Opera hat which means hat, and "claque", which means "tap" or "click". The "chapeau claque" is thus a hat that folds with a click, and unfolds likewise. In English the hat model is usually referred to as a "collapsible top-hat", "gibus" or more often "opera hat"- The construction may originally have been inspired by an historical hat model called "chapeau bras" ("arm hat"), made as bicorne or tricorne to be carried folded under the arm On May 5, 1812, a London hatter called Thomas Francis Dollman patented a design for "an elastic round hat" supported by ribs and springs. His patent was
Top Hat (Carroll Clark and Van Nest Polglase), Original Song (Irving Berlin for "Cheek to Cheek"), and Dance Direction (Hermes Pan for "Piccolino" and "Top Hat"). In 1990, "Top Hat" was selected for preservation in the United States National Film Registry by the Library of Congress as being "culturally, historically, or aesthetically significant". The film ranked number 15 on the 2006 American Film Institute's list of best musicals. "Top Hat" has been nostalgically referenced — particularly its "Cheek to Cheek" segment — in many films, including "The Purple Rose of Cairo" (1985), "The English Patient" (1996), "The Green Mile" (1999),"La La Land"