Gunshow Miracle (Hollywood Press)

[Pressman]

The Hollywood Senior is a one piece casting. Made in cast steel or aluminum. The one with the "tie rod" was part of the 1961 redesign and other improvements to the linkage.
There seems to be no date to when aluminum took over from cast steel, or if both were produced together. Hollywood ads do not give any information and early factory litrature is worse than non existent.

As for the hole in the top, I am assuming that it is from part of the manufacturing process, that is, how the casting was clamped in the lathe for turning. Very early Seniors do not have the hole tapped 7/8-14. Though many did have a "top nut" installed to fill the hole.

Hollywoods enjoy a great reputation for all sort of claims. Though in reality they are no different than the typical steel H press of that time. (1953)
Your press on eBay would sell in the $135-150 range and possible higher depending upon who has auction fever.
Ken

[seagiant]

Hi Pressman,
WOW! that hole in the top of the casting has more uses as the minutes go by! What you say about them using it to cut the ram sounds viable. They probably secured the base to the lathe face plate and ran the tailstock at the hole. Mine is tapped 7/8'-14. I am in the process of refurbishing it. Someone before me ground some divits on the side of the head for what I don't know and then I guess the same idiot tried to unscrew the handle off with some channellocks and scarred the handle pretty good. I know he did not succeed because there is no threads on the handle it is held in with a long pin that also holds the round arms on the sides! I'm going to clean everything up and repaint and slow rust blue the bright peices to help fight rust in steamy Florida! Thanks for the info!

[xr650]

seagiant or Manley,
I would be interested in reading that article on the Hollywood presses.
Thanks Larry

[quasi]

here is a picture of 3 Hollywood Universal 3 12 hole turrets I had at one time.



here is a picture of the small single stage Senior, a Universal 3, and a Super Turret on the right.



here is a picture of the Senior 8 hole turret press.

I would also like a view of that article.

[tonyb]

You said that horrid word "had"

[quasi]

I now have a Senior turret 8 hole, and am looking for a Super turret.

[Pressman]

The article several of you are wanting to see was published a year ago in the Newsletter of the Antique Reloading Tool Collectors Association. Back issues of the newsletter are available for a cost of $5.00 each. To obtain one you would have to contact the newsletter editor on their website.
Ken

[scrapcan]

Pressman,

You have just relayed what I did about the ARTCA Newsletter. I also recommended they become members. It is a pittance to pay for the ability to get the informatin that is available on the old tools. And to meet a good bunch of people.

The fore mentioned article on Hollywood press history is in Issue 15. Also an excellent articl eon RCBS presses in that issue if I remember correctly.

Jeremy

[Dobetown]

I still have the alloy single colum Hollywood I got 49 years ago for 15 bucks. I also have the RCBS adaptor for other shell holders. I still like the long stroke for BP cases.

[seagiant]

Quasi,
Thank you very much for those pics!!! Those are some great looking machines. Until I saw the Hollywood press I bought the other day I had only seen pictures! I have never seen a Hollywood till then but knew in a second what it was when the gentleman pulled it out from under his table. I would not mind paying a couple hundred for one of these machines but in my area they seem to be rare! Thanks again!

[johnly]

Hi,
I've had about every kind of reloading press there is but never could find a Hollywood. Well today I went to the local gunshow and found one but it was sort of funny. I'm walking along the isle and spot a Lyman All American turrent press on the floor by a mans table. I ask how much for this press? He comes over and says $50. The press was hard to operate and he says it needs cleaning up but I've got another you might want! He goes behind his table and pulls out a single stage Hollywood! I said how much as my heart is ramped up and reality turns to slow motion! He says $10!!!

Well I never found my wallet quicker thats for sure! If anyone has any info on this press or opinionsI"d be happy to hear. It has no shellholders but I think someone makes a conversion unit so I can use regular shell holder. This press looks loke it was stored rather than used as it is smooth but still nice and tight with zero slop! Thanks!

I think my neighbor has one of these in his reloading room, but I didn't know what it was. What is a fair price to offer him? He's my hunting buddy, so I'm not out to steal it.

