The time ‘Raiders of the Lost Ark’ was called ‘Sexy Hat-man and the Magic Box’

Martin Scorsese was blown away.

He knew he’d just seen the picture that would dominate 1981.

His old film school buddies George Lucas and Steven Spielberg had done it again. An old-fashioned, non-stop adventure that spanned the world.

The lobby was crowded after the private screening but the Taxi Driver director wanted to say something, so he battled his way through to Spielberg.

He gave his friend a hug, shook his hand and told him he loved the picture.

“Just one thing, Stevie,” he said.

“Are you sure Sexy Hat-man and the Magic Box is the right title?”

George Lucas first wrote The Adventures of Sexy Hat-man in 1973, but shelved the idea to focus on Star Wars.

“It’s strange now,” he recalled in a 1989 Wogan interview.

“But in my head, Indiana Jones was always Sexy Hat-man. That was the essence of the character – he was sexy and he wore a hat. Why would he be called anything else?”

Steven Spielberg agreed.

“Yeah, Sexy Hat-man was a great name for a hero and the central plot device was a magic box,” he said, in the same 1989 Wogan interview.

“I never had any doubts about the name Sexy Hat-man and the Magic Box until Marty mentioned it.”

Lucas remembered their reaction to Scorsese’s suggestion.

“It was Marty who first said Raiders of the Lost Ark and, man, I hated that.

“I mean who were these ‘Raiders?’ the Nazis? Hat-man? It was confusing and without ‘Sexy Hat-man’ in the title, how would people know they were going to see a film about Sexy Hat-man.”

However, the title had got under Spielberg’s skin.

“It had a good feel, it was snappy.”

As well as this, he was starting to have misgivings about the titular hero.

“I’d recently met a dog called ‘Indiana Jones’ and I thought it was a great name, I thought it was better than ‘Sexy Hat-man.’”

Ultimately, he convinced Lucas, and they set about making the changes.

First, they needed to re-shoot all the scenes where Indy is referred to as Sexy Hat-man including the iconic opening where Belloq says – ‘Sexy Hat-man, there is nothing you can possess which I cannot take away.’

Then came the promotional materials.

“Man, the design guys hated us,” chuckled Speilberg.

“All the posters, the titles, the t-shirts and lunchboxes – everything was changed.”

Ultimately, it was worth it.

“Yeah, with hindsight Marty was right,” admitted Lucas

“Raiders of the Lost Ark is better than Sexy Hat-man and the Magic Box.”

The film went on to be a huge hit and a landmark piece of cinema, but if you listen closely during the climactic scene you can hear Marion scream – ‘Sexy Hat-man, what are they doing with the magic box.’

A fun reminder of what might have been.