Clark Gable & Carole Lombard Hunting.
 

Watertown, South Dakota, Oct 5- MOVIE STARS GO A HUNTING- Carole Lombard and her husband, Clark Gable, took time out from their Hollywood work for some upland game shooting in South Dakota. Both Miss Lombard and Gable are holding cock pheasants; part of the bag they obtained in what Gable described as excellent shooting.

http://i99.photobucket.com/albums/l3...ableshunt1.jpg

Hey Mike,
Do you know what year that was?
How times have changed! Clark Gable was then as Brad Pitt and George Cloney are today. Could imagine either of them with thier wives or girlfriends posing for a hunting photo?

Mark

Sorry no I don’t Mark; if anyone knows please let us all know.
It is indeed a great picture.
I would love to find the picture of Mr. Gable
Looking down the barrels of the double he is holding.
(found it, posted below)

Mike :)

1934. He may be using the gun Carole was holding.

http://pic20.picturetrail.com:80/VOL.../333126097.jpg

OK, she's got a squareback Remington with a Cutts and Monte Carlo stock and Clark has the same Parker that he was shooting on the cover of a Parker Pages. It is obvious because of the Mershon pad and beavertail. I think it is a 20 gauge from the clearer image on the PP cover. I wonder if there are pictures of Carol L. shooting the DHE that she was famous for owning. I remember seeing the Carol Lombard DHE (corrected to say that this gun was Joan Bennet's gun, not Carol Lombard's) at an early NRA show in Washington, DC on Herb Glass' table actually advertised for sale at a payable price. I recall the price being $1250.00.

This got me curious, so I did some surfing. Gable and Lombard married in 1939, and she was killed in 1942 - so the picture was in October of '39-'41.

While searching, I learned that Lombard had a boyfriend killed in a gun accident. A search of Russ Columbo + death will bring it up. Fascinating.

Murphy, you're old enough to remember when A-1s were available from the factory. :)

I have to back up. The DHE I was describing is Joan Bennett's DHE, not Carol Lombard's. Is anyone able to compute the length of barrel or barrel diameter of the gun on the cover of PP?

This is a scan of a photocopy, but here is Clark Gable with a few guns from his collection from the July 1939, issue of National Sportsman --

http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v3...leJuly1939.jpg

May as well throw in this picture of Clark and another guy known to own a few Parkers as well --

http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v3...obertStack.jpg

The second is Clark with Elliott Ness aka/ Robert Stack. Two of my favorite actors.

Best Regards, George

How about that Mercury woodie?

did any body notice the type of tread on theheel of clark gables hip boots...i wander what brand they were.... charlie

That is the sole of Clark's boot.

Red Ball

Hemingway
 

There are some photos out there of E. Hemingway and G. Cooper and I think Hemingways's wife M. Gelhorn; and their kids...bird hunting in Idaho. Don't know if Gable hunted with Hemingway or not. Great era...cut my teeth on those pics in LIFE.

EH with his Browning. Cooper probably holding his Remington Model 32.

http://pic20.picturetrail.com:80/VOL.../335875186.jpg

EH Browning
 

Can't quite make that out. Is it O/U? SxS?

Is it true that Cooper inherited Gable's A1? If so,does anyone know where it is today?

As I've heard the story Clark Gable's A1-Special went to Gary Cooper then to Roy Rogers.

Dave, there is no mention of Gable in acclaimed biographies of Hemingway by Carlos Baker and James R. Mellon. There are many references to Cooper.

I stumbled across these pictures of the Clark Gable BHE-Grade 32-inch barrel 20-gauge taken at our PGCA booth at Sandanona in 2000. Because of the glare it is hard to see but the left side has a Dove in flight --

http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v3...32inchleft.jpg

The right side has two California Quail --

http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v3...2inchright.jpg

Celebrity Parkers
 

Parker Pages ran a cover photo of Ernest Hemingway with a Parker and several ducks a couple of issues back. The editor recieved a rather strongly worded letter from a Hemingway collector that Hemingway owned no Parkers, and that Parker Pages and PGCA were attempting to invent a Hemingway Parker.
We replied that the fact that the picture showed Hemingway holding a Parker, was not evidence that he had ever held it while that shutter was closed. The gun may very well have been a prop supplied by the photographer, publisher or ad agency.
The fact that a gun may have been a prop should always be considered when examining celebrity pictures.

