Mad Buck Gibson (2.9)

[K Hale]

Vera Miles sure is lovely. It's a shame she wasn't a redhead here like she was on Columbo (70s 'do aside), because she made for an amazing one.



Anyone else just retroactively consider Gillian Dobb's character here to be just Agatha hanging out with Higgins as usual? Back when she tried to stay as far away from Magnum and his friends as possible?

I thought it WAS Agatha until he mentioned her name at the hospital. I was kind of let down, haha.

[ZelenskyTheValiant (Ivan)]

Since we're talking about Hemingway I feel it might be appropriate to share a few of my pics that I took in Key West 2 summers ago at the Hemingway House where he used to live. It's now a historical site and museum. Most might recognize this place from the 1989 James Bond film LICENCE TO KILL (with Timothy Dalton) in the scene where M confronts Bond and strips him of his license to kill.


This is the front entrance to the property at 907 Whitehead St.







Hemingway bred a wide variety of exotic cats on the property - they freely roam the grounds to this very day. The one below looks like a mini-lion.



This balcony is where M (Robert Brown) strips 007 (Timothy Dalton) of his licence to kill.
M: "Effective immediately, your licence to kill is revoked"
007: "I guess it's a farewell to arms" (directly quoting a Hemingway book)



The Key West Lighthouse is across the street from the Hemingway House. From the top there one of M's men fired at Bond as he tried to escape.

[K Hale]

Here's a photo of JH with Vera Miles, taken at the premiere of "High Road to China." The two of them were also in an episode of "Ellery Queen" in 1976.

[Luther's nephew Dobie]

Since we're talking about Hemingway I feel it might be appropriate to share a few of my pics that I took in Key West 2 summers ago at the Hemingway House where he used to live. It's now a historical site and museum. Most might recognize this place from the 1989 James Bond film LICENCE TO KILL (with Timothy Dalton) in the scene where M confronts Bond and strips him of his license to kill.


This is the front entrance to the property at 907 Whitehead St.







Hemingway bred a wide variety of exotic cats on the property - they freely roam the grounds to this very day. The one below looks like a mini-lion.



This balcony is where M (Robert Brown) strips 007 (Timothy Dalton) of his licence to kill.
M: "Effective immediately, your licence to kill is revoked"
007: "I guess it's a farewell to arms" (directly quoting a Hemingway book)



The Key West Lighthouse is across the street from the Hemingway House. From the top there one of M's men fired at Bond as he tried to escape.

Hi Ivan,
Thank you so much for sharing these terrific photos. I have a painting of the same view you captured in the 2nd photo. All those cats that roam the estate
descend from Papa Hemingway's original 6 toed pet cat and have the same 'deformity'. They sell them to Hemingway fans around the world for $$$$, there
is a long waiting list.
------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
"A teacher is something very special. Without teachers every generation would have to start by discovering fire and inventing the wheel."
...Paladin(Richard Boone) Have Gun Will Travel

[ENSHealy]

2.9 MAD BUCK GIBSON
Hawaiian shirts: 2
Island Hopper shirts:
Magnum Body Count:
Magnum bullet wounds:
Shirtless: 2
Little Voice: 1
I know what you’re thinking: 2
When I write HTBAWCPI:
Investigator corrections:
Higgins musings:
4th wall breaks: 1
Negotiations: 1
Higgins Organizations: .5 The Art Affiliates
Famous guest stars: 1 Darrin McGavin
Magnumometer: 10.5

Potential magnumania usernames: Mad Buck

I know there will be quibblers with the famous guest star only at 1. However, as I've mentioned before, my criteria for that is entirely subjective...and I wouldn't have had any idea who Vera Miles was without the internet to help.

CRUCIAL CONVERSATIONS

Higgins: The blank look on your face is, for once, uniquely appropriate, because there is no fountain, no Rolls-Royce. On his last visit here, Mr. Gibson destroyed both when he attempted to jump the fountain with the car.
Magnum: Anyone hurt?
Higgins: One of the gardeners developed hysterical amnesia, but that is not my point. Buck Gibson is a demonstrable menace to this household. And since Mr. Masters is incredibly loyal to his friends, no matter how undeserving, a character trait for which you must be daily grateful, I can’t order him off the premises.
Magnum: It sounds like you want to make some sort of a deal.
Higgins: A deal? I beg your pardon?
Magnum: Hire me to protect the place from destruction. Or worse.
Higgins: I WAS UNDER THE…. I was under the delusion that either out of loyalty to Robin or in your alleged capacity as a security consultant…
Magnum: That’s right. So I’m gonna make it easy on you. No money. Instead, for three months, the swimming pool, the billiard room, the new big-screen TV moved into the guest house, and free access to the wine cellar.
[shots heard in the background.]
Higgins: One month, but the billiard room and the wine cellar are excluded.
[shots heard in the background]
Two months. And that’s my final—
[shots heard in the background]
[Higgins walks away crestfallen]

