A Glean In Their Eyes

Hello! and Welcome! Thank you for visiting the musty confines of my Secret Basement Laboratory! If you've been here before, then you know the drill–keep your eyes peeled and your hands to yourself. If this is your first visit, then, pull up a stool and don't mess with the test tubes! Ignore the sheet-draped shape on the large table in the corner...come again?...yes, yes it does look curiously like a supinely slumbering giant, doesn't it?

But never mind that!

Today I've concocted a post about something as old as time and equally as dependable. Thievery is the ugly but honest noun it goes by, but there are other, slightly-less inflammatory synonyms that could be applied, like: appropriation, purloining, infringing, borrowing...just to list a few. 

from Captain Marvel Adventures #150
(Fawcett Comics, 1953)

When someone does something that strikes a chord with an audience, big or small, there are bound to be imitators who'll strike while the proverbial iron is hot, hoping to hammer out a bit of success for themselves as well. Or, perhaps, when someone is inspired by a musician, painter, writer, what-have-you, it fails to germinate inspiration in originality beyond aping the thing that inspired them in the first place. The final tine of the purloiner's pitchfork is built for those who see something interesting but obscure, and do a pastiche in hopes that the overlooked source material won't be discovered and compared to their own.

There is, of course, the infamous twelve year lawsuit between Fawcett Comics and DC Comics (at the time National Comics Publications) claiming that Captain Marvel was an illegal infringement of Superman, that eventually led to the dissolving of Fawcett (ouch!) and DC ultimately purchasing the rights to continue to use the Fawcett characters (double ouch!). And there's the story of William Gaines's use of several of Ray Bradbury's stories for his EC Comics titles like Weird Science, Weird Fantasy and The Haunt Of Fear, among others, without crediting the author and cleverly changing the titles of the tales. For example Bradbury's tale "The Handler", from his short story collection Dark Carnival, was used as fodder for the tale "A Strange Undertaking" in the sixth issue of The Haunt Of Fear (Feb. 9th, 1951). The story was credited as being co-scripted by editor Gaines and artist/writer Al Feldstein. Of course Bradbury eventually caught on and sent the company a very tactfully worded note stating that the publisher had failed to send him remuneration for the secondary rights to his work and was sure "...this was probably overlooked in the general confusion of office work, and I look forward to your payment in the near future." 

Of course, once things were legitimized, EC began touting their Bradbury connection, reprinting the story with the proper credits. 

The original uncredited splash page for
"A Strange Undertaking" in issue 6 of The
Haunt Of Fear.

The re-titled and credited reprint of Bradbury's
"The Handler", illustrated by Graham Ingels.

From the Oct. 1951 issue of
Mysterious Adventures. Art by Palette.

The horror comic point is a salient one, as I finally dust off and polish the actual point of this post. I was recently re-reading issue thirty-one of the excellent pre-code horror comics reprint title Haunted Horror, put out as a joint venture between Craig Yoe's Yoe Comics and publisher IDW. It somehow escaped my notice on the first read, but there was a very obvious (and hardly ignorant inclusion I have to assume) infringement in the issue of a tale from an October 1951 issue of Mysterious Adventures, titled "If The Coffin Fits...Get In!". This tale from Story Comics features two brothers–Johnny and Bill Norris–who are driving home from a funeral in a storm, when they pass a mysterious woman walking in the rain. They give her a lift, presumably just coming from the funeral herself. Her name is Helen and she lives above a curio shop with some interesting items in it, like two little novelty coffins which Johnny and Bill are inspired to purchase. Bill becomes infatuated with the strange and beautiful woman, but Johnny has his reservations. For one thing, the little novelty coffins they'd purchased seem to be growing in size each day. Bill thinks the whole thing is nonsense, but, eventually the coffins sprout silver nameplates that have their names on them, and Johnny realizes that the coffins are for them, and the mysterious Helen is actually Death!

The brothers flee town, there's a car accident, Bill finds himself at a strange shack outside of town where...you may have guessed it...Helen is waiting with the coffins.

From the April - May 1952 issue of
Dark Mysteries. Art by Tony Tallarico.

This brings us to the second tale, taken from Master Comics title Dark Mysteries, issue number six, published in April–May of the following year. The story "If The Noose Fits – Wear It!" is (almost) the exact same story! Two friends, Harry and Tod, visit a waxworks. Harry becomes intrigued by a figure of a noose-bound witch, while Tod becomes obsessed with a beautiful woman in the museum crowd. We're told the story of a woman wrongfully accused of witchcraft and subsequently hung. The noose surrounding the figure in the museum is of course the original used on the poor lady, and as a bonus, there are tiny novelty nooses for sale in the museum gift shop for collectors–made from the fibers of the original, of course!

