October 6, 1986: On this day, a group of “computer folk who had nothing better to do” marked the first annual celebration of Mad Hatter Day. (The date isn’t an arbitrary one. October 6 is taken from the “In this style 10/6” note on the Mad Hatter’s hat.) The holiday is an excuse to celebrate silliness, and it’s been growing steadily for the past 29 years.
1. The real Mad Hatter was probably a man named Theophilus Carter.
A seller of furniture not hats, he impressed his eccentricity upon Carroll in Oxford. While some reports suggest Carter was unaware of his influence on the Wonderland character, Reverend W. Gordon Baillie had this to say: “All Oxford called him ‘the Mad Hatter,’ and surely his friends, or enemies, must have chaffed him about it.” Interestingly enough, Carter also earned himself a different kind of fame—he’s rumored to have invented the Alarm Clock Bed, a rather terrifying contraption that woke sleepers by dumping them into a tub of cold water. Madness!
~~ Mad Hatter Show Mx part one ~~
2. Lewis Carroll never referred to the character as the Mad Hatter.
Well, that’s curiouser and curiouser. In both and Through the Looking-Glass, Carroll only refers to him as the Hatter—or Hatta.
3. The phrase “mad as a hatter” was around long before Carroll started writing.
Colloquially used to describe an eccentric person, the phrase originated in the 19th century, back when mercury was used to manufacture felt hats. The hatters who visited these factories often developed mercury poisoning (referred to then as the hatters’ shakes), which could lead to slurred speech, memory loss, tremors, and excessive timidity. While Carroll’s hatter is certainly mad, based on his general behavior, it’s doubtful he was actually suffering from the hatters’ shakes.
~~ Mad Hatter Show Mix part two ~~
4. Carroll was surrounded by hatters growing up.
The author grew up in Stockport in Greater Manchester where, believe it or not, the main trade was hat making. (The English do love their hats.)
5. There is a Batman supervillain named the Mad Hatter.
Eighty-three years after Alice’s Adventures in Wonderland was published, the Mad Hatter comic book character made his debut in Batman #49. The supervillain keeps his Wonderland counterpart’s costume and personality, but in the world of Batman, he is a scientist who uses mind-controlling devices to manipulate his victims. A lot of his gadgets are stored in his hat.
6. The March Hare was just as mad.
We’re all mad here. When Alice asks the Cheshire Cat about the people who live in Wonderland, she gets this response: “In that direction lives a Hatter, and in that direction, lives a March Hare. Visit either you like: They’re both mad.
SOURCE: Goodreads CRDIT: George Carlin and misc musicians
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