Eastman Pearl Harbor A2

[Marv]

I was looking through some photos of my WW2 jackets and came across a few of my Eastman Pearl Harbor A2 in walnut steerhide so I thought I would post them.

The ELC PH A2 is one of my most comfortable jackets with excellent steerhide which drapes well and didn't take long to break in at all, also has the Crown zipper and is from around 2009.

 

[HPA Rep]

Nice to see one of these, Marv! Thanks. The Time Wear has sure evolved in the 15 years it's been since I worked on that film. Just thinking about it now makes me feel old. And it brings back the memories of all the back and forth with samples to achieve the fit the director was looking for, then actually getting purchase orders cut and items delivered on time while filming was already under way.

Time Wear came to be because the decision on jacket sizes and colors and hides came so late in the game, plus the quantities were so vast that the film crew didn't have the time to age all the jackets, so they asked me if Eastman could do some before shipping jackets. This again extended delivery times, with many days when I got no sleep at all so as to speak with Eastman when they got in first thing after having been on the phone with Hawaii just an hour before. And I can recall the A-3 caps having to ship directly from Japan due to these being completed right down to the final hours.

Yup, 15 years ago right now this was taking place ...

 

[thor]

Very cool jacket with a rather unique pedigree. I'll bet Mr. Affleck and Mr. Hartnett kept their jackets after filming was completed (I know I would!)

 

[Fanch]

Nice to see Eastman getting increased exposure here. Good looking A-2!

 

[Marv]

Thanks Charles, it is a really nice jacket and the time worn effect is wonderfully subtle and gives a great authentic used look to the hide.

I've have quite a few ELC A2s over the years, some have been sold on but the Pearl Harbor has always stayed with me and even though it is a Eastman house model, I just can't bring myself to part with it.....same goes for my 55J14 and RW 27752.

Even though I have Goodwear RW 27752, Bill Kelso G&F M422a, 1950's LW Foster G1 and a 1968 Martin Lane Co G1.....my daily wearer is an issue PHARR G1 which compared to all my other jackets, the quality is no where near as good but it's so comfortable I can't stop wearing it.

I have too many jackets, I remember saying to myself....I'll just need one A2 and one G1 at that's all and I'll be happy, well that never happened.

 

[HPA Rep]

Very cool jacket with a rather unique pedigree. I'll bet Mr. Affleck and Mr. Hartnett kept their jackets after filming was completed (I know I would!) 

I don't know what became of the jackets we made for them, or at least all of the jackets we made for them. At least one Hartnett jacket was sold on Ebay (didn't look worn at all) and Gary Eastman bought that, but that's the only one I can account for; clearly one Hartnett jacket will have had a bullet hole and blood, so that's just movie history an unwearable. The many, many others that were made were/are in the possession of Western Costume Co., which worked some kind of deal with Touchstone for many items.

I recall Affleck loving his RAF sheepskin jacket and saying "I'd wear this," so he may have ended up with one of those. These were the first early-style RAF jackets Eastman made, which led to it becoming a staple in 2001.

Unfortunately, the movie was bad, and I recall knowing that at the time from the way Michael Bay was running the show and the outlandish visions he had (Just imagine Top Gun set in 1941 and that was Bay's vision). And Bay never understood why principal actors couldn't have unique uniforms, so it had to be explained (very nicely) that the "uniform" means everyone looks the same, more or less, and we can't have select actors dressed like "The Rocketeer." It's unfortunate that a lot of really good detail was cut; this was the stuff my counterparts and I busted ass for to incorporate and it got filmed but we'll never see it.

Bay blew a fuse when he saw the blue denim working uniforms one of us out in the "wardrobe shack" had ordered. And then there were the buildings at the air base in the opening scene, which prop had made up as dilapidated shacks. I actually told one of the senior prop masters that this was the pre-war Army, where if you didn't have something to do you'd be given a paint brush and paint and be told to paint the rocks. But in the minds of the ever-artsy prop people, if a movie is set in an era that's olden, they think things must look old. Eventually, enough of us who knew something found somebody to listen and when the film was edited, they did a very good job of cropping out most of the dilapidated buildings, so you see mostly doorways.

