Spaghetti Western - where do they get the hats?

[Yohanes]

In 1960-1970s, Spaghetti Western movies, or more generally, Euro Western was quite popular, and even exported worldwide. About 600 titles were made during that period! even Hollywood wasn't that productive concerning western movies...

So how do they get their props especially hats? As far as I know based on a documentary info, they made their own firearms... but how about hats? They made them by themselves? Anyone might know story / information about this?

 

[Baron Kurtz]

from the wardrobe department?

bk

 

[Havana]

Even though the films were made in Spain, I'm guessing the Italian film companies tapped into Italy's long established fashion and hat making industries. They do have some eccentric designs. According to legend, Clint Eastwood purchased his original Fist Full of Dollars hat on Hollywood Blvd. with his pocket money before departing for Italy.

 

[tandmark]

Hi,

Yohanes, you're exactly right about the "spaghetti" western movies really being Euro-Westerns. One of the oddest series of this genre was the Ardelenii saga, made in Romania.

The three movies involve the adventures of the Ardeleni brothers in the American Wild West. They strike oil, engage in gunfights, encounter the early Mormon settlers, etc. Three-quarters of the dialogue is even in (heavily-accented) English.

As for the hats in the series, some are cowboy or gambler-style hats, and others are weird little folk hats like the two you can see on the DVD case above.

At a guess, I'd say that the hats may well have been sourced from Tonak in Czechoslovakia, or from one of the other Eastern European hatmakers that Tonak has bought since the early '90s.

Cheers,
Mark

 

[Twitch]

I recall http://www.uberti.com/ was into making the reproduction weapons.