AHMM has been a standard in the mystery field for 67 years. It premiered with the December 1956 issus -- a 144 page digest edited by William Manners, who helmed the magazine from its inaugural issue through to the August 1961 issue. Lisa Belkanp then edited the magazine, ending her run in the December 1962 issue. Richard E. Decker then served as the magazines editor (January 1963-September 1964), followed by G. F. Foster (October 1964-May 1967), Ernest M. Hutter (June 1967-February 1976), the legendary Eleanor Sullivan (Marxh 1976-November 11, 1981; Sullivan also edited Ellery Queen's Mystery Magazine fort nearly 11 years, 1981-1991), the capable Cathleen Jordan then took over the reins from Sullivan (December 9, 1981-June 2002), the current editor, Linda Landirgan, began her turn at the helm with the July/August 2002 issue and is still going strong. AHMM publishers have gone from H.S.D. Publications (which also published Manhunt, Murder, Verdict Crime Detection Magazine, and Sleuth -- all under different company names) to Davis Pubication (in 1976) to Dell Magazines (in 1992). The magazine has evolved from mostly presenting gimmicky stories with surprise endings to a far more nuanced and literate fare. The authors who have appeared in AHMM read like a Who'sWho in detective and crime short fiction: Henry Slesar, Evan Hunter, Jack Ritchie, Ed Lacy, Bill Pronzini, Edward D. Hoch, Clark Howard, Donald E. Westlake, Charles Willeford, Lawrence Block, Jim Thompson, Robert Block, John H. Dirckx, Stephen Wasylyk, Ron Goulart, Rhys Bowen, Jan Burke, O'Neil De Noux, Brendan Dubois, James Lincoln Warren, John F. Dobbyn, David Edgerly Gates, Loren D. Estleman, R. T. Lawton, Rpbert Lopresti, Toni L. P. Kelner, Steven Torres, Sarah Weinman, Elaine Viets, Angfela Zeman, Isaac Asimov, and many many others. Stories in AHMM have won Edgar. Robert L. Fish, Agatha and Shamus Awards.
Alfred Hitchcock, of course, has nothing to do with the magazine other than licensing his name. A number of short stories first printed in the magazine were, however, dramatized on Hitchcock's anthology television series.
I am assuming that the original publisher -- for whatever reason -- wanted the magazine's volume numbers to correspond with the calendar year, and, likewise, to have the issue number correspondent to the publication month. That's why the magazine's first issue (December 1956) is indexed as Volume . Number 12. There were no Volume 1, Numbers 1-11. That is also why there is also no Volume 2, Number 4 -- there was no April 1957 issue.
Anyway, I though it would be fun to look back at AHMM's inaugural issue.
- C. L. Moore, "Here Lies..." Ann is about to committ suicide by jumpong off a pier. She is stopped by Cliff, who tries to persude her that suicide is not worth it. Ann is the divorced wife od a Senate candidate -- a man who cruelly cheated and lied and made her life miserable. Suicide by drowning did not work and now Ann has a gun in her purse and wants Cliff to shoot her. Moore was best-known for her science fiction work, both singly and with her husband, Henry Kuttner. This was one of her last short stories before she embarked on a successful television writing career.
- William F. Nolan, "The Strange Case of Mr. Pruyn" Mr. Pruytn goes to the police station to confess to a brutal murder. This one starts off on a violent note -- more like a story you'd find in Manhunt than you would on an early AHMM,although it ended on a twisty not that you'd expect from AHMM. A story from early in Nolan's long and successful career.
- "J. W. Aaron" (John D. Bjorkman), "Death of a Tramp" Loz Peterson, the town tramp, has been found hanging from a closet door in a guest room at the Williamson ranch. Sheriff Tom Marking must investigate the death while dealing with an incompetent chief of police, three unusual guests, and the wealthy cattle breeder who owns the ranch. All indications point to suicide, but was it? Bjorkman published ten mystery stories over a period of four years.
- Sam Merwin, Jr., "A Date with Jonathan" Lurline dispatches her overbearing mother with a meat cleaver and now she has only fifteen minutes before her date with Jonathan, a shoe salesman. Luckily, the incinerator in their residential hotel had a large door. Merwin had a long career as a pulp writer, but may have been better known for his editorship of genre magazines, from Thrilling Wonder Stories to Michael Shayne Mystery Magazine.
