The perennial popularity of
our extraordinary Russet Brown Horsehide A-2 has always attracted customers
who love the classic A-2 design and order it in peerless LOST WORLDS 3.0 - 3.5 oz.
Black Horsehide. We make them in other hides/colors as well, purely on a
custom basis: Elk, Deer, Goat.
In WWII the Army Air
Forces-issued A-2 only came in different shades of Russet and Chestnut
Browns. Yet even during the 1940s those contractors who produced the A-2 for
the military -- civilian jacket manufacturers in peacetime -- produced Black
A-2s for civil aviators. Thus "authenticity" is not a criterion (for those
who think the A-2 in any but the AAF shades is heresy). After all, how many
of us who love and wear A-2s flew in WWII to begin with? Most commercial
period A-2s display yoked, 2-piece backs and 3-piece sleeves. The LOST
WORLDS Black Horsehide A-2, in contrast, uses the AAF military
construction: 1-piece back, 2-piece sleeve. Black Satin Lining, Brass
Talon Zipper, 100% Wool Cuffs/Waistband, Brass Snaps, Nickel-plated brass
Hook-and-Eye. Made of
course in our own New York factory.
The question of
military and non-military uncovers overlaps and peculiarities. AAF contract
jackets made in Australia and India differ in crucial respects from the US
Government Issue in pattern, detail and materials which simply couldn't be
procured in far-off combat theaters. Yet in war movies of the period, where
one might expect easy access to genuine AAF stocks for patriotic accuracy,
authenticity was rarely an issue. Every wartime and postwar MGM production,
for example, displays A-2s with 2-piece backs: Spencer Tracy in
THIRTY SECONDS OVER TOKYO (1944) and Robert Montgomery in John Ford's THEY
WERE EXPENDABLE (1945) -- in the latter Montgomery plays famed PT boat
skipper John Brickley but wears an A-2 anyway! In 20th Century Fox's TWELVE
O' CLOCK HIGH star Gregory Peck appears to have a real one early in the
movie but later wears an A-2 with a neck snap. Clearly these matters were
influenced by what was in Wardrobe and how a particular jacket looked on
camera and fitted the actor, not strict period accuracy. Propaganda,
not realism, motivated WWII movie studios. But the Hollywood dream machine
was only cooperating true to form. Realism has never been a concern in
American movies, then or now. Then it was about escape from the daily
grind, now selling popcorn to pimply teens. During WWII accuracy was on the
back burner. In Henry Hathaway's fictive recreation of the Midway victory
WING AND A PRAYER (1944) TBF Avengers devastate the Japanese fleet, not the
Dauntless SBDs which did the job in reality. The few TBFs at Midway were massacred by Zeros and didn't score a single hit. During the war
one movie, William
Wellman's masterly THE STORY OF GI JOE (1945) sought to tell its story as
truthfully as censorship and audience mores allowed. It still stands as the
best American effort of the period. Accordingly William Wyler's
Oscar-winning THE BEST
YEARS OF OUR LIVES (1946), revered as THE American movie treating the
experiences of returning soldiers, is, in retrospect, a somewhat
understandingly overdone,
necessary mass healer. The little-known RKO 1946
TILL THE END OF TIME, directed by Edward Dmytryk with a shattering
performance by Dorothy McGuire, is a very small, very adult look at the same
subject and better in its honesty. In the 1940s RKO stood virtually alone in making
pictures for adults. Compare Val Lewton's psychological horror gems to
anything else in Hollywood -- Lewton's work is only comparable to European
films in sophistication.
This introduces another interesting and related matter: how come, we're asked every
so often, LOST WORLDS jackets aren't in movies? Well, they are,
but behind the camera, on the backs of famed directors, writers and
cameramen. They're not in front of the lens for,
ironically, the very reason customers esteem our jackets: the great weight
and firm hand require break-in and use. (High performance engines have break-in periods, too.) They're not over-drummed,
gimmick-tanned, rolled, to
pre-soften, antique and give that faux "been there" look right out
of the box. For those who need this. Our finish doesn't erase off with the merest contact, the merest
flick of a (limp) wrist. Hence LOST WORLDS jackets don't photograph the way they must for a movie: as if old,
beaten-up, dull, faded, through-the-wars. Crap is more
"digestible" on camera than
quality! Most American movies are total crap anyway, coddling
idiots, sucking up to "markets," allergic to intellect. Most
jackets are the same. Nice irony here too: the character of our
jackets, so dramatically original and authentic, becomes the very factor
militating (!) against their showing up in movies.
Hence the difference between reality and Hollywood! LOST WORLDS jackets are
so real they frighten those who aren't real. Call it a reality check.
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