Songfacts®:

• The sheet music for "Where Did You Get That Hat?" appears in the 1937 collection Sixty Old-Time Variety Songs: Song Book No 2, which was published by The News Chronicle Publications Department; the News Chronicle was a British national newspaper that was published between 1930 and 1960. Herein, this novelty song is credited as written by James Rolmaz, sung by J.C. Heffron, and copyright by Francis, Day & Hunter of London.
  
  The singer relates "Grandfather died and left to me his property and money..." but at the reading of the will he was told that to claim the lucre he would have to wear his hat.
• Although "Where Did You Get That Hat?" was popular in the English music hall, and the lyrics as printed in the above publication have a parochial feel, the original was actually written by the American performer Joseph Sullivan in 1888. According to The Tin Pan Alley Song Encyclopedia, Sullivan found an old top hat while going through his late father's effects, and when he wore it in the street a young boy accosted him with the six words that would pass into the English language as a catchphrase.
  
  The melody is based partly on a leitmotiv from Wagner's Lohengrin, which was "another inside joke" at that time, and the song was sung by Gene Kelly in the 1949 film Take Me Out To The Ball Game. It was also recorded by the English comedian Stanley Holloway. >>

  Suggestion credit:
  Alexander Baron - London, England, for above 2