This rags-to-riches story of a down-home family business with a heavily bearded band of hunting experts was too much for reality show producers to pass up. We're looking at them like 'man, I tell you what' and they are looking at us like, whoa I tell you what, somewhere in there is a television show. It's America, let it rip.
The show mostly follows Willie and his beautiful wife Korie -- who claims Willie was "preppy" when she married him but she hasn't seen his face without its long beard in 30 years -- as the couple tries to keep up the business his father built from scratch. And this actually isn't the Robertson family's first soiree into television.
Back in the '80s, Phil Robertson produce Duck Commander videos that featured his best duck hunts. By now, just about everyone who has seen the show knows the basic back story. Phil Robertson loved duck hunting. Really, really loved it. Loved it so much that he passed up an offer to play professional football after playing college ball ahead of Terry Bradshaw on the Louisiana Tech depth chart!
Giving all that love to duck hunting paid off, though. He invented a duck call, made some videos, and made millions of dollars. But, um, wait right there. There are lots of duck hunters out there and lots of duck calls. How did Phil Robertson convert his passion for duck hunting into a dynasty?
What makes Duck Commander duck calls so special? According to this interview in Grandviewoutdoors. Phil: At that time, we had one serious problem; we had no distribution. I was selling duck calls out of my truck, driving around. I got a few started in Wal-Mart, just like selling watermelons. That was when I was asked for my first autograph from a little boy.
I still remember that. From there, everywhere I went, people asked for my autograph. According to Amazon. To get where he is today, Phil Robertson and sons had to be great businessmen, but Phil also had to be a great inventor. So, what makes a Duck Commander Duck calls so special? Before the mass production and popularization of duck calls hunters used to use call ducks or duck decoys.
This dates back to , but it is believed that the use of call ducks originated in the Far East. Hunters would feed wild tame ducks and trap them, using their calls to attract wildfowl. Non-patent duck calls may have been made as early as , but the first patent was awarded to Elam Fisher in In , Fred Allen had created external duck calls, but did not have a patent.
Fisher was famous for the production of his Tongue Pincher Duck Calls which were made of two pieces of curved wood facing each other with a metal reed sandwiched between them and a holding device usually a band holding it all together. Fred Allen was the first to sell his duck calls commercially and began advertisements in This call had a screw that retracted from inside the barrel which changed the sounds that were produced.
Figuring out which member of this far-flung clan made which call and when—if you can find an example of their work—is nearly impossible. Even the experts seldom agree on the provenance. Some were known to have made duck calls, others probably did not. But a hundred years later, who's to say for sure who did what? To further muddy the issue, residences included scattered home sites in both southern Illinois and northwest Tennessee.
It has been determined, however, that Victor Glodo Jr. The Glodo name has since become synonymous with Reelfoot Lake-style duck calls. A blacksmith, Glodo used copper reeds, and is also credited with inventing the barrel shape of the classic Reelfoot Lake call. His calls were often checkered with what has become known as the "duck wing" pattern. Glodo calls are perhaps the rarest of the rare. Call collectors speak in hushed tones whenever there's a hint that a vintage model may be entering the marketplace.
This is arguably the most sought-after call in the game. Recognized as a true call-making pioneer, Fred Allen was way ahead of the curve.
He is acknowledged as one of the primary inventors of the modern duck call. Allen undoubtedly was among the first to sell calls commercially. Advertisements for his product have been traced to , although, later on, his ads proclaimed that his calls had been "available since Recognizing problems associated with early tongue-pincher-style calls, Allen went to work on remedies.
He devised the concept of a barrel for his calls, and inside used a straight tone board and a curved reed. Allen is credited with creating the first all-metal duck call, which he named the Allen Nickel-Plated Duck Caller. The calls were popular, but some historians insist that Allen's switching to a wooden barrel a decade later was out of necessity—too many hunters' lips were freezing to the metal mouthpiece. In addition to being a farmer, game warden, market hunter, waterfowl guide, and champion trap shooter, Charles Ditto was also an entrepreneur.
He was granted a number of patents for waterfowl decoy devices, and later went into the game-call-making business. Ditto's calls resembled those made by his friend, F. Perhaps the most famous of Ditto's calls were the Eureka models, which were produced from around the turn of the century until the mids. Many of these early calls were constructed of two pieces and featured a hard rubber insert and brass reed.
Ditto later sold five other types of calls, many of which he helped put together, until a shooting accident resulted in the loss of one hand. The rarest of the Ditto calls is a unique all-metal combination duck and goose call. He is also credited with making hard rubber calls.
There are mystery men among call makers, and David Fuller, a native New Yorker, may qualify for that group. A salesman by trade, Fuller secured his place in waterfowling history when, in , he was granted the first patent on a goose call.
He said the call could also be used to lure cranes to within shooting range. These hunting tools were marketed for more than 40 years.
Fuller's goose calls were made of brass and were nickel plated. The mouthpiece was made of boxwood. One of his most interesting products was a combination duck and goose call, which was patented in The critical component was a screw, which retracted from inside of the barrel and changed the way sounds were produced.
What call historians have never figured out about Fuller is his relationship with Watts DeGoyler, another Chicagoan, with whom he shared his patents.
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