Bob Wright
Hawkeye
I don't know when York Arms Sporting Goods was founded, but it was a fixture on Main Street in Memphis for many, many years. It was located next to the Loew's State theatre, and had the old fashioned glass storefront with big display windows. The windows created an alcove so folks could wait for streetcars sheltered from the rain. There was an entry door on either side of the main display window. Inside was sort of dark, with dark wooden floors and glass display cases. Over the gun counter was a huge double barrel shotgun, maybe twenty feet in length, as a display.
Stroies were thick there. It was here that Nash Buckinham and Berry Brooks outfitted themselves. Wealthy hunters, from Memphis' Cotton Row, started their safaris from York Arms. And, most high school football and baseball teams, got their equipment here, soccer being an alien game at that time.
Down the street from York arms was a liquor store, the main display being a bald eagle that was shot over Main Street by a customer leaving York Arms and heading for the latter store. The eagle was supposedly shot just south of the Orpheum Theatre, at one time known as the Malco.
The store was as much museum as store, with animal heads adorning the walls. I remember one moose head that must have been nearly six feet from back of the head to blubbery nose. It stood over one of those penny scales that gave your weight printed out on a card along with your fortune.
Bass Pro, Cabelas, Sportsman's Warehouse, ya'll don't even come close.
Bob Wright
P.S. I mentioned the proximity to the Loew's theatre and failed to follow up on that. When the Jimmy Stewart movie "Winchester '73" debuted in Memphis, at the Loew's State, next door neighbor York Arms displayed a Winchester 1873 rifle in its main show window during its run. It was authentic, there being no replica arms in those days.
Stroies were thick there. It was here that Nash Buckinham and Berry Brooks outfitted themselves. Wealthy hunters, from Memphis' Cotton Row, started their safaris from York Arms. And, most high school football and baseball teams, got their equipment here, soccer being an alien game at that time.
Down the street from York arms was a liquor store, the main display being a bald eagle that was shot over Main Street by a customer leaving York Arms and heading for the latter store. The eagle was supposedly shot just south of the Orpheum Theatre, at one time known as the Malco.
The store was as much museum as store, with animal heads adorning the walls. I remember one moose head that must have been nearly six feet from back of the head to blubbery nose. It stood over one of those penny scales that gave your weight printed out on a card along with your fortune.
Bass Pro, Cabelas, Sportsman's Warehouse, ya'll don't even come close.
Bob Wright
P.S. I mentioned the proximity to the Loew's theatre and failed to follow up on that. When the Jimmy Stewart movie "Winchester '73" debuted in Memphis, at the Loew's State, next door neighbor York Arms displayed a Winchester 1873 rifle in its main show window during its run. It was authentic, there being no replica arms in those days.
