Posts: 2
From: League City, Texas USA
Registered: Sep 2019

posted 09-07-2024 08:30 AM               

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We've all seen footage of the Apollo 11 launch countless times, with plenty of cuts to the crowds of dignitaries, reporters, cameramen, and general spectators on hand for the event. Many of them are wearing funny little paper hats, some blue, some yellow, and some red, which I always assumed they were handed out to help prevent sunstroke.

But lately I become increasingly desirous of knowing the story of those hats every time I see those scenes again. I also wonder if any of them remain, perhaps in the hands of collectors, today?

Posts: 585
From: Derbyshire UK
Registered: Mar 2023

posted 09-07-2024 08:38 AM               

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I'm baffled. I've seen lots of photographs of the spectators at the Apollo 11 launch. Not a single photo I've seen has featured people wearing funny little paper hats.

Could you please post an image for context? Thanks.

Posts: 53081
From: Houston, TX
Registered: Nov 1999

posted 09-07-2024 09:42 AM               

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You can see the caps in these stills from "Apollo 11":

They were a promotional handout from RCA:

RCA made visors of the same style but varying in color and graphics for more than just Apollo 11. The National Air and Space Museum has an Apollo 16 example.

Posts: 2
From: League City, Texas USA
Registered: Sep 2019

Posts: 585
From: Derbyshire UK
Registered: Mar 2023

Posts: 3858
From: Merritt Island, Florida, Brevard
Registered: Mar 2001

posted 09-07-2024 07:24 PM               

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Enjoyed this topic of paper hats worn on the Apollo 11 launch day at Kennedy Space Center. It sure does bring back some memories of when other hats by RCA were available for other space shots of the Apollo, Skylab, Apollo-Soyuz, and early shuttle program years. For the first space shuttle launch, aerospace contractor RCA gifted out to the press and VIPs a ball-type cap that I still have today. It's one of of my favorite contractor souvenirs of STS-1/Columbia in 1981.

But how about another type of hat worn for Apollo 11, but this one, a one-of-a-kind for sure! Though it's not a paper issue, please note the provided photo of a strange-looking hat seen on top a of a veteran press reporter's head while working at KSC's Press Site 39. Pictured is the first full-time woman space reporter, Mary Bubb (1920-88), who had been a well-known Florida Space Coast personality working for several major news media organizations even before NASA's Project Mercury got underway. The hat featured here was her Apollo 11 attire that she referred to as "the Eagle."

Bubb's remarkable nearly 35-year career in aerospace journalism started back during the mid-1950's. For most of those early US space shots, Mary would design and fabricate a different mission hat, wearing it for launch day coverage. She was actually a big part of the space press "social" scene to many worldwide reporters and other space celebrities, friends, and aerospace employees.

News media folks from all across the globe would photograph her for their newspapers, magazines, and television reports. Part of my own space collection is being the proud owner of some of her legendary worn space launch hats with my all-time favorite, without question, being for the maiden shuttle launch of Columbia.

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Posts: 11
From: Atlanta, GA, US
Registered: Apr 2019