HOLLYWOOD'S TOP GUN

by: LANCE THOMPSON

Dodge City lawman Bat Masterson once offered this advice to would-be gunslingers: "The man who coveted a reputation started in early and practiced....When he could draw, cock and fire all in one smooth lightning-quick movement, he could then detach his mind from that movement and concentrate on accuracy." Masterson could have been describing the life of Arvo Ojala, a man whose living depends on his unmatched skill and speed with a six-gun.

Arvo Ojala is a Hollywood gun coach who has been showing actors how to draw and fire as if their lives depended on it for 45 years. He's coached television and movie top guns from Kirk Douglas to Kevin Costner. His patented fast-draw holster revolutionized the look of Western gun leather, and examples are now prized by museums and collectors alike. Larry Bird, prop master on Silverado and Three Amigos, calls Ojala, "the finest gun man I've ever seen, and I've been in the business 30 years."

Born in Seattle to Finnish parents Wilfred and Siama Ojala, Arvo grew up in the 1930's on his father's ranch in Washington's Yakima Valley, where he recalls teaching himself marksmanship by "shooting the heads off rattlesnakes." Starting with a Daisy air rifle at age 4, he graduated to a .303 Savage hunting rifle five years later. But when Arvo discovered single-action Colt revolvers he came into his own. His now-legendary fast-draw talents--such as drawing and firing in the blink of an eye, or snapping off three shots from a six gun in one smooth, split second motion--are all skills he perfected on the ranch, and are entirely self-taught.

Those skills served Ojala well, because when he came to Hollywood in 1950, the Western was king, and audiences demanded that their hard-riding heroes look authentic. As Arvo remembers, "A guy saw me spinning my Colt on the set one day, and he called the producer over and said, 'Look at that guy playing with the gun.'" The producer needed an expert gun handler on his next project, and Arvo's career as a Western gun coach began.

The most popular television Western was Gunsmoke, where Ojala worked behind and in front of the camera. In the opening gun duel that kicks off every episode, Ojala is the man who challenges Marshall Dillon in the most-watched showdown in Hollywood Westerns. Ojala lost that battle every week, but his students were winning gunfights all over the television frontier.

He spread the art of the fast-draw to the stars of many other popular Western series--James Garner of Maverick, Peter Brown of Lawman, Clint Walker and Ty Hardin of Cheyenne and Will Hutchins of Sugarfoot. Ojala insists it's not hard to learn the skills. "It's pretty easy if you listen to what I'm saying and watch what I'm doing.

Safety is always most important." Ojala has worked on films that range from John Wayne favorites like The War Wagon and Chisum to comedies such as Three Amigos and Back to the Future III. Students of the Ojala school include Western tough guys like Jack Palance, the wise-cracking stars of Butch Cassidy and the Sundance Kid, Paul Newman and Robert Redford, as well as two of Hollywood's loveliest leading ladies, Natalie Wood and Marilyn Monroe.

Arvo names Scott Glenn, one of the stars of Silverado, as an outstanding recent student. Though he was experienced with handguns prior to making the film, Glenn marveled at Ojala's facility with the Colt revolver. "He can draw and fire faster than anyone I've ever seen in my life. He's the first person who ever taught me about 'point shooting' or 'instinct shooting.' It's not about looking at a target at all--you just do it thousands of times, the same way you learn martial arts. After a while, the body starts to know it. Shooting for him is like a Zen exercise."

The gunman is just one component of the fast draw. The weapon itself is just as important, and Ojala has been modifying firearms for maximum performance since his first days in Hollywood. Larry Bird, the propmaster responsible for providing weapons for Silverado, remembers, "Arvo reconstructed all the guns we used in the picture. He redoes the trigger pull, resets the timing on the cylinder. Those guns worked to perfection." The front sight is ground down so it doesn't catch on the holster, the trigger guard is shaved so the finger finds the trigger easily, and the action is smoothed to eliminate any delay. On Back to the Future III, Ojala remembers a late night phone call to Washington one night from the California Gold Country location. "They said, 'None of our guns work. You gotta be in Sonora by 6:30 tomorrow morning!'" Ojala rode to the rescue, and also coached actors Michael J. Fox and Thomas F. Wilson on their fast draw skills.

More recently, for the Sharon Stone film The Quick and the Dead, Ojala fabricated a custom revolver out of titanium, the high-strength, light weight alloy used in the construction of supersonic aircraft. The perfectly balanced pistol looks and works just like a standard Colt revolver, but with a fraction of the weight, it's light enough for a female star to manipulate with ease. The pistol was never used in the film because the producers couldn't meet Ojala's price.

The third element of the fast-draw equation is the holster, and examples of Arvo Ojala gunleather are highly prized works of art. When he came to Hollywood, the low-slung holster of Western movies dated back to the 1920's, and was known as a "Buscadero" rig. But no one knew what a fast-draw holster needed better than Ojala, so he designed and patented his own (U. S. Patent # 2,832,519, issued 29 April 1958). Ojala's "Fast-Draw" rig sat low on the hip, its tubular shape reinforced with a steel liner to permit the cylinder of the gun to rotate in the holster. This meant that the gunslinger could cock the hammer while the pistol is still in the holster, shaving a split second off his draw. "But never put your finger on the trigger until the gun is level," cautions Ojala, "or you end up shooting your foot."