- Fletcher Flora, "A Soft Spot for Maddy" Freddy had a real soft spot for Maddie, his high school sweetheart. After school he left town and began working his way up in Duke's organization; he soon set Maddie up in his apartment. They might even get married some day. Then Freddy fell for Moira, a high-class stripper. But whatto do about Maddie? Flora priduced 150 crime short stories in the post-WWII era, as well as 13 novels -- three of which were ghosted for "Ellery Queen." His first novel, Killing Cousins, won the Cock Robin Mystery Award in 1960.
- Jim Thompson, "The Cellini Chalice" Door-to-door con man Mitch Allison manages to get his hands om an old tarnished cup, which he suspects is made of gold. He unloads on a fence for a thousand bucks. Then he learns the cup is valuable Cellini chalice and that it has a mate. Now all that Mitch has to do is to naviagate his way through treacherous waters to get the second chalice. Sometimes the biter gets bit. then bit again, Then the biter bites back. This was the first of two stories Jim Thompson, a master of the hard-boiled novel, wrote about Mitch Allison.
- Murray Wolf, "Wetback" Seventeen-year-old Juan has been in America for two weeks and is staying with his cousin's family, while cautiously afraid that he will be caught by Immigration and sent back to Mexico. Juan is naive and nows little English; he is unaware the his cousin Antonio belongs to a street gang. Antonio and his friends take take Juan along as they crash an anglo birthday party in a fancy house. Then Switch, the leader of the gang, decided to attack a young girl, and that was sopmething Juan could not allow...Murray Wolf had a brief career, publishing just fifteen stories over a period of five years.
- "Bordon Deal" (Loyse Youth Deal), "A Bottle of Wine" Judge Carter's wife, twenty-five years his younger, has left him after ten years for a much younger man. She returns to his home to pack up her clothes, leaving her new boyfrind in the car. The Judge has a gun in his pocket. He invites the man in, and, while she is upstairs packing, shares a rare bottle of sherry with him -- a bottle that he had been saving for his 25th anniversary...Bordon Deal was the author of 21 novels and over 100 short stories, many set in his native South; ten of his stories appeared in AHMM. His second wife, Babs Deal, was also an acclaimed novelist and short story writer, publishing two stories in AHMM.
- Eugene Pawley, "Return Trip" [We start off at a Nevada gambling establishment, JAKE WIRTH'S PLACE; this rang a bell with me because the Jacob Wirth Restaurant was the second oldest continually-run restaurant in Boston, from 1868 to 2018 -- we always called it Jakey Wirth's Place. The coincidence has nothing to do with the story but, having been raised 25 miles outside of Boston, I found it amusing. I have no idea if the author, who had more than thrity pulp stories published over 20 years, came from the Boston area.] Anyway, when a client delays acceptance of a load from trucker Matt, he has to spend the night in Reno, where blackjack dealer Maggie sends $400 in winnings his way. Maggie is caught and ordered to leave the city. Matt offers to take her with him in his truck back to Los Angeles. On the way to LA, Matt notices a mysterious car following them, and Maggie seems awfully cautious about not letting her luggage stored behind the truck's front seat get out of her sight.
- Henry Peterson, "Six and Two Make Nine" A crude cabin, two human skeletons covered in dust on cots, a dust-covered hatchet on the floor, and a diary dated 1754...The diary tells of a shipwreck, with nione survivors making it to a deserted island, where, one by one, they are being mysteriously murdered. The introduction to this story indicates that this was the author's first story; according to Fictionmags, he only published one more -- in the next issue of AHMM. Could this have been a pen name? Who knows?
- There are five little filler snippets in this issue: "Banks and Betters," "Full House in the Big House," "Small Bosom -- Big Haul," "Life or Death," and "Joe DiMaggio to the Rescue." Ho-hum.
There was one other major Hitchcock connection (however tenuous) to the magazine, aside from the endless use of AH's likeness on the covers (till, essentially, the sale of the "Dell" magazines from Bantam Doubleday Dell to Penny Press, which presumably mostly wanted their crossword puzzle magazines but wasn't averse to the others, though I think the horoscope magazines have all been folded), the "editorials" and blurbs attributed to the director and ghosted by the magazine's staff...Patricia Hitchcock, AH's daughter and cameo-role actor in PSYCHO and a few other spots, had a (no-show?) job at the magazine in its HSD years and a listing on the masthead.
ReplyDeleteMay the Penny "Dell" group persist.
And I (and Frank Babics) will be willing to break down the various types of "Hitchcock" anthology at the drop of a footnote, of course.
A few months back I read the first few stories in the issue, and though I planned to read its entirety, I was underwhelmed and moved onto other things. But I'll get around to finishing it... some day.
ReplyDeleteGreat assessment, by the way. And I am glad that the Luminist Archives have made these early issues available.
ReplyDelete