Get Ready for Michigan’s Bow Season – With This 1945 Film From Howard Hill

Growing up in East Lansing in the 1940s and being a bowhunter, one of my dad's heroes was an archery superstar named Howard Hill. Howard Hill was a champion target archer, a trick shot artist, and a big game hunter. He won 196 field archery competitions in a row. He was also the "first white man to kill an elephant with a bow", doing it with a 115 pound longbow and four-foot long arrows. If Facebook could go back in time, it would freak out, I'm sure.

Howard Hill was also the technical adviser to Hollywood when it came to movies involving archery. And that's why he was heavily involved in the making of "The Adventures of Robin Hood" starring Errol Flynn in 1938. Howard also made a lot of movies on his own - mostly shorts that showed him hunting big game or performing trick shots. Here's one of his shorts "Cavalcade of Archery", from 1945, showing trick shots - including him actually shooting an apple off some poor guys head.

And, he's helped by some lovely female archers. On behalf of my daughters, who both love their compound bows and 3-D archery, I will warn you - this film is sexist to the point of being funny. But, hey - it was 1945 - they weren't quite ready for Danica Patrick, Ronda Rousey and Carly Fiorina.

This film begins with an introduction from modern day author and film historian Rudy Behlmer:

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