted the moustache style—using it at least as early as the 1921 film The Lucky Dog. Although Groucho Marx donned a larger moustache, novelty Groucho glasses (marketed as early as the 1940s)[6] often elicit the toothbrush. American film producer Walt Disney is sometimes claimed to have worn the style (1920s–1930s),[7][8][9] but his facial hair was a more traditional (i.e. notched) moustache limited to the width of the nose. Another prominent animation producer, Max Fleischer, wore the style.[10]

Clarence D. Martin, the 11th governor of Washington state (1933–1945), wore the style during his tenure.

In Germany

Adolf Hitler in 1937; his appearance was so defined by the toothbrush moustache that it became unfashionable after World War II.

The style was introduced in Germany in the late 19th century by visiting Americans.[1] Prior to the toothbrush, the most popular style was called the 'Kaiser moustache', perfumed and turned up at the ends, as worn by German emperor Wilhelm II.[1][5] By 1907, enough Germans were wearing the toothbrush moustache to elicit notice by The New York Times under the headline "'TOOTHBRUSH' MUSTACHE; German Women Resent Its Usurpation of the [Kaiser moustache]".[1][11] The toothbrush was taken up by German automobile racer and folk hero Hans Koeppen in the famous 1908 New York to Paris Race, cementing its popularity among young gentry.[1][12] Koeppen was described as "Six-feet in height, slim, and athletic, with a toothbrush mustache characteristic of his class, he looks the ideal type of the young Prussian guardsman."[12] By the end of World War I, even some of the German royals were sporting the toothbrush; Crown Prince Wilhelm can be seen with a toothbrush moustache in a 1918 photograph that shows him about to be sent into exile.[1]

Hitler originally wore the Kaiser moustache, as evidenced by photographs of him as a soldier during World War I.[13] There is no agreement as to what year Hitler first adopted the toothbrush.[1] Alexander Moritz Frey, who served with Hitler during the First World War, claimed that Hitler wore the toothbrush style in the trenches after he was ordered to trim his moustache to facilitate the wearing of a gas mask.[1][14] A 1914 photograph by Heinrich Hoffmann purports to show Hitler with a smaller moustache, but was probably doctored to serve as Nazi propaganda.[15][16] According to other sources, Hitler did not wear the style until 1919.[4][17][b]

Despite the photographic evidence of his much larger moustache during the First World War, Hitler's sister-in-law, Bridget Hitler, said she was responsible for giving Hitler his toothbrush moustache before the war[1]—considered by most scholars to be fiction designed to cash in on Hitler's notoriety.[19] Bridget claimed that Adolf spent a "lost winter" at her home in Liverpool in 1912–13.[1] The two quarreled a lot, mostly, she said, because she could not stand his unruly Kaiser moustache. He cut it, as she says in her memoirs, but that in doing so—as in most things—he went too far.[1][20]

Anton Drexler, a mentor of Hitler, wore a notched version of the toothbrush. Friedrich Kellner, a Social Democrat who campaigned against Hitler, also wore the style. Many notable Nazis besides Hitler donned it, including Heinrich Himmler, Karl Holz, Ernst Röhm and Hitler's chauffeur Julius Schreck. Additionally, an apparent body double of Hitler was found wearing the style in the aftermath of the dictator's death.

Other places

The style was quite popular in the Soviet Union in the early 20th century. A Chaplin-influenced clown named Karandash exhibited a version of it. Many Soviet officers and soldiers wore the style up until World War II. In more unique displays, Commander Pavel Dybenko paired the style with his beard and Major General Hazi Aslanov wore an extreme variant covering only the philtrum.

Eric Arthur Blair, later known as English author George Orwell, wore the style around the early 1930s. Spanish general Francisco Franco, the dictator of Spain from 1939 to 1975, wore the style throughout the 1930s.

Fred Trump (c. 1950)

Post–World War II

After World War II, the style fell from favour in much of the world due to its strong association with Hitler,[1] but some notable people continued to wear it. American real-estate developer Fred Trump, the father of Donald Trump, sported it[21] from as early as 1940 until perhaps 1950, although during the war he began concealing his German ancestry.[22][23] Several politicians of Israel (formed as a state in 1948) flaunted the style, some for much of their careers. Austrian chancellor Julius Raab exhibited it in 1955 while negotiating for restored independence. Hitler's dentist, Hugo Blaschke (d. 1959),[24] wore a similar style—displaying an explicit toothbrush moustache later in life.[25]

The style was utilized in cartoon works beginning as early as the 1960s. Osamu Tezuka's Astro Boy manga and the anime series of the same name feature characters with the style, the latter including caricatures resembling nasal hair.[26][27] The early 1960s American animated sitcom The Jetsons features a character with the moustache style—George Jetson's boss, Cosmo Spacely. Additionally, American comic-book artist Steve Ditko's original design for Spider-Man supporting character J. Jonah Jameson sports a toothbrush moustache, apparently meant to make him seem Hitleresque and thus antagonistic; most subsequent comic and cartoon appearances of the character maintain the style or a variant thereof.[c] The British sitcom On the Buses (1969–1973) features a comedic villain who wears the style.

