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Western, anyone?

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18,171
Some of my hats I just never know where to post. As a western Canadian this is what cowboy hats looked like at the turn of last century. But it’s also a campaign hat.
My Smithbilt Scout.
View attachment 523474

Johnny
Here’s mine. I forward roll the brim just a little bit to give it a pick look to go with the other angular lines of the crown.















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johnnycanuck

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jlee562

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Well now I have to watch Liberty Valance again...which is great, because it's one of my fave westerns. It's a good story, so good that someone else had it on an episode of Pawn Stars. The embossment makes it more probable, but I dunno that I'd just buy that hat off Facebook marketplace based on that.


While admittedly not dispositive, other examples of Wayne's hats that have been sold bear markings from the prop dept.

 

T Jones

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Well now I have to watch Liberty Valance again...which is great, because it's one of my fave westerns. It's a good story, so good that someone else had it on an episode of Pawn Stars. The embossment makes it more probable, but I dunno that I'd just buy that hat off Facebook marketplace based on that.


While admittedly not dispositive, other examples of Wayne's hats that have been sold bear markings from the prop dept.

Wow. I dunno. Sweats do shrink, though, with age. It'd be cool if it actually was John Wayne's hat from that movie.
Then again, maybe the right hat but the wrong movie when John Wayne was much thinner. From John Ford's "Three Godfathers", (1948). Same hat band. Same color. Same chin strap. Same bound brim. Same Montana Pinch and same brim curl. Just a thought.
John-Wayne-three-Godfathers-1.png


John-Wayne-three-Godfathers-2.jpg


John-Wayne-Three-Godfathers-3.jpg


To anyone who remembers watching that movie, John Wayne wore another style hat that would change back and forth from one scene to another.
Also from the Three Godfathers.
John-Wayne-Three-Godfathers-4.jpg



On a side note, John Wayne's son, Ethan, who came to the Pawn Shop was actually named after a favorite character he played in another John Ford Western classic, Ethan Edwards, "The Searchers".

john-wayne-as-ethan-edwards-in-the-searchers.jpg
 
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10,832
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vancouver, canada
Nope just sitting on it. Sitting on my front deck whittling. A Simple rubber band would hold it on. But would probably be illegal or at least upset all the right people.
Johnny
One of my recent builds was for a fellow that wanted to attach a small budgie knife to the leather band. I made him a band with a rare earth magnet embedded in the leather. He said it works great but am always looking for a better way to do it.
 

jlee562

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Pardon the photos of my TV screen, couldn't find better screen caps online.



The crease is actually pretty involved. I can never remember all the cowboy creases, so anyone feel free to chime in if they know this one. But the hat does have some little ridges that pop out from the creased areas. There are also stampede strings, as seen in the bottom left.

So, I feel pretty confident the Facebook hat is not the one pictured here. Wayne's hat looks bigger all around. Though it is also probably safe to assume the costume dept had multiple hats.

The funny thing is though, I'm not really sure where in the paint can scene Wayne's hat would catch any paint splatter. In story, the whole point of the bit is that Stewart is gonna get the paint. Not only is Ransom physically far away from Tom, with the way you shoot movies, John Wayne is shooting blanks towards off camera. Stewart might not have even shot his part of the paint scene on the same day.

Speculation time: it's certainly not out of the realm of possibility that Wayne wore such a hat during filming that got incidentally hit by some stray paint. But I didn't see anything on screen that would definitively match the marks seen on the Facebook hat. Or in prop community jargon, I couldn't verify it to be "screen used." At least not while I was simultaneously cooking dinner.

Still speculating, but was Wayne ever known to gift hats similar to how LBJ had a stack of hats 'especially made' for him? Didn't Reagan do some like that too? I can't imagine Wayne would have had an issue getting an embossed sweatband or twenty from Stetson. Or perhaps this is actually a personal hat.

110% speculation about a hypothetical scenario: I am often the one to scoff at the question of counterfeit hats. I don't personally know of any evidence that would point to it being a widespread practice in any time period. But, if one wanted to say, gussy up an otherwise run of the mill 60's Stetson with some faux celebrity provenance, the sweatband logo could be duplicated. Optimo did one for Dr. Max, no? Hatco still has the "Made by Stetson" die, or a duplicate anyway.
 
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T Jones

I'll Lock Up
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6,788
Location
Central Ohio
Pardon the photos of my TV screen, couldn't find better screen caps online.



