Item TB275
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The price of this item will be reduced each week until it is sold. The current price is listed on the Collectable Boomerangs link. Instructions for ordering can be found on the How to Order web page. |
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This cross stick boomerang is a replica of the famous Brist cross stick from the early 1900s. John Gerrish made a few of these cross sticks from light Pine boards in the 1960s and this is the only one I have ever seen. Smaller than the original Brist, this replica lacks camber, but it has the leading edge undercut and good airfoiling. Not a great flyer because it looses spin with it's low inertia, but it does return. It is a rare collectable by one of America's most colorful throwers and in mint condition. Colonel John Gerrish was one of America's best known boomerang makers and throwers from the 1940s through the early 1970s. John was on TV popping balloons with boomerangs, in magazine articles and he sold traditional boomerangs through magazine advertisements. These traditionals were heavy and made out of Pine plywood, but they did work. He also sold boomerang stands shaped like a kangaroo. John Gerrish and his wife, Marjorie, went to boomerang tournaments in Australia from the 1960s through the early 1970s. John also found a large cache of Brist boomerangs in a hardware store when traveling through Kansas and he used to sell these to collectors for $50 each. John Gerrish owned a large track of land in the city of Portland, Oregon. This made his family wealthy. After his death in the 1970s, Marjorie spent a lot of money, without success, trying to get boomerangs added to the Olympics. Marjorie sponsored boomerang tournaments in the city of Portland as part of the annual Rose Festival and she would fly in guests, like Herb Smith, every year to help promote her annual event. Marjorie also promoted USBA events thourghout the 1980s and it was at a USBA tournament in Cleveland that I first met her. Marjorie visited me often when I lived in Toledo, Ohio. She was raised in Lima, Ohio and she would visit family and friends in Lima every year. Sadly, Marjorie died in the late 1990s and the boomerang world lost one of it's most colorful and enthusiastic associates. |
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