Recent content by rjenkins

With both of mine (70s and new), after folding the hat band down the liner is only held in place with four glue spots. Carefully peeling it off one spot allows you to get your hand past the liner to work the felt from the inside & tell when the water has fully penetrated the felt. Keeping...

I've bought a couple of second hand hats that needed the crease re-doing due to being strange shapes (rotated / off center creases). I've not even used steam - just a good spray with de-ionised water until the felt is damp through all over the crown & leave it a few minutes for the fur fibres...

I don't particularly like them. These appear to be the same as the item now known as a 'Trilby' in England, ie. http://www.amazon.co.uk/Jaxon-Pinstripe-Trilby-Black-Large Around the 1950s, the English Trilby seems to have been a felt hat identical to the American Fedora, though possibly...

The 1987 film 'The Untouchables' was based on the same source material as the original TV series, the autobiography of Eliot Ness (played by Robert Stack in the original TV series and Kevin Costner in the film version). There is a small amount of background here...

The Untouchables I've just got the first DVD season of 'The Untouchables'. I used to think this was a brilliant series when I was a kid, and watching it again now does not change that opinion! It was made in the late 1950s and set in the early 30s. Here's a couple of screen grabs to set the...

Hi Blackbrim, try searching for 'Hat Cans' As I understand it, Hat boxes are only intended for initial shipping, the Hat Can is designed for storing a hat without it being damaged or it's shape being distorted.

I recently acquired a secondhand-but-unworn Firenze via ebay, it's a great hat and happily is a perfect fit. My other ebay purchase, a grey 1970s Stetson Sovereign with no marked type name, was rather too tight despite being the same 7 3/8 label size as the Firenze. Thanks to advice from...

I've only ever had two drinks that were so bad as to be unforgettable. One was 'Gold Label', an English barley wine (ultra-strong beer) which someone talked me in to trying many years ago, and the other rather recently was some Sake - I was given a supposedly good quality bottle as a...

Slightly off topic, but just for info - Quite a few of the older movies & serials are out of copyright and available for free download - Site here: http://publicdomaintorrents.com/ eg, some to match the posters above: The 1937 'Dick tracy' series with Ralph Bird...

Unless I'm seeing things, in the photo with the red border ('Davenport as Fedora' in the first group of pics) 'the hat' is hung on the end of the mantelpiece? Look at the top center of the picture. The light spot could be the edge of the feather (or a mark on the photo..)

Just for info, the cotton braided power cable is still readily available, at least here in the UK. It's sold as 'Iron flex' or 'non-kink' cable, intended for use with electric irons. Search 'non kink iron flex' on Google and you should find a few suppliers.

Hi rlk, that's quite possible. I've just been browsing other threads and found a photo with the exact same shape paper label - a retailer's price tag. It looks like the seller omitted the dollar sign on this one and the '47 50' is actually '$47.50' (The label style is in the last photo in...

It's arrived! (From post #10533, a couple of pages back). http://cgi.ebay.co.uk/ws/eBayISAPI.dll?ViewItem&item=230466904175&ssPageName=STRK:MEWNX:IT It looks virtually immaculate, just a trace of a sweat stain in the liner at the top front. It looks like I can turn the liner inside out and...

There is a pretty good video on the Stetson web site - in the History tab, go to 'The making of a Stetson hat'. http://www.stetsonhat.com/history.php

Cointrau is good on it's own, a drop also works nicely in Coffee or even better in Hot chocolate, but the bulk of mine goes in my favorite short cocktail, the B-52. Three equal layers in a shot glass, first Tia Maria, then Baileys, and finally the Cointreau.