Herbert Johnson Temple of Doom

[Hobbit Fedora]

Too wide a ribbon for an “Indy”? Perhaps ever so slightly. It looks nice in and of itself though. Gives it good vintage flair. Actually, looking at that picture it gives me “close enough” Young Indy Chronicles vibe, especially if you can push the back of the crown up a little.

[jlee562]

In the world of marketing it wouldn’t surprise me at all if the Stetson Temple was based on a hat Stetson made for the movie but wasn’t strictly identical. Same color and overall dimensions but simplified for mass production, ie: finding a pre-shaped block that more or less conformed to the shape the costuming department and/or Harrison Ford put it in on set. After all, in it’s way the Temple is more screen accurate to all three films than the official Dorfman Pacific which wasn’t in any of them.

We can over analyze this in any number of ways!

I actually had a Temple many moons ago, early on in my hat wearing days. As far as pre-creased hats go, it's a good hat. I can see why it has been a mainstay in the Stetson line up. Mine was from the pre 150th anniversary reorganization of the felt quality, in Sovereign grade felt. This quality designation is not currently used and the Temple is offered in Royal Deluxe quality. "Version" may possibly be a reference to a different felt used for the film hats.

With the blocks, if they used a pre-creased block, it's probably the same block used for the Temple. There's not that many different pre-creased blocks and they are only using a handful of shapes currently. They haven't uploaded a new PDF catalog since 2020, but if you browse through that one, all the center dent hats have the same 4 1/2" height. The differentiation now is brim width and flange.

I actually found one in stock. Should be here next week so I’ll at least get to try it on. If it seems like a winner I’ll try some reshaping. You more knowledgeable folks will have some good input there, I’m sure.

How about the ribbon? Is it too tall? Might be fun to learn how to put one on.

Yeah it's a bit wide. Fairly easy to replace if you have an iron and decent hand sewing ability. The ribbon HJ uses (dark brown, 38mm) is available here : https://www.hatblocks.co.uk/product/galloon-ribbon/

[steve_guthrie]

In the world of marketing it wouldn’t surprise me at all if the Stetson Temple was based on a hat Stetson made for the movie but wasn’t strictly identical. Same color and overall dimensions but simplified for mass production, ie: finding a pre-shaped block that more or less conformed to the shape the costuming department and/or Harrison Ford put it in on set. After all, in it’s way the Temple is more screen accurate to all three films than the official Dorfman Pacific which wasn’t in any of them.

We can over analyze this in any number of ways!

I actually had a Temple many moons ago, early on in my hat wearing days. As far as pre-creased hats go, it's a good hat. I can see why it has been a mainstay in the Stetson line up. Mine was from the pre 150th anniversary reorganization of the felt quality, in Sovereign grade felt. This quality designation is not currently used and the Temple is offered in Royal Deluxe quality. "Version" may possibly be a reference to a different felt used for the film hats.

With the blocks, if they used a pre-creased block, it's probably the same block used for the Temple. There's not that many different pre-creased blocks and they are only using a handful of shapes currently. They haven't uploaded a new PDF catalog since 2020, but if you browse through that one, all the center dent hats have the same 4 1/2" height. The differentiation now is brim width and flange.

I actually found one in stock. Should be here next week so I’ll at least get to try it on. If it seems like a winner I’ll try some reshaping. You more knowledgeable folks will have some good input there, I’m sure.

How about the ribbon? Is it too tall? Might be fun to learn how to put one on.

Yeah it's a bit wide. Fairly easy to replace if you have an iron and decent hand sewing ability. The ribbon HJ uses (dark brown, 38mm) is available here : https://www.hatblocks.co.uk/product/galloon-ribbon/

Great info here. Thank you for sharing all of that. It’s given me some more reading to do.


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[steve_guthrie]

Apparently, the Stetson Temple was also the hat worn by Freddy Krueger in the 6th NOES film.

This sent me off on a tangent yesterday trying to find details on the hats of Freddy. Haven’t found much of interest yet.


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[Hobbit Fedora]

The thread’s about the HJ Temple fedora and it’s somehow reminded me that I’ve been wanting Stetson Jaxon

[steve_guthrie]

Wah, wah. My order was canceled due to the hat not actually being in stock. So much for that experiment for now. I’m done hijacking the thread. And now back to Herbert Johnson…


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[craigjohn]

It's been talked about ad nauseum, but I believe it's generally accepted that TOD and LC weren't exactly the same blocks. The LC block was built off the TOD block but appears to give more volume to the crown. It's definitely higher in a lot of scenes in LC, especially the second half of the movie, than any TOD scene. But at the same time, many of the later scenes in TOD seem to have a bigger crown than the earlier TOD scenes.

