Shelly Gitman

[Bill Murphy]

Get out your checkbook. I think prices are on the internet.

[Harry Collins]

I could get three Brooks Brothers shirts for the price of one Gitman. Unfortunately Brooks Brothers are no longer American made. I had always liked the length of tail on Brooks Bros.

[Bill Murphy]

The Gitman shirts that are in some closeout stores and websites are a little suspicious in my opinion.

[Stan Hoover]

Originally Posted by Bill Murphy

The Gitman shirts that are in some closeout stores and websites are a little suspicious in my opinion.

Bill,
I was looking at their website directly, looks like they were having a Sale on some of their shirts for $90, it looks like their average shirt is in the $150 and up range.

Stan

[Bill Murphy]

Kevin McCormack and I could write a book about Shelly, but don't hold your breath. Kevin and I were at lunch with Shelly on the Tennessee Alabama border one day when Shelly decided to tell us the story of his acquisition of the Invincibles. Turns out one of them was given to him by a fellow who I knew and lived right up the road from me. We learned a lot that day. Kevin dug way deeper when he shot International Trap with Shelly on his home turf. Did I tell you not to hold your breath?

[Bill Mullins]

I purchased a Gitman Bros. shirt many years ago and I recall it cost me around $75.00. Other nice shirts at the time ( Arrow, etc.) were priced around $20. The Gitman shirt lasted me many years and was the nicest shirt I ever owned. As I remember it was made of Egyptian long cotton fibers. Shelly demonstrated the same quality in his shooting as did his shirts in comfort!

[John William Smith]

Gilman shirts were expensive and I was buying them wholesale. The average price in the 80’s was approximately $80, now as much as $200! They used long staple Egyptian cotton ring spun yarn which I thought the finest available for shirting. I used to see him 3-4 times a year plus the Bobbin Show and he always talked Parkers, after we talked business!

[Kevin McCormack]

Shelly called me up one day and asked if I would be willing to take a couple of days off work to "ride shotgun" (you choose the pun) with him while he took the best of the best of his collection up to Del Grego's for a photo shoot with some other Parker Guns for "The Parker Story". Guess what my answer was.....

He told me to be at his house at 5:30 AM to help "list and load" the guns. "List and load" was a term I had become very familiar with over the years of our friendship - every time he went to a show, the guns he put into his car were listed by SN and counted; when he got to the show he did the same thing as he unloaded and set up. At the close of the show loading for the trip home, the process was repeated. Also, there was no need for the term "sharp" with Shelly - if he said 5:30, 5:35 was a "lost target".

So I showed up a few minutes before the appointed time and ran through the SNs on his pre-printed inventory list - check? We wound up taking 29 guns and 2 extra barrels up, and yes, that included the two Invincibles he owned at the time. I topped off my coffee as we ran by the local Sheetz (Shelly always drank tea) and we were off.

As we broached the main pass in the mountains just north of Hazelton PA, well before daylight, Shelly said, "Lets have a smoke." Both cigar lovers, I remarked that it was a little early in the morning for a robust, high-character smoke. He replied, "Don't try to tell me you've never fired up a "primo" before daylight in a duck blind, or out on the Chesapeake trolling for rockfish (striped bass). It was hard to argue with a guy that savvy.....

About 10 puffs into our smokes, he asked me, "What would you like to listen to?" His son Gabriel was an orchestral musician (French Horn) and he knew I was a classical music fan. I asked him what our options were. He said, "Mahler or Vivaldi, your choice" Since it was coming Halloween, I offered; "Why don't we start off with Vivaldi's 'Autumn' and segue into Mahler's 5th symphony as the sunlight rises and bathes the land?"

So he plugged in the CDs, we drew on our fine cigars (Shelly always smoked Monte Cristo Churchills), and watched the fiery sunrise come up , washing the mountainsides like case colors.

The photo shoot was intense and fast-paced; unknown or unseen guns coming out of the closet for 'glam shots', everyone there remarking on their rarity, craftsmanship, or in some cases, "funkiness".

A day later and on the way home to Shelly's house late that afternoon, we passed the decorated hay bales, scarecrows, ghosts and goblins festooning the fields and farmhouses leaving the Mohawk Valley south of Ilion, and after dark, saw the goblin lights of a hundred jack-o-lanterns leering out at us with their feral grins.

It was the night of "The Perfect Storm", when the swordboat Andrea Gail out of Glouchester MA was lost with all hands off the Flemish Cap. It was the night after the days that we "shot the big ones." Both are burned into my memory still.

[Brett Hoop]

Mr McCormack

Thank you for the wonderful backdrop memory. With all that’s been lost this year, I’ve realized in many ways it is the Parker / Fox community that adds greatly to the attraction of the guns.

[John William Smith]

Wonderful story Kevin. In business, I always found Shelly to be sharp and his shirts were made the same way, best of the best.
Revisiting Ashland is on my bucket list just to see the area again. I also need to visit Larry DelGreco to let him look at a Trojan 20bore that I was told he restored many years ago. He told me on the phone that I needed to send the gun to him or bring it so he could look it over. Maybe after the Army-Navy Game this year(if its held) I might take a road trip up that way. Many of my best memories revolve around things or people and that trip would prompt many of them.