Wednesday, January 14, 2015

Old Days; Movie Edition

I watched Shaft the other day. The movie, in case you're not familiar with it*, was made in 1971.

John Shaft carried a Colt Detective Special, either blued or nickel-plated (he had one of each, he kept the spare in his freezer). In that world, if somebody wasn't next to a telephone, you couldn't reach him. A lot of buildings still had elevator operators and elevator starters (yes, that was a job). Some apartment buildings had switchboards and staffed kitchens that supplied meals to the residents. Apartments had servants' entrances. People were smoking on the street, in stores, restaurants, bars and offices.

Different world. Still had the best opening music, ever.



And the best cover of that:


________________________________________
* Man. there's something wrong with you.
on or about

5 comments:

  1. mikey1/14/2015 6:41 PM

    I vaguely remember Colt certifying the DS for +P .38 Specials for 2000 rounds. It sounded like a very bad idea to me...

    ReplyDelete
  2. Comrade Misfit1/14/2015 7:20 PM

    Sure, but who the hell, as least non-LEOs, would do that? +P ammo isn't cheap. Almost everyone shoots standard pressure stuff and saves the +P for a bad day.

    Because at the likely distance for using them, the difference in impact spots is going to be minimal.

    ReplyDelete
  3. mikey1/14/2015 8:13 PM

    Mainly I think because 158 gr LSWCs left that wobbly cylinder and 2" barrel at about 600 fps and would bounce off leather jackets, to say nothing of windshields. Did not inspire confidence either way.

    If you're interested I wrote a paean to the .38 snub back in 2013.

    http://yougotttaconsiderthesource.blogspot.com/2013/07/guns-before-guns-were-cool.html

    ReplyDelete
  4. D.1/15/2015 2:18 PM

    What a time capsule! (I was not living in New York yet, but I did visit a lot.)

    ReplyDelete
  5. The New York Crank1/15/2015 2:42 PM

    " A lot of buildings still had elevator operators and elevator starters (yes, that was a job)."

    Quite a few residential buildings still do, and you pay extra for that. They're called "White Glove buildings."

    " Apartments had servants' entrances."

    They still do. Almost any pre-WWII apartment in Manhattan, for example. Check out Park Avenue some time. Except they're called "service entrances," not "servants' entrances.

    But the film shows one thing you forgot to mention. People really did get their jobs through the New York Times. If you needed work, you checked out the Times classifieds. There was no Internet.

    Yours crankily,
    The New YOrk Crank

    ReplyDelete

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