Kilgore

Click Picture
for Additional Views

5 3/4" crown

3 1/4" brim

In sizes:
6 7/8 to 7 5/8

Robert Duvall as Lt. Col. Kilgore in Apocalypse Now wore an unusual
black felt hat with cavalry trimmings. Duvall's hat was not the typical
stetson worn in "nam". Duvall's hat was formed on the stetson 7"
crown with a relatively small brim at only 3 1/4". I prefer making
these replicas with a 3 1/2" brim as i think it looks better, but 3 1/4"
is shown. your choice. Notice the hat cord is not uniform correct
having an all black cord; black and gold is correct for an officer. Lt.
Col. Kilgore also wore the enlisted sabres rather than the smaller
gold plated sabres pro-scribed for officers.

You may have noticed that Col. Kilgore's hat was different in some
scenes. The center crease on the crown was deeper, at times,
lowering the crown height, and there were more hat pins/ badges on
that hat too. Most of you won't remember that the movie was filmed
in the Philipines and was interrupted by a typhoon and the monsoon
season. The filming of Apocopyse Now turned into a long drawn out
process and many scenes were re-shot at a much later date. I
suspect that something happened to the firt hat so they used a
substitute, this is why they have continuity directors and why the
producers usually order duplicates. Apocalypse now set new
records for production costs because of all the re-shoots.

We have seen another website where they claim to have made so
many of the originals (however their replicas are not very accurate)
and have read where they claim to have the official U.S. Hat Blocks
as were used for Duvall's hat. This is B.S. As we have said above,
Kilgore's hat was not typical and there was no official cavalry hat. I
know, I was there. If they have the original blocks then why does the
shape neither match the actual Cavalry hat or Duvall's (look
carefully).

We can match Duvall's hat exactly or we can make almost any
variation that you could want; including trim for artillery or infantry,
just call.