Prop Guns in early Hollywood. Heck they just used real bullets..

[Hokkmike]

I have to share this story. I was in a gun store in northeastern PA. There was a colt revolver clone in the case priced at $900.00 with a sign that said, "Used in a John Wayne movie." OK, so that got my interest. I asked the counter man how "he knew" it was in a John Wayne movie. His answer was, "because it cost $900."....

 

[Tommygunn]

I have to share this story. I was in a gun store in northeastern PA. There was a colt revolver clone in the case priced at $900.00 with a sign that said, "Used in a John Wayne movie." OK, so that got my interest. I asked the counter man how "he knew" it was in a John Wayne movie. His answer was, "because it cost $900."....

Uh .... for some reason ... that strains my credulity....

 

[4v50 Gary]

wow. Never knew that they used real bullets.

 

[WestKentucky]

That does explain a lot of shots in early movies. The shots where gunfire is incoming are always shot at an angle, never straight at... because the for real bullets would have for real hit the camera.

 

[Kendahl]

Annie Oakley once shot a cigarette out of the Kaiser's mouth.

There is a decades old movie, now a video, that demonstrates LAPD marksmanship. It contains a clip in which one officer uses a revolver to shoot a cigarette from the lips of another at a pretty good distance.

 

[Slamfire]

They did some real dangerous stuff back then.

Harold Lloyd had a rubber hand, and in the movie "Safety Last" he is for real hanging off a clock. A movie prop bomb removed a thumb and finger of his right hand, so he wore a rubber hand, which you have to carefully observe to see it. And he is hanging off this clock, with one rubber hand. I don't know how far he could have fallen, regardless, I think he could have been hurt bad.