Keyboardist Ron Mael of the American rock band Sparks maintained a toothbrush moustache throughout most of the 1970s and 1980s. The band received mainstream attention in 1974 with "This Town Ain't Big Enough for Both of Us", popularized via British music television series Top of the Pops.[28] While watching this, John Lennon allegedly phoned his former Beatles bandmate Ringo Starr and referenced the similarity of Mael's appearance to Hitler.[29][d] Additionally, the 1982 Sparks song "Moustache" includes the lyrics: "And when I trimmed it very small / My Jewish friends would never call," referencing the association with Hitler and his role in enacting the Holocaust.

Zimbabwean president Robert Mugabe's philtrum-covering variant

Former Zimbabwean president Robert Mugabe wore the philtrum-only style from as early as 1976 to as late as 2016.

Between 1985 and 1989, the British children's television drama series Grange Hill featured an authoritarian teacher played by Maurice Bronson (who also portrayed Hitler in several productions) wearing the toothbrush style.[5]

In a 1992 home movie, Nirvana lead singer Kurt Cobain invoked a Hitler moustache (via fake eyelashes) while wearing a dress to mock a pejorative letter to the editor about his wife, Courtney Love. This was featured in the 2015 documentary Cobain: Montage of Heck and shared online to promote the film.[30][31][32]

In Mike Judge's 2006 comedy film Idiocracy, the society of a greatly dumbed-down future believes that Charlie Chaplin, not Hitler, led the Nazis.[33] In 2009, English comedian Richard Herring created a stand-up show titled Hitler Moustache in which he wears the facial-hair style in an attempt to "reclaim the toothbrush moustache for comedy – it was Chaplin's first, then Hitler ruined it."[34] Herring wore the moustache for about a week, during which time he was anxious about the judgements he thought were being made of him.[5]

In May 2010, American basketball star Michael Jordan appeared in a Hanes commercial sporting a hybrid of the toothbrush and pencil moustache,[35] along with a soul patch. This prompted Jordan's friend Charles Barkley to say, "I don't know what the hell he was thinking and I don't know what Hanes was thinking. I mean it is just stupid. It is just bad, plain and simple."[36]

In 2014, a photograph of Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and German Chancellor Angela Merkel provoked online amusement due to the former's pointing finger casting a Hitleresque shadow onto the latter's face.[37] Late that same year, Southern All Stars frontman Keisuke Kuwata briefly donned a toothbrush moustache during a televised performance, prompting online speculation as to the reason.[38]

The moustache has come to be a symbol of satire and protest, maligning people in power perceived to be acting like Hitler.[39][40][41] In 2021, Amazon changed its app logo following complaints that part of the design, meant to look like a piece of tape sealing a box, resembled a Hitler moustache.[42] Contrarily, some facial-hair media outlets have endorsed the moustache as being appropriate to wear again—especially variations diverging from the strictly rectangular version made famous by Hitler and emphasizing that many other notable individuals brandished it.[7][43]

Israeli politicians
Satire and protest

Other notable wearers

Nazi Germany

Erwin Engelbrecht

Karl Chmielewski

Soviet Union

Ivan Nikishov

Aleksandr Orlov

Karandash

Others

Fujita Tsugiharu

Georgios Tsolokoglou

See also

Wikimedia Commons has media related to Toothbrush moustaches.

References

Notes

  1. ^ Chaplin said: "It all came about in an emergency. The cameraman said put on some funny make-up, and I hadn't the slightest idea what to do. I went to the dress department and decided I wanted everything to be a mass of contradictions. So I took a bowler hat, an abnormally tight jacket, an abnormally loose pair of trousers, and some dirty, raggedy shoes. This was who I wanted my character to be; raggedy but, at the same time, a gentleman. I didn't know how I was going to do the face, but it was going to be a sad, serious face. I wanted to hide that it was comic, so I took a little toothbrush mustache. And that mustache was no concept of the characterization – only saying that it was rather silly. It doesn't hide my expression, after all, and is now my signature mustache."[2]
  2. ^ An official document dated 1921 shows Hitler with a more traditional moustache.[18]
  3. ^ In Sam Raimi's Spider-Man film trilogy, Jameson (J. K. Simmons) instead wears a full or pencil moustache.
  4. ^ According to the 2021 documentary The Sparks Brothers, Lennon said (referencing the resemblance of Mael's brother and Sparks lead vocalist Russell Mael to the lead singer of T. Rex), "Marc Bolan's doing a song with Adolf Hitler on the television!"

