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Clark Gable's A-1 Special
Unread 08-24-2010, 04:29 PM   #1
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Default Clark Gable's A-1 Special

In 1984 I took an 1913 Family owned Trojan 20 ga that was owned by a friend to Ottis Odom in Sycamore Ga for him to send off to the DelGrego family for repair. Not knowing Mr. Odom, we had to have someone that was his friend to certify that we were OK before he would see us. We at the time did not know what we were in for as far as seeing fine Parkers. All I can say is there were between 100 to 150 Parkers and other fine collectibles in a special room that he had displayed. He showed us all the fine guns and wanted us to handle them all. He picked up an A-1 Special and said it had belonged to Clark Gable. It was a beautiful gun, but as I said we didn't at the time appreciate all we were looking at. He said at the time that he had more Parkers that were collectible than anyone else.

Another friend told me that he was the best and biggest customer of the DelGrego family and was responsible for a lot of the restoration of fine Parkers.

PDD
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Unread 08-24-2010, 09:54 PM   #2
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In 1974 I went with Jim Austin to visit a local man that was a trap shooter and had several doubles.This was in Cedar Fall,Iowa. The gentleman was in his 70's then and was quite a hunter as well. He had hunted in South Dakota for ducks on the same marsh as Gable and had a photo he had taken of Mr. Gable getting out of a boat holding a high grade Parker and several ducks. Very nice photo and he said that the gun was an A1. All I could tell was that it had a beavertail forearm and a high grade checkering pattern.He also said Mr. Gable was very friendly and loved to hunt ducks.I should look up the family and see if the picture is still extant.
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Unread 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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Unread 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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Unread 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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Unread 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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Unread 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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Unread 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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Unread 08-28-2010, 05:01 PM   #9
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Quote:
Originally Posted by Dean Romig View Post
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!
In the process of creating such a book, maybe John Dunkle can create another forum called "Parker Lore", the purpose of which would be to collect such stories. After a while, there would be enough stories for Volume I and then after a while more - Volume II. Hmmmmmmmmmmmm.......
Cheers,
Jack
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Unread 08-28-2010, 06:15 PM   #10
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Quote:
Originally Posted by Jack Cronkhite View Post
....maybe John Dunkle can create another forum called "Parker Lore",...
I certainly could do that.. It would be a pleasure... I set up a forum on another one of my sites in such a way.

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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