Tod and Harry buy themselves some nooses and Tod gets friendly with Mara, the mysterious and beautiful woman he met at the waxworks. Well, as you might have guessed, the nooses begin to grow each day, sprouting tags with their names on them. Tod and Harry freak out and flee town. There's a car accident, and Tod finds himself at a shack outside of town where Mara is waiting with the nooses. Turns out Mara is actually Death!

Coincidence? I find it hard to believe. Unfortunately there isn't a whole lot of information out there (or perhaps I've been digging in the wrong dirt?) about the comics companies. Story Comics operated from 1951 through 1955, with horror, romance, war and crime comics. Master Comics published two titles: Mysterious Comics (1951-1955) and Romantic Hearts (1953-1955) which reprinted tales from the Story Comics title of the same name, so perhaps they were two publishing titles operated by the same publisher, which would explain the cannibalism. There's clearly a more-than-slightly-similar plot to the stories, with a bit about witchcraft thrown in the latter, for it to be entirely fortuitous. The design of the Helen and Mara characters are practically cookie cutter, there's a theme of floating (though differently illustrated) skulls around the margins of the panels in each, and, of course, the growing death objects seal the deal. It's hard to say what brought on the appropriation of the earlier story. It's hard to believe "If The Noose Fits..." was created out of the overwhelming popularity of the original. Perhaps Tony Tallarico (or the uncredited writer) needed ideas to meet a deadline and grabbed one of many in a then-glutted stream of horror comics and found an interesting story that he could tweak a little for his own purposes. The world may never know.

Definitely worth adding to your pull list.

Whatever the case may be, the stories are great examples of amazing pre-code horror comics and I highly recommend you seek out the issue of Haunted Horror, or, go to the wonderful The Horrors Of It All blogsite, where Mr. Karswell, the host and co-editor of Haunted Horror (and it's sister title Weird Love) posts pre-code horror comics for your enjoyment; including the two tales discussed! 

You can read "If The Noose Fits–Wear It!" here, and "If The Coffin Fits...Get In!" here!

Enjoy.

Secret Basement Laboratory Radio, Episode One: Private Dicks and Smart Alecks

Today I have something a little different to offer. It's a multimedia blog post featuring the standard biographical/historical thing I do here, paired with an audio offering in podcast form via Mixcloud. That way royalties will be dispensed per-play to the writers of the music used in the program (or so I'm lead to believe). 

I'm a big fan of what is now dubbed Old Time Radio. Obviously, like any medium, there's a lot to sift through, not all of it of the same quality. But when I'm lying awake nights, waiting for the veil of insomnia to part, or I am just not ready to sleep yet, I plug the earbuds of my iPod into my ears and listen to some good old-fashioned radio plays.

I first discovered the magic of OTR back in my middle school days, when I found my local hometown public library had episodes of The Shadow, packaged in what looked like those oversized vinyl videocassette cases. Since then I've grown to appreciate this artform from an era when folks actually had to pay attention to their entertainment to get something out of it. Now it seems everything is ADHD quick-cut together in music video fashion so that movies and television shows can be playing in the background while the consumer fiddles with their cell phone or plays video games. Perhaps the art of listening has taken a back burner to instant gratification and one-liner reference gags that seem popular these days vis-a-vis Family Guy and millennial comedy Netflix specials. Or, perhaps, I'm just a grumpy old man.

About The Show

Walk Softly, Peter Troy

There were, according to the scant information I could on this program, two Walk Softly, Peter Troys. One was an Australian production, and one a British production from South Africa. The Peter Troy you'll hear in this program is the latter. Sadly, as I've said, I couldn't find much in the way of information about the show. There is this page on the Times Past Old Time Radio website that features a blurb provided by someone named Pumamouse (as well as mp3 files of many of the episodes), who runs a Saint fan page full of information on The Saint radio program and the minutiae related to it. 

Walk Softly, Peter Troy is set in London, and features a very Tony Randall-sounding Troy who, in a reversal of the popular roles, seems to actually be second in command in his private investigations. His name is stenciled on the glass inset on the office door, but he's usually finding himself guided onto the right track by his doting–and sassy–secretary Julie. The show is very much cut from the Mr. Lucky cloth. The soundtrack sounds positively Mancinian, the jokes are dry and the plots could easily have been Carter Brown paperback fodder. 

It's definitely a Top Ten radio program for me. 

This show features the episode "A Flight Of Fancy", originally broadcast March 28th, 1964. It follows Troy's exploits trying to bodyguard a scientist who's developed a super jet fuel.

Richard Diamond, Private Detective

Fortunately there's a little more information on the Richard Diamond, Private Detective program, which seems to have had a long-lasting, if not somewhat convoluted shelf life. The life of a private eye, I guess. It ran from April 24, 1949, on NBC, until December of the following year. It moved to ABC radio in January of 1951, where it lasted just over five months, and then aired on CBS for a four month summer stint as a replacement for Amos 'n' Andy.

