The Fabulous Topperweins: a couple famed for their sharpshooting skills

Elizabeth, nicknamed Plinky, and her husband Adolph Topperwein rose to fame as a sharpshooting duo known as the “Fabulous Topperweins.” They showcased their marksmanship skills on stage in the first half of the 20th century touring for nearly four decades.

“She (Plinky) would have been shooting thrown targets, very small targets, doing some what we might call ‘positional shooting’ so shooting at awkward angles or over the shoulder that kind of stuff,” said Danny Michael, curator of the Cody Firearms Museum. “And then of course one they were really famous for was Ad[olph] holding something either in his hands or mouth like a card or something like that.”

The museum has a Winchester model 97 firearm that Plinky used to set a world record.

“The record was actually to shoot 1952 out of 2,000 possible targets in five hours in Montgomery, Alabama in 1916,” Michael said.

The couple’s sharpshooting act was sponsored by Winchester Repeating Arms Company.