Afterthought question, did the gray Adventurebilt have the same dimensions
Hi Rich. No, the gray hat was another vintage block, and was 5 3/4 open crown, instead of the brown's 5 1/2. Bernie needed a gray travel hat and told me to make it a little taller than the brown, and that to use a different block, so the hats would not be identical. Guess he wanted Indy to have some variety. Also all of the brown hats but one had the 2 3/4 by 2 1/2 brim, while the gray hat had a 2 7/8 by 2 5/8 brim. I made only two gray hats. Originally there were to be gray stunt hats, but the action scenes involving Indy on the motor bike with his gray hat were apparently changed so he was hatless.
Personally on the brown hat, I would have creased the hat deeper, with the front being lower, like 4 1/2 and the back being a max of 4 inches. This would have made the hat have an arc on the top, as seen from the sides. I do like what he did, or had me do to the side creases, the LC style of crease.
Bernie also took a jiffy styled steamer with him, and really steamed these hats alot and worked on the creases. I can tell it, when compared to a brand new CS AB. And many of these hats got soaked during the filming, and that affected the look of some of the hats. IMO, this soaking and steam made the hat look better than as he recieved them. I wondered why he picked the boxier block, that one sample had, and now I figure he thought the hats might shrink some with the wetness of the film, and I am sure some probably did shrink a bit. But he also said he had enough left over for another film, so he must not have used up all 9 brown hats made for Harrison.
The lesson I am trying to get over here is this. Don't be afraid to steam your CS AB. It will only look more accurate, and you won't end up with a cone of a hat just by steaming them. Our hats can take the steam and you can make it look even better, or more film accurate. But, I would not hold it over a boiling pot of water. You get too much heat from the flame. Use a hand steamer, or jiffy steamer that give you the steam without too much added heat.
Bernie was impressed with the toughness of our hats, and their ability to take the water, and still be able to re-use them. Rabbit would not have been as forgiving of the wetness.
Some hate it that we did not use rabbit, but face it, a real Indy would have chosen the most durable felt for his adventures. If any realism was considered. The CS fedora has been called by some as a cowboy looking felt. But, these folks seem to forget that the LC hat was a very western style of rabbit felt, when compared to the felt of the Raiders fedora. So that dog won't hunt, in my world. We set no precedence, except to use beaver. They already had used a cowboy type rabbit in TLC. I am surprised no one but me even mentioned this when that subject came up. Fedora
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