Well I have been on the list for the umbrellas longer than I've known where to get the cane.
Personally Hartnell is one of my favorites. His era has the second most time in, only to be topped by Tom Baker. Of course that's due to serials and not how many stories there was. Otherwise Tennant would have beat him and TB.
The only problem is that so much of his era is lost and I wasn't in the right country or born yet to see them when they aired.
The other bad thing as far as props goes... I just drew a blank when it came to what props he used. I needed to go back & watch the dvds I have more. I remember the glasses he used like binoculars (don't remember the name off hand), but other than that I don't remember him using that many gadgets. His hat and cane weren't always used. Bad thing about the hat would be getting one my size and I doubt it's one I would wear much. Nothing against the Doctor, but it's not my style. McCoy was the only one to actually keep his hat on most of the time.
Getting a better look at the cane makes me appreciate it more.
Wasn't something special mentioned about his ring in a story once or am I just remembering things wrong?
As for Cushing... Well to me he's Dr. Who and not The Doctor. He's the only reason I even watch those movies... even if they are just altered remakes of Hartnell stories.
All this talk about the First Doctor makes me want watch The Five Doctors again to see if his cane is different. To me Hurndall is one that gets the least love. I always thought he did a good job and that it was a tribute to Hartnell. I loved the idea that they had the First Doctor figure things out in the end.
Totally understand. Better to se the umbrella through first.
Counting stories and longest Doctor depends. On pure stories with novels and Audios McGann should win by default closely followed by McCoy. Sticking to TV stories Tennant comes close but he doe snot topple the almighty Tom Baker (37 stories to Baker's 41 or 42 if you count Shada). And by episodes and seasons and sheer year sin the role Baker still wins. And seeing as he was my first and still favorite Doctor I'm inclined to vote anyway which keeps Baker on top.
to me Hartnell's best props are the cane , then the monocle, and then maybe the ring or hat & cloak. But the last two while nice weren't worn all that often. An Ambassador black fleece wool hat isn't too hard to find on ebay but yes not realy something for everyday wear.
While it's shame Hartnell has some missing episodes at least he have 2/3rd of his run (unlike troughton were the opposite is true) and out of the mostly missing third season, I feel the only two major gems we can't fully see are The massacre and The Dalek masterplan.
Jet Beetle has a very well thought out theory on why Cushing is canon even though any Who fan can clearly see he's just filling in for Hartnell in some remakes of the serials. Although he thinks McGann should not be canon. Different strokes...
Hat wise I think Baker deserves a mention as he did wear his (or one of his) fairly often- enough that a nice wide brimmed floppy hat seems to always complete his silouette nicely. Arguably Davison too.
It is fitting yet odd the 1st doctor is the 'smartest' one of the lot in both the three and five doctors.. He's visibly the oldest yet he's the 'youngest' so why would he know more than the later doctors who clearly have more experience and more knowledge?
Don't recall anything special on the ring background/story wise. But it has been a while since i've watched his stories.
Anyway Hurndall does not use the same cane. it's a simple straight black cane if I recall- though I had heard Hartnell's spiral cane is one of the earliest surviving Who props which was shown at a UK exhibition sometime back but more than probably is in BBC storage or in private hands snow.