I got my first handgun about that time. I WANTED a Python, but ended up with a Model 19. Even then a Python cost about twice what a Model 19 did, but Pythons were still thought of as working guns. Rugers Speed/Security-Sixs were popular too.
I thought of Model 10's as cheap, underpowered and old fashioned...something you'd buy if you didn't know any better.
I remember seeing Model 28's for sale, but I don't remember ever seeing a Model 27...They may have just been out of my price range so I never really even looked for them. A 44 Magnum...
No way I was shooting one of those.
The only people I ever saw shooting semi-auto were the IPSC people. They were almost universally Colt 1911's (Government Models, or Gold Cups), or Browning Hi-Powers, with a handful of Smith & Wesson Model 39/59's seen from time to time. Wait...I remember now that I worked security back then. I carried an issue Model 10 (cheap,underpowered, and old fashioned, remember), but one night an undercover cop worked with me. He carried a Browning Hi-Power in a SOB holster. Man, he KNEW his stuff.
P-38's and Lugers were things that old guys had brought back from the war, not something you really used. I remember hearing that "Old man so and so" had one, but never shot it.
Anything else showed up in the Shooters Bible or Gun Digest, but not on store shelves.