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Famous People in Flight Jackets

TXFlyGuy

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enhance

R.I.P. - Amanda Franklin
 
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Big J

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That's not an MA-1. The sleeves are too tapered, they don't include the wool batting lining. And there's a breast pocket? Slim Pickens wasn't exactly slim, so I doubt they could get him an issue jacket in his size.
There are some pics of Peter Sellers in the role of Kong wearing an L-2b on the internet.
 

Big J

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In fact, there's a great still of Slim Pickens squatting on the bomb in the studio between takes. His jacket doesn't appear to have slash pockets, nor the L-2 tab at the bottom of the zipper. There's no apparent nylon sheen compared to the rest of his outfit, suggesting he's either wearing a flight suit with knit cuffs, or a cotton non-issue jacket.
 

ShocDoc79

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F7348040-CC24-4AE6-BEED-9421C01FAF35.jpeg
In fact, there's a great still of Slim Pickens squatting on the bomb in the studio between takes. His jacket doesn't appear to have slash pockets, nor the L-2 tab at the bottom of the zipper. There's no apparent nylon sheen compared to the rest of his outfit, suggesting he's either wearing a flight suit with knit cuffs, or a cotton non-issue jacket.
Sorry, you are absolutely correct, my mistake. Looking at this photo it looks like he was wearing an more of an insulated type flight suit (wild guess only).
 

Big J

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No need to be sorry at all. Until your post, I'd never noticed. I'd be really interested to know what he was wearing.
We know that the US military refused point blank to assist Kubrick's making of this film (too militarily 'sensitive' a topic? too 'pinko' a script?), but since there's the pic of Sellers in an L-2, I'm guessing that studios had their way of getting these things, so why no genuine item for slim? Looking back, he wasn't even that big back then.
 

Doctor Damage

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^ ^^ In another thread a while back, perhaps in this thread, we talked about flights suits that had been cut down into lightweight flight jackets with knits added sometimes. That could be what Pickins is wearing. He's definitely not wearing one of the classic nylon jackets.
 

Big J

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@Doctor Damage,
Yeah, it could well be.
Have you seen the Jon Ronson documentary 'Stanley Kubrick's Boxes'? I think it's still up on YouTube.
Ronson set out to bust the 'Kubrick faked the moon landings for NASA' conspiracy theory, and was granted access to Kubrick's UK estate, where he was taken to a room packed with custom made boxes. Inside Kubrick kept extremely detailed notes of every tiny detail for every film he ever made and planned to make, including (for example) details of period correct Napoleonic War era uniforms for extras.
He micromanaged everything.
The idea that he didn't personally consider, decide and note the details of Slim as Kong's uniform would be inconceivable. The answer undoubtedly lies in one of his hundreds of boxes that were fairly recently donated en made by his estate to The University of the Arts in London, IIRC.
Maybe one day, someone who cares about flight jackets but is studying Kubrick will stumble on the facts, and post!
I won't hold my breath.
 

thor

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1A3659AF-BE63-4B6A-B564-4D30DC5436A1.jpeg
F31061AE-A6F5-4ED0-9441-3811C46167C2.jpeg

Actor Nick Jonas wearing a slightly customized Cockpit 100-mission G-1
in the 2017 movie “Jumanji:Welcome to the jungle”.
 

thor

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Bogart in Tokyo Joe... looks like an A-2 jacket with fur collar added!

tokyo-joe-5.jpg


Another view, note the pilot at the right. In the movie Bogart's character hires two ex-USAAF pilots to fly his air freight business. Both wear A-2 jackets in the film.

Just watched this flick; excellent movie (and the first American movie filmed in post-war Japan!).
Bogey’s leather bomber jacket & fedora ensemble is as good as it gets!
 

thor

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9DB40E7C-505A-4ED3-8F2C-07DCEEA77CB0.jpeg

She shaved her head and was painted purple for her role in “Guardians of the galaxy”. Now that’s what I call tenacious!
 

Doctor Damage

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This orange lining style has become a 'thing' but in this case the jacket has actually been made in orange whereas in other photos the wearer has clearly turned a normal MA-1 jacket inside-out.

10419330-6757241-image-a-14_1551375506181.jpg 10419330-6757241-image-a-14_1551375506165.jpg
 

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