STATEMENT FROM MR. MARK MEJIA, MASTER HATTER/ OWNER - BARON HATS
The following thread has come to my attention, and I have asked the moderator of your forum to allow me to address some of the comments.
Basically there seems to be four basic statements made here:
1. Questions about Baron Hat’s involvement in making the hat for “Temple of Doom”
2 Questions about Baron’s involvement in “Indy 4”
3. Questions about our “Van Helsing”-inspired leather spiral-stitched hat
4. Questions about our involvement in “3:10 To Yuma”.
Let’s first address the “Temple of Doom” question.
I worked as a hatter with legendary Master Hatter and founder of Baron Hats, Eddie Baron until 1995 at which point he expressed interest in retirement and gave me the honor of becoming the new Master Hatter and purchasing the company from him. I have run the company as sole owner and Master Hatter ever since.
“Temple of Doom” was produced before my association with Mr. Baron. However through Mr. Baron’s own statements, our archive records, photos (including the one that is on our website of him holding the “Indy” Fedora), and several documentaries, including one for French Television made back in 1991 (
Baron Hats Media),
it is made clear that Mr. Baron did indeed craft Fedoras for the production of “Indiana Jones and the Temple of Doom”. We stand by these facts and records.
As for our involvement in “Indy 4”, there has been a plethora of false accusations about our representation of having made the Fedoras for this production. We have never implied that we had anything to do with creating these hats. The Fedoras were indeed made by a hat making company in the South. However, the confusion may lie in the fact that good friend and client, the famous Costume Designer Bernie Pollack (who was the Costumer Designer on “Indy 4”), did bring the completed Fedora’s to our shop the weekend before production to have us do some “tweaking” and “re-blocking” per his notes and supervision. We did this as a favor to Mr. Pollock, and out of our deep respect for his talent and reputation. Our other involvement with “Indy 5” was the fact that we did indeed create the 1950’s motorcycle style cap that Shia LaBeouf wore in his character of “Mutt Williams”.
This was documented by the Los Angeles Times:
There's a new hat in town in 'Indiana Jones' - latimes.com
You are also more than welcome to contact Mr. Pollack for confirmation of these facts.
There has also been some mention in other “threads” of a Parade Magazine article (dated August 18, 2007), which you can find on Google, or read in our Media section of our website.
http://baronhats.com/Parade_article.pdf
This short mention, which was an answer to a Q&A column, talks about our creating Mr. LeBeouf’s cap. The reporter also mentions our creating a “Cliffhanger” fedora. This is in reference to a reproduction hat that we offer on our website, which we call the “Cliffhanger”. The word “Cliffhanger” has no correlation to any “Indy” movie, nor has “Cliffhanger” ever been referenced in an “Indy” film in connection to his hat, nor has it ever been used anywhere but our site in reference to a Fedora connected with “Indiana Jones”, nor is the word referenced anywhere else in connection with this specific style Fedora.
We purposely and exclusively used the name “Cliffhanger” solely to differentiate a reproduction of an “Indy”-inspired Fedora from any actual “official” Indy hat. Therefore again, at no time have we ever indicated having made the “Indy 4” Fedora in this article, or anywhere else. In addition the “Cliffhanger” is referenced as a fedora inspired by the “Temple of Doom” hat, which is slightly different than the one used in “Indy 4”, and therefore has no connection whatsoever to any hats worn or made for “Indy 4”.
There has also been reference made to our offering the leather “Van Helsing” inspired hat which, on our website, we call the “Monster Hunter”. Again, there has been accusations, totally unfounded, that we claim to have made the original hat for the motion picture. That is completely false. The only reference to this hat is a statement of fact, in that we did create a replica of the hat for a stunt show at Universal Studios Tours. You can read this statement, and see that there is no reference whatsoever to having made the original hat for the motion picture by going to our website and reading the text:
Baron Hats Classic Reproductions - The Monster Hunter
In the text you will read the following:
The “Monster Hunter” is made to the same stringent hyper-scrupulous specifications as the hats that Baron Hats is creating for Universal’s “Van Helsing Spectacular” show and ride at Universal Studios Tours Hollywood. Like the motion picture original that inspires it, “The Monster Hunter” is constructed of 100% hand- selected matching leathers, including the binding, brim and extra high crown.
This is simply a statement of fact. We did indeed create this special leather “spiral stitch” hat for Universal’s Tours in Hollywood. Because of the research needed to create an accurate reproduction, we were able to acquire the proper stitching machinery to create the special stitching that makes this hat unique which is one reason we offer it.
I am hard pressed to understand how stating facts somehow has some kind of “hidden deception” behind it as has been posted on your forum by a member.
Baron Hats has made a great many hats for motion pictures, TV, celebrities, music groups and performers, and for the discerning hat connoisseurs for over 50 years. However, we are very careful about identifying which hats we actually have made for any specific production. Baron is proud of our ability to create virtually any hat from any period and of any material that is asked of us, and when we find that a specific hat seems to get a great deal of attention, we sometimes will offer it on our website as a style inspired by the original. We receive countless comments from grateful customers who have been searching for years for a specific hat, only to finally find it on our site.
We have collected many of these unsolicited testimonials here:
Baron Hats - Hats Off!!
We are equally proud of our hard earned reputation, along with the highest rating (A+) for over 18 years with the Better Business Bureau.
Finally, this thread ends with “questions” about some of our other involvements. These claims come out of thin air and are totally baseless.
For example, someone has questioned our involvement in the creation of the hats for the 2007 remake of “3:10 To Yuma”.
The pure fact is that, yes we did indeed create these hats. If you go to our site, you will see that we give a special thanks to the actual production costumers we worked with during the production of “3:10 To Yuma”: Linda Mathews, Terry Anderson, Tangi Crawford, Christine Cantella, and Master Costume Designer, Arianne Phillips. Before one casts such falsehoods or questions our integrity, I would suggest they contact these costumers and simply ask them of our involvement. Or feel free to contact Russell Crowe, Ben Foster, Peter Fonda or Christian Bale who wore our hats in the motion picture.
I appreciate the passion that members of your site, as well as other sites bring to the craft of hats. It is that passion that keeps this great art alive. And there is no way that any craftsman, no matter how much a perfectionist, will ever satisfy everyone they do work for. And therefore I welcome criticism of my work, since it is these comments that allow me to grow and improve. However, I feel, and I’m sure most of you would agree, that falsehoods, half-truths, conjecture, innuendo, thin rumors and downright lies, which serve no propose than to disseminate bad will and confusion, have no place in such a forum.
In the future if any members have a question about the validity of statements you have heard or read, or rumors that spin around the cyber world, I only ask that you first follow through with your own exhaustive research, and/or feel free to contact me directly anytime before filing claims that could be damaging and even libelous.
I thank you for your time and thank the moderators of this forum to allow me the opportunity to bring these accusations out into the open.
Sincerely,
Mark Mejia
Master Hatter/ Owner
Baron Hats
Feel free to e-mail me any time at: Mark@baronhats.com
