John Ford Style Icon

My good friend Federico Hill and I often discuss our favourite war movies, there's so many, but for me its usually the early 40's flicks because I love the character actors who seem to turn up in every film like William Bendix, Lionel Stander, George Tobias, Lloyd Nolan and Preston Foster and there's always a guy from Texas and the cabbie from Brooklyn and the young kid from the mid west. The best of these for me is 'Guadalcanal Diary' but for Federico its all about 'They were Expendable', a great early PT boat drama starring John Wayne and Robert Montgomery and directed by John Ford. Above is the most fantastic stylin' photo ever of John Ford on the set of this movie wearing his G-l jacket. I had to share it with you all, its a beauty!
Below is a couple of stills from the movie and under these is a rare look at some early production sketches that were done in 1942.

Padang Padang Cup 2010 pre-party.

So anyways hanging around the beach we met up with some crew that took us off to a pre-party for the contestants of the Rip Curl Padang Padang Cup surf contest. After a great free BBQ we settled down to watch a movie on the grassy slopes of a villa overlooking the famed Uluwatu reef break. The Papa snapped off a couple of night shots of the screen and was pleasantly surprised by the results.

Another perfect day in Seminyak.

For 21 days in a row the trade winds blew straight up from the roaring forties and marched southwest across the Indian ocean pushing iridescent swell lines pulsating towards the coastline to peel and crash against dark volcanic sands, right outside my hotel door!

Gilligans island?

Wandering along the beach last week I came across the amenities block for the Legian Beach Hotel and couldn't help but to make parallels to Gilligan's and the Skipper's Hut, well albeit a little more glamourous. I think it was the life preservers that provided the visual associations to the S.S Minnow.

Holiday style the Papa way.

The Papa is home!
Be it a grass skirt for the folks back home, a boars tooth bracelet for a sweetheart back in Pearl or a hand hammered silver Shilling ring for that nurse on Tulagi, you can rest assured that there was a resourceful, enigmatic and entrepreneurial sea bee, sailor or marine that could put his hand to the manufacture of accouterments to enhance his government issue kit.
In the true spirit of the fictional South Pacific Sea Bee Luther Billis 144th USNCB unit, the Papa has been busy.
Ah yes show me a third world tailor and watch the sparks of creativity fly. In an eternal effort to create the perfect summer beach kit the Papa came up with some new items including beach pillows, 40's style trunks and his fave piece a version of the rare BA-2 USN deck cap which during the war was an experimental garment under limited release and was available only in indigo denim.

Papa goes AWOL

Well folks the Papa is off on vacation in the South Pacific so I will be taking a hiatus from blogging. See you all back here in 21 days time.

Custom Wesco Smoke Jumpers.

Okay so while we're on the outdoor theme I couldn't help but include a shot of my Custom Wesco boots. This is the third pair Ive owned and ordered from Big Black Boots.com. I love them! They are just made to walk in. On this pair I had them use black stitching throughout and instead of having a heavy cleated vibram sole I ask them to use the flat slip resistant one instead. I also left the kelties on this pair and am getting quite used to the fringing. I also like the look of the White's Boots model that are so popular in Japan at present but there's something about their squarer toe shape that irks me a little, oh well you know next time Im in the market my opinion may have changed, stare at something long enough and you usually begin to unravel the intricacies of the styling and develop an appreciation.

Field and Stream Covers 1930's

Well folks from some of my previous posts you would get the drift that the Papa digs the great outdoors be it beach, field or forest. On a recent cleanout of the shed I came across these fantastic Field and Stream Magazines from the late 1930's. At the time I collected these I was on my Hemingway, Gary Cooper, Zane Grey journey. I traversed the urban forest in Vintage Filson, Dry Back and American Field. I loved these covers with their hand painted art. There's something to be said for the commercial artist of yesteryear, before photographic covers and now photoshop there was a genuine soul to their work. On top of this there is the rugged sartorial element to the images. Being outdoorsy never looked so good and duck cloth never so fashionable. Below is a selection of my favourite covers for you to enjoy.

V-J day celebrations in Honolulu 1945

Its amazing what some of my friends come up with, this rare beauty is brought to you by Krykie and is a fantastic candid look at the spontaneous celebrations following the declaration of surrender and victory in the Pacific August 1945.

King Kamehameha immortalised in Rayon