Clark Gable Story

[Pa SxS]

For some reason I can't directly reply to Scott Janowski's thread on Clark Gable so I'll start another thread.

Recently I had the pleasure of talking to a gentleman in California who at one time owned an A-1 Special 20ga gun owned by either his father or grandfather. His relative was a golf course architect and designed the Rivera and Los Angles Country Clubs. As a gift the LA Country Club gave him the A-1 Special. While talking to him, he mentioned that as a boy, he went shooting with either his father or grandfather, I can't remember which, and watched his relative shoot with Clark Gable, Roy Rogers, Andy Devine, and some other famous people. It was either trap or skeet. He remained in contact with Gable and he purchased one of Gables guns. He told me that he later sold the gun to a dealer in California. This dealer wanted proof that the gun did at one time belong to Gable. This gentleman wrote to Kay Gable, Clark's widow and she verified that fact. I knew I had seen a reference to that. Check out The Parker Story page 647.

Now I don't know if it's the same gun, he may of had more than one. I can tell you that the stock book shows it as a CHE, 20ga, 2 barrel set, not a DHE. The ink stamp in some of the stock books is very faint and in this case, The D in DHE or the C in CHE is very faint. Roy Gunther made the determination that it was a C and wrote that in red ink.

Is this the same gun as in the article Scott posted? Can't really tell but both have a beavertail forend.