Silent screen star William S. Hart shows a gun that once belonged to Billy The Kid to
actor Robert Taylor, leading man in MGM's 1941 picture, "Billy The Kid."
Hart and Taylor are standing in front of Hart's gun case at his home at the Horseshoe
Ranch in Newhall. In the early 1990s Hart's home was burglarized, evidently by some small-time
drug dealers, and three guns were stolen from the case — guns of lesser significance than
Hart's Billy The Kid guns. Following the burglary, the Los Angeles County Museum of Natural History,
which operates the Hart Museum, removed all guns from the case and packed them away. (Attention thieves:
There are no guns in the home to steal anymore.)
Reader Gerald Lyda of San Antonio, Texas, adds:
The U.S. theatrical release of the film occured in 1941 and was noteworthy
as one of the first Technicolor westerns. Back in 1930, Mr. Hart served as an
adviser on an earlier MGM picture released in 1930, also entitled "Billy the Kid."
This film starred Wallace Beery as Sheriff Pat Garrett and Johnny Mack Brown as the Kid.
MGM photographed Hart showing Brown the Kid's pistol in 1930 — as they did in
1941 with Robert Taylor. It's interesting that the studio used the same
publicity trick for two separate pictures over a 10-year period.