The crease is actually pretty involved. I can never remember all the cowboy creases, so anyone feel free to chime in if they know this one. But the hat does have some little ridges that pop out from the creased areas. There are also stampede strings, as seen in the bottom left.

So, I feel pretty confident the Facebook hat is not the one pictured here. Wayne's hat looks bigger all around. Though it is also probably safe to assume the costume dept had multiple hats.

The funny thing is though, I'm not really sure where in the paint can scene Wayne's hat would catch any paint splatter. In story, the whole point of the bit is that Stewart is gonna get the paint. Not only is Ransom physically far away from Tom, with the way you shoot movies, John Wayne is shooting blanks towards off camera. Stewart might not have even shot his part of the paint scene on the same day.

Speculation time: it's certainly not out of the realm of possibility that Wayne wore such a hat during filming that got incidentally hit by some stray paint. But I didn't see anything on screen that would definitively match the marks seen on the Facebook hat. Or in prop community jargon, I couldn't verify it to be "screen used." At least not while I was simultaneously cooking dinner.

Still speculating, but was Wayne ever known to gift hats similar to how LBJ had a stack of hats 'especially made' for him? Didn't Reagan do some like that too? I can't imagine Wayne would have had an issue getting an embossed sweatband or twenty from Stetson. Or perhaps this is actually a personal hat.

110% speculation about a hypothetical scenario: I am often the one to scoff at the question of counterfeit hats. I don't personally know of any evidence that would point to it being a widespread practice in any time period. But, if one wanted to say, gussy up an otherwise run of the mill 60's Stetson with some faux celebrity provenance, the sweatband logo could be duplicated. Optimo did one for Dr. Max, no? Hatco still has the "Made by Stetson" die, or a duplicate anyway.
Hmmm.... interesting speculation, but I agree with you that I don't think it's the hat that he wore in the "Liberty Valance" movie. The taller crown, the creasing, it just doesn't look right to me. On the other hand I'm not saying it isn't a hat that John Wayne wore. But, just a thought here. If in fact it was a John Wayne movie hat I'm more inclined to think it was the 3 Godfathers hat when he was younger and much thinner, and the hat looks like the Godfathers hat. Just a thought, though.
 

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Messages
19,001
Location
Central California
Pardon the photos of my TV screen, couldn't find better screen caps online.



The crease is actually pretty involved. I can never remember all the cowboy creases, so anyone feel free to chime in if they know this one. But the hat does have some little ridges that pop out from the creased areas. There are also stampede strings, as seen in the bottom left.

So, I feel pretty confident the Facebook hat is not the one pictured here. Wayne's hat looks bigger all around. Though it is also probably safe to assume the costume dept had multiple hats.

The funny thing is though, I'm not really sure where in the paint can scene Wayne's hat would catch any paint splatter. In story, the whole point of the bit is that Stewart is gonna get the paint. Not only is Ransom physically far away from Tom, with the way you shoot movies, John Wayne is shooting blanks towards off camera. Stewart might not have even shot his part of the paint scene on the same day.

Speculation time: it's certainly not out of the realm of possibility that Wayne wore such a hat during filming that got incidentally hit by some stray paint. But I didn't see anything on screen that would definitively match the marks seen on the Facebook hat. Or in prop community jargon, I couldn't verify it to be "screen used." At least not while I was simultaneously cooking dinner.

Still speculating, but was Wayne ever known to gift hats similar to how LBJ had a stack of hats 'especially made' for him? Didn't Reagan do some like that too? I can't imagine Wayne would have had an issue getting an embossed sweatband or twenty from Stetson. Or perhaps this is actually a personal hat.

110% speculation about a hypothetical scenario: I am often the one to scoff at the question of counterfeit hats. I don't personally know of any evidence that would point to it being a widespread practice in any time period. But, if one wanted to say, gussy up an otherwise run of the mill 60's Stetson with some faux celebrity provenance, the sweatband logo could be duplicated. Optimo did one for Dr. Max, no? Hatco still has the "Made by Stetson" die, or a duplicate anyway.

As an aside, I love the crease and I love the felt. Nothing at all like the modern stiff western felt.
It’s a struggle to even find a custom hatmaker who is willing to try to make such a hat. I wanted one with. 7” open crown, 4.5” brim and felt that comes close to replicating vintage…no luck so far.

I don’t know how authoritative this is:

https://www.hatrealm.com/the-beloved-hats-of-john-wayne-throughout-his-life-and-career/
 

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