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Whose A-2's

tda003

Well-Known Member
Ran across these. No makers label. I'm just guessing that these are genuine, but taken apart by the costume departments and remade to the stars' dimensions - befitted as it were. John Wayne in "Flying Tigers" & Bob Crane in "Hogans Heroes".
A-2.JohnWayne.FlyingTigers.a.jpg
A-2.JohnWayne.FlyingTigers.jpg
A-2.RobertCrane.HogansHeroes.jpg
A-2.RoertCrane.HogansHeroes.Label.jpg
 

P-47 thunderbolt

Well-Known Member
These are civilian a2 jackets, top one has a leather collar stand and snaps instead of a throat latch. Also external snaps on the pocket. The bottom one has a leather hanger at the top of the inside collar. All contract a2s have stitched leather hangers.
 

tda003

Well-Known Member
Thanks. Good to know. The same auction had cloth jackets from the "Combat" tv series.
 

mulceber

Moderator
I'm just guessing that these are genuine, but taken apart by the costume departments and remade to the stars' dimensions - befitted as it were.

Most likely not. I recall reading that Crane wore a lambskin costume A-2 that had previously been worn by Frank Sinatra in a WW2 flick. This is likely it. I find it very unlikely that a costuming department in the '50s/'60s would go to the trouble of taking apart a WW2 jacket and remaking it. They'd either just grab a surplus original and use that (e.g. in the Great Escape), or make a new one.
 

Chandler

Well-Known Member
I recall reading that Crane wore a lambskin costume A-2 that had previously been worn by Frank Sinatra in a WW2 flick.
Von Ryan's Express.

But I've heard that story debunked and re-proven a few times over, too. I also heard Crane's son owned the actual jacket (he loaned it to be used in the Crane bio-pic, Auto Focus, as the story goes*), so is this the actual jacket? Gotta wonder.

*https://m.imdb.com/title/tt0298744/trivia/?ref_=tt_trv_trv

First in the IMDB trivia list for the flick.
 

mulceber

Moderator
Interesting information - the Western costumes label above says "Bob Crane Jacket #2," so who knows. At any rate, it's decidedly not an original, and almost certainly not made out of original parts.
 

tda003

Well-Known Member
What's incredibly interesting to me about this series are the actors who played the various roles. Col. Klink and Sgt. Schultz were Jews who fled to the US to avoid prosecution. "Klink" served in the U.S. Army. "Schultz"'s entire immediate family was killed in a concentration camp. Lebeau, who was Jewish, was interned in a concentration camp as a child.
 

Chandler

Well-Known Member
Most surreal occurrence in some of my travels back in the 2000s; finding Hogan's Heroes reruns to be popular on German TV then. :oops:

Not sure if it still is.
 

2BM2K

Well-Known Member
@RayR had Wested Leather make a repro/homage of Hogan's A2;
 
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