Gunsmoke Festus question

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Joe Reilly
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Gunsmoke Festus question

Post by Joe Reilly »

Been watching Gunsmoke lately and on two episodes noticed Festus is handling a rifle left handed. He carries and handle his handgun with his right hand. Was Ken Curtis ambidextrous?
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JimT
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Re: Gunsmoke Festus question

Post by JimT »

Hi Joe. Gunsmoke is just make-believe. In Pretend Land a person can do anything... even leap tall buildings in a single bound!
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Re: Gunsmoke Festus question

Post by Bill in Oregon »

I always admired him. Loved him in his final role in "Conagher."

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ken_Curtis
Chuck 100 yd
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Re: Gunsmoke Festus question

Post by Chuck 100 yd »

Joe Reilly wrote: Sun Jan 07, 2018 4:08 pm Been watching Gunsmoke lately and on two episodes noticed Festus is handling a rifle left handed. He carries and handle his handgun with his right hand. Was Ken Curtis ambidextrous?
I believe he was. Chuck Connors also was ambidextrous.
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Re: Gunsmoke Festus question

Post by M. M. Wright »

Ken Curtis, along with Leonard Sly, was a member of the Sons of the Pioneers. Well I guess Len (later known as Roy) actually organized the group.
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Re: Gunsmoke Festus question

Post by AJMD429 »

JimT wrote: Sun Jan 07, 2018 4:42 pm Hi Joe. Gunsmoke is just make-believe. In Pretend Land a person can do anything... even leap tall buildings in a single bound!
Yeah, but in 'westerns' they mostly fall off the roofs of tall buildings after getting shot by guys riding on horseback using revolvers.... :D
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Re: Gunsmoke Festus question

Post by fordwannabe »

Most left handed people end up being somewhat ambidextrous as the makers of lots of stuff don't offer lefty stuff. Not nearly as bad as when I was young but still kinda. I shoot handguns either handed, better left but passable right. Rifles somewhat either or, mostly left...bows right handed, didn't have a left handed how to learn on. Also when I was a kid played baseball righty. My maternal grandmother was the most ambidextrous person I ever saw, you could not tell her writing left from right, and as a Southern lady born in the twenties her writing was gorgeous.
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Re: Gunsmoke Festus question

Post by 3leggedturtle »

I shoot a rifle left handed, when I shoot a pistol I still use left eye but hold pistol in right hand. Tried for many years to use left hand, but never could hit worth a darn. Todd/3leg
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Re: Gunsmoke Festus question

Post by jeepnik »

The reason many of us lefties are ambi is that we had teachers with yardsticks that wacked us when we used our left hands.
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Re: Gunsmoke Festus question

Post by Thunder50 »

Or tied our left arm to our bodies so we couldn't use it. Worked for my Sister, but not on me.
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Re: Gunsmoke Festus question

Post by mack »

jeepnik wrote: Mon Jan 08, 2018 6:07 pm The reason many of us lefties are ambi is that we had teachers with yardsticks that wacked us when we used our left hands.
1958, first grade, Mrs. Sisk had a wooden ruler. I still can feel it! I'm a lefty with a right master eye. Most tools are right handed so like most lefties I can use whatever hand is convenient.
I suspect what looked best for the camera may have ruled for the actors.
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Re: Gunsmoke Festus question

Post by Bill in Oregon »

jeepnik wrote: Mon Jan 08, 2018 6:07 pm The reason many of us lefties are ambi is that we had teachers with yardsticks that wacked us when we used our left hands.
Pretty shameful period in public education!
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Re: Gunsmoke Festus question

Post by Sixgun »

I'm right handed but shoot a rifle and write left handed, shoot handguns, swing a baseball bat and arm wrestle right handed.

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Re: Gunsmoke Festus question

Post by JohndeFresno »

Wow, a lot of Lefty regulars here!
I am another one. Write and draw (very primitively) left handed.

Oldest right handed brothers handed down their baseball mitts to my older Lefty brother who then passed them on to me.

Boxing gloves and baseball bats were orientation neutral, so I was a switch hitter and in younger days would change stances when I got into nose flattening scuffles.

Shoot right handed, reload and use tools right handed. I am told that I think like a Lefty.

As for Ken Curtis:

Just saw an old Gunsmoke episode where Festus sang a little ditty but with his Festus accent. Hilarious.

In his later years he lived in Clovis, California (Fresno County, a city adjoining Fresno with several ranches and horses in the outskirts). He frequented a local family owned restaurant and was a friendly, unassuming non-Hollywood type local. A statue of him was erected in "Old Town" Clovis and I believe that it still stands.

If you want to hear a soulful rendition of an old cowboy standard in an "Festus" singing in his unaccented and uncharacteristically professional clear voice, listen to Ken Curtis by Googling "Ken Curtis Tumbling Tumbleweeds" to see the YouTube offering.
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Re: Gunsmoke Festus question

Post by Malamute »

Believe it or not, theres an actual Gunsmoke forum. I found it when looking up info about when Festus first started appearing I think. He was just an episode character at first. There may be info about the question there.

Heres one, Chester vs Festus. Some of these folks get way deeper into the meaning (or perceived meaning) of the character stuff than I do.

http://gunsmokegang.proboards.com/thread/2623
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Re: Gunsmoke Festus question

Post by Griff »

jeepnik wrote: Mon Jan 08, 2018 6:07 pm The reason many of us lefties are ambi is that we had teachers with yardsticks that wacked us when we used our left hands.
Yep! My mom asked me once why I wrote with my right hand... nearly 30 years after the fact... and go so angry when I told her, I thought she'd have a stroke! Her being a lefty and all!
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Re: Gunsmoke Festus question

Post by piller »

One Aunt was a lefty, but in the 1920s the schools were using fountain pens and inkwells on the desks. She had to learn to write with her right hand because the education system in the Cherokee Strip at that time believed that writing left handed would smear the ink. She became pretty much ambidextrous over a lifetime of most things being made for right handed people. She shot handguns with either hand, and was one of the best I ever saw.
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Re: Gunsmoke Festus question

Post by fordwannabe »

My maternal grandmother ( the ambidextrous one) was a gentle lady originally from Mississippi and when the school started the " you must use your right hand " garbage, I am told she went in, and in language that would.make a trucker blush told what she thought of that, and it would not be happening to me. Apparently nough said.
As to the high percentage of lefties on this site, I wondered for years what the percentage was. I bet its high because of leverguns being lefty friendly.
I know I have told this story before but when I was 12 and got to go hunting that first year, all "the men" were standing around in my paternal grandfathers room where he handed out the guns, and after everybody else had their gun I was left. Waiting anxiously when he walked back into the.closet , looked at me and said....well you're too darn dumb to use a Real gun so here try this. Meaning I was left handed. He handed me a Winchester mod 94 in 30-30. Had a Levergun ever since. If I look real hard I MIGHT be able to find one or two, laying around here now. :wink:
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Re: Gunsmoke Festus question

Post by rossim92 »

I have a buddy who is writes right handed, but shoots left handed.
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Re: Gunsmoke Festus question

Post by piller »

rossim92 wrote: Wed Jan 10, 2018 3:18 am I have a buddy who is writes right handed, but shoots left handed.
My son is right handed and left eye dominant. He probably should shoot left handed. I think he would be more accurate that way.
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