If you’ve ever seen Baffled with Leonard Nimoy and Susan Hampshire you might have noticed Nimoy wearing this brown bucket hat in a couple of scenes:
Susan Hampshire and Leonard in The Hat’ in ‘Baffled’ 1973
Well, I always thought it look a little goofy on him, but when I found out the history of the hat, it made me laugh, so here goes:
The hat wasn’t part of his wardrobe, but a piece owned personally by Nimoy; or so it seemed, since he wore it in public a year later while working on his stage performance in Fiddler on the Roof…
Great Photo by Bobbie Reno
But wait! Turns out Nimoy was not the original owner! It belonged to singer Pat Boone! According to legend, during Leonard’s recording career, he was using the same studio as crooner Pat Boone. At one point, Leonard spied the hat and took a fancy to it. So much so, it went home with him…
Here’s the photo Pat wearing the hat on a TV appearance in the early 60’s: 
And Leonard must have loved it a lot (sans original feather) for he still had it in 1984 during a college appearance! 🙂 Did Pat give it to him? Did he ever get it back? The world may never know.
Leonard in 1984, Photo by Bonnie Moss
I was told by someone who met him a few times that when he wanted something he HAD it! A true Aries
The Fiddler on the Roof photo is mine. It was the first time I met him 😊
Will fix, thanks!
I took the last photo at the college. This was all posted and acknowledged on Louise’s Facebook page, where you obtained this.
Fixed and edited! Thanks! I also found your photo and a similar ones to it in the original article you contributed to:
http://www.leonardnimoy.de/index.php/23-homepage/articles-and-quotes/1147-leonard-nimoy-the-story-behind-the-man-and-the-alien
Baffled as a TV series would have been a good chance to see Leonard as a romantic lead.
I wish, Pat! I’d still love to see it remade into a series today. And I think Jon Hamm would make a great Tom!