Home Forums Hunting & Shooting Hunter's Campfire What Make and Model Handgun Did Frank Cannon Carry?

It helps the bullets go faster.

Taurus 85. The mark above his left eye is the permanent scar left from when his previous Taurus 85 blew up.

I know you're joking, of course, but are Taurus 85s known for kabooms? I hadn't heard that.

I watched a clip and thought it was a S&W 36, the second clip I thought is was a Detective special, since the ejector rod was showing

I was joking. But in all seriousness i have owned 4 Taurus NIB revolvers and only the .45 colt 450 model did not fall apart or break anything within the fist box of ammo.
I did see a NIB Taurus 44 tracker send its entire barrel 5 yards downrange with the first cylinder of factory ammo.
Friends don't let friends buy Taurus.

Model 36s were pretty popular at one time. This one is special to me, it was my pop's backup for 20 years on the police department. It was made in 1962 and he bought it from a fellow cop went he went on in 1965.

Wow! Good to know.

Chief's Special. It serves a very narrow role very well. I don't like it for a main concealed carry, though. I much prefer a short barreled, round butt framed, K-Frame or a Detective Special.

I never carry this pistol because of the sentimental value. If I carry a small frame revolver it is my 4th Issue Detective Special.

I don't know if I still have it around, but at one time I had the complete list of the firearms owned by Quinn Martin Productions, which produced, among other shows, Cannon. My wife worked as an executive for Q.M., and after Quinn Martin sold his production company, the new corporation, Taft Broadcasting, decided to get rid of the Q.M. firearms.

My wife got a copy of the guns and I was going to try and buy them all. Unfortunately, someone got there before I could put in a bid. Maybe Stembridge, but my wife and I never knew for sure.

I wrote a number of scripts for Q.M., although not for Cannon. Seems to me, although it's been a long time, that Bill Conrad carried a six shot S&W snubbie.

I know that Buddy Ebson on Barnaby Jones carried a S&W Model 10, 4".

IIRC, Mike Douglas and Karl Malden on Q.M's. Streets of San Francisco, carried S&W snubbies. Can't recall the model.

I wrote also for Q.M's. Caribe, but for my life I can't recall what Stacy Keach carried. Too many years.

If I can find that copy of Q.M's. guns, I'll post it. Seems there were about 35 handguns, rifles, and shotguns.

L.W.

One of my favorites.

I had completely forgotten about Barnaby Jones. Wasn't Caribe a short lived series? Like one season? I remember the commercials for the first season appearing on TV when I was in middle school. The commercial went something like "SWAT! ... Caribe! ... Beretta! ... This fall!"

Leanwolf;
Thanks for that interesting bit of trivia sir, I appreciate you sharing it.

I was a big fan of the Quinn Martin shows - lots of action and guns for a Saskatchewan farm boy to watch. They were a nice escape from the speed of the farm, doubly so in the 5 months of Saskatchewan winter.

Anyway, if you ever find the list I for one would be interested in seeing it.

Thanks again and all the best to you all in the upcoming week.

Regards,
Dwayne

I'd like to see that list too, LW.
But only 35? Really? I thought those rich Hollywood types would have hundreds. Most people I hang with had that many by the time they were out of school.

TRH, yes, Caribe was short lived. One and one half seasons, if I remember correctly.

BC30Cal, glad you enjoyed the shows from Quinn Martin Productions. Martin had more "cops-'n-robbers" shows on the air than any other production company in Hollywood. His shows were filmed at Goldwyn Studios.

I have some very good memories from those days writing for those shows. I met my wife at Q.M., when I was writing for Barnaby Jones. We'll soon have been married 37 years.

Barry C, the company owned the guns, not the actors. Q.M. Productions had so many "cops-'n-robbers" shows running over the years that it was less expensive for the company to buy the guns and keep them in the Props Dept., than to rent them from Stembridge for all the various shows each week.

Just as a point of information, unless a gun was actually in a shot, either fired, pulled, or pointed, etc., actors did not carry their guns when filming. Bulky, heavy, and kinda ruined the cut of a finely tailored suit.

When a uniformed police officer (actor), such as T.J. Hooker, was carrying a pistol on his Sam Brown belt, unless he were to actually fire the gun on film, using blanks of course, the pistol would have been a lightweight replica. Actors did not want to be burdened with that heavy piece of steel unless the script required it to be fired.

Live ammo was never allowed on a set.

When I have a chance, I'll dig around in some boxes of old scripts I have stored in the garage and see if I can find that list of Q.M. guns. Maybe it's there, maybe not.

L.W.

Probably off topic but though I have no idea exactly what Cannon carried I do remember him taking down a suspect armed with a .41 mag snubbie. Introduced me to a life long love of .41 Mag.

Really enjoyed TJ Hooker growing up.