Best, Austin

Mine as well George-
 

But add to the mix Gary Cooper and Humphrey Bogart. Men dressed well, whether stars of the silver screen or not- so if "unkempt" means a disheveled appearance, all of those greats from yesteryear were "kempt" indeed.. Love the tag line from the song "Putting On The Ritz"-- "Dressed up like a million dollar trooper, tryin' hard to look like Gary Cooper (Super-Dooper?)-- all prove to my mind anyway the truth of Samuel Langhorn Clemen's observation that "Clothes make the man" and a Parker or an Elsie completes the ensemble rather well-

As far as the square back semi-auto with the "Steam Whistle" welded to the muzzle= to paraphrase Forrest Gump-- "Ugly is as ugly does"-- but if such a shotgun gets you a 100 straight at skeet every time, hard to deny the shootability of same-IMO!!:bigbye:

What does that picture have to do with lever guns? Looks to me like Mr. Gable is holding a 12-gauge over/under. Is that picture at A&F in NYC? Is the man behind the counter Charles Wick?

Thanks, fixed :)

Maybe Charles Wickes instead.
 

Hard to know after all these years, Nash B wrote about Charles Wickes working at A&F with Capt. Harold Money in the gun sales area. I can't answer the Hemingway/Parker scenario, I agree with Austin that possibly a Parker was the only shotgun available when the foto was taken. Hemingway mentioned a Model 12 in his "True At First Light"-a post mortem rehash of the second African Safari he (and Mary Welsh H.) took with Phillip Percival- and annotated with a forward from son Patrick Hemingway.

He may also have used a Browning 12 Over-Under and some European/English shotguns, but I have never read of his owning a shooting a Parker-- at least to date.:bigbye::bigbye:

Dave:

I'm guessing it's from a movie, unless Joan Crawford happened to be at A&F at the same time.

The image with Joan Crawford may have been from "Love on the Run" 1936

Clark Gable and John Barrymore skeet shooting in the Hollywood Hills. Gable looks to have the same Model 11; Barrymore maybe a M21?

http://pic20.picturetrail.com:80/VOL.../391785140.jpg

Ahh... I'm sure Mr. Barrymore has a Fox SPE-Grade Skeet & Upland Game Gun there!:)

Great foto- of Clark Gable and "The Great profile"
 

Wind has both Gable's trouser cuffs billowed and his hair askew- But somehow John Barrymore (being a tad downwind I suppose) looks fairly dapper. Can't speak for Barrymore's double as to exact make, but it is closed- Gable's semi-autoloader has the bolt locked back reward, as it should be. :cool:

Found a new image of Lombard's Smith which we're discussing on the LCSCA Forum, and this from the Oct. 1955 "Guns" magazine

http://pic20.picturetrail.com:80/VOL.../412687445.jpg

I have a Browning that looks like that also.

Gable and Gary Cooper in Sun Valley. Looks to be the A-1S leaning against the car? Gable is holding a straight stock ?small gauge.

http://pic20.picturetrail.com:80/VOL.../412687752.jpg

Cooper in his home gun room holding the A-1S

http://pic20.picturetrail.com:80/VOL.../412687750.jpg

I held Clark Gables A1 Special while visiting
Ottis Odom in 1985, Mr Odom said there was a million dollars in Parkers in that room. I did not know much about Parkers at that time but he had a lot of small gauge
Parkers. HE said he was the best customer of the
Delgrego family getting Parkers fixed and upgraded.

There are quite a few pictures of Gary Cooper with that A1-Special up at Ketchum/Sun Valley hunting with Papa and the crew, in High on the Wild with Hemingway.

Here are a few more of Gary Cooper, some with his A1S. The one laying on his bench is very likely the A1S.




.

Can anyone identify the vise Cooper has mounted on his bench?

Found it. It's a Bisley Rifle Vice.