MARSHALL DILLON'S GRIPS

[crazyphil]

Does anyone know what kind of grips Marshall Dillon had on
his Peacemaker? I think they look kinda like Franzite. Please
tell me I'm crazy. If you don't remember Franzite it was just
a fancy name for plastic.

 

[6518John]

Phil—I beleive the plastic grips were use initially and old west experts complained and they were changed to genuine stag grips. Here is a concluded auction of one of the guns—I think several were used in the series.

James Arness (Matt Dillon) Gunsmoke Colt SAA .45

I have read several excellent threads on here about the Gunsmoke guns, the gun leather, and the show in general. You may want to search those for discussion from the true experts. I seem to recall Wyatt Burp has made several excellent posts about the show.

 

[crazyphil]

Thanks for that John. I was watching a Gunsmoke episode a while back,
and in that opening scene where he draws and shoots Arvo Ojalla, I got
a fairly good look at his grips, and I sure thought they were Franzite.

 

[OFT II]

My guess is Franzite grips on a Great Western revolver. In the earlier series he carried a Colt with a 4 5/8" barrel then moved up to the Great Western with a 7 1/2" barrel.

 

[6518John]

A bit of drift.

What does it mean where it says “The cylinder slots have been tooled by Stembridge for functionality, a common occurrence in prop house SAA's.”

 

[Wrangler Rich]

My guess is Franzite grips on a Great Western revolver. In the earlier series he carried a Colt with a 4 5/8" barrel then moved up to the Great Western with a 7 1/2" barrel.

I agree, he was so tall they needed something proportional. I have a pair of those Franzite grips that my Grandfather had on his Nickle Model 1905 5th model 32-20. He was a big Gunsmoke fan.

 

[crazyphil]

I have been reading a little bit on Google. Apparantly Stembridge was
the company that leased equipment, props, including guns, to Gunsmoke
and other programs. The functionality I would guess has to do with
using blanks.

 

[LoboGunLeather]

Back in the 1960's and 1970's there were several makers offering genuine Sambar (from India) stag grips, advertising in the gun magazines every month. There were also some making "jigged bone" grips, which are made from bone and "jigged" using a tool to cut irregular patterns, usually dyed for contrast, and those looked similar to stag grips.

Franzite company offered molded plastic grips that imitated a stag pattern, and those cost only a few dollars.

Some folks shelled out the $15 or $20 price for genuine stag or jigged bone, but I suspect the motion picture industry was quite happy with the cheaper plastic imitations for TV and movies.

By the mid-1950's TV westerns were becoming very popular, several different series on each channel and a new show announced about every year. The Colt Single Action Army revolvers had been discontinued at the onset of WW2 and Colt was ready to drop it from the product line completely. Then the TV westerns and movies prompted a great deal of new demand, with "quick draw" clubs and other groups popping up all over the US (and Germany, Italy, other countries). The Great Western company stepped in to fill demand with their reproduction SAA's (available finished or in kit form for do-it-yourself completion).

Colt geared back up to produce SAA's in 1957. MSRP was $125 at a time that a new S&W M&P .38 could be had for $49, or a S&W .38 Masterpiece could be bought for around $75. Great Western continued to do well with SAA clones at about $40 (or about $29 in kit form), then Sturm-Ruger stepped in with their Single Six and Blackhawk series at competitive prices.

Just about everything showed up in some of the TV westerns at one time or another. I remember "The Big Valley" (Barbara Stanwyck) in the early 1970's; apparently the producers had trouble finding Winchester lever actions so they used modern Marlin 336's. In some of the early John Wayne films those who look closely will see that he is carrying a Colt double-action revolver, probably a New Service or perhaps a WW1-era Model 1917.

By the 1970's early Colts and others were being reproduced in Italy and Spain, and over time those repro's became very nicely done. The more recent westerns have been featuring much more authentic guns and gear than anything produced before.

 

[LoboGunLeather]

I have been reading a little bit on Google. Apparantly Stembridge was
the company that leased equipment, props, including guns, to Gunsmoke
and other programs. The functionality I would guess has to do with
using blanks.

True, and the ammo makers responded with blanks in most pistol calibers, including the "3-in-1" blanks that could be used in .45 Colt, .44-40, or .38-40, thus simplifying the movie company's inventory requirements.

 

[sigp220.45]

Pardon the drift, but does anyone remember the 1980 series “McClain’s Law”? Arness comes out of retirement to hunt down his partner’s killer. He is teamed up with a young detective played by an actor with the unlikely name of Marshall Colt!

This being post Dirty Harry, of course McClain carried a Model 29.

