The left-handed gun

Before he left for bayou country, Sson hung several paintings, prints and other pictures to make new home feel more like my home. Here's one of my favorites -- and its story, at least as much as I know. When we moved into Prescott from Wilhoit in the mid 80s, we had plenty of room, and large white expanses of wall. Time to think about art. At that time, there was a gallery in the St. Michael Alley two doors down from Ernie's Hotel California. A young artist guy showed up who needed fast money to finance his more serious work. He had whipped out several hand-colored wood block prints with a western theme (always a best seller in Arizona.) The catch was that the prints were based upon Hollywood studio b&w publicity photos. This particular picture was a promotion for The Left-Handed Gun, a major production about Billy the Kid, with Paul Newman playing The Kid. And, yes, though I generally don't buy into the self-conscious Western Art meme, I had to have this print. I leave it to you to figure out which of the guys is Newman.

Happy Birthday, Duke

Of course, it's a little bit late to be ordering the tschotkes and memorabilia for your John Wayne's 100th birthday party, because he was born Marion Robert Morrison 100 years ago today in a small Iowa town. However, there's plenty of the stuff out there in the great cybermall.

For something a little more special, you go to someone like my buddy Jim, who makes custom gun rigs based upon old Hollywood A & B westerns. Here he is holding one of three John Wayne gun belt replicas made for one customer. This particular outfit was worn in The Shootist, which was a class act and fitting finale to The Duke's long career.

Prescott has been a western town far longer than its new role as a boutique town serving the Left Coast; thus you still find John Wayne symbolism here and there, such as at the front of the Grove Street gun shop. Just incidentally, when I consulted The Google concerning the western star, it referred me to the exact same cutout at a London party shop.

Here is my most favorite John Wayne appearance in town this past year -- he stands guard at the western-themed tree at Watters' annual Christmas tree extravaganza.

A small note about Prescott and western stars: our real locally connected Hollywood cowboy was Tom Mix, who shot films here and owned a ranch hereabouts. Wayne ranched up on the Rim, near Eager, a fact I learned from NPR, believe it or not. That small town is one of several celebrating his birthday this weekend.

$622 Mil Gross? -- Yes, It Is

Happened into the KMart recently and got about as close to Spiderman-3 as I'm going to get. Which is to say, I got my fill of tie-in merchandise in a hurry. Right next to the entrance.

The $622 million figure? It's the worldwide ticket take for the first 10 days of the new flick; the $500 million cost of production plus a bonus $122 mil. A serious questioning of The Google didn't get me estimated sales of the huge merchandise push; however, it did produce 206,000 links to "Spiderman-3 +merchandise."


A news release from Marvel Entertainment claims that Spider-Man Merchandising L.P. has signed a myriad of licensees to develop product lines inspired by the film. Leading the way are such industry heavyweights as: Hasbro, Mega Bloks and MGA (toy), Hallmark (social expressions and party goods), Activision (interactive game), Disguise (costumes), Harper Collins (publishing), Jay Franco (domestics), Zooth/Gillete (personal care) and Techno Source (handheld electronics). For starters.

Obviously, my pictures include quite a few more top brands, starting with food products (above) and games (below). You can get a good cross-section of the variety at Amazon.com, if you're curious.

However, isn't anything sacred anymore? I really don't mind The Amazing SPIDER-MAN® Hamster House sold by PetSmart. But it does break my heart to see my beloved Monopoly caught up in the Hollywood feeding frenzy!

The Arms of Hollywood

One of my breakfast buddies is both a gun fancier and a well known gun leather craftsman; he insisted that I should attend a major showing out in Chino Valley Saturday. On display on the grounds at Doreen's: pieces featured in classic Western TV & movies plus a few SF extravaganzas.

It was not our usual sunshine sort of day -- instead, grey, chilly, with rain in the distance if not at the scene. Chino was a surprising location for the Stembridge Gun Arsenal Collection on display. Speculation: possibly a major client out that way or perhaps its location near Gunsight.

Rifles and shotguns from major films...

...featuring fine workmanship -- plus the aura of the stars who used them.

Note the policeman. The rep from Little John's Auction Service claimed some rather astronomical values present on those tables.
Guns and leather worn by the Cartwrights on Bonanza.

A pair of ladylike pistols used by Batman's Catwoman, plus Richard Boone's Derringer. Among others.

The odd looking broomhandle Mauser in the corner was brandished by Han Solo in the original Star Wars. The auctioneer man says they expect it to fetch around $150Gs.

More hand guns, including specials from Terminator II, The Blues Brothers, and Magnum PI.

And real fantasy pieces created for Wild Wild West.

The collection had been bought from the Stembridge prop house by Robert Peterson, publisher of Guns & Ammo magazine. Gossip has it that he was interested in founding a museum, but his heirs just aren't. Hence the auction.

If you feel rich enough to buy into the Hollywood dream, plan on an Anaheim trip June 5-6. Details at Little John's.