TV WESTERNS-FAST & SLOW DRAWS

chief38

chief38

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I have been watching the Encore Western channel lately and have watched a bunch of the shows that I used to watch as a kid. Ironically, Paladin who was a "hired gun" has an awfully slow draw (short 4 3/4 " bbl), and Matt Dillon on Gunsmoke (7 1/2" bbl) who was the town Marshall was actually pretty quick. Steve McQueen was also pretty fast, while Brett Maverick was pretty slow. I guess some actors got into their roles a bit more than others. If you really want to see a fast draw, try and watch some of Sammy Davis Jr's. work. Not only was he super fast, he did some remarkable twirling demonstrations.

chief38
 
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fast draw

Paladin uses a 7/12" also. He mentions from time to time in the intro that it is custom made with a 1 .oz trigger pull. BS of course. Have Gun was one of my very favorite shows with Gunsmoke the very favorite. I too have been watching the re-runs on the encore western ch. Never liked Maverick much as a kid cause he always tried to weasel out of trouble instead of draw. Guess he was ahead of his time.

BR
 
Farmboy,
You are quite correct! (my bad). Paladin did use a 7 1/2" but he was very slow and deliberate; almost a "two stage" draw. Michael Landon from Bonanza was actually quite fast as well.
 
chief38 said:
I have been watching the Encore Western channel lately and have watched a bunch of the shows that I used to watch as a kid. Ironically, Paladin who was a "hired gun" has an awfully slow draw (short 4 3/4 " bbl), and Matt Dillon on Gunsmoke (7 1/2" bbl) who was the town Marshall was actually pretty quick. Steve McQueen was also pretty fast, while Brett Maverick was pretty slow. I guess some actors got into their roles a bit more than others. If you really want to see a fast draw, try and watch some of Sammy Davis Jr's. work. Not only was he super fast, he did some remarkable twirling demonstrations.

chief38
Click to expand...

YouTube - Alamo Fast Draw and Sammy Davis Jr.
 
Sammy Davis Jr. shot in fast draw competitions and was very good at it. A friend of mine had met him at several shoots and said he was a very nice and personable man.

There were celebrity shootouts too, I believe they were hosted by Hugh O'Brien, that were held for charity and other fund raising benefits. Quite a few stars of that period attended, but not all of the "cowboy" actors participated.

Some of the actors that don't seem to be fast, weren't even as fast as they seemed, thanks to some camera tricks. I read an article in a magazine that quoted a cowboy extra that had been a bad guy in a lot of movies. He said he had been "outdrawn and shot" very often by stars that he couldn't draw slow enough to let them beat him, so it was taken care of with some different angles, extra footage, and wizardry in the editing room.
 
As I recall, the Paladin gun is over at the museum at Cody--a 7 1/2". I think it is a .38-40 but I could be wrong on that. The gun is a bit of a beater; the front sight was removed, and the grips have an awful coat of worn black paint.

I liked the show, though. Some good lines now and then.
 
On "Rawhide", anybody else notice that after Eastwood came back from doing "Fist Full of Dollars", Rowdy Yates all of a sudden wore an Andy Anderson rig?
 
bwickens said:
On "Rawhide", anybody else notice that after Eastwood came back from doing "Fist Full of Dollars", Rowdy Yates all of a sudden wore an Andy Anderson rig?
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And that is a great holster that he wore later in most his westerns. But his buscadero rig in Rawhide was also an Anderson rig. In a book "The fastest Guns Alive" by Arganbright there tons of pics of actors involved in fast draw. In one Clint is at a fast draw competition and is shown outdrawing Robert Fuller and John Smith of Laramie ( using the holster you mentioned). He also beat Peter Brown who is a great gun twirler. I have on tape a scene of James Garner in Maverick doing a gun twirling routine, while doing dialogue, that is top notch. He could throw the gun over his back and catch it then toss it in the air and make it land in the holster.Go on Hula TV and there's Rifleman episodes there. Look for Star in the Dirt or something like that and see Sammy Davis Jr. do a great gun routine for the kid in the show.
My favorite has to be Steve McQueen in the Magnificent Seven. His speed in that film using a 7 1/2" Colt in an Anderson rig was FAST!
 
Well I watched Tomestone lastnight and the actor who played Johnny Ringo is the best I think I've seen and Sammy a close second
 
Michael Biehn.

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Well, Doc was faster, wasn't he? "You're no daisy at all!"

Ringo's body, shot in the head, was found under a tree outside Tombstone. The verdict was suicide AISOTN. (as it says on the net).
 
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I wonder how many stars Arvo Ojala actually made holsters for. I got to speak to him once before his death, a true gentleman who always love to talk to his customers.
 
mag318 said:
I wonder how many stars Arvo Ojala actually made holsters for. I got to speak to him once before his death, a true gentleman who always love to talk to his customers.
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I think it was actually Ojala who stood in for Matt Dillon in the opening scenes of Gunsmoke episodes.

I saw a TV Guide feature on James Arness and the gun that he kept at home was a S&W K-38, then pretty much THE Los Angeles cop gun. Don't know if he even owned a single-action, or had much interest in guns.

Hugh O'Brien has been an outspoken advocate of gun control.

Gary Cooper, Clark Gable, and Robert Stack were probably the most pro-gun stars who actually used a lot of guns for hunting and the like. Stack was a champion skeet shooter. Oh: Charlton Heston in later life joined that number, of course.

I forgot Tom Selleck, but he's about to star on a New York cop show. I hope the writers don't make him demean gun ownership! I hate shows set in New York! :(


T-Star
 
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GUNSMOKE

Actually, Arvo Ojala is the guy in the opening scene that Matt Dillon goes up against........sort of a cameo role for him. One of the reasons he is so far away from Dillon (opening shoot out scene) is that he was very short and Arness was so tall; they needed to make the obvious difference hard to see. He was also the one who trained Arness and many other Hollywood actors.
 
mag318 said:
I wonder how many stars Arvo Ojala actually made holsters for. I got to speak to him once before his death, a true gentleman who always love to talk to his customers.
Click to expand...
I tracked down Ojala's phone number in Roseda, Ca. in 1985 after watching Silverado. I wanted a classic Hollywood holsters of his. I ordered one that cost $195 and took a year to get. I asked him a bunch of questions about movie stars. I asked him if Maryln Monroe smelled good as he's cheek to cheek with her in one photo looking down the barrel of his Colt. My holster of his was actually made up in Tacoma, Wa. by his son and daughter in law if I remember correctly. I sent him a copy of The Oregon Trail because it was the only film he said he had dialogue in and didn't have it. He sent me back
$5 and some stuff I put in a frame including a Palidin card.


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Farmboy said:
Paladin uses a 7/12" also. He mentions from time to time in the intro that it is custom made with a 1 .oz trigger pull. BS of course. Have Gun was one of my very favorite shows with Gunsmoke the very favorite. I too have been watching the re-runs on the encore western ch. Never liked Maverick much as a kid cause he always tried to weasel out of trouble instead of draw. Guess he was ahead of his time.

BR
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And in character with the actor. I am not an admirer of James Garner, who is, I believe, an anti-gunner. He seems to despise heroes and appears to like portraying anti-heroes.

Paladin did indeed use a 7.5-inch barrel. So did Chris Colt on "Colt .45."
 
Savvy Jack said:
I know this is an old topic. I am not fast nor consistent but I do have fun.
29June2013 - YouTube
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I like your gun. Looks like Prof. Challenger's Colt on "The Lost World" TV series. But he used a flap holster.

I watched your video. You're not exceptionally fast, but if you can hit what you shoot at, you'd win most real life gunfights.
 
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