[Luther's nephew Dobie]

2.9 MAD BUCK GIBSON
Hawaiian shirts: 2
Island Hopper shirts:
Magnum Body Count:
Magnum bullet wounds:
Shirtless: 2
Little Voice: 1
I know what you’re thinking: 2
When I write HTBAWCPI:
Investigator corrections:
Higgins musings:
4th wall breaks: 1
Negotiations: 1
Higgins Organizations: .5 The Art Affiliates
Famous guest stars: 1 Darrin McGavin
Magnumometer: 10.5

Potential magnumania usernames: Mad Buck

I know there will be quibblers with the famous guest star only at 1. However, as I've mentioned before, my criteria for that is entirely subjective...and I wouldn't have had any idea who Vera Miles was without the internet to help.

CRUCIAL CONVERSATIONS

Higgins: The blank look on your face is, for once, uniquely appropriate, because there is no fountain, no Rolls-Royce. On his last visit here, Mr. Gibson destroyed both when he attempted to jump the fountain with the car.
Magnum: Anyone hurt?
Higgins: One of the gardeners developed hysterical amnesia, but that is not my point. Buck Gibson is a demonstrable menace to this household. And since Mr. Masters is incredibly loyal to his friends, no matter how undeserving, a character trait for which you must be daily grateful, I can’t order him off the premises.
Magnum: It sounds like you want to make some sort of a deal.
Higgins: A deal? I beg your pardon?
Magnum: Hire me to protect the place from destruction. Or worse.
Higgins: I WAS UNDER THE…. I was under the delusion that either out of loyalty to Robin or in your alleged capacity as a security consultant…
Magnum: That’s right. So I’m gonna make it easy on you. No money. Instead, for three months, the swimming pool, the billiard room, the new big-screen TV moved into the guest house, and free access to the wine cellar.
[shots heard in the background.]
Higgins: One month, but the billiard room and the wine cellar are excluded.
[shots heard in the background]
Two months. And that’s my final—
[shots heard in the background]
[Higgins walks away crestfallen]

Hi ENSHealy,
Nice post, thank you for the quotes, I always liked that scene. As for Vera Miles, you might want to catch her in "The Searchers"(1956) which is on
every Top 25 Films of all time list. She helped underline one of the film's themes of wasting one's life in a pointless never ending circular search for revenge.
Because Jeffery Hunter could have been home embracing alluring Vera for six years instead of embracing a steady diet of death while riding
with John Wayne.

[Pahonu]

Since we're talking about Hemingway I feel it might be appropriate to share a few of my pics that I took in Key West 2 summers ago at the Hemingway House where he used to live. It's now a historical site and museum. Most might recognize this place from the 1989 James Bond film LICENCE TO KILL (with Timothy Dalton) in the scene where M confronts Bond and strips him of his license to kill.


Hemingway bred a wide variety of exotic cats on the property - they freely roam the grounds to this very day. The one below looks like a mini-lion.






Hi Ivan,
Thank you so much for sharing these terrific photos. I have a painting of the same view you captured in the 2nd photo. All those cats that roam the estate
descend from Papa Hemingway's original 6 toed pet cat and have the same 'deformity'. They sell them to Hemingway fans around the world for $$$$, there
is a long waiting list.
------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
"A teacher is something very special. Without teachers every generation would have to start by discovering fire and inventing the wheel."
...Paladin(Richard Boone) Have Gun Will Travel

My wife's grandmother had a polydactyl cat like Hemmingway's. She called him Bigfoot and new about the Hemmingway connection. That's the first time I had heard of it. That was in the 90's and I know she didn't have $$$$ but I don't know where she got him.

