I was flipping around on TV and stopped on an episode of I love Lucy. It was one of the later ones when Lucy and Ricky were in Hollywood. Ricky was working some kind of a deal with Richard Widmark at his home and Lucy was not invited, but managed to sneak in anyway, hiding under a Grizzly rug in Widmarks trophy room. At one point Widmark asks Ricky if he would like to see his Elephant rifle. At first I thought it was a double shotgun, but then saw that it had express sights on it. To me, it looked like a 10 bore Paradox with 30" barrels, but it never showed the gun close up or for long. Did anyone else see it and have any ideas?
I realize that it was probably all a set, but wonder if Widmark was an African Hunter as it was very popular amongst the manly male stars in Hollywood in the fifties and sixties. Anyone have any thoughts?

I will do an inernet search and try to find the title.
I have a list of Africa movies and those with double rifle in them. Thanks for this.
In the 1940-50-60s Hollywood men often went on safari almost as a manly right of passage. Bing Crosby, John Wayne, Kirk Douglas to name three. Although Kirk later stated he regretted it greatly.
Cal

I don't believe that Richard Widmark was an African hunter, as according to internet information on him he was anti-gun and participated in several gun control initiatives later in life. He stated that he was an ardent gun control supporter, and had made a "half assed career" out of gun violence. Aside from that, funny how these things pop up. My grandkids were watching some "Flubber" movie the other night that starred the late Robin Williams. There was a scene where they were in some opulent castle like home that had, among others, a Cape Buffalo mount and a waterbuck mount that Williams referred to as a deer.

I went online and did some research. The episode was from 1955 and was called "The Tour". Widmark was known in his later years for his anti-gun/violence stance, typical Hollywood hypocrite as even he admitted that violence was rampant in his movies.
William Holden is one of my favorite actors and he was a big time African hunter, but as he got older, he was led by his wee-wee with Audrey Hepburn and turned his Safari Club Lodge in Kenya into a wildlife conservation organization, kind of ironic considering the amount of poaching that takes place in Kenya now.

I seem to remember seeing the Lucy episode about 1963 but as usual I think they called it an elephant 'gun'.

We must not be too surprised to hear of thespians playing people far removed from their real characters. That is part of the attraction to acting, it allows people to forget who they really are for a while.

quote:

Originally posted by cal pappas:
I will do an inernet search and try to find the title.
I have a list of Africa movies and those with double rifle in them. Thanks for this.
In the 1940-50-60s Hollywood men often went on safari almost as a manly right of passage. Bing Crosby, John Wayne, Kirk Douglas to name three. Although Kirk later stated he regretted it greatly.
Cal

One of my earliest "African" memories is of Bing Crosby and Phil Harris shooting sand grouse on the American Sportsman show. Very funny episode.

quote:

Originally posted by drongo:

quote:

Originally posted by cal pappas:
I will do an inernet search and try to find the title.
I have a list of Africa movies and those with double rifle in them. Thanks for this.
In the 1940-50-60s Hollywood men often went on safari almost as a manly right of passage. Bing Crosby, John Wayne, Kirk Douglas to name three. Although Kirk later stated he regretted it greatly.
Cal

One of my earliest "African" memories is of Bing Crosby and Phil Harris shooting sand grouse on the American Sportsman show. Very funny episode.

He was probably with Terry Mathews or Tony Seth Smith. Bing hunted and safarid with both of them many times.

The Story I heard ,was Kirk Douglas ''Regretted '' not getting into hunting earlier in his life ,I did have a photo saved of him, getting off a plane with a big smile on his face with his rifle in a leather case .
Whether he ''regretted '' it later, to please the Bambi-ites .
Off topic, but there was a Jerry Lewis Movie where he finds himself in a Gun shop and the woman from the Bank in The Beverley Hillbillies,[cant think of her name] comes in dressed up like she going hunting and inspects the double rifles.

"Miss Jane Hathaway" played by the late Nancy Kulp.