Restoration of a lost Stetson film

[Rabbit]

The detail of putting a paper covering over the top of the hat was one I had not seen before.

Great film indeed. I wonder what that paper covering was for.

 

[The Wiser Hatter]

It looked like it was to protect the top of the hat.

 

[gdc]

Thank you. I enjoyed that.

 

[Rabbit]

It looked like it was to protect the top of the hat.

That's what I thought, too. Still curious about what it was that the paper protected against. The sanding process prior to the paper covering looked interesting, too; like a quick & dirty yet very effective first treatment.

 

[Landman]

Fantastic film. It is amazing to see the number of people employed to make these hats. Each employee appeared to be a true artist at their individual step in the long process.

The American flags hanging around the factory was nice to see too. You can see them best at about 10:45 into the film.

 

[Matt Deckard]

Birth of a hat

Not sure if this has been posted before, but it's pretty good!

[video=youtube;g_lZnPn0C0k]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=g_lZnPn0C0k[/video]

 

[buler]

Restoration-of-a-lost-Stetson-film

B

 

[Matt Deckard]

Quite amazing to see.

 

[The Good]

Thank you for sharing the video. I didn't know that an older documentary had been filmed, and during the silent era complete with the characteristic piano. I wonder how many aspects of hat-making have changed since then? There are more machines involved, I would assume. I'll have to watch a modern hat-making video to spot the differences.

 

[navarre]

Wow Matt, that was great! I am pretty sure that just became my favorite hat video. I like to joke about asbestos hands from working with the felts and steam all day, but I've got nothing on those guys. Between the guy hand felting, the vats and vats of boiling water and those steam and water stations with a bunch of guys pulling felts on to blocks, I don't even know where to begin.

 

[gtdean48]

Thank you for sharing the video. I didn't know that an older documentary had been filmed, and during the silent era complete with the characteristic piano. I wonder how many aspects of hat-making have changed since then? There are more machines involved, I would assume. I'll have to watch a modern hat-making video to spot the differences.

The felting operation at Winchester is fairly about the same. All of the machinery are over a 100 years old. They keep extras for parts. Not a lot has changed or modernized.

 

[cookie]

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=htr4w4nAHkA

 

[Sprinkles]

This was really fascinating to watch! Thanks for posting!

 

[splintercellsz]

Very interesting! Can't stop watching it!

 

[Lefty]

bump for the original

 

[Dannny Boy]

What a great find!

 

[kaosharper1]

Lost 1920s Stetson Hat film found

There's an article in today's New York Times called "A Silents Gold Mine From Down Under" about a group of American silent films found in a New Zealand Archive that has just been put out on a DVD called "Lost and Found: American Treasures From the New Zealand Film Archive." Briefly mentioned is '"Birth of a Hat: The Art and Mystery of Making Fur Felt Hats' produced around 1920 by the John B. Stetson Company." No details on how long the film is but I assume its a typical silent film short.

The article doesn't have any more info so I didn't bother to find a link (I still read the paper version).

Thought the hat scholars here might find this interesting.

 

[bowlerman]

Wow, cool! I found this just now. http://www.amazon.com/Lost-Found-American-Treasures-Zealand/dp/B00D8HNRBG

Incidentally I'm doing a silent film music improvisation project next weekend, and our original material fell through. Hmm......

Sent from my KFTT using Tapatalk 2

 

[TheDane]

- and an online version of the article is here. Thanks, kaosharper1 ... very interesting

 

[The Wiser Hatter]

http://www.thefedoralounge.com/showthread.php?59496-Restoration-of-a-lost-Stetson-film

Buler started this thread in 2011 on the film.