Citations

  1. ^ a b c d e f g h i j k l m n o Cohen, Rich (November 2007). "Becoming Adolf". Vanity Fair. Archived from the original on December 21, 2014 – via reprint in The Best American Essays 2008.
  2. ^ Chaplin, Charlie; Hayes, Kevin (2005). Charlie Chaplin: Interviews. University Press of Mississippi. p. 15. ISBN 978-1578067022.
  3. ^ Misch, Rochus (2014). Hitler's Last Witness: The Memoirs of Hitler's Bodyguard. Frontline Books. p. 70. Hitler loved Charlie Chaplin films
  4. ^ a b Rosenbaum, Ron (2000). The Secret Parts of Fortune: Three Decades of Intense Investigations and Edgy Enthusiasms. Random House. p. 495. ISBN 978-0-375-50338-2.
  5. ^ a b c d Geoghegan, Tom (August 25, 2009). "Is wearing a 'Hitler' moustache a good idea?". BBC News Magazine. Retrieved June 29, 2022.
  6. ^ Giddins, Gary (June 18, 2000). "There Ain't No Sanity Claus". The New York Times. Retrieved March 31, 2022.
  7. ^ a b Barber, Anthony (April 27, 2022). "Toothbrush Mustache - How To Grow and Style". Beardoholic. Retrieved July 1, 2022.
  8. ^ Mayo, Jonathan; Craigie, Emma (April 9, 2015). Hitler's Last Day: Minute by Minute. Short Books. ISBN 978-1-78072-234-4.
  9. ^ "The Case of the Missing Mustache". D23. September 26, 2013. Retrieved July 4, 2022.
  10. ^ Curland, Richard (August 6, 2016). "HISTORICALLY SPEAKING: The Hitler moustache was not always infamous". Norwich Bulletin. Retrieved July 14, 2022.
  11. ^ "'TOOTHBRUSH' MUSTACHE.; German Women Resent Its Usurpation of the 'Kaiserbart'". The New York Times. October 20, 1907. Retrieved January 1, 2020.
  12. ^ a b "Germany Awaits Lieut. Hans Koeppen; From Emperor to Subaltern His Running of the Protos Car Has Aroused Enthusiasm". The New York Times. July 18, 1908. Retrieved January 1, 2020.
  13. ^ "The Rise of Hitler". The History Place. Retrieved January 1, 2020.
  14. ^ Paterson, Tony (May 6, 2007). "Hitler was ordered to trim his moustache". The Daily Telegraph. Retrieved January 1, 2020.
  15. ^ Kellerhoff, Sven Felix (October 14, 2010). "Berühmtes Hitler-Foto möglicherweise gefälscht". Die Welt (in German). Retrieved September 30, 2011.
  16. ^ "Famous Hitler photograph declared a fake" Sydney Morning Herald (20 October 2010). Accessed 22 March 2022.
  17. ^ "The Opportunist". Hitler. Season 1. Episode 1. 2016. 22 minutes in. American Heroes Channel. Hitler, caught on camera here at a right-wing rally in May 1919 ...
  18. ^ "Adolf Hitler In The Period 1890-1929". Avax News. Archived from the original on August 29, 2019. Accessed March 22, 2022.
  19. ^ Hamann, Brigitte (2010). Hitler's Vienna: A Portrait of the Tyrant As a Young Man. Tauris Parke Paperbacks. p. 198. ISBN 978-1848852778.
  20. ^ Dowling, Bridget (1979). My Brother-in-Law Adolf. Written in 1930s and published posthumously.
  21. ^ Blair, Gwenda (February 8, 2018). "Fred Trump Slays the King of Cooperative Housing". The Gotham Center for New York City History. Retrieved May 13, 2022.{{cite web}}: CS1 maint: url-status (link)
  22. ^ Blair, Gwenda (2015) [2000]. The Trumps: Three Generations of Builders and a Presidential Candidate. New York: Simon & Schuster. p. 159. ISBN 978-1501139369.
  23. ^ Rozhon, Tracie (June 26, 1999). "Fred C. Trump, Postwar Master Builder of Housing for Middle Class, Dies at 93". The New York Times. John Walter. Retrieved July 3, 2022. He had a lot of Jewish tenants and it wasn't a good thing to be German in those days.
