Where did the phrase tighter than Dick's hat band come from?

Cuban Dave T in Birmingham, ALThis phrase was indeed used in the movie "True Grit", but it was in reference to the results of a wound. Rooster Cogburn (The Duke) is interrogating the outlaw Moon after a shootout at the dugout on the whereabouts of Lucky Ned Pepper. Moon has been shot in the leg and Rooster says if he doesn't talk he won't take him to a doctor and "... that leg'l swell up tighter'n dicks hatband ... "

It is a Southern or Southwestern expression, perhaps an 1800's reference to the discomfort experienced by condom users of the day.

Roger H in San Diego

This phrase comes form the movie "True Grit". In the movie, John Wayne is talking to Kim Darby about a judge (who is in charge of expenses for the Marshalls) who is "...tighter than Dick's hatband." when it comes to paying.

In the early fifties my grandmother in northeast Ohio used the phrase to describe someone who was stingy.