Back in the early eighties, Bill Pinnell, who was a legendary bear guide on Kodiak, received an inquiry from a gent back east, who wanted to contract with Bill and his partner Morris Talifson, for a “Primitive Bear Hunt” on Kodiak Island. These two crusty old characters (as I recall, Billie was around 90 at the time, and Morris was pushing 80) thought the whole concept of a “primitive bear hunt” with “primitive weapons” was simply hilarious.
Of course, the prospective client was probably thinking along the lines of bow and arrow, but Bill and Morris had a very professional looking brochure made up (all in spoof) which advertised primitive bear hunts on Kodiak. Prospective clients were to bring their own loin cloths, but P and T would supply a spear if the airlines didn’t like the look of the clients weapon of choice.
The brochure went into great detail about the hunt and was hilarious....the two old timers spent most of a winter working on it, with many suggestions from locals.
References to ensure the clients “affairs” were in order prior to arrival, the appropriate style of loin cloth and head band to bring, and there being no need of course to make round trip airline reservations. The guides offered to provide a small box to return the remains in, if there were any, etc.
Unfortunately, in one of my moves I lost my copy. But I can still remember sitting in Bill’s kitchen in Olga Bay, laughing my butt off reading it the first time.
Apparently, the gent who proposed the hunt originally hunted with another guide....
MTV