Hollywood, Martin Retting and Trapdoor Carbines
Follow me on this, as the Movie Studio thread (http://www.jouster2.com/forums/showt...io-marked-guns ) sent me down the rabbit hole on this rode-hard more-or-less M1879 carbine.
Back in the 1950s, Martin Redding use to peddle both carbines and rifles cut down to carbine length. This is from a 1965-66 catalog
Note that an $85 carbine in 1965 works out to $746.35 in 2021, using an Historical Inflation Calculator.
Got curious, started poking around more. The Buffalo Bill Center of the West library has some correspondence from Retting to H.K. White in New York City
"By 1905 White was in a position to purchase much of the M. Hartley Company?s stock and continue operating as H. K. White Military Goods, located at 3 Water Street, New York City. With Henry's sons, Robert J. White (the original secretary and treasurer of the UMC Company) and Frederick R. White, and George Koerner, White?s company prospered in selling firearms and equipment, military supplies and other goods, and became known especially for its supply of surplus Civil War arms and goods. Eventually White's other son, H. K. White, Jr. joined the firm as well, and when the elder White died in 1923, his sons continued to run the business. H. K. White Military Goods continued to do business into the 1960s and became very well known among antique firearms collectors. In 1963 the company?s stock was purchased by Turner Kirkland?s Dixie Gun Works Company of Union City, Tennessee."
In one letter dated January 12, 1954 Retting asks White in a closing paragraph "Please quote us on locks (lockplate, all internal parts, hammer, etc.) for 45-70 single shot Springfield, trapdoor buttplates complete for [handwritten - None] 45-70 carbines, sling swivels, swivel bar for 45-70 carbine 45-70 carbine stocks, any condition, rear sights 45-70 carbine. Please quote all of above in lots of two dozen."
So he was rebuilding Trapdoor Carbines. Rhetorically, *why*?
Take a look at the films coming out in 1954 and 1955
https://www.imdb.com/search/title/?r...genres=western
https://www.imdb.com/search/title/?r...genres=western
...never mind the established popularity of John Ford's trilogy from a few years before
https://screenrant.com/john-ford-cav...movies-ranked/
Stay Tuned for the Next Post
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