Quote:
Originally Posted by tecolote
If I might be allowed to go slightly off topic here, in a 1964 Playboy interview Ian Fleming was asked about choosing Berns-Martin vs. Gaylord holsters,and his reply was basically that all he cared about was which was better. He also obviously picked things based on way the name sounded:"Walther PPK 7.65mm",for example.
The Berns-Martin was introduced in DR NO (along with the PPK) and was described being worn inside the trouser band to the left. As we all know, that is not a correct description of a Berns- Martin, but it does sound like the Gaylord Holdout.
The Berns- Martin was,of course, suggested to Fleming by Geoffery Boothroyd, along with the S&W Centennial Airweight in a series of letters ca. 1956, and in DR NO Bond does take the Centennial in the IWB "Berns-Martin" off to Crab Key after the villian. I have no idea what so ever whether Fleming knew of Gaylord holsters before the Playboy interview or not, but he did reply to Boothroyd that he was going to examine a Centennial in New York. Makes me wonder if perhaps he visited Gaylord's shop?
Regards,
Tecolote
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A good question. Have you seen the photo of Fleming with the Centennial? I think he had to buy it in New York because it wasn't then available in the UK due to currency restrictions. This is from him and from Boothroyd, both of whom commented on the gun.
I read the Playboy interview then (I was pretty young, but could sometimes get the magazine and was a Bond fan) and I read the article in Sports Ill. about Bond's guns, by Boothroyd. SI is not pro- gun and this may be the sole gun article they ever ran.
Boothroyd was an exceptional gun writer and perhaps the most authoritative ever, from the UK. The holster error was not his, but Fleming's. Geoffrey B. suggested the holster for the Airweight Centennial that he wanted for Bond's primary gun, to replace the .25 Beretta. But Fleming had read a story in American Rifleman, comparing several dissimilar WWII Axis pistols to our .45 auto. I read it and think he didn't stop to think that they were comparing pocket pistols like the PPK and the Sauer M-38 to full size service pistols like the P-38 and the Nambu 8mm.
Fleming liked small autos, being obsessed with concealment, a real need for spies. He had himself carried a Baby Browning .25 on Royal Navy Intelligence duties in WW II. He owned a Colt New Service .45 that may or may not date from his service days. It may or may not be the "long-barreled Colt .45" that Bond hid under the dash of his Bentley car. Based on what British operatives used in WWII and the logic of the matter, I rather think that car .45 was an auto.
In, "Dr. No", Fleming had Bond decide in Jamaica (then still a Crown Colony in 1958) between the PPK and the Centennial .38. He thought the .38 had more range and he was going to a remote island to investigate Dr. No. The Centennial was lost to No's men and never replaced. But Fleming forgot that Boothroyd only recommended the Berns-Martin holster for the S&W snub revolver! So he later had Bond use that holster for the PPK.
Yes, he definitely heard about it from gun fans.
Fleming owned several handguns and was shown with them in a Life magazine feature in the early 1960's. But he was not a gun enthusiast and even commented in, "The Man With the Golden Gun" that those "excessively" interested in guns might be mental cases or psychotic or gay. (Try his whistling trick in that regard, as M did.)
He noted that in a book, Harold Peterson suggested that the gun might have had the greatest effect on the change of civilization. Fleming himself thought the printing press was more likely to have exerted that influence.
I think that like most authors, Fleming was concerned with what sounded good in print and made him seem an authority. And he liked small auto pistols as they are flat and more easily hidden. He just didn't know a lot about holsters, and assumed that something must be "best."
I KNOW that he'd heard of Gaylord holsters, because I personally wrote to him, mentioning them. He didn't reply, but his secretary did send a nice letter, saying that he was away, but that she'd show him my letter on his return from abroad.
And I have a nice letter from Boothroyd. He and I both favored small S&W .38's for Bond. But he'd heard from readers of the books that Bond should have some pretty impractical stuff, inc. cap and ball Remington .44's!
In his epochal work, "The Handgun", Crown Publishers, 1967, Boothroyd noted that in 1965, S&W had introduced the stainless Chief Special, the Model 60. He felt this was the logical Bond gun, but Fleming died in 1964 and the issue had become moot.
I hope this interests someone here. For the record, my choice of a 007 gun was the S&W M-36 with three-inch barrel. This was before the heavy bbl. version arrived. I think a Gaylord inside-the pants rig was the logical holster, but other holsters would be feasible in some circumstances. I especially liked the high-riding thumb - snap Threepersons style, worn on the right hip. But a bump frisk would detect it more easily than the inside-waistband one, worn over the appendix.
Oh: Boothroyd wanted both the Centennial Airweight for Bond's person and to replace the Colt .45 under the Bentley dash with a S&W .357 Magnum, later Model 27. That'd allow some interchange
of ammo and give longer range than the .45, for practical uses.
Chic Gaylord holster
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