[Luther's nephew Dobie]

Pahonu wrote:
My wife's grandmother had a polydactyl cat like Hemingway's. She called him Bigfoot and new about the Hemingway connection. That's the first time I had heard of it. That was in the 90's and I know she didn't have $$$$ but I don't know where she got him.

Hi Pahonu,
I have read every Hemingway book save one, but that was 25 years ago. I had read the cats were for sale - to benefit the museum - and when some friends went to Hemingway's Key West home the cats - numbering over 50 - were free roaming and they petted them.
Being cats I am sure they hooked up for a booty call with all the neighboring females so I would assume there must be quite a colony of illegitimate Hemingway
cats in Key West.
The mutation is actually fairly common and was prized by sailors(a sea captain gave Papa the original cat). With the extra toes they have better balance on a swaying
ship and it also enhances their ability as mousers. Good mousers were prized on vessels as they kept the rat population down.
The now popular Norwegian Forrest Cat(only in USA since the 1970's) sailed everywhere on the Viking long boats, their double thick and almost water repellent fur a
big plus in the northern waters.
Anyway, keeping a herd of 50 head must provide the museum with a constant stream of livestock to sell. I trust they don't brand them to differentiate them from
the common street cats that roam outside the estate's walls.

[Nifty911]

May have been mentioned but I don't want to read all the threads. How can Magnum stand in the bathroom while Buck just shoots the 45 and not hold his hears or something. Also, Buck seems to manage to reload constantly.

[RamblerReb]

May have been mentioned but I don't want to read all the threads. How can Magnum stand in the bathroom while Buck just shoots the 45 and not hold his hears or something. Also, Buck seems to manage to reload constantly.

Well, Magnum's fired off dozens if not hundreds of rounds over the course of the show and never worn hearing protection, so I imagine the man's deaf as a post. It would actually explain a lot.

As to the reloading issue, Magnum's 1911 only runs out of cartridges when the plot demands it (the only time I recall it happening was the season 7 finale, but I'm sure there were other times).

[Pahonu]

I was just watching this episode today and noticed something odd. I’m not sure of the exact time because I was watching on TV. In the scene where Magnum comes up from the beach after paddling and talks to Buck’s wife about getting old, they stop in the yard by the corner of the courtyard wall. It switches to a long shot from the balcony where Buck is watching them. You can see far into the grounds including the hammock and horseshoe pitch. After she leaves, Magnum starts walking and you can see what looks like a fairly deep crater in the lawn. It looks like it drops a couple of feet right next to two palm trees. I know the lawn is not at all flat but I’ve never seen it look like a crater! Maybe someone can post a pic?

[ENSHealy]

Not sure I'd call it a crater, but there's definitely a low spot. It looks like it might be a storm water drain that runs out to the beach? I think I remember from the Pahonu thread that some of the original plans showed something like that.

[K Hale]

That makes sense. The crater seems to be pointing directly at a drainage “tube” (haha I can’t think of the right term) that is next to the exposed steps outside the gate. It’s all been exposed by beach erosion.

[Pahonu]

Thanks for the pics Ensign Healy.

I also immediately thought about the storm drain easement on the property. The land plat from the 30’s shows that there was a natural swale on the land when Mrs. Wall assembled the various properties for the estate. It drained to the beach from the old road that ran through the current property. That’s why the easement was created, to allow for a storm drain from the new highway to the ocean and replace the natural swale. The drain pipe zigzags through the property from outside the estate wall to the beach exit pipe as KHale said. I assumed it was an uninterrupted pipe under the property, but the photos show a likely drain at that spot connecting to the pipe. It has caused definite erosion next to those two palms. Maybe not a crater but significant erosion. The property generally slopes from the highway to the beach, with higher spots on the east and west sides. My model shows this. This photos show that their is actually a low spot in the center of the property that doesn’t naturally drain so they seem to have added a connection to the underground pipe. Interesting, I wonder what the plans are for this drainage issue with the three homes planned for the property.

[Pahonu]

I just watched Letter to a Duchess and it’s very obvious that there is a swale in the yard. As Vivian walks out of the courtyard gate reading the letter Higgins wrote her, it’s obvious she goes down and then back up following the terrain. She looks over and sees Magnum and his surfski at the beach gate. That’s exactly where the drain exits. Higgins and Magnum walk right through that area in the final scene as well. It’s so clear, the big dip in the lawn. Funny how you never notice these little things until it gets in your head.