I watched a lot of Westerns. Roy, Rex, Rowdie, Gil Favor, Sky King, Tonto, John Wayne, Little Joe and on and on. I loved them all. Once I saw one of them—not one of the above mentioned—sunbathing on my mom’s beach. Leathery but in shape and obviously waiting for his agent’s call. It wasn’t going to happen.
Sometimes, when these shows were shown at kid viewing time, i.e. Saturdays, there would be commercials that crept into our vulnerable brains. Tony the Tiger, Bosco, Nestlé’s Quik, Malto-Meal and Ovaltine.
My favorite ad for something that I really, really wanted was from Mattel. They made a tooled Western belt with a buckle. The buckle featured a small derringer; the same gun that killed Abraham Lincoln. The gun was “real”—in that it could fire a small plastic bullet and maybe a cap. I’m not sure, because I never got one.
The deal was that a kid could load his gun—note that I’m not saying “her” because I was supposed to be wanting Barbie accessories—walk around confidently and then thrust out his stomach muscles to trigger the derringer which would swing out and “fire.” I had never seen anything cooler in my entire life: baring Dick Tracy’s watch.
I wanted one. I never got one. They are on EBAY. The prices are going up and the belt wouldn’t fit me. I do think I could fit the buckle.
I remember that. pretty sure that was Jim West's belt buckle from "The Wild Wild West'
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