Much like Peter Troy above, the program focuses on a P.I. who is less hardboiled than your average Mike Shayne stereotype, and more prone to corny wordplay and even crooning to his girlfriend Helen at the end of each episode (played by Virginia Gregg). 

The episode I've chosen for inclusion in this particular episode of Secret Basement Laboratory Radio, titled "The Van Dyke Seance Case" originally aired September 10th, 1949. Troy is charged with revealing a sham spiritualist who is conning a Mrs. Van Dyke with phony calls from beyond the grave to ingratiate himself and his conniving partner into the lady's jewelry box.

Virginia Gregg and Dick Powell (Helen
Asher and Richard Diamond respectively)

I've chosen this episode because it's one of my personal favorites from the series, and features one of my hands-down favorite back-and-forth moments when Diamond and his girlfriend attend a seance by Professor Leonardo, the fake medium, in the guise of two hillbilly yokels. 

The Music

I've sandwiched three songs between the episodes as sort of an intermission. It beats hearing me chatter, anyway. All three were chosen because they fit the theme, atmosphere and aesthetic of the shows featured. 

All three are also from the British stock music house KPM Library. Even if you've never heard of KPM, or have the vaguest notion of what library music is, odds are you've heard a lot of the production house's music, as the NFL has licensed scores of it (pun intended) for their highlight reel production work. Many compilations even exist with titles like Music From Superbowl (insert roman numeral here), or Music From the NFL. Many of the songs, at least the first two of this trio, were also used as background music for the likes of SpongeBob Squarepants and The Ren & Stimpy Show.

The first is a track from 1965 by Laurie Johnson, titled "Blood In The Gutter." It was taken from a KPM "brownsleeve" record. A plodding drumbeat dancing with a Dragnet-esque brass section and some jazzy rolling piano. Laurie Johnson went on to score the The Avengers television series (the Steed and Peel Avengers, not the Rogers and Stark one) and Jason King, as well as the 1974 cult Hammer Studios film Captain Kronos - Vampire Hunter.

Secondly we have another NFL utilized tune called "The Unknown", by Ralph Dollimore. Dollimore was a British composer and pianist that worked with a number of the popular orchestral and big band jazz groups in London during the 1950s and 1960s (most notably, at least for me, Kenny Graham and his Afro-Cubists). His tune "Hit and Run" has been prolifically used (though uncredited, such is the fate of most stock music library musicians) in cartoons and television.

Finally, we have a man who needs no introduction in my eyes, but for the general reader, I'll go ahead and give you a little info on the amazing Syd Dale. Dale has created (subjectively speaking) some of the most amazing instrumental music I've ever heard, and is easily one of my favorite musicians, library music or otherwise. If you've seen the 1967 Spider-Man cartoon, you've heard Syd Dale. If you're a fan of niche cinema purveyors Something Weird Video, you've heard Syd Dale. The iconic music in the promo that they preface each video with is Dale's track "The Hell Raisers".

The song featured in this episode of SBLR, "Man Trap," is from the 1968 KPM album Flamboyant Themes Volume Two. Dale was a self-taught composer and musician who studied big band music while working in a chocolate factory. Eventually he started working extensively with various library houses and eventually formed his own Amphonic Sounds production company. While "The Hell Raisers" is one of his most prominently recognizable tracks, Dale has left a huge mark on the world of entertainment and advertising, largely unknown to the generations of consumers who've undoubtedly hummed some of his jingles used on the BBC or prolifically sampled by pop and hip-hop producers.

Again, I want to point out that this was a trial run. I'm working on ironing out the wrinkles, and hopefully, should an episode two drop in the future, it'll be much more polished and professionally put together than this inaugural one was.

Enjoy!
Mad Doctor Josh

Minnesota Noirror

Minnesota: Land Of 10,000 Lakes, if you believe the official license plate tagline. Actually there are more than 10,000; I don't have an actual hard total, that isn't really the point I'm going for. When you sate your need for fantastic fiction on the kinds of material Otto Penzler compiles into his wondrously weighty tomes, you find a lot of crime fiction taking place on the misty streets of San Francisco or the cloistered concrete jungle of New York, a lot of horror and supernatural shenaniganery going on in the old attics and alleys of New England or the swamps of the Deep South, but you very rarely get any kind of action here in the Midwest. 

Particularly Minnesota.

