When I first saw the original Dirty Harry flick, it was fairly new - and we were at sea. The only handgun I had access to then was while we were in port - and I had to turn it back into the armory when I was off watch. I still won't buy a 1911, my long gone G21 and AMT's having been my only .45 ACP bottom-feeders. I certainly didn't rush out and buy a 29 - my first .44M was a 629MG some thirty years later. As I stated, I bought - and continue to buy - S&W's because of their history, technical advances, and affordability.
Since my first post, I've had another hatchday celebration - and received collections of the first two years of 'Have Gun: Will Travel'. It's neat to see an actor, better suited for a role in the works of the Bard, going from the rich fellow perusing the newspaper in his Frisco hotel in a white suit molting into the gunman in black. The episode with him changing from his horse to a camel was especially 'entertaining'. Quite different than I remembered - and mostly filmed outdoors, rather than the sound stage, a la 'Gunsmoke', etc. Of course, his sidearm was a 'special' SAA - and his back-up derringer. No S&W seeds there. In fact, I don't remember a TV show featuring a S&W #3, .44 Russian or .45 Schofield.
If my childhood was a guide, you'd think I'd have a SAA (I have a few Rugers...). Of course, TV was a 'dessert' of sorts then - never a nightly, much less all evening long endeavor - in my home. I did read a lot, as most did back then, thus the appreciation for the 'history' of S&W - and it's later level of importance to me. My use of firearms these days is for paper punching and steel plate pinging; I don't 'pack', hunt, or 'play cowboy' now. They each ride in a rug within my range bag regularly to the range. My choice of S&W fills the bill perfectly. YMMV
Stainz