Sunday, May 11, 2014

Crossover of the Week

Spring 1937
DAWN OF THE PURPLE HOODS
            Adventurer Jim Anthony is part of a charity auction where the prizes are dates with celebrities. Another of the eligible bachelors is the young publisher of the Sentinel newspaper chain. Jim and his date, Marinda Stubbing, are attacked by a group of men in purple hoods, during which event Marinda is wounded. Jim goes to his ally Frank Havens, publisher of the Clarion, asking him to put out feelers for information regarding the gang. One of Havens’ sources is the mysterious sleuth known as the Phantom. One of Jim’s other informants is the owner of a cigar store. Jim evades a group of journalists that includes Rex Parker of the New York Comet. Inspector Gregg arrives at Jim’s home and headquarters, the Waldorf-Anthony Hotel, in the aftermath of another attack by the Purple Hoods. Marinda is treated by Nurse Ames. When the Purple Hoods capture Jim and Marinda, a group of current and former naval officers set out to rescue them. One member of this rescue mission is Arkansas native Ruben Clampett, who mentions his nephew Jedidiah. Another officer tells Jim that Commander Winslow sends his compliments.
            Short story by Erwin K. Roberts in Jim Anthony: Super Detective Volume One, Ron Fortier, ed., Cornerstone Book Publishers, 2009. Jim Anthony’s adventures in the “spicy” pulp Super Detective were chronicled by Victor Rousseau Emanuel, Robert Leslie Bellem and W.T. Ballard. The publisher of the Sentinel newspaper is Britt Reid, the alter ego of the Green Hornet. The auction must have drawn Reid from his native Detroit to Anthony’s stomping grounds of New York City. Frank Havens and Inspector Gregg are from the Phantom Detective pulp novels, written by various authors using the pseudonyms “G. Wayman Jones” and “Robert Wallace.” The cigar store owner is Danny Blaney, formerly the Green Ghost, a creation of Johnston McCulley’s who appeared in Thrilling Detective. Rex Parker will later become the Masked Detective, the title character of a pulp magazine written by Norman A. Daniels under the pen name “C.K.M. Scanlon” that was published beginning in Fall 1940, and ending in Spring 1943 due to wartime paper shortages. Cherry Ames, Student Nurse, appeared in a series of mystery novels written by Helen Wells and Julie Campbell Tatham. Ruben Clampett’s nephew is Jed Clampett from The Beverly Hillbillies, thus bringing that show into the CU. Don Winslow of the Navy appeared in the comic strip of the same name by Lt. Cmdr. Frank V. Martinek, as well as radio and film serials and a comic book published by Fawcett.

3 comments:

  1. You know I don't quite know why someone would put in a crossover with the Beverly Hillbillies. But that's just me.

    Didn't the movie crossover with some TV PI?

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  2. Yes, Buddy Ebsen (who played Jed on the show) had a cameo in the movie as Barnaby Jones, whom he also played on TV. Barnaby Jones, incidentally, appeared on an episode of Cannon before getting his own series, and the two series later had another crossover.

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  3. Yeah, I thought so.

    It just seems weird that amid the pulp crossovers there one to a 60s comedy, but oh well.

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