Back when I was about 15 years old, I had the pleasure of meeting an older gentleman who volunteered to show me and my friend some deer hunting spots in the local hills. When we showed up to go hunting, he noticed our bows and commented on how he used to watch Howard Hill movie shorts when he was young and how he loved watching the fast fluid way Hill shot and how strong he was...that fascination stayed with him during his adult years even though he didn't archery hunt much.
This gentleman mentioned how he would like to show us his archery collection sometime when we had the chance....well, a few years later we were able to go to his house. He showed us a Schulz made HH longbow, Hill stitched quiver full of white fletched and dipped arrows, an older HH longbow and various other stuff. We were in awe at the HH gear and asked bunches of questions...
He had purchased the HH longbow (Green Dragon), quiver, arrows and armguard from an older lady in response to an ad in the classifieds. When he arrived to pick up the gear, he recognized the HH name on the bow and asked the lady how she would have acquired it...........she said her husband was friends with Hill, and this was all that was left of her husbands archery stuff. They had moved to my town many years earlier to retire in solitude. My gentleman friend then asked her many questions pertaining to Hill and his strength, abilities, etc......get this...their names were Hill also....Ed Hill, the guy who was Howard's buddy in CA and who went with Howard to Africa and who Howard saved from the python in the movie! he lived in my town!
anyway, the gentleman was relating this stuff to us as we ogled the HH stuff and I asked him if he would ever sell it...no way! I looked stuff over real good, and memorized how it all looked. Years later, he contacted me about how to sell the HH Green Dragon. I negotiated a deal between him and Ted Fry for Ted's museum. I don't know where that bow is now....I found out by conversing with Bob Burton that the bow was likely built by the Stotler boys. Anyway, a few years later this nice old gentleman wanted a lighter bow to shoot and so he traded that old Schulz Hill bow for one of mine, and that bow now graces my office wall...what memories could that bow tell?
Now the kicker....I was contacted by an auction house that my uncle owns about the estate sale for this now deceased gentleman....I asked if there was any archery equipment...yes there was. So I looked at the online photos for anything that was Hill related from what I remembered so long ago. Couldn't tell by the photos, so I waited for the viewing day and went to see for myself....there hidden in an old quiver stuffed with arrows was one white capped/fletched arrow! I had to bid pretty high, but I got the lot and the arrow. What is so cool about this arrow? the last of a quiverfull from Ed Hill? It was made at the Ben Pearson co. for Howard...it has Ben Pearson stamped on the shaft...it has a mid-nock on it...Howards special cut feathers(like a modified shield...actually like LeClair puts on some of his arrows)....has a four-point footed foreshaft...and pinned shell casing blunt.
You can see photos of this exact arrow type in Craig Ekins book showing Howard shooting while Ted, and young Craig are watching...there are also other photos in the same book and elsewhere showing Howard shooting this style of arrow. Obviously Howard liked this style of arrow and he gave some to Ed Hill his buddy. So I have an arrow that was Howard's gift to a friend that I wouldn't have ever acquired except for the casual conversation with a kind old gentleman who admired Howard Hill...neat huh?
Topic: HH bug got me ... Part One! (Read 138156 times)
