SHORT STORY WEDNESDAY: THE RIDDLE OF THE MARBLE BLADE

"The Riddle of the Marble Blade" by Stuart Palmer  (first published in Mystery, November 1934; reprinted in The Saint Mystery Magazine [UK], November 1962; in The Saint Mystery Magazine, March 1963; in Uncollected Crimes, edited by Bill Pronzini & Martin H. Greenberg, 1987; in Hildegarde Withers:  Uncollected Cases by Palmer, 2002; available separately as an eBook from Wildside Press, 1922)

When George Kelley reviewed Hildegarde Withers:  Uncollected Cases three years ago (@GeorgeKelley.org, September 22, 2021), he called the stories in the collection "puzzle stories with a flare."  That they are.  Since George's review did not go into every story in the collection, I thought it fair to take a closer look at one of them.

Anyone who is unfamiliar with Palmer's spinster schoolteacher/detective, pay heed to the story's first sentence:

"In order to love her fellow man as she felt duty-bound to do, Miss Hildegarde Withers found it advisable to avoid humanity en masse whenever possible."

I defy anyone to not read further after that sentence.

New York City has shelled out ten thousand dollars in commission for a statue of George Washington by sculptor Manuel Dravid.  The sculpture, twice life-size, is to overlook the city's George Washington Uptown Swimming Pool Number Two (at the moment still an uncompleted hole) in Central Park.  But the statue has been completed and put into its place, and an official unveiling is to take place.  The mayor is making a long speech, and, off to the side, Dee Bryan,  the pretty eighteen-year-old daughter of the Park Commissioner has a firm hold on the release ropes that will lower the drapes over the statue on cue.  Dravid, the sculptor, was expected to be there for the ceremony, but he has not appeared.  Off to the rear of the crowd is Dravid's wife.  Also off to the rear is a strange thin, bearded man who seems to looking more at the draped statue than at the ceremony itself; this momentarily captures Dee's attention and she almost misses her cue to pull the rope.  Dee pulls the rope and it sticks.  Another person comes to help her jerk the rope and it finally releases and the drapes over the statue drop...the reveal the bloody body of the sculptor draped over the statue's arm.

Inspector Oscar Piper is flummoxed, and whenever Piper is flummoxed over a murder, he calls on Hildegarde Withers for assistance.  Dravid had been stabbed with some sort of  marble sword, part of which was still imbedded in the body.  When Hildegarde inspects the scene she finds some mysterious marble ships at the bottom of the statue.  Then, while inspecting the sculptor's studio, she cannot help but notice some of the bizarre works the Dravid had created, including an Earth Mother figure with a grotesque expression and a statue of the Three Fates which included four Fates.

Then word comes that Dee Bryan, the Park Commissioner's daughter is missing and presumed kidnapped.

Time is of the essence for Hildegarde to solve the murder if the girl is to be saved...

Stuart Palmer (1905-1968) began his fiction career in 1928 writing stories and one serialized novel for Ghost Stories magazine.  In 1931 he tied his hand at a mystery novel, producing the first Hildegarde Withers novel, The Penguin Pool Murders.  One of the inspirations in creating the character was the actress Edna May Oliver, who impressed Palmer when he saw her in the Broadway production of Showboat while writing the book; in a case of serendipity, Oliver went on to play Hildegarde Withers in three films.  In that first novel, Palmer described Hildegarde as one "whom the census enumerator had recently listed as 'spinster, born Boston, age thirty-nine, occupation school teacher'."  A further description reads, "A lean, angular spinster lady, her unusual hat and the black cotton umbrella she carries are her trademark...Hildegarde collects tropical fish, abhors alcohol and tobacco, and appears to have an irritable disposition.  However she is a romantic at heart and will extend herself to help young lovers."  To  my mind, Hildegarde Withers is one of the most formidable and readable amateur female detectives ever created, and perhaps the equal of Christie's Jane Marple.

There were fourteen novels about Hildegarde Withers published between 1931 and 1969; the last being completed by Fletcher Flora after Palmer's death.  In addition, Palmer wrote 44 short stories anbout the character which were published in six collections; several of the short stories were crossovers featuring Craig Rice's definitely un-Hildegarde character John J. Malone.  There were seven films made featuring Hildegarde Withers, including three with Edna May Oliver, one with Helen Broderick, two with Zazu Pitts, and a television movie starring Eve Arden.   There should have been another movie on this list.  a movie based on one of the Palmer-Rice collaborations, ended up eliminating the Wither character and replacing her with Marjorie Main as "Mrs.O'Malley" in Mrs. O'Malley and Mr. Malone -- what were they thinking?  Supposedly, Agnes Moorhead also played Hildegarde at some point in her career, but I am unable to verify this -- can anyone help?

Palmer also wrote two novels about Howie Rook, a former newspaperman turned PI, and three other novels, one under the pseudonym "Jay Stewart."  Palmer also had a successful screenwriting career with 34 IDMb credits, including three films in the Bulldog Drummond series, one in the Lone Wolf series, and two in the Falcon series.

HOPEFULLY NOT AN OVERLOOKED FILM: THE GREAT DICTATOR (1940)

Is it too soon to post a political film?

Here's the classic Charlie Chaplin movie in which he eviscerates Hitler and Fascism.

Enjoy.  And learn.

https://archive.org/details/the.-great.-dictator.-1940.720p.-br-rip.x-264.-yify

HAPPY BIRTHDAY, MICKEY MOUSE!