  24. ^ Joachimsthaler, Anton (1999) [1995]. The Last Days of Hitler: The Legends, The Evidence, The Truth. Translated by Helmut Bölger. London: Brockhampton Press. p. 297. ISBN 978-1-86019-902-8.
  25. ^ "Blaschke, Hugo Johannes". WW2 Gravestone. Retrieved June 9, 2022.
  26. ^ Tezuka, Osamu (2002). Astro Boy: Volume 8. Milwaukie, OR: Dark Horse Comics. p. 80. ISBN 9781569717912.
  27. ^ "Zero, the Invisible Robot". Astro Boy. Season 1. Episode 7. 1963. Mushi Production.
  28. ^ Rees, Jasper (May 6, 2008). "Story of Their Lives: Sparks Will Fly". Intelligent Life. Archived from the original on December 11, 2014.
  29. ^ "NEW ROCKUMENTARY Profile of the influential siblings". The Mail on Sunday. October 17, 2021. Retrieved June 30, 2022 – via PressReader.
  30. ^ Hill, Logan (January 25, 2015). "8 Things We Learned from the Kurt Cobain Doc at Sundance". Esquire. Retrieved April 30, 2022.
  31. ^ Lockett, Dee (April 28, 2022). "Kurt Cobain Once Dressed Up As Hitler in a Dress to Defend Courtney Love Against Hate Mail". Vulture. Retrieved April 30, 2022.
  32. ^ Rossignol, Derrick (April 27, 2015). "Kurt Cobain + Courtney Love Mock Hate Mail in '92 Home Video". Diffuser.fm. Retrieved April 30, 2022.
  33. ^ "The Best 'Idiocracy' Movie Quotes". Ranker. April 27, 2020. Retrieved May 8, 2022.
  34. ^ Herring, Richard (July 31, 2009). "'There isn't a "New Offensiveness"'". The Guardian. Retrieved April 9, 2022.
  35. ^ Frissore, Michael. "Michael Jordan's Hitler Moustache". Slurve. Archived from the original on April 25, 2012.
  36. ^ Kerby, Trey (June 9, 2010). "Charles Barkley says what we're all thinking about MJ's mustache". Yahoo! Sports. Archived from the original on August 4, 2014. Retrieved February 18, 2022.
  37. ^ Edelman, Adam (February 25, 2014). "Unfortunate lighting gives German chancellor a Hitler-style mustache in photo". New York Daily News. Retrieved May 9, 2022.
  38. ^ Thompson, Nevin (January 6, 2015). "Why did this man wear a Hitler mustache on Japanese TV? No one really knows". Global Voices Online. Retrieved July 6, 2022 – via The World.
  39. ^ Heller, Steven; Anderson, Gail (2016). The Graphic Design Idea Book: Inspiration from 50 Masters. Quercus Publishing. p. 72. ISBN 978-1-78067-993-8.
  40. ^ Ziv, Stav (October 19, 2017). "Trump photo with Hitler mustache was an 'unfortunate incident,' local Ohio paper apologizes". Newsweek. Retrieved March 31, 2022.
  41. ^ TOI staff (February 28, 2021). "T-shirts of Biden with Hitler mustache on sale at CPAC conference". The Times of Israel. Retrieved July 7, 2022.
  42. ^ Gartenberg, Chaim (March 1, 2021). "Amazon shaves app icon mustache that raised eyebrows". The Verge. Retrieved March 31, 2022.
  43. ^ Reed, Joseph (May 18, 2018). "28 Hitler or Toothbrush Mustaches That Are Back In 2022". Beard Style. Retrieved July 1, 2022.
  44. ^ Lot - Dr. Ernst-Robert Grawitz at Alexander Historical Auctions
  45. ^ Jakob Grimminger at hitler-archive.com
  46. ^ Vladimir Karpov at Commons
  47. ^ Bogdan Kobulov: photo, nationality, biography at StukLopechat.com
  48. ^ Dreetz, Dieter; Gessner, Klaus; Sperling, Heinz (1988). Bewaffnete Kämpfe in Deutschland 1918-1923 (1. Aufl ed.). Berlin: Militärverlag der Deutschen Demokratischen Republik. pp. between 176/177. ISBN 3-327-00511-7. OCLC 20041510.
  49. ^ Jean Sibelius at sibelius.fi
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