Toothbrush moustache
Remaining strongly associated with Hitler over subsequent decades, it was used satirically in works of popular culture and political imagery, including motion pictures, comic books, and 1970s-era rock and roll.
[2][3][4] After selecting a wardrobe, he added a moustache after recalling that producer Mack Sennett was expecting him to be older; Chaplin felt that the toothbrush had a comical appearance and was small enough not to hide his expression.
It has been occasionally claimed that American film producer Walt Disney donned a toothbrush,[18][19][20] but his nose-width moustache lacked the characteristic steep sides.
[1][24] 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][25] 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.
[1] His sister-in-law, Bridget Hitler, tenuously claimed that he spent the winter of 1912–13 at her home in Liverpool, England,[1][28] during which time the two quarreled, mostly because she could not stand his Kaiser moustache; she reputedly persuaded him to cut it, resulting in him fashioning a toothbrush.
[42] By the height of World War II, Hitler's toothbrush moustache was such a defining feature of his appearance that it was assumed he would be unrecognizable without it, and that he could use this logic to evade capture by the Allies.
Various notable Nazis sported versions, including Reichsführer-SS Heinrich Himmler, politician Karl Holz, military officer Ernst Röhm and Hitler's chauffeur Julius Schreck.
[48][49] Amongst other Soviet military displays, Commander Pavel Dybenko paired the style with his beard and Major General Hazi Aslanov wore a variant covering only the philtrum.
In a 1936 political cartoon, New Zealand artist David Low portrayed Soviet leader Joseph Stalin forging a toothbrush (along with a regular haircut) to mirror Hitler.
[54] By the end of World War II, the toothbrush moustache had fallen out of fashion due to its strong association with Hitler,[1] but some notable people still wore it, including Oliver Hardy.
[60][61] After the war, German artist Otto Dix finished his 1933 painting of the seven deadly sins by adding a split toothbrush to a mask worn by Envy.
[62] The moustache was utilized in popular cartoons, e.g. Harry Hanan's pantomime comic Louie (1947),[63][64][65] which focuses on the everyday trials of a domestic loser.
Caricatures resembling outgrown nasal hair appear in Rocky and Bullwinkle (1959–1964), Osamu Tezuka's Astro Boy (c. 1960s), and The Pink Panther (1964–1980).
[76][77] In 1970, Keith Moon, drummer for the Who, donned the toothbrush for a sardonic photo shoot as a Nazi officer (with musician Vivian Stanshall).
[79] Roy Loney, co-founder of American rock band Flamin' Groovies, flaunted a toothbrush on the cover of a 1971 live album.
[k][l] Between 1985 and 1989, the British children's television drama series Grange Hill featured an authoritarian teacher played by Michael Sheard (who also portrayed Hitler in several productions) wearing a toothbrush.
[23] 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.
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.
"[96][23] In May 2010, American basketball star Michael Jordan appeared in a Hanes commercial sporting a hybrid of the toothbrush and pencil moustache,[97] along with a soul patch.
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.
[99] 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.
[101][102][103] Some facial-hair-themed websites attempted to reclaim it as acceptable to wear again—especially variations diverging from the strictly rectangular version made famous by Hitler—emphasizing that some notable individuals have worn it.