According to Richard Rattenbury, author of Packing Iron: Gunleather of the Frontier West, "Through the influence of Hollywood fast-draw coach and gunleather artisan Arvo Ojala, a new gunbelt pattern was adopted by the stars of television and western movies during the mid-1950's." Noteworthy examples of Arvo's holsters are featured at the Autry Museum of Western Heritage in Los Angeles--James Arness' rig from Gunsmoke, the Cartwright holsters from Bonanza, Hugh O'Brien's holster from Wyatt Earp, Gary Cooper's holster from The Hangin' Tree, and a reproduction of the holster Ojala designed for Paladin, with its distinctive chess knight emblem. According to Autry Museum curator James Nottage, "Ojala rigs are significant because of their effect on the evolution of holsters." Ojala holsters are also prized by private collectors like Don Gordon of Sacramento, California, who explains, "The Ojala fast-draw holster represents the classic image of the West that I grew up with."

One veteran Western star is the proud owner of a custom-designed Ojala double holster presentation set, complete with two engraved ivory-handled six shooters. The collector's letter of appreciation reads, in part, "I had no idea it would be so spectacular and handsome. We should build a new ranch house to do it justice." He did just that, and when Ojala paid the admirer a visit, he saw in a custom display case the guns, belt and holsters he had created, complete with the buckle bearing the Presidential Seal. The collector's name is Ronald Reagan.

Arvo's den has a few other mementos from friends and admirers. The Colt company, which manufactures the pistols Ojala has spent a lifetime mastering, has presented him with several collector's editions commemorating his films and moves--he has matched sets for Gunsmoke and Rustler's Rhapsody . There's a signed photo of the world's most famous test pilot, Chuck Yeager, with the inscription, "Arvo, wish I could fly like you shoot." There's a seven-foot set of long horns above Ojala's roll top desk, a gift from America's most decorated soldier, Audie Murphy, who put Ojala's techniques to use in a series of Westerns. Ojala appears as an extra in the film about Murphy's wartime exploits, To Hell and Back--Ojala plays a German machine gunner.

Ojala could fill his days just looking back on an incredible career, but he's too busy. He designs limited edition collector's firearms honoring famous Americans. Jeffery Belcher, of the United States Historical Society, who worked with Ojala on such projects as a Roy Rogers commemorative six-gun, remembers Rogers' cooperation was the direct result of a phone call from long time friend Ojala. "He called up Roy Rogers, and said, 'Roy, I've got these friends who want to do a commemorative,'" Belcher recalls. "He knows everybody in Hollywood." Ojala's latest project is a John Wayne commemorative 12 gauge coach gun.

Ojala is proud of his five children--daughters Inga and Valerie are actresses, and Kym is the artist who contributed the stagecoach artwork to the John Wayne coach gun. Ojala's son Jon flew Cobra gunships for the army, and his son Erikk is the foreman at Arvo Enterprises. The company produces custom holsters on Arvo's patented design, as well as firearm display hardware, commemorative ammunition, and whatever else Ojala creates.

Arvo still does leather work, silver smithing, and precise machine work in his shop. One piece of equipment he uses is a Hardinge lathe, manufactured in Chicago in 1916, and still going strong, much like Ojala himself. He keeps in shape with brisk walks, hand weights, and a strict diet of healthful food. "I like pretty cars, pretty women, pretty guns," he says simply, "not necessarily in that order." Ojala's fast draw is as fast as ever, and he's still much in demand by Hollywood, which has rediscovered the timeless appeal of the Western.

Ojala remains close to his Finnish roots, and attributes much of his success to the Finnish quality of sisu, a driving determination to be the best. He speaks the language fluently, and does Finnish voiceover work, most recently in Star Trek IV. In his ancestral homeland, Ojala is known as "the Finnish John Wayne."

Arvo Ojala doesn't talk about his accomplishments. "I don't want to be one of those guys who goes around saying, 'I'm a legend--if you don't believe it, just ask me.'" But ask anyone else, and the answer is always the same. After 30 years, Will Hutchins remembers Ojala's "gentleness, kindness, patience and compassion--a wonderful guy." Chuck Yeager will tell you that Ojala "has a lot of integrity--if he tells you he'll do something, he does it." Scott Glenn says simply, "He's a friend and a teacher." He's also a man who's earned his reputation at Hollywood's top gun.

Lance Thompson has written for television (Mr. Belvedere), been a script doctor for motion pictures (The Two Jakes, The Honeymooners), and as a motion picture advertising consultant on over 500 campaigns, has earned two Key Art Awards and an International Broadcasters Award. His writing and photography have appeared in magazines, (Air & Space Smithsonian, Cowboys & Indians, Hemispheres, Delta Sky), books (X-Plane Crashes) and newspapers (Los Angeles Times, Dallas Morning News). He has lectured on writing at the Scriptwriters Network in Los Angeles, at Idaho Scriptwriters Association, and conducted screen writing workshops for the Idaho Film Office. He was founding president of Idaho Media Professionals, is a frequent judge in Idaho screenwriting contests, and writes a weekly column for the political web site lowdowncentral.com.