The end of Seventrees

[rednichols]

Bits of information float together like lily pads on a pond; and lately some have floated together about Paris Theodore.

It has long intrigued me that Paris, who is said to have founded his company in '66, lasted as a maker for such short time; gone by the early '70s.

Turns out we 'kinda' know why: he made much of his relationship to the CIA and their clandestine operations then, and it seems that in 1975 he was called to testify before the Church Commission. And that was the end of those clandestine ops, and his company.

1975 is the year that Ken Null is said to have stopped making Seventrees holsters for Paris and switched to using his own name; I don't believe in coincidences.

Then I reckon fate simply dealt him more bad cards: his wife died in '87 after an extended, unnamed illness. We can only speculate, then, how much of '75 to '87 that occupied for Paris. At that moment he was stricken with MS and I've learned that a man who gets MS -- it's a series of attacks vs a long, slow decline -- gets the worse form of it if he is 50+. Which he was. That gets us to 1997 and one of his obituaries says he was bedridden for the last ten years; which gets us to his death in 2006.

There is a connection with smoking and MS, and both he (pictures) and his wife Lee (interviews) were smokers; he is rarely seen in pictures without a cigarette; here's just one, from '68:



I do feel that much of his very bad reputation amongst other holster makers, notably Lou Alessi, emanated from what he was dealing with. I didn't know him but I sure do know his designs; a genius. And Paris was born in January, as I was; and Bruce Nelson, and Rick Gallagher, and Andy Anderson.

 

[ColbyBruce]

Ken Null is about 1 1/2 hours drive from me; I should get over there and buy another of his holsters. I had two, but they were LH and I gave them to a female LEO a few years ago. One was for a Colt Viper, the other a Mauser HSc. He makes a great holster.

 

[crazyphil]

Ken Null is about 1 1/2 hours drive from me; I should get over there and buy another of his holsters. I had two, but they were LH and I gave them to a female LEO a few years ago. One was for a Colt Viper, the other a Mauser HSc. He makes a great holster.

Yes he does make great holsters. I have a couple.
On the left is one of my favorites. It's his RSS (Revolver Super
Speed), which, I believe, was one of Paris's designs? Shown
with my Model 10 with 2"barrel.

On the right is Ken's Gibson Covert with my Colt's Agent.

 

[JayCeeNC]

I had a phone conversation with Ken Null in 2007 about a Seventrees RSS holster marked “Seventrees Systems, Ltd., Hanover, PA”.
Ken told me he bought Seventrees in the early 1970s and hadn’t used the “Hanover, PA” stamp since 1975. He said he incorporated as KL Null in 1976 and moved to Georgia in about 1988.

 

[flagman1776]

At that moment he was stricken with MS and I've learned that a man who gets MS -- it's a series of attacks vs a long, slow decline -- gets the worse form of it if he is 50+. Which he was. That gets us to 1997 and one of his obituaries says he was bedridden for the last ten years; which gets us to his death in 2006.
There is a connection with smoking and MS

Your statements about MS: Multiple Sclerosis, are WRONG.
I have MS. I've had it a long time. Smoking isn't good for you but it doesn't cause MS. Often one has MS... no obvious symptoms... what is described as sub-clinical but it WILL show upon MRI. The cause of MS is unknown. It is believed to be an auto immune disease. STRESS can cause the MS one has had to surface.

EDIT:

There are lots of factors which are loosely linked to MS. Viral, hereditary, familial, geographical.

 

[6518John]

Your statements about MS: Multiple Sclerosis, are WRONG.
I have MS. I've had it a long time. Smoking isn't good for you but it dosen't cause MS. Often one has MS... no obivious symptoms... what is described as sub-clinical but it WILL show upon MRI. The cause of MS is unknown. It is believed to bean auto immune disease. STRESS can cause the MS one has had to surface.

1. Smokers and individuals with passive smoke exposure (second-hand smoke) have an increased risk of developing MS.
2. Smokers progress to secondary progressive MS at a faster rate than non-smokers and have greater risk of increasing disability.
3. Smokers may not get the full effect of MS disease-modifying therapies.
4. Smoking cessation has a protective effect by delaying the time to transition to secondary progressive MS.

https://www.nationalmssociety.org/N...Research/Stroup_T_Smoking_and_MS_20151110.pdf

 

[rednichols]

Your statements about MS: Multiple Sclerosis, are WRONG.
I have MS. I've had it a long time. Smoking isn't good for you but it dosen't cause MS. Often one has MS... no obivious symptoms... what is described as sub-clinical but it WILL show upon MRI. The cause of MS is unknown. It is believed to bean auto immune disease. STRESS can cause the MS one has had to surface.

Fair enough; but I wasn't guessing. One of my sources says that there is a link; but by no means does that mean that it's THE cause. Non-smokers certainly get MS! I was simply struck (stricken?) by the statement in my research about MS and smoking, and knowing that both Lee and Paris were smokers. That's all.

 

[rednichols]

I had a phone conversation with Ken Null in 2007 about a Seventrees RSS holster marked “Seventrees Systems, Ltd., Hanover, PA”.
Ken told me he bought Seventrees in the early 1970s and hadn’t used the “Hanover, PA” stamp since 1975. He said he incorporated as KL Null in 1976 and moved to Georgia in about 1988.