John

[seagiant]

Hi Johnly,
Well others can tell what they think but for me if I was you I'd get it as cheap as I could. I'm not in this hobby to make mony but I'm not in it to waste mony either. A friend of a friend was wanting to get into reloading and my buddy brought him over and after everything was done. He had bought about $180 worth of gear off of me. I sold him a complete set up, turrent press,scales,powder measure and some dies! Did I make money on this?No,I sold it to make my mony back and was able to sale it cheap because I had bought it cheap and we have another reloader in our ranks to further our interest! For me the more people that enjoy reloading and shooting the better I like it!
If you help your friend out and are really friends I'm sure you can figure it out!

[smilin-buddha]

I never get that lucky at any local shows. I did get a press for a snake.

[Diablo Loco]

I thought I would introduce myself, as I am new to this site. I am Bryan. I have been reloading for about 5 years. I was looking for some info on the Hollywood Press reloaders and came across this site in an engine search. I thought I would share some of my experience with the presses and show some pics of the ones I got off of Craigslist.

About 2 1/2 years ago, before Ebay changes their rules about what components for guns you could sell, I used to buy and sell lots of reloading stuff that I would get at yard sales and auctions. At this time, I also started looking on Craigslist. I live in Fresno, CA. There was a guy what had a listing on Craigslist for a bunch of reloading equipment. He did not list names or brands. I had to email him to get his number. When I spoke with him, he said he had brass, bullets, powder, primers, dies, reloaders,.......etc. I asked him what kind. He said Lee, Lyman, a few others and a few that were called "Hollywood Gun Shop Press." He ws asking $450 for everything. This guy lived in Prunedale (don't laugh), which is about a 2 hour drive toward the coast. Because it was raining, I decided to take my Lexus SUV. Plenty of room. When I got there, we started talking and he told me that his dad had died a couple of years ago. His father lived to hunt game. (The son hated guns). He had a whole room dedicated to reloading. A big room. The room he took me into had about 12 presses all set up and ready to load whatever caliber he needed at a given time. There were stacks of dies, over 100. There were huge amounts of powder, in 1lb, 4lb, 8lb and even 15lb. There were over 60 containers of these. There were 100's and 10's of boxes of bullets. almost all were new and un-opened. And then there was the brass. There was a ton of it, almost literally. Just shy of 1400lbs. There were also reloading books, lots of them.

Well, after talking to this guy for a while, I was able to get him down on the price. I talked him down to $250 cash. I had to disassemble the presses myself from the benches and that took some time, but not as much time as it took to load everything up. I was there for most of the afternoon. The SUV was packed to the hilt. I could not see out of the back window and the front seat was also loaded, as well as some stuff tied onto the roof. Thank God, my SUV has adjustable shocks. It was a long and scary ride back home. I was afraid I would break something on my rig with that over-load.

Well, in that lot, I got a couple of Hollywood Presses, with a whole lot of extras. I did sell all of the stuff on Ebay, except what I needed for myself. I did use the Hollywood Presses for a while, but ended up going back to my Dillon. So, the Hollywood's were sold also on Ebay. Here are some pictures of them. The first 2 sets of pictures are of the Univeral. The 3rd set are of the SR.

[Diablo Loco]

Second set of pics

[Diablo Loco]

3rd set of pics of the SR

[Three44s]

If I had gotten into a situation like that ....... I'd go rent a U-Haul trailer if my rig could not have handled it straight away.

Reloading has a rich history and some wonderful tools to show for it.

Three 44s

[HeavyMetal]

Here's a little information I got at the Costa Mesa Gun show a week or so ago.

Walking down the asile and spotted a batch of Hollywood press's on a table at the end of the row. A single stage Senior and a turret Senior as well as all the tooling and shell holder one would ever need.

Turns out this is the Hollywood Engineering booth and eveything is new manufacture!

Joe Mueller and his wife Margaret run the business and they are located in Sun Valley CA.

E mail is cadqueenell@aol.com Phone is 818-842-8376

Standard shell holders are $10.00 bucks according to the catalog they gave me, the universal one is $20.00

Hope this info helps you guys out.