 

[Wyatt Burp]

Here's Matt Dillon's gun, or one of them I guess, from earlier with the Franzite grips before he went for real stag. I don't know if the gun is Colt or GW. I never once saw the weird GW hammer on his gun when cocked, but Colt style hammers with firing pins were optional.
EDIT!!! Closeup, this gun looks to have a black powder frame meaning Matt Dillon carried a real Colt.

 

[Texas Star]

Here's Matt Dillon's gun, or one of them I guess, from earlier with the Franzite grips before he went for real stag. I don't know if the gun is Colt or GW. I never once saw the weird GW hammer on his gun when cocked, but Colt style hammers with firing pins were optional.
EDIT!!! Closeup, this gun looks to have a black powder frame meaning Matt Dillon carried a real Colt.

I read the linked article and the gun is indeed a black powder Colt, made in 1882. However, it seems that several guns were used, and one may have been a Great Western.

I don't recall seeing any but a 7.5 inch barrel, but was not a major fan, and probably missed some episodes.

If a Great Western did fill in as a Colt, it was a closer match than the Ruger Blackhawk used by villain Avery Burton in the episode, "Trophies" on, "Sir Arthur Conan Doyle's The Lost World", season two. The Ruger's sights were quite evident to a sharp-eyed fan as the crook threatened to shoot character Ned Malone. If you look for this clip on YouTube, find the version dubbed in Russian. It has the greatest clarity. I'm afraid to post it here, as the clip includes the beautiful Veronica Layton in what censors might decide is too brief an outfit for this board. If you find the clip, listen for the hammer making the distinctive four clicks as it's slowly cocked. Either an Old Model Ruger or studio sound effects.

More plausibly, character Prof. Challenger carried either a real Colt SAA or an Italian copy that passed for one. I never saw it closely enough to be sure which.

 

[Capt. F.]

Here's Matt Dillon's gun, or one of them I guess, from earlier with the Franzite grips before he went for real stag. I don't know if the gun is Colt or GW. I never once saw the weird GW hammer on his gun when cocked, but Colt style hammers with firing pins were optional.
EDIT!!! Closeup, this gun looks to have a black powder frame meaning Matt Dillon carried a real Colt.

I have a GW .44 Special. If you look at the trigger guard on a GW it’s more rounded than a Colt. At least on mine and a few others I’ve seen are.

 

[Wyatt Burp]

I have a GW .44 Special. If you look at the trigger guard on a GW it’s more rounded than a Colt. At least on mine and a few others I’ve seen are.

My .44 Special GW has a rounded trigger guard, too, like my 1890 & 1911 SAAs and I wish all SAAs had that feature. I wrote that recently somewhere. Maybe in this thread.

 

[Mike SC Hunter]

Thanks for that John. I was watching a Gunsmoke episode a while back,
and in that opening scene where he draws and shoots Arvo Ojalla, I got
a fairly good look at his grips, and I sure thought they were Franzite.

IF..................You watch and listen close..........Arvo shot first......He beat Matt.

 

[BAM-BAM]

IF..................You watch and listen close..........Arvo shot first......He beat Matt.

A fast miss is still a miss!!!!

You can't miss fast enough!

 

[gwpercle]

Pardon the drift, but does anyone remember the 1980 series “McClain’s Law”? Arness comes out of retirement to hunt down his partner’s killer. He is teamed up with a young detective played by an actor with the unlikely name of Marshall Colt!

This being post Dirty Harry, of course McClain carried a Model 29.

I missed this show completely . I remember Gunsmoke and then The Macahan's and then How The West was Won...didn't catch this one !
Gary

 

[Mike SC Hunter]

A fast miss is still a miss!!!!

You can't miss fast enough!

If you read up on Arvo you'll find he was a FAST gun. He taught lots of hollyweird actors how to draw and shoot.........He would not have missed.

 

[diyj98]

... If you find the clip, listen for the hammer making the distinctive four clicks as it's slowly cocked. Either an Old Model Ruger or studio sound effects.

I think most of those are studio sound effects added later. I've watched numerous tv shows and movies over the years where someone pulls out a Glock and you hear "click" like a hammer being pulled back. Obviously the sound guys are clueless about firearms.

 

[gwpercle]

If you read up on Arvo you'll find he was a FAST gun. He taught lots of hollyweird actors how to draw and shoot.........He would not have missed.

Sammy Davis Jr. was surprisingly adept at gun handling. I'm not sure if he could actually shoot , but he could put on a good show.
He appeared in at least two episodes of the Rifleman portraying a "fast gun" ...they were good episodes.
Gary