BEETLING BROWED gangsters and fanatical Moslems have fallen by
scores under the merciless fire of his machine gun. Whether It be In the rock fastnesses
of Khyber Pass or a deserted factory hangout, he always arrives In time to mow down the
attackers and save the girl and her betrothed.
For Bob Johnston is Hollywood's official machine gunner. Equally
at home with a Thompson sub machine gun, used by the police, or a heavy Lewis gun as used
by the army in warfare, he can take them apart and put them together blind folded.
Hollywood technicians had a difficult time In working out a way
to make machine guns shoot blanks, ho revealed while fondly grooming his "Tommy"
gun on the "Men Without Names" set at Paramount.
Blank cartridges didn't have sufficient recoil to operate the
mechanism of the gun, but this problem was eventually solved by reducing the diameter of
the gun muzzle so that more pressure would be generated. Even today, no successful method
of shooting blanks in an automatic pistol has been discovered. Because of their short
barrel, the method used with ma-chine guns cannot be used, declared Johnston.
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