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08-24-2010, 11:01 PM | #3 | ||||||
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Several years ago Dave Riffel who is a dealer in FLA had a CHE 20 that was owned by Clark Gable. There was a letter from Mrs Gable attesting to the originality.
I'm sure the Hollywood types enjoyed Parkers just as we do today. |
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08-25-2010, 08:37 AM | #4 | ||||||
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Although not a Parker, Humphry Bogart kept his 20 ga LC Smith at David Nivens home where they would shoot skeet in David's back yard.
There have been threads on doublegunbbs.com about the "Shotguns of the Stars"... |
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08-25-2010, 01:05 PM | #5 | ||||||
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Clark Gable also had a 32-inch barrel BHE-Grade 20-gauge that visited our PGCA booth at Sandanona about a decade ago. As I recall it had California Quail on one side, Doves on the other side, and the trigger plate was engraved with something like an English Sheep Dog that he and Carol Lombard had.
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The Following User Says Thank You to Dave Noreen For Your Post: |
08-25-2010, 01:10 PM | #6 | ||||||
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The Model 12 trap gun that Clark Gable sold to Roy Rogers was recently sold for $62,000.00. I'm not sure if that price included the buyer's premium. I remember the 20 gauge BHE which was a passable bird gun.
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08-28-2010, 01:17 PM | #7 | ||||||
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Ottis Odom began collecting Parker Guns in the late 1950's but by the late 1960's - early 1970's began specializing in Parker .410s and 28 gauges. The last accurate count I was privvy to in 1990 was that he owned around 60 .410s and over 100 28 gauges, in all grades and configurations. Some time back, I forget the exact year, two burglars brandishing pistols broke into his home while his wife was home alone, tied her to a chair, then gagged her and ransacked the house for money and valuables. They had no knowledge of Odom's extensive Parker collection or its whereabouts. The theives left, police were called, and no harm was done to his wife. The incident so unnerved Odom and his wife that very shortly thereafter, he began liquidating his entire collection, saying that he could not bear to think of what they would have done to his wife had they knew about his collection and its whereabouts at the time of the robbery.
The Clark Gable A-1 Special has an interesting story all its own. Dick Baldwin, a longtime Remington employee and author of the great shooting chronicle, "The Road to Yesterday", told of the sale of this gun. His father worked for Remington Arms as a salesman and was manninig the Remington booth at the New York Sportsman's show in January of 1940 on the same weekend as the premier of "Gone With the Wind" was presented in New York. All the major stars of the movie were there, along with other Hollywood "sports" like Gary Cooper, Eugene Pallete (who played Friar Tuck in the original movie "Robin Hood" with Errol Flynn), Thomas Mitchell, Andy Devine, etc., many of whom owned and shot Parker Guns. Clark Gable came in with the guys and collectively they oogled the Remington display, which of course had quite a few Parker Guns to handle and examine. When Gable began to gush over the A-1 Special, he told Dick's father, Clifford, that he would love to own one but would not want to wait the six months or so to have one built, whereupon Clifford Baldwin told him he could have the gun he held in his hands if he so desired. Gable, delighted, made sure the gun fit him, then agreed to buy it and, gentleman that he was, waited until the Sportsman's Show closed to pick it up. Clifford Baldwin said the encounter with Gable and his purchase of the A-1 was a "triple-header", as he put it: He met the biggest male lead in Hollywood at the time, got 2 free tickets to "Gone With the Wind", and sold the only Parker A-1 Special he ever sold in his life. |
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The Following 27 Users Say Thank You to Kevin McCormack For Your Post: | Andy Kelley, Bill Mullins, Bill Murphy, Bob Roberts, Dave Suponski, David Dwyer, david ross, Dean Romig, E Robert Fabian, ED J, MORGAN, FRANK HALSEY, Gary Carmichael Sr, George Lander, GunnerGrilli, Jack Selman, James T. Kucaba, John Dunkle, Kurt Densmore, Mark Ouellette, Mark Vollinger, Mike Stahle, Mills Morrison, Paul Ehlers, Ralph English, Richard Flanders, Robert Rambler, Russ Jackson |
08-28-2010, 03:28 PM | #8 | ||||||
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Thanks for that story Kevin. It is knowledge like this that needs to be cataloged - put to paper - a book of "Parker Lore" that we are only occasionally privy to know - needs to be compiled and published lest it all be buried, untold, with the holders of the stories. Sometimes truth is stranger than fiction and there must be countless spellbinding stories of special Parkers and special people. Now that is a book I would buy!
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The Following 14 Users Say Thank You to Dean Romig For Your Post: |
08-28-2010, 05:01 PM | #9 | |||||||
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Quote:
Cheers, Jack
__________________
Hunt ethically. Eat heartily. |
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The Following 4 Users Say Thank You to Jack Cronkhite For Your Post: |
08-28-2010, 06:15 PM | #10 | |||||||
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Quote:
Give me a few days to get it done, OK? I'm just back from a family funeral (my Uncle Bill who was a VET and helped find the USS Thresher) and today, I was working all day today and I work tomorrow as well (yea, I know - it is Sunday).. Anyway - I like the idea.. There are many, many posts on this forum that need to be captured and archived.. Kevin's would certainly be one of those. My Best Always, John |
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The Following 7 Users Say Thank You to John Dunkle For Your Post: |
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