Cooper demonstrated taking off the safety with the index finger, as one poster mentioned above. I recall him saying you can take off the safety "perhaps not as fast, but just as well" using that method.
That said, Cooper always said the 1911 only needed (1) sights YOU can see; (2) a trigger YOU can manage; and, (3) a dehorning job.
Additional work beyond the three listed items was on an "as needed" basis. The "as needed" items included reliability work, such as throating the barrel, polishing the ramp, extractor tuning, pinning the grip safety or installing one with a bump in case the high thumb on top of the safety grip resulted in unreliable operation of the grip safety. Another "as needed" item was the ambi-safety, which could be used by either a lefty or by someone who merely wanted to be able to operate the safety from both sides of the pistol.
As to the question of why many of the "old timers" preferred revolvers, I think most believed revolvers were "more reliable" for LE work and the ordinary citizen, neither of which were likely to wade through a river or drop the revolver in a mud hole under usual circumstances. In addition, most people do not realize now just how difficult it was to get a 1911 to feed ammo other than ball, as used by the military. Until gun companies began throating/polishing, etc., as part of ordinary assembly, the first thing a 1911 owner had to do, should he wish to use other than ball ammo, is send his brand new gun to a gunsmith for work. The S&W and Colt revolvers could be used with more effective semi-wadcutter or hollow point ammo straight out of the box.
As to how the 1911 was designed to be carried, early military manuals say that it should be carried in what we now call Condition 1 (cocked and locked) when unexpected quick fire was required. Since, in the case of LE or citizen carry, unexpected quick action is the norm, the condition of the 1911 should be cocked and locked.
If the 1911 is in spec (and it is pretty hard to find one out of spec as far as this issue goes), cocked and locked is actually quite safe, arguably safer than the condition of the modern striker fired pistols.
In no particular order, the 1911 has the grip safety, the thumb safety lock, the disconnector, the half-cock notch in case of sear engagement failure (newer pistols have the "safety shelf," which arrests the hammer closer to the frame since half-cock notch failure can result in a discharge as enough inertia is generated even from the half-cock position). Finally, the one safety feature almost no one ever mentions is the additional function of the very substantial stud on the back of the thumb safety.
This final feature can be clearly seen if the grip safety is removed. This stud arrests the hammer in the event of sear engagement failure without the trigger being pulled if the safety is activated.
Why did John M. Browning include this?
Recall that the function of the thumb safety is to put pressure on the sear so that it cannot be jarred out of engagement with the corresponding notch on the hammer. Thus, in theory, if sear engagement fails, the hammer could still fall, resulting in an unintended discharge, assuming half-cock was also not functioning. The grip safety would not prevent this as it interacts with the trigger bow, not the hammer.
Knowing this, JMB included in the design that the same stud, one side of which is fitted to the sear, also acts to arrest the hammer itself in the event of failure of the sear engagement.
Thus, when you analyze the way it works, in the event of sear engagement failure (no pull of the trigger), the hammer is arrested from movement by the substantial stud on the back of the thumb safety. Should that fail, the half-cock notch (or safety shelf) will arrest hammer fall, and should that fail, the Series 80 firing pin safety will arrest the firing pin should it be struck by a falling hammer where the trigger was not pulled.
Thus, the 1911 is arguably safer than the modern day striker fired polymer pistols, especially those that are either partially cocked (Glock) or fully cocked (M&P and Springfield, to name two).
In addition, although Glock brags that only a 3/32 inch punch is needed to completely disassemble the pistol, remember, JMB designed the 1911 to be completely disassembled, not just field stripped, without any external tools of any kind. Although beyond the scope of this post, there are plenty of articles on how complete disassembly of the 1911 can be done without any extra tools not already on the pistol.
One such article, called "The 1911 Pistol is its Own Toolbox" is here:
The 1911 Pistol is its own toolbox
