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Cooper's fez goes under the hammer
One of Tommy Cooper’s fezzes is going under the auctioneer’s hammer today.
Auctioneers estimate the hat could will fetch between £100 and £150, although fans of the comedian could drive that higher.
The fez is being sold by a Blackpool woman whose husband, Ernest Flowers, ran a menswear shop close to the town’s theatre and opera house.
He became friends with many of the stars appearing there, and Cooper gave him the headgear in the early Sixties.
It is being auctioned by Kendal Auction Rooms in Cumbria – a company that more usually deals with livestock auctions.
Of the £100 estimate, fine arts valuer David Brookes, said: ‘With such an unusual item the price realised could indeed be much higher, just like that!’
Cooper took to wearing a fez while entertaining fellow troops in Egypt during the Second World War.
Short of a pith helmet prop for his act, he whipped off a nearby waiter’s fez and used that instead. It got a big laugh, so the hat became a permanent trademark of Tommy Cooper's act.
Published: 27 Sep 2005