But the film suffered still in so many other ways, with Disney being yet another component in the mix: Bay shot a very gory film but that's not going to get it a PG rating, so more cutting was done and some scenes blurred because they couldn't be cut. Bay seemed more interested in blowing things up and having his girlfriend drop by, whom I was told was a porn star (quite believable).

It was a great learning experience and it did have elements of fun, plus it was nice to be taken seriously and get paid for what you can bring to the table. And it was both the first and last time I saw my name on the silver screen (after everyone had left the theater by a good 10 minutes - ha).

 

[HPA Rep]

Nice to see Eastman getting increased exposure here. Good looking A-2!

It is a nice change of pace, Fanch.

 

[HPA Rep]

Thanks Charles, it is a really nice jacket and the time worn effect is wonderfully subtle and gives a great authentic used look to the hide.

I've have quite a few ELC A2s over the years, some have been sold on but the Pearl Harbor has always stayed with me and even though it is a Eastman house model, I just can't bring myself to part with it.....same goes for my 55J14 and RW 27752.

Even though I have Goodwear RW 27752, Bill Kelso G&F M422a, 1950's LW Foster G1 and a 1968 Martin Lane Co G1.....my daily wearer is an issue PHARR G1 which compared to all my other jackets, the quality is no where near as good but it's so comfortable I can't stop wearing it.

I have too many jackets, I remember saying to myself....I'll just need one A2 and one G1 at that's all and I'll be happy, well that never happened.

When I was 13 years old and starting to take my collecting of military items into the pandemic stage, one of the older dealers who mentored me (who was younger then than I am now - ouch!) stated that what he saw in me was the mind of a true collector and such true collecting was a disease that was without a cure; he has been proven correct on this and many other observations he shared time and time again.

I long ago stopped trying to kid myself I could ever not have something as a collectible from WWII. I know I cannot take it with me and I'll divest of most of it at some point, but I'll surely die owning at least the souvenirs my dad brought home because that's where it all began, then I'll leave those items to someone in my will.

 

[Fanch]

Good take on this Charles. I think that Brother Andrew is about the only one here who has decent WW II A-2's in a collection that are not in an advanced stage of disintegration.

 

[Bunyip]

I am not part of the A2 revolution, but that is a very nice jacket. It has a really good look about it. When I see something like that it makes me consider buying an A2. Very nice.

 

[PADDY]

I had an ELC PH A-2 in Havanna brown. I really liked that jacket!

Great insight into goings on behind the scenes Charles! Thanks.

Like so many at the time, I had high hopes & expectations for this film. What a disappointment & blown opportunity...

 

[Stand By]

GREAT A2, Marv! That's perfect and of the right vintage for me. Nice, subtle time-worn effect and the colour of the lining complements the colour of the hide just perfectly. ELC have the best linings IMO. The cotton lining on my 352nd A2 was so soft that it felt more like silk to me and it was a delight when worn with just a t-shirt and it felt so nice against my arms.
That jacket's a keeper!!!

Good background info on the movie, Charles - very interesting!
And I have to say that I really liked Pearl Harbor (enough to buy the tin box edition on DVD) !! Sure, it plays extremely fast and loose with history (like many Hollywood films) but it really doesn't offend me as such - and it's got good drama and it's entertaining with likeable characters and is wonderful visually and feels very authentic. The love story is a bit Mills & Boon (but no more so than Hanover Street - another favourite of mine) and the true weak spot for me is Affleck's banter in the cockpit of his Spit, but it doesn't make it a bad movie IMO (now Red Tails … let's not start me on that one! It's too early in the day for that).
But what can I say? I can put my hand up and say that I like Top Gun too. It's cheesy, but like a good Stilton, it's tasty cheese!

 

[nick123]

What a great looking jacket!

 

[Edward]

Great jacket. Pearl Harbour was alomst as bad as the hideous, hateful Top Gun, but at least it looked nice...

 

[Monsoon]

Cool jacket, but the movie background is very interesting!