Langson Manufacturing Co. / LMCO, est. 1923 - Made-in-Chicago Museum

CODY COLT PAPER BUSTER GUN SHARE OF THE DAY


Langson Manufacturing Co. / LMCO, est. 1923

Langson LMCO Cody Colt Paper Buster Gun

Museum Artifact: LMCO Cody Colt Paper Buster Gun, 1950s

Made By: Langson MFG Co., 4200 W. Wrightwood Ave., Chicago, IL [Hermosa / Belmont Gardens]

It might have the look and sound of a typical cowboy-themed cap gun from the 1950s, but there’s something a tad different about the LMCO “Cody Colt”—something that helps distinguish Chicago’s Langson Manufacturing Company from most of the competing toy gun manufacturers of its era.

Utilizing a mechanism developed and continuously refined by company founder Otto A. Langos, the Cody Colt—like all the other guns, miniature cannons, and torpedoes LMCO produced from the 1930s to the ‘60s—was known more specifically as a “paper buster” or “paper popper.” This means that it relied on pneumatic power (i.e. condensed air pressure) to blast tiny holes through a rotating roll of paper ribbon; creating a loud, pleasing “pop” with each pull of the trigger.

By stark contrast, most traditional children’s cap guns worked by literally firing off a genuine explosive charge; usually powered by a “gunpowder cap” with a mix of sulfur, potassium perchlorate and antimony sulfide. This tiny enclosed firecracker not only made the desired “bang,” but also sent a bad-ass billow of smoke from the end of the barrel every time little Jimmy “shot” his buddies at point blank range. . . . In essence, if you replaced a standard kid’s cap gun with an actual vintage pistol loaded with blanks, the difference would only be nominal—perhaps explaining why many street gangs wound up retro-fitting cheap toy guns into fully functional firearms (or “zip guns”).

All things considered, it’s easy to see why LMCO’s comparatively “harmless,” non-explosive paper busters appealed to safety-minded parents. The bigger achievement, really, was reducing the danger factor without boring the kids. Langson managed this by following the eternal golden rule of toy weaponry: the more realistic looking, the better. During World War II, in particular, when rationing prevented cap gun makers from packing their usual gunpowder charges, it was the paper busters that thrived—helping to save countless backyard games of “Cowboys & Indians,” “Cops and Robbers,” and “Martian Invaders,” not to mention all those imaginary Hitler assassinations.

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