Bob and I had a question come in this week from a reader who wants to identify a structure on the wall behind the bar in several western shows and movies including the Long Branch on "Gunsmoke". I wa…

[Marshall Trimble]

Bob and I had a question come in this week from a reader who wants to identify a structure on the wall behind the bar in several western shows and movies including the Long Branch on "Gunsmoke". I watch the show on a regular basis but haven't spotted it so I thought I'd toss it out to you and ask for your help. I hate to admit it but this might be first time in a dozen years I've been stumped. Here's what she describes:

"I've seen something that puzzles me which you might be able to identify.  It looks like several tubes making a shape similar to a large crown.  It doesn't seem to have any spigots, and the number of tubes does vary.  Can you identify this for me? Joyce."

[Marshall Trimble]

I met Amanda Blake several times in Scottsdale. Wish I'd known this was gonna come up.

[Marshall Trimble]

This bottom photo is the best view. Yep Morg it looks like an oversize lamp base.

[Murray A. Gewirtz]

If it has nothing to do with booze, it's a torture device used by Matt Dillon in the back room on outlaws who refuse to talk.

[Mundo Osterberg]

Burger King mascot mock-up?

[anthony martin]

  Marshall,

     This isn't exactly the same as ones that I've seen but there was one in one very old bar still attached to the backbar.Behind the curved section were metal slots radiating from the center and hanging upside down from these slots were stemmed beer mugs and wine glasses.It was a practical solution to dust and beats the heck out of lining up rows of glasses on the backbar or under the counter.There was a really ornate double row one in Cripple Creek that I saw about thirty years ago.I also saw one in a bar in Parkersburg,W.Va. in the late 80's.A Dover book called Photographs Of New York Interiors At the Turn Of The Century depicts in plate 92 a rather ornate one on the center island of a circular bar on Broadway in 1901.So,it's a glass rack without the glasses.

   I read this when first posted but was so tickled by the speculation that I waited out of sheer orneryness!I enjoyed your joke about it possibly being some sort weird Victorian Cappucino machine.Murray's speculation about it being some sort of weird torture contraption was fun too.This silliness really made my day!

[anthony martin]

  I should have mentioned this in the last post-I don't think this one is complete and could be missing some shelves and slots.Some of these had gas lights for illumination and display.

[Gay Mathis]

Murray, maybe, it was Miss Kitty's torture device....:)

[anthony martin]

  Gay,

    Just WHAT did Miss Kitty and Matt get up to?Perhaps it also did double duty as her dress form!

[Lethalrancher]

Well, now I have seen a picture.....and I still cannot weigh in on it.........lethalrancher

 

if ol Matt were still alive maybe we could ask him.....he used to have a website before his passing where he actually invited folks to give him an email or such....but he is now gone to the big western set in the sky.......God Bless him.......

[Gay Mathis]

Anthony, how come on the Gunsmoke episodes there were never any glasses hanging from it..Funny how one sees these episodes over and over and never really gave this item a second thought for it's purpose..Over time, it does appear it changed a bit in design as the show went on..

Matt and Miss Kitty took the torture device secret to their graves....:)