The terms of access to the screen used stunt jacket were that NO photos could be taken...the name of the collector could NOT be given, as they did not want to be barraged by requests of other collectors. The owner (once again as I recall) was a friend of a friend, so that criteria couldn't be pushed. _ was only allowed to take measurements. The jacket was purchased for (I heard) around 5 figures from a well known San Francisco auction house, and due to the price paid, the collector absolutely insisted on privacy, or no access. He made two trips to view the jacket. The first trip he was ONLY allowed to see it behind a glass case. Not a whole lot of help. The second trip, though, through a LOT of deplomacy, he was actually allowed to handle the jacket with gloves. That's when he got to take all the measurements, as he had made up a list of what he needed.
It was (and I guess still is) residing in the Washington State area.
The information was first supplied to Wested (Peter was aware _ was doing this examination, and supplied him with several tips of things to look for to insure this jacket was a real screen used Wested. _ looked where Peter suggested, and found all items Peter told him should be there), then to U. S. Wings. At the time Peter did not want to make any changes to his jacket patterns he was currently making at the time. Wings made several changes to match the stunt jacket, though incorrect to their originally supplied jacket to the Raiders production, they wanted to make up what fans wanted. After several changes, even Wings said 'enough!', so the wanted final outcome was not reached once again.
G&B (Flightsuits) had privately made several jackets Indy jackets for Lee in years past, and when handed these measurements and specifications, they decided to produce the Expedition based on the collector jacket. This was all done because members of Indyfan.com were constantly crying they could not get a jacket that was based on an actual screen jacket. At the time they were looking at blurry screen grabs taken from VHS tapes, and even from those images knew something wasn't quite right with what was available at the time.
Not sure I understand your post, PLATON. Are you suggesting this was all a lie on their part? Considering you weren't even around at the time, or knew what was going on behind the scenes, I'm not sure where you can even make such a veiled accusation, if that's what you're doing.
You and I have tussled before over things like this, and I'm personally all for you making your own mark (as I am for all folks to do the same), but in this case you're standing on the shoulders of giants who were trying to obtain the best example of screen used items for us to buy when most of the folks here were still in grade school. They were using their own time and money to get this done with no return (Lee or _ neither one gained a thing in sales on this jacket), but decided to step up to the plate to get something done. This was at a time hardly ANYONE had access to this type of information or items of the actual production. Lee did, and to his HUGE credit, it was MK who finally kicked the door all the way open and we gained access to the actual movie industry folks who were involved in the making of Indy movies. _ was only after the correct jacket specifications, and he worked his connections to get to the stunt jacket.
And as you can see, I did answer number 7.
Ok, help an old feller off his soapbox. My knees just aren't up to this so early in the morning.
Regards! Michaelson