Not a popular setting for pulp adventure or b-movie madness. If it weren't for Fredric Brown or Ray Bradbury, we wouldn't have any representation whatsoever. Of course there's always Chicago, popping up as the backdrop for a crime story or a horror tale, and I'm sure some human encyclopedia on film noir and pulp magazine minutiae could take me to task and point out some obscure so-and-so who appeared for a forgotten string of stories somewhere that was North Star State-based. Usually you get some vague, fictional small college town with a mad professor on staff at the local university  that you can kind of relate to yours in its generalities. I understand the point of great escapist material is to transport us to foreign settings that pricey plane tickets likely will not, but every once in a while it's nice to see your environment depicted as the "scene of the crime" as it were.

I honestly can't say whether the 1951 Red Scare drama The Whip Hand takes place in Minnesota or not. A cursory search online gives both Wisconsin and Minnesota as the setting, though I guess initially it was supposed to take place in New England, and feature Nazis instead of communists. The only geographical reference we have in the film itself to the location of the fictional small town of Winnoga, is about an hour in, when our intrepid New York reporter protagonist gets word out to his publisher that the place is actually running as a front for Nazi scientist Wilhelm Bucholtz and his bacteriological experiments, and the publisher in question walks over to a large wall-sized map of the United States, pokes a finger into a non-specific spot in the Upper Midwest and says "Winnoga...Winnoga...ah here it is. That puts Bucholtz and Corbin within a couple of hours drive of our Duluth office." 

Carla Balenda as Janet Keller, hostage of Bucholtz
in The Whip Hand.

The story is a fine little suspense yarn that could have easily been an episode of the Boris Karloff-hosted NBC series Thriller. Matt Corbin, a magazine reporter, is on a fishing trip in the scenic but empty town of Winnoga. A storm breaks out, reporter slips and gashes his head on a rock in the stream while wading to safety, and tries to get medical attention. The first sign of civilization he comes across is a gated driveway to a hidden estate, and is turned away by the surly gatekeeper. He then heads to the town proper to see the local doctor and finds Raymond Burr (talking in a register two steps above Perry Mason and with a talcum-grayed wig on) holding court as a hotel operator and ringleader to a bunch of unfriendly, tight-lipped locals who don't care much for nosey interlopers. Of course the young man finds out what is really going on–that the empty town is a facade run by commies servicing a Nazi scientist working on deadly bacterial agents that will wipe out the population of the United States–and tries to get word to the outside world with the help of the attractive and naive sister of the town sawbones. 

The film was based on a treatment by Roy Hamilton, who, while not having a lengthy career in Hollywood, did write a few episodes of The Adventures Of Superman and an episode of Dick Tracy, as well as contributing to the screenplay for the 1953 schlock classic Cat-Women of the Moon.  

Carla Balenda c.1955

Our protagonist was radio drama superstar and impressionist Elliott Reid (who was apparently asked to do his Kennedy for J.F.K, an impression that garnered the President's stamp of approval), who appeared in Gentlemen Prefer Blondes, a slew of television shows, and co-starred with Fred MacMurray in some mid-60s Disney films (Son of Flubber and The Absent-Minded Professor). Of course we're all familiar with Godzilla-hunting, Hamilton Burger-thwarting Raymond Burr. Incidentally, if you've not seen his bonkers Bride Of The Gorilla of the same year, I highly recommend you do, because it's amazing. At least if you have tastes similar to my own. And the connection between Bride Of The Gorilla and The Whip Hand go beyond a mere set of production dates! The Whip Hand featured uncredited screenwriting work by Curt Siodmak, the writer of films like The Wolf Man (1941), The Invisible Man Returns (1940), Frankenstein Meets The Wolf Man (1943) and...you guessed it!...Bride Of The Gorilla, which he also directed!  Our leading lady, Carla Balenda (born with the burlesque dancer-ready name Sally Bliss), doesn't have a lot of credits to her name, aside from being probably best known for her short stints as Mickey Rooney's girlfriend in the short-lived The Mickey Rooney Show (1954-55), and as little Timmy's teacher Miss Hazlit on Lassie (1958-1963).

William Cameron Menzies

The film has two director credits: William Cameron Menzies, the man who created the term "production designer" and director who directed Invaders From Mars and won the Academy Award for his production design on Gone With The Wind; and Stuart Gilmore, a noted editor who worked on films like Hatari!, The Alamo and The Andromeda Strain. Presumably Gilmore did the re-shoots that replaced the Nazis with surly Communist yokels. 

The film is available on Warner Bros. Archive Collection series, meaning you can order it and they'll burn an on-demand, professionally produced DVD-R copy of the film for you. The Archive Collection is actually pretty ingenious; it allows film buffs to get their hands on older, more obscure films that wouldn't necessarily be lucratively marketable in mass production. The films I've ordered from the collection (The Great Gildersleeve movie set, the Hollywood Legends of Horror collection) have all arrived in slick professional cases with full-color labels and production and remastering that rival any of the more mainstream releases. 

Otto Waldis as Bucholtz behind bulletproof glass, scoffing at the Feds
before being struck down by his own human guinea pigs.