MEL TORME'S 06 BERN, "Almost"
 

Please excuse the following as it's off topic, and long.
I bought a Swiss made Bern Luger in the mid 70's when the collecting bug had bitten me really hard. Payed way to much for it, $2,000. That was a lot of money to me in 70's but I had to have it!
The only way you could describe it, was being brand new. As I had collected military handguns for many years the idea of finding a 60 year old military issue pistol in that condition was unbeliveable!
The Luger was from the first production run at Bern. The serial number placed it in the first 30 Lugers made there in 1919. (15,216 - 15,246)
The only thing that disappointed me was that the rear sight had a "square notch" rather then the correct "v notch". I was assured by some RKI's that this wasn't unknown. Some of the Swiss Officers who bought their own pistols had this "professionally" done to improve the sight picture.
Fast forward (6) years, I had decided to sell my collection. Most of the stuff went pretty quick but I was having trouble selling the Bern Luger. A co-worker knew Mel Torme he suggested I call him "as he was interested in getting back into Lugers".
When I called Torme he invited me up to his home in the Hollywood hills.
This guy had a ego that was unbelievable, he was his own favorite subject! I was there a better part of an hour, most of it was taken up with his ex wives and how he had to sell his guns to pay for the divorce, yada! yada! yada!. He did show me some albums with fabulous gun pictures, both Lugers and Colt SAA's. Before I left he offered me $1800, which I turned down. The next time I saw my co-worker, he told me Torme had called him and he was "really pissed".
I would up selling the Bern about 6 months later to a local gun show hustler who gave me $1900 + for it. This guy had a reputation for peddling guns south of the border.
I often wondered if the Bern wound up down there?
I like to ask If any of the members have or know of a early production Bern Luger with a variant rear sight? Hope the Bern is still around and not in some coke baron's collection.
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Hey Richard,

This was not off-topic... this was right on topic... If you ID the exact serial number, perhaps one of our 559 registered members might know where this gun is today...

Great story, Richard. I, too, would be interested in knowing if anyone can pinpoint the exact location of your Bern Luger. Please provide the exact serial number.

As for Mel, "The Velvet Frog" (or was that "Fog"?), I'd rather listen to Jimmy Buffett any day!

The square notch rear sight was a relatively common modification. When it was performed at Waffenfabrik Bern, the rear toggle link was stamped on top with a Swiss cross proof ahead of the sight near the toggle joint . This modification could be applied to any of the Swiss variations. I have a 3-digit 1900 Swiss that has been so modified. My '06 W+F Bern is #15640, not quite as low a number as your former Luger (I am assuming it was the #15,246 you mentioned), but still pretty early. It does not have the modified rear sight.

Did any of these 'square notch' modified guns have square blade front sights to match? Neither of you guys mentioned this... [img]confused.gif[/img]

Don't know for sure John. None of the square notched rear sight Swiss that I have seen have had the front sight replaced.

Sorry! at this late date I just can't remember the S. N. #. One of the first 30 made in Bern is as close as I can get. Don't want to guess and give out the wrong number.
The front sight was the conventional inverted "v" blade, not a square post like a partridge.
Also don't recall If there were any Swiss proofs back by the rear sight.

A 1906 American Eagle from the Mel Torme Collection, in a 97% condition, is listed at http://www.midwestfirearms.com/ for $1850.00. You will need to ask the webmaster for a password in order to view the Luger section of the web site.

swissbern9mm

It seems like there haave been quite a few posts about Mel's ego both on this forum and on the old forum. Sometimes that happens on celebreties. I t never happened to me because my parents always raised me as just one of their children and never made a big thing of my good looks and talents. So now that I have added a great body, I never let it go to my head. Arnold Swartz-in-something, move aside.
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Big Norm :D

I remember one night years ago on Torme was on the Johnny Carson Show showing off a couple of his guns. One of them was Colt SAA that he was bragging about (I don't recall the particulars) when onto the stage comes Don Rickles. Rickles pretty much told him to put his toys away, that no one cared about his stupid guns (his words more or less) and took over the interview basically shutting Torme off. It was priceless, Torme was at a complete loss for words and sat there with the most bummed out expression you can imagine. I actually felt kind of bad for him, but he knew better than to try to take on Rickles.