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Business activity: Gene Autry, Col. Sanders of Kentucky Fried Chicken fame, golfer Payne Stewart and the Alton Giant had one thing in common.
They all wore hats from Levine Hat Co. in St. Louis.
Levine Hat, in its third generation of family ownership, bills itself as the largest hat store in the world. Established in 1903 by Benjamin Levine, the store is now run by Edward Levine and his wife, Carole, at 1416 Washington Ave.
Levine has been in downtown St. Louis for all of its 99 years and manufactured its own hats until about 12 years ago.
Today, it stocks more than 15,000 hats on three floors, including a wide range of brand name men's hats: Stetson, Dobbs, Borsalino, Akubra, Selentino, Knox, Restistol and the popular Kangol hats.
The store also carries baseball caps, hat bands and a small selection of hosiery and belts. About seven months ago, Levine added women's dress hats. There are also children's hats, many of the straw variety worn at Easter.
While the walk-in trade has dwindled since the heyday of wearing hats in the 1940s and '50s, Levine's name is well enough known that it receives orders from all over the country and around the globe. "We mail hats all over," Levine said. "We get about 8-10 such orders a day and we sell about 1,000...