I've picked up some more funny-little-facts. Such as, 1976 is the year that the Seventrees mark was registered (quickly expired and classed as 'dead' by the USPTO since the 1980s); Null incorporated in PA in '79.

Also -- Chic's final shop was always in a basement; so I've read too much into that mention in his final press appearance.

Back to the Seventrees trademark registration. Trademarks are VERY different from patents: with the latter one has to get that filing in before its first public use anywhere in the world; whereas trademarks derive their value from the very opposite -- heaps of publicity over an extended period strengthens its validity even if it's not registered. So in Paris' case, perhaps the registration had more to do with selling his operation with its patents vs. protecting his mark for his future use.

 

[crazyphil]

Please excuse me if this is a little bit off the main train of thought here.
I remember being fascinated, back in the 1970s and/or 1980s with or by
the "Quell Shooting System". It was a system devised by the genius of
Paris Theodore. Based on his experience, as a very young man, as a
contractor for the CIA, or so it has been said.

The Quell System is complicated. It involves a unique but difficult
posture for up close defensive sighting and shooting. It employs an
unusual sighting system that, I believe, lead to his guttersnipe sight
on his ASP pistol.

But perhaps most interesting, at least to me, was his specified target
area. From the front, the target area is from under the nose down to
the chin. In other words, right in the middle of the teeth, to reach
the superior medulla oblongata.

It was said, based on his personal experiences, that a hit to that target
area caused immediate cessation of all motor functions, and the target
drops like a sack of potatoes.

If anyone has had the Quell System training, and/or experience, I would
be interested in any additions to what little I know about it.

 

[Murdock]

Ken's Seventrees trademarks

 

[Telecaster]

That RSS holster shows amazing craftsmanship but without a trigger guard cover, it’s not for everyone.

 

[turnerriver]

Some Seventrees ephemera including front and back covers of a 1971 catalog, the envelope addressed to Evaluators Ltd. with a note from the probable office manager, the first 3 pages with the order form, the page showing the “restricted” holster with a hole punched through it to obscure a proprietary detail and the 1969 dated price list.
Regards,
turnerriver

 

[6518John]

Post like this above enrich this forum beyond description. Simply astounding.

 

[SAFireman]

Some Seventrees ephemera including front and back covers of a 1971 catalog, the envelope addressed to Evaluators Ltd. with a note from the probable office manager, the first 3 pages with the order form, the page showing the “restricted” holster with a hole punched through it to obscure a proprietary detail and the 1969 dated price list.
Regards,
turnerriver

John,

You wouldn't happen to have any of the 'Restricted' versions in your collection, would you?

A most excellent topic gentlemen!

 

[Igiveup]

Surley, one would think there must be some of the shoulder holsters sitting in the holster box at LGS or a gunshow. I never paw thru the used police, black leather holsters, as I never had an interest in black holsters and never needed one.

 

[rednichols]

Thanks to my friend SG-688, who is also Holstory's editor, I have more information about the end of Seventrees, and of Paris himself.

Paris penned an article for Combat Handguns in 1986 called 'Birth of the Pocket 9', and in it he did more than confirm his founding date of 1966 that appears in various other sources (so I was uncertain); he also explained what happened to his company, ultimately.

(To start with a P.S., he spoke in it about a new version of the ASP as being forthcoming 'next year'. He wasn't to know that his choreographer wife, Lee Becker, would die that next year; nor that he would then be diagnosed with MS and suffer mightily until his death in 2006; that was coincidentally the year that several others in holstory died included Jeff Cooper). I expect that new version did not ever appear.

As for the end of Seventrees and the ASP, he said the following and it sums up what I far less eloquently tried to say in an earlier thread (or post, one forgets):

"It has been said that 'imitation is the sincerest form of flattery', but between the new companies who called themselves 'ASP' and the patent-infringers who made (and still make) the ASP look-alikes, we were 'flattered' out-of-business".

I'll quote him directly, next time someone pulls that old bag-snatcher's excuse on me .

 

[rednichols]

John,

You wouldn't happen to have any of the 'Restricted' versions in your collection, would you?

A most excellent topic gentlemen!

Let's hope turnerriver can, the best I could come up with is this version made in milk bottle plastic (low density polypropylene) by Null; which isn't on the site for the automatics; and the image is tiny:



To imagine how it works, consider this pic of Paris himself, and focus on the way his pistol is hanging from his finger:



Twisting the pistol inside the holster causes the snap to release; the problem is holstering the darned thing after the draw.

Now. It's my view that the hole in the catalog page was because the patent was applied for but not yet issued and someone thought to conceal the invention in the meantime, such as a patent lawyer. Yet very clever to market it as a restricted product; which might in fact just mean 'not everyone will appreciate this one' because it attached to the shirt not a harness (and was a bit like a match that one can strike only once, at least when the pressure was on).

All makers were trying to come up with a PPK shoulder holster to supplant 'the Berns-Martin That Never Was' and I reckon this was Paris' effort. His horizontals, with that design being invented by Chic Gaylord for NASA, are more commonly encountered and used a harness.