LEARNING TO SHOOT

Sun (Auckland), Volume I, Issue 184, 25 October 1927, Page 15

LEARNING TO SHOOT

STAR'S FIRST LESSON Gary Cooper, newly crowned Paramount western star, recently received his first lesson in gunmanshin. Cooper was required to take a heavy frontier model six-shooting revolver, suspend it over his forefinger and extend it, butt-forward, to a man standing opposite him. As the hand came forward to take it from Cooper, lie was required to flip it neatly on his finger so that, in the flash of an eye, the man facing him found himself looking into the business end of a weapon. The trick is one which originated in the old days of the west when a man’s life depended upon his skill with a revolver. Billy the Kid, Wild Bill Hickok, Buffalo Bill and other noted gunmen were famous for the trick and it has been handed down to the present generation of motion picture western stars and cowboys. Although Cooper spent 19 years of his life on the plans of Montana as a cowboy before his entrance in pictures, the heavy frontier revolver and the opportunities for its use had already vanished. The stunt was required for a scene \ in Paramount's “The Last Outlaw,” a i western story which was directed by \ Arthur Rosson.