John Birdeno hitched up the holster around his waist, drew his pistol and spun it with his thumb and forefinger.
Just like the cowboys in the movies of his youth.
"I found this one in a box of junk I bought for $20," he explained as he slipped the one-time movie prop back into its holster.
Birdeno's collection of cowboy memorabilia started after he was asked to give a program for his son's third-grade class and the few pieces he had obtained barely covered a card table. The collection has since blossomed into thousands of pieces - enough to fill a museum.
And that's where they're headed.
With the help of a volunteer board likewise dedicated to the days of the Old West, Birdeno, 67, has established the Silver Screen Cowboy Museum on U.S. 50, two miles west of Newton.
A sneak preview is planned for Feb. 14, with a catered Valentine's Day dinner and a program. Movie cowboy Dale Berry will open the show, with ZERF, the singing cowboy from Manhattan, presenting his "six-string justice" songs about the Kansas frontier. Honored guests are Paul Mix, a cousin of silent film icon Tom Mix, and Hooter Gibson, a cousin of actor Hoot Gibson.
Birdeno's collection hearkens back to the silent-screen days and moves forward to scores of lesser-known Hollywood cowboys as well as popular favorites Tom Mix, The Lone Ranger, Roy Rogers and Gene Autry.
Among local cowboy aficionados whom Birdeno admittedly roped into helping set up the museum is retired Reno County Senior Court Judge Steven Becker.
They're a couple of wannabe hombres, the two admit. On a work day at the museum, they showed up attired in blue jeans and Western shirts, boots and felt cowboy hats.
The choices for play in their boyhood days were limited to "Cops and Robbers" or "Cowboys and Indians."
"For me, it was always 'Cowboys and Indians,' " Becker said.
Becker houses his own museum of working cowboy artifacts in the century-old Medora Hotel on K-61 north of Hutchinson - a place he calls The Bunkhouse.
Birdeno's interest lies in the Wild West that emerged from Hollywood: the cowboy movie heroes whose riding and roping brought the romance and glamour of the Old West - even though they often used doubles, and some didn't know which side of a horse to mount.
Only a few true lawmen and cowboys made the movies. As for real-life robbers and outlaws, Birdeno knows only the one member of the famed Dalton brothers, Emmett, who survived to make his way to Hollywood as a consultant to moviemakers.
Birdeno's memory holds a catalog of the scores of former actors and the parts they played.
The holster he wears is autographed by Roy Rogers' daughter, Cheryl Rogers, and he has met Paul Mix, cousin of the late Tom Mix.
At the Silver Screen Museum, the vast collection of photos, many of them autographed, along with posters, publicity still shots and other memorabilia, have been sorted. Many are in place, though more await being hung on walls or arranged in display cases.
The fun of establishing the Silver Screen Cowboy Museum is the authenticity of the location, Becker said.
"Kansas is so rich in cowboy history - Abilene, Ellsworth, Wichita, Dodge City. Being a part of Kansas, to me, means to be a part of the cowboy era," he said.
For Birdeno and his museum gang, Jerry Shell and Jack Mace, it's a way of remembering an era that entertained moviegoers for decades.
"The museum is a return to the day of the Saturday matinee," Birdeno said, "when the heroes wore white hats and fancy gun rigs and rode prancing steeds. The bad guys in black hats rode ordinary horses - and maybe, just maybe, the leading lady got a kiss."