Classic Movie; Classic Jackets

[Lao Feng]

The Movie:On TMC last night;"Only Angels Have Wings" (1939);Cary Grant, Rita Hayworth;about aviators in Latin America who fly the mail. Grant wears theold Army Air Corps A-1 (predeccessorto A-2; buttons, knit collar and cuffs, patch pockets)--A classic. Aother actor wear what was clearly a real 1930s Indy-like jacket: Pucture the ROTLA as we know it BUT without pleats...just as one piece back with side straps, patch pockets (but no hand warmers). Classic movie; classic jackets.

[CM]

I've always enjoyed that movie.

[Doug C]

Good Movie, great Jacket. The type A-1 is my second favorite jacket of all time (Indy being first). I just had a custom one made a couple months ago and it's fabulous. So unique especially compared to the type A-2 which I don't care for much (no offense to anyone of course, just personal pref.) and that you see so many of.

Doug C

[Rixter]

Yes, some nice vintage jackets in that film. If HF was known as the man in the Fedora in the 80s and 90s than Cary must have been the man in the Panama for that era.

http://i48.photobucket.com/albums/f239/ ... amaHat.jpg

http://i48.photobucket.com/albums/f239/ ... ntopen.jpg

http://i174.photobucket.com/albums/w95/ ... closed.jpg

http://i174.photobucket.com/albums/w95/ ... back-1.jpg

http://i174.photobucket.com/albums/w95/ ... etback.jpg

http://i174.photobucket.com/albums/w95/ ... kets02.jpg

http://i174.photobucket.com/albums/w95/ ... ackets.jpg

There appear to be two examples of the A-1 that I noticed although the pockets seem to be placed more in the middle than either of the two examples here:

http://lostworldsinc.com/A-1HorsehideLe ... Jacket.htm

I'm also not sure what that emblem is on the front and back of the jacket. Maybe there was a reference made to it during the course of the film that I missed (I confess I have not seen the whole movie) or else it is an authentic jacket of some kind.

At any rate, I don't think even _ has a jacket like this.

[Bogie1943]

I have to chimm in here. That has been one of my favorite jackets for a long time. I love that film and that jacket. I would love to see G&B make a replica of it.

[Michaelson]

Well, from old books I've read in years past, the method to that madness was that the Navy required some of the first uses of parachutes for their pilots back when they were first working on ship landings. The pockets were positioned on the original flight jackets to allow access to the pockets when the old parachute rigging was harnessed onto the pilots.

The Army pilots, on the other hand, thought parachutes were for cowards (needless to say, there was quite a bit of rivalry between Navy and Army pilots), and they flat refused to wear them until forced to do so by general order after WW1 and into the mid 20's. Their jackets had the standard pocket placement since they didn't have to allow for parachute harness straps.

Source of information? A biography of Col. Billy Mitchell. In the book, it spoke of the strong rivals each group had with each other, as during that time period both branches of the service were vying for the same federal funds to build their airforces. In the book, they spoke of how pilots would recognize each other in bars by the location of the pockets on their flight jackets, and usually the taunts of the Army flyers about the parachute usage (due to the high pocket placement on the Navy jacket) would get a good bar room brawl started every weekend.

Regards! Michaelson

[Michaelson]

I understand they get together for a football game once a year to reinforce that point as well!

Regards! Michaelson

[montana]

The Movie:On TMC last night;"Only Angels Have Wings" (1939);Cary Grant, Rita Hayworth;about aviators in Latin America who fly the mail. Grant wears theold Army Air Corps A-1 (predeccessorto A-2; buttons, knit collar and cuffs, patch pockets)--A classic. Aother actor wear what was clearly a real 1930s Indy-like jacket: Pucture the ROTLA as we know it BUT without pleats...just as one piece back with side straps, patch pockets (but no hand warmers). Classic movie; classic jackets.

I'm glad you noticed the jacket MacPhearson is wearing. I liked it very much aswell. A difference from the Indy jacket is the pockets have buttons instead of snaps. Also if you compare the lenght of the jacket to the A-1 Grant is wearing, you notice it's a little longer, making it the perfect Indy-fit. I know Indy's jacket is supposed to be snug, but rather 80's kind of snug, not 30's. The big difference is, the jackets were shorter since the pants had higher waist, so that's not very noticable. As the pants sank, so did the jackets, I suppose. So, here we are now
montana

[Rixter]

...Source of information? A biography of Col. Billy Mitchell. In the book, it spoke of the strong rivals each group had with each other, as during that time period both branches of the service were vying for the same federal funds to build their airforces. In the book, they spoke of how pilots would recognize each other in bars by the location of the pockets on their flight jackets, and usually the taunts of the Army flyers about the parachute usage (due to the high pocket placement on the Navy jacket) would get a good bar room brawl started every weekend.

Personally, I've never heard of any such thing!!!







Well, maybe sometimes.

[Michaelson]

Shoot, I forgot the old 'cake in the face' challenge!
A little more direct than pocket comparisons.

Regards! Michaelson

[Lao Feng]

Excellent! My one obscure original posting has led to bedlam!

(1) Thanks for noticing that I noticed the jacket McPherson was wearing. Excellent point about 1930s/40s high-waisted trousers. Our uniforms at West Point kept that traditional high-waisted under-the-tunic tradition. (At least when I was there in the Dark Ages...no telling what they're up to now).

(2) Which allows me to segue to this point: gGad to see the pie in the John Wayne film above hitting Navy target.....Go Army, Beat Navy!!!

Cheers---Lao Feng (US Regular Army, Retired)