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Home of the Old Ammo Guy's Virtual
Cartridge Trading Table
Picture Page October 2017 Please note: Unless otherwise indicated, the pictures on this web site are my property, and should not be used by anyone without crediting the source. Stembridge .32 ACP Movie Blanks, Two Variations....
I spotted the two boxes of Stembridge Gun Rentals .32 ACP movie blanks shown in the photo below in an auction some time ago, and was intrigued enough by the differences in their labeling to risk the relatively low opening bid amount on them. Fortunately, I was the only one who was interested in the boxes, as there were no other bids, and a couple of weeks later the brown truck delivered a package containing these and a couple of other boxes I had won.
What caught my eye was that both boxes of .32 ACP cartridges were labeled as 'SPECIAL AUTO LONG', a designation that I was not familiar with. In addition, the lower box had the word 'CUT' added to the label. The rest of the labeling was essentially the same on both boxes aside from obvious differences in the placement of the various individually stamped components of the label information.
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. Stembridge Gun Rentals was established at the Paramount Studio around 1920 by James Stembridge and Cecil B DeMille for the purpose of supplying firearms to be used by the studios in the production of their movies. Over the succeeding years Stembridge looked for and purchased all kinds of guns, eventually accumulating an arsenal of over 10,000 guns and becoming the leading armorer for the movie industry. In addition to firearms rentals, a large part of the company business was loading and providing custom blank cartridges for the movies. They are no longer in business. . .
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. . . . . . According to the
end flap labeling, these boxes contained .32 automatic empty primed cases made by Winchester which had 'plain heads', meaning they had no headstamps,
as shown by the photo here
of one of the cartridge heads. The empty cases were
loaded by Stembridge based
. Cartridges from
the two boxes are shown
Sources: IAA Cartridge Forum, discussion of Stembridge .32 Special Auto Long movie blanks, https://forum.cartridgecollectors.org/t/stembridge-32-special-auto-long-movie-blanks/22672
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on
the requirements of the movies they were supplying the firearms and
ammunition for. These were extended length cases, which allowed a blank
cartridge to be produced that was close to the same length and profile of a
bulleted cartridge once the case mouth had been necked and given a star
crimp. According to the stamped information on the Stembridge labels
on the fronts of these boxes,
both are loaded with full
charges of flash powder, which produces a bright muzzle flash that would
show up well on film. Their loads also included black powder for smoke, and
smokeless powder where only the sound was required. In addition to full
loads, they also produced 1/4 and 1/2 loads. The '+' on the top box may
indicate that the blanks in that box had a full + load.
below;
the cartridge on the left is from the top box, the shorter cartridge on the right is from the
lower
box with 'CUT' on the label. While it was obvious to me that the
case for the cartridge on the right was shortened (or cut)
prior to being loaded, I hadn't a clue regarding the reason for this
shortening of the case. However, after I posted a question about these
cartridges in the Cartridge Forum on the International Ammunition
Association's web site, the mystery was cleared up rather quickly by the
helpful experts there. Apparently, the fired cases of the 'standard' length
blanks would not eject properly from certain makes of pistols, including the Walther PPK and the Browning M1910,
causing them to jam. This was caused by the shorter ejection ports on these
pistols. Rather than modify the pistols, Stembridge shortened the cases slightly
prior to loading to solve the ejection problems. 