Outfitting 'Public Enemies'

Tigard’s Ted Blocker Holsters makes the holster that packs Johnny Depp’s heat

By Christina Cooke

The Times, Jul 2, 2009, Updated Oct 30, 2009

PACKIN’ HEAT – Ted Blocker Holsters' owner Don Brown produced the holsters, like the one he is wearing, for the upcoming movie “Public Enemies,” starring Johnny Depp as John Dillinger.

Jaime Valdez / The Times

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In the action-thriller “Public Enemies,” which opened Wednesday, Johnny Depp’s character John Dillinger holds up banks and fights off FBI agents — all while wearing a holster made in Tigard.

Ted Blocker Holsters on Tigard Street produced the leather holsters worn by Johnny Depp, Christian Bale, Jason Clarke and several others in the movie about bank robbers in the Depression era.

Don and Shelley Brown, who have owned the holster company since 1999 and produced props for several other movies, stay cool when they talk about seeing their handiwork on the big screen. But it does make them proud, they say.

“We like seeing our stuff out there,” Shelley said. “The general public is thrilled about it, and it’s good business for us.”

California prop house Independent Studio Services contacted Don and Shelley in January about producing 1930s-style holsters for “Public Enemies.”

The couple produced a sample, which they then adjusted to fit under the actors’ snuggly tailored suits. Once the design was finalized, they produced about 60 more in less than a week.

“I worked some 16- to 18-hour days,” Don said, “but you do what you have to do.”

The finished product, constructed of leather dyed reddish to match Depp’s shoes, fits over the shoulder and fastens to the belt so it doesn’t swing around.

Independent Studio Services buyer Marsha Dennis says she works with the Tigard holster makers on a regular basis because she can count on them to produce high-quality leatherwear — and fast.

“They’re perfectionists,” Dennis said. “They do beautiful stuff… I could call Shelley today and tell her I’m out of something, and they’d work on it immediately.”

Fast-draw enthusiasts Ted and Jean Blocker started Ted Blocker Holsters in California in 1972 and began working with Hollywood moviemakers soon after. They moved the company to Blocker’s home state of Oregon in the early 1990s.

Over its 37-year history, the company has provided holsters for Don Johnson’s character Sonny Crockett in “Miami Vice,” as well as the movies “Indiana Jones and the Last Crusade,” “The Changeling,” “Alien Nation” and “The Adventures of Buckaroo Banzai Across the Eighth Dimension” and the television shows “Saving Grace” and “Southland.”

“This is the most fun one,” Shelley said of “Public Enemies,” adding that she regrets not being able to meet Depp in person because she was at a trade show in Arizona during his fitting.

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