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Originally Posted by lawandorder
Red tell us a bit more about Baker working with Anderson in Arkansas.
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We know surprisingly little about Roy Lee Baker and it took quite a bit of hunting to find out even that -- including that middle name.
B. 1922 and d. 1990, those years are each within 1 of the birth and death of Andy Anderson. (whose name was Warren Ferrell Anderson). We don't know anything more about Roy until he appears with Anderson who has started up his saddlery in Ft. Smith after leaving the Army at WWII's end. Andy married at the outset of the war, Roy at its end.
I worked out the connection between the two men, after a clue from turnerriver to look more closely at Roy's homage to an unnamed master on the back cover of Roy's 1976 or '77 catalogue. To double check I asked my friend, author Bob Arganbright (geez, we've known each other a long time) and he said, "Oh, yeah, doesn't everybody know that? They were lifelong friends and even shared the cost of buying hardware in bulk, and Andy gave Roy permission to build his unique mag pouch". No, everybody didn't know!
In 1960, Roy appears as a heat treater in IL, then files his patent for the pancake from there in '71 and issued in '73. Nothing more until he sells his company in 1980 -- new owners announce he is no longer associated with the company -- and then his death in '90.
Another friend of mine, Jim Buffaloe, worked for Roy and said Roy spent all the money he made on women and booze (for which the punchline is "and the rest of it I just wasted"). Roy takes up just ten lines in my 1800 line reference list.
After all that, one notices when slotting Roy and Andy into holstory, that Roy fits best into the category otherwise dominated by Chic Gaylord and Paris Theodore: flat construction without welts -- the Eastern School. Andy slots into the Western School with a heavy emphasis on Threepersons styling that included significant welts. Andy was a handgun hunter going way back but there are no hints, so far, as to what inspired Roy.