Arvo Ojala and Andy Anderson Catalogs ca 1969

SG-688 · Jan 1, 2017

My high school shooting buddy found and scanned his Arvo Ojala and Andy Anderson catalogs from about 1969. For years, my memory has been that he bought an Anderson holster, but he now tells me it's an Ojala. Some of this is on the Internet, but these are slightly better quality than I've found. Plus some ads.

Also related to this great thread - http://smith-wessonforum.com/gun-leather-carry-gear/233754-matt-arvo-pic-heavy.html?highlight=ojala

The next 3 are one ad from 1969 with basically the same information.

The finger tip release police holster that Charles Heard credits as being designed for LAPD.

1957

1958

1959

1963 Seattle address.

1977 Portland address

SG-688 · Jan 1, 2017

Andy Anderson holster catalog

Andy Anderson Gunfighter Holsters (The page numbers are my addition.)

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Added reduced size PDF attachments.

SwampRanger · Jan 1, 2017

Good stuff! The Californian is very nice.

turnerriver · Jan 2, 2017

Many thanks for taking the time and trouble to post this. There is no better source of information than the manufacturer. Original catalogs provide the most reliable information available.
Regards,
turnerriver

Joe Kent · Jan 2, 2017

SG688, Thanks for posting these two catalogs! Great info!

03hemi · Jan 2, 2017

Very cool, but the metal liners had to have been hell on the finishes?

JayCeeNC · Jan 2, 2017

Great info, thanks for sharing.
Andersons .45 Auto rigs were pretty "radical" for the time, and forerunners of the speed rigs we saw in IPSC competition starting in the 1980's and 1990's.

rednichols · Jan 2, 2017

03hemi said:
Very cool, but the metal liners had to have been hell on the finishes?

"Metal lined" was a euphemism, a 'term of art'. The metal sheet was inside two layers of leather. "Metal reinforced" is the more correct term. Originally used to stiffen only the shank of the holster, going back to the 1930s, Ojala gets credit (shared with Bohlin) for putting it into the holster body just around the SAA cylinder to allow the cylinder to turn while still in the holster.

These catalogues remind that, of the two men, Andy was the innovator. I first encountered his reverse-folded auto holster (called the Thunderbolt) around 1967, in my older brother's extensive Gun World magazine collection. 1964 issues I recall. The "open front" holster shown in the catalogue was the rage beginning about 1970: it's essentially the Thunderbolt with the welt eliminated. The snap-off cover was for moving around the range, and was removed for competition. Outlawed for competition shooting by 1972 or so, and the Snick invented to parody the rule that Jeff made to outlaw the open front.

Andy himself had strokes after an earthquake wiped out his shop around then, and retired by about 1974. It was jumping in with copies of Andy's work (just to help out, of course -- insert sarcasm) that launched Milt Sparks' career as a holster maker.

SG-688 · Jan 2, 2017

IIRC, Charles Heard credited Rodd Redwing for, if not first, at about the same time, using metal in his holsters.

...Found it .... Handgun Leather, Guns & Ammo, March, 1959

"Redwing recalled that one of the old time badmen had used ladies' corset stays in his holster's mouth to keep it from binding the gun, so Rodd began making holsters for himself with flat spring-steel in his holster's lip. This served his purpose of holding the "mouth" open when he drew and as he was spinning his pistol back into the holster after one of his fine exhibitions of gun-twirling. But it remained for Arvo Ojala, who came to Hollywood in 1951,
to make the most sweeping/ changes of all in re-designing the Western rig."

(Actual year of development not given.)

Wyatt Burp · Jan 3, 2017

$40 around 1969 for a standard rig belt and holster. In 1985 I ordered a black standard rig for a 7 1/2" Colt and it cost $195 (+$5 shipping). Those are some pretty interesting ads, most I never seen before. These are all Ojalas (except the minature one) though the two short ones in top picture are belts I made since I just bought the holsters. The little rig is a "mini-Ojala" I made for my son around 1987. Envelope, Ojala card, and Paladin card in frame sent to me by Ojala in 1985 with $5 paid for a VHS tape I made for him of "The Oregon Trail", a movie he said was the only one he had dialgue in. I put the old holster ad in there with it all.
Thanks for posting these great ads.

gman51 · Jan 9, 2017

Did anybody notice the "CLIP" pocket? CLIP
In the old days it was called a clip not a magazine.

mag318 · Jan 9, 2017

Any of us growing up in the 50s/60s recognize these from the various Warner Bros TV westerns of that era. Today these rigs are worth a lot of money, especially since Arvos death. This rig was made by his son Eric in Oregon and supposedly his daughter Inga still makes them per her website. But I have yet heard about anyone actually ordering and receiving one from her.
If your lucky enough to own one, besides the nostalgia they are really good rigs. Here's a couple of mine.

gman51 · Jan 9, 2017

I'll take 3 if they are still around $50. J/K They do look like heavy leather.

Lawren5 · Jan 11, 2017

Arvo had a Fast-Draw exhibit at the 1962 World’s Fair in Seattle. I was just a kid at the time so I don’t recall the exact details but my father built some type of mechanical device used in the exhibit. Don’t know exactly how my father was compensated for his efforts but he did receive a belt and holster along with an autographed copy of Arvo’s pamphlet “The Secrets of the Fast-Draw”.

Arvo Ojala and Andy Anderson Catalogs ca 1969

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