The little rodent was co-created by Walt Disney and Ub Iwerks to replace a prior Disney character, Oswald the Lucky Rabbit.  Although created by the Disney studio Oswald was actually then-owned by Universal Pictures.  When it came time to renew Oswald's contract, Universal's middleman informed Disney that his budget was being cut severely, adding that a number of Disney animators were moving over to the Mintz Studio.  So a new character was workshopped in secret between Disney and Iwerks, with Disney instructing Iwerks to come up with character designs based on various animals.  Dogs, cats, a cow, a horse, and a frog were all rejected until Iwerks came up with a mouse supposedly based on an earlier Disney design.  Much of this early process is shrouded in mystery as various s tories and explanations arose to add luster to Disney's legend.

In any event, they had a mouse.  Walt wanted to call the mouse Mortimer, but his wife preferred the name Mickey.  Mickey made his public debut in Steamboat Willie, although he had appeared in two previous shorts -- Plane Crazy and The Gallopin' Gaucho -- which had not then been distributed.  Disney himself provided all of the voices in the cartoon, "although there is little intelligible dialogue."  Although Steamboat Willie is commonly recognized as the first cartoon with synchronized sound, that honor actually belongs to Paul Terry's Dinner Time -- but that cartoon was a flop, and history is written by the winners.  With the exception of two cartoons in 1929 in which Mickey was voiced by Carl Stallings, Walt Disney provided the voice of Mickey through 1947 and from 1955 to 1962.

Mickey has appeared in over 130 films, and has appeared extensively in comic strips, comic books, and on television.  His merchandise has appeared everywhere and the character has remained a major cash cow for Disney.  It is not for nothing that Disney is referred to as the House of Mouse.

Here's Steamboat Willie

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=BBgghnQF6E4

Although the Mickey went into public domain in 2024, Disney has kept a tight control on the character because he is trademarked into perpetuity, as long as the character is continued to be used by its owners.  Mickey may not be used as a trademark without authorization.  Disney had lobbied extensively for the 1998 Copyright Term Extension Act to the point where it is often referred to as the "Mickey Mouse Protection Act."  The Walt Disney company zealously protects its intellectual property and has even sued day care centers which painted likenesses of Mickey Mouse and other Disney characters on their walls.

It is acknowledge that Mikey Mouse is one of the most recognizable characters in the world -- rivalling, or perhaps even surpassing, Santa Claus.

But enough about Mickey Mouse.  (I am much more a Donald Duck fan, myself.)  Mickey's birthday gives me an opportunity to do a little dive into the Mickey-adjacent world of The Mickey Mouse Club.  I distinctly remember being traumatized because, for some reason now forgotten, I was not able to watch the premier episode of The Mickey Mouse Club, and of eagerly devouring detailed descriptions of the program from friends, knowing that, Thank God!, at least I would be able to catch every show from the second episode onward.  (Yes, these were simpler tomes and I was a much simpler kid.)

Here's the introduction to the Mickey Mouse Club (1960s)

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=x4C_lUy58Rw

-- with the original Mouseketeer  Roll Call

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_teSvw34ZlY

39 Mouseketeers appeared over the show's four-year run, with nine appearing for the full run of the show:  Sharon Baird, Bobby Burgess, Lonnie Burr, Tommy Cole, Annette Funicello, Darlene Gillespie, Cubby O'Brien, Karen Pendleton, and Doreen Tracy.  Other notable Mouseketeers included Johnny Crawford (who went o star in The Rifleman), Jay-Jay Solari (mentioned here because at one time he was a frequent, entertaining, and controversial commenter on Bill Crider's blog), Don Agrati (wholater became Don Grady of My Three Sons fame), voice actress Sherri Alberoni (the nasty rich-girl on Josie and the Pussycats), Dick Dodd (lead singer on the Standel's hit record "Dirty Water" [."...Boston, you're my home."]), Bonnie Lynn Fields (whose films included Angel in My Pocket, Bye Bye Birdie, and Funny Girl), singer, novelist, actor, and activist Paul Peterson (who went on to The Donna Reed Show, recorded several hit records, including "Lollipops and Roses", and who also wrote at least seven paperback originals in the spy-guy "The Smuggler" series), Mickey Rooney, Jr. (son of you know who), Tim Rooney (another son of you know who), and Ronnie Steiner (member of the popular Canadian singing trio The Steiner Brothers, who performed on numerous television variety shows in the 50s and 60s.

Of the original 39, 21 are still alive.  Annette died in 2013 from complications from multiple sclerosis; she had had a long and successful recording and acting career.  Karen passed away in 2019 from a heart attack; a 1983 automobile accident left her paralyzed from the waist down, and served on the board of the California Association of the Physically Handicapped.    Doreen died of pneumonia in 2018 following a two-year bout with cancer; she had posed nude twice (in 1976 and 1979)for the sex magazine Gallery, which earned her the wrath of the House of Mouse, but they later reconciled; Dennis disappeared in 2018 and was found dead several months later, his cause of death was never announced but a roommate was charged with his death in 2019 and was due to stand trial in early 2024; Johnny Crawford continued acting in television and films and fronted a California vintage dance band that appeared in special events, he succumbed to Alzheimer's disease in 2019 after contracting both COVID-19 and pneumonia; Mike Smith appeared in television briefly and in a dance act in Las Vegas before dropping out and into obscurity,  working various menial jobs until his early death in 1982 at age 37; According to her obituary, Bonnie Lou Kern worked at Lowe's for