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(Courtesy of Minard Coons)
Gunbelt Trivia
... or who was wearin' what rig?


For those who pay close attention to the range costumes of the B western heroes and supporting players, you might notice that some folks appear to be wearing 'borrowed' gunbelts ... or the same ol' gunbelt seemed to pop up in movie after movie.

There were also some rather unique / different gunbelts. A good example is the one worn by Dennis 'Denny' 'Smoky' Moore (on the left).

If you're into B western trivia, this may be of interest.


The Gunbelts



Gun and gunbelt weblinks

The Autry National Center museum has six-guns, holsters and other memorabilia from many western movie heroes. In the search box at the top of the page, type in "Ken Maynard", "Buck Jones", "Monte Hale", others, and run the search. Make sure to put quote marks around the name: http://collections.theautry.org/mwebcgi/mweb.exe?request=home#
and they also have many articles and photos highlighting "The Colt Revolver in the American West": http://collections.theautry.org/mwebcgi/mweb.exe?request=record%3Bid%3DT208558%3Btype%3D801

Nudie Cohn was one of the more famous designers of western wear used by Hollywood cowboys. Skilled craftsmen such as Edward H. Bohlin and Bob Brown fashioned gunbelts and saddles used by many of the B western personalities. You can read more about them:

Article on handgun expert John Taffin and the Colt single action sixgun: http://www.sixgunner.org/taffincustomsingleactions2.html

Many of the firearms (and blank cartridges) used in films came from Stembridge Gun Rentals, a company formed circa 1916 by James Stembridge and Cecil B. DeMille. Google search has articles on the Stembridge company: https://www.google.com/search?q=%22Stembridge+Gun+Rentals%22

There's a 1998 Guns magazine article on Stembridge (Adobe pdf file): http://www.originalprop.com/public_html/stembridge/gunsmag.pdf

There's a 1969 True magazine article on the history of Stembridge: http://www.originalprop.com/blog/?p=2469 and in Adobe pdf format: http://www.originalprop.com/blog/wp-content/uploads/2008/05/true-magazine-stembridge-article.pdf



(Courtesy of Walt Grigg)
Walt Grigg's collection includes this box of "5 in 1" flash powder blank cartridges produced by the Stembridge Gun Rental company.

These could be used in various calibers of the Colt single action and Colt lookalikes. This box of blanks has a 1948 date on it.


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