The Man Who Teaches Hollywood Stars to Shoot
The Man Who Teaches Hollywood Stars to Shoot
by Ben Irwin
Guns Magazine – March 1956
Reprinted with Tom Blasgen’s permission
From his book “Fast Draw… Yesterday, Today”
THE FASTEST MAN with a gun, 45 Colt or any other variety, to be found in that never-never land they call Hollywood is not John Wayne, Gary Cooper, Burt Lancaster or even Roy Rogers. He is a mild-mannered gent named Arvo Ojala and everyone of the movie colony’s western stars is properly envious of the man who bears the title of Hollywood’s fastest gun slinger.
In fact those who should know say Arvo Ojala may well be one of the fastest men on the draw in this country or perhaps anywhere. Which is a large statement, admittedly. The facts, however, would seem to support that contention.
Arvo Ojala is a husky quiet man in his mid 30′s, of Finnish extraction and originally a farmer by profession. From Washington State’s Yakima Valley where he ran an apple ranch, Arvo came to Hollywood only five years ago. In that time he has come to be regarded as the top expert in the movie community on practically any kind of gun handling.
Ojala was attracted to Hollywood by the fact that he was critical of the techniques employed by Messrs. Cooper, Wayne and their fraternity in drawing a gun. Ojala himself learned to draw fast and shoot accurately because near his apple ranch was a “rattlesnake den”. He practiced shooting rattler’s heads off at 20 feet or more and the neighbors used to come from many a mile around the Ojala ranch to see Arvo’s murderous draw and equally killing aim. He never failed to satisfy his audience.
Washington’s cold weather plus a curiosity about the movie business brought Arvo down to Hollywood for a visit. He made friends with a few actors who worked in the westerns, meanwhile improving his draw so that if the opportunity came to demonstrate it, he could. It did in the movie “Return of Jack Slade” in which Arvo had an opportunity to impart to star John Erickson some of his gun-slinging knowhow. The word soon got around.
Arvo became known specifically for one unique talent, among many others with a gun. He would challenge any man to take a single action Colt, hold it on him cocked and ready to fire. Arvo’s gun would be in his holster, un-cooked. The challenger would nod simultaneously with the action of pulling the trigger on his Colt. Arvo would have his gun out, cocked and fired before his opponent could get off a shot. No one in Hollywood has defeated him at this contest. Small wonder the name of Ojala has become a kind of legend among those who use guns professionally in films or just for sport. Ojala has had occasion over these five years to give some lessons in gun handling to stars like Dale Robertson, Hugh O’Brian (Whyatt Earp of the television series), Sammy Davis, Jr., Jeff Hunter, Rory Calhoun and screen lovelies Marie Blanchard and Peggy Castle.
Speaking of lovely ladies, one of Arvo’s happiest assignments for the film “River of No Return” was showing Marilyn Monroe some of the intricacies of the .45. “Somehow,” grins Arvo recalling the incident, “I found it was taking me an awfully long time. But she didn’t seem to mind. And I certainly enjoyed it”.
Arvo not only instructs the stars in the handling of guns but also demonstrates and teaches such refinements as the “road agent spin,” the “reverse draw” and the variations thereon. “Oldtime gunmen Johnny Ringo and John Wesley Hardin loved the road agent spin and one of them may have invented it,” says Arvo, “most likely Hardin. He was known as the fastest draw of his time and was supposed to have killed 40 men before he was 26 years old.”
The road agent spin, as Arvo describes it, was popular not only for its showiness of execution but its usefulness to men like Hardin. A lawman would get the drop on Hardin, ask him for his gun. Hardin would hand it to him butt first on his flat pal, as if he were going to surrender the gun quietly. Just before the lawman would touch the gun, Hardin would roll the gun around on his palm, cock and fire it all in a split second. According to Arvo it rarely failed.
Another rather spectacular piece of gunplay Arvo shows his pupils is the “border switch.” He explains many old timers carried two guns but only drew one at a time. As soon as one was empty the gunman made a simultaneous toss of one gun in the air, drawing the other and keeping on firing without losing a fraction of a second. When Arvo was instructing Frank Sinatra in the techniques of the fast draw for his gunman role in the film “Johnny Concho,” (Ojala incidentally appears prominently in the trailer for that movie billed as the fastest draw in America), Frank wanted urgently to be shown the trick of the border switch, using live ammunition yet. “I told Frank, who incidentally learned how to handle a gun about as fast as anyone I’ve ever seen, that unless he had a couple of spare thumbs to lose he better not even try that border switch with live ammo. It’s just not healthy.”
Some of Arvo’s accomplishments as “standin” for the stars in certain gun feats, they could not be expected to perform for themselves, have become a legend in movietown. For the movie “Two Gun Lady,” Arvo had the pleasure of stepping in for pulchritudinous Peggy Castle in a scene in which she is called upon to shoot 18 pieces of three-inch chalk off a rack 15 yards away with a 22 automatic rifle. Arvo performed the stunt gracefully in one take for the camera, knocking off all 18 chalks in a matter of less than 20 seconds to the applause of the entire company.
For the movie “The Return of Jack Slade,” Arvo was called upon to make a single action Colt revolver ling on the ground dance to the tune of live ammo he fired at it from a .44-40 lever action Winchester carbine, without harming the Colt. Arvo, from 30 feet away, fired nine rifle shots in rapid succession right under the Colt. Since the director had planned an expensive wire setup to manipulate the gun, Ojala’s real live shooting saved the budget a few bucks and drew a round of applause as well as a handsome bonus.
Just as a side line, as if his normal pursuits were not enough, Arvo designs special holsters for many of the stars. He includes among his customers for these items Dean Martin, who got intrigued with gun slinging during the shooting of “Partners,” Rory Calhoun, who boasts one of the fanciest holsters in Hollywood made by Ojala of real alligator skin, Hugh O’Brian, Jim (“Gunsmoke”) Arness and Sammy Davis, Jr.
Arvo’s favorite gun is probably the old fashioned single action Colt with a 4 3/4 inch barrel length, with which he is particularly adept. His record with this gun is drawing, cocking and firing all in less than 1/6th of a second. For this writer he performed his fantastic half dollar trick with his Colt, dropping a coin from hip level with his right hand, drawing, cocking and firing simultaneously with his right hand and hitting the half dollar before it dropped a distance of four inches!
He performed this particular piece of gunplay for Gary Cooper during the making of “The Friendly Persuasion” and Cooper, no mean hand himself with a Colt, was so moved by the Ojala technique that for once old monosyllabic Gary let loose with a torrent of more than two minutes of mixed praise and astonishment for Ojala’s wizardry. Ojala’s assignment on “Friendly Persuasion” incidentally, was as technical advisor showng “Coop” how to handle an old time muzzle loader, done by loading the barrel with three grams of black powder, ramrodding the wadding in tightly so the explosion would be realistic.
How long does it take the old maestro to teach a man to look good with a gun? Ojala admits he can train a man for rapid draw and firing in about two weeks of hard practice. “Of course,” he adds modestly, “they won’t be quite as fast as I am.” Which should qualify as the understatement of the year.