I'm of the opinion that it's possible different blocks were used in both films. Maybe not enough turnaround time and HJ had to make do with not enough of the same block and figured they could bash the differences out etc. I know some people say a Stetson was used for some shots in TOD, supposedly because of a licensing thing when Stetson got the mass market contract. I don't know, but the hat does vary substantially in different scenes. As does the LC. And I'm usually of the opinion that it's *possible* different color ribbons were used on some of the LC hats. And some people, even HJ it seems, think the felt on the LC was different from TOD. Again, possibilities but also possibly a light and film thing as well. And in some scenes it appears the brim on the LC is slightly shorter as well, almost on the order of 2 1/4" on the sides.

At the end of the day my defining difference between the TOD and LC is the cowboy curls on the LC.

That HJ TOD is pretty good looking, though.

Crown size HJ TOD vs HJ LC

HJ TOD


HJ LC


HJ RotLA - Cairo - to compare all three (why not?)



I wish someone could have had a copy of each hat before filming began, and could photographically record each hat from 6ft away with a 100mm lens to minimize lens distortion. But if feels like these three are the best screen cap options where there is good outdoor lighting - even if the Raiders and LC lighting is a bit harsh.

To me, the crown on the Temple certainly looks taller and fuller than the LC - at least in these two scenes.The TOD even feels taller than the Raiders hat. The brim of TOD hat is definitely flatter than the other two, and the front bash is distinctly different on all three. The TOD and LC are much more similar than the Raiders and the LC. At least in these three examples. Also seems like the color of each of the hats is pretty darn close. The LC hat seems to be the cleanest (least amount of weathering) than the other two.

Again, this is where I feel like people see the Stetson Temple hat in the cockpit, and confuse that as an HJ Temple hat -- then give the HJ TOD a really (undeserved) bad rap.

Of all the hats in all the movies, this one....



...is still my favorite version.

[LawranceOfArabia]

It's been talked about ad nauseum, but I believe it's generally accepted that TOD and LC weren't exactly the same blocks. The LC block was built off the TOD block but appears to give more volume to the crown. It's definitely higher in a lot of scenes in LC, especially the second half of the movie, than any TOD scene. But at the same time, many of the later scenes in TOD seem to have a bigger crown than the earlier TOD scenes.

I'm of the opinion that it's possible different blocks were used in both films. Maybe not enough turnaround time and HJ had to make do with not enough of the same block and figured they could bash the differences out etc. I know some people say a Stetson was used for some shots in TOD, supposedly because of a licensing thing when Stetson got the mass market contract. I don't know, but the hat does vary substantially in different scenes. As does the LC. And I'm usually of the opinion that it's *possible* different color ribbons were used on some of the LC hats. And some people, even HJ it seems, think the felt on the LC was different from TOD. Again, possibilities but also possibly a light and film thing as well. And in some scenes it appears the brim on the LC is slightly shorter as well, almost on the order of 2 1/4" on the sides.

At the end of the day my defining difference between the TOD and LC is the cowboy curls on the LC.

That HJ TOD is pretty good looking, though.

Crown size HJ TOD vs HJ LC

HJ TOD


HJ LC


HJ RotLA - Cairo - to compare all three (why not?)



I wish someone could have had a copy of each hat before filming began, and could photographically record each hat from 6ft away with a 100mm lens to minimize lens distortion. But if feels like these three are the best screen cap options where there is good outdoor lighting - even if the Raiders and LC lighting is a bit harsh.

To me, the crown on the Temple certainly looks taller and fuller than the LC - at least in these two scenes.The TOD even feels taller than the Raiders hat. The brim of TOD hat is definitely flatter than the other two, and the front bash is distinctly different on all three. The TOD and LC are much more similar than the Raiders and the LC. At least in these three examples. Also seems like the color of each of the hats is pretty darn close. The LC hat seems to be the cleanest (least amount of weathering) than the other two.

Again, this is where I feel like people see the Stetson Temple hat in the cockpit, and confuse that as an HJ Temple hat -- then give the HJ TOD a really (undeserved) bad rap.

Of all the hats in all the movies, this one....



...is still my favorite version.

I agree with this, never quite understood why the TOD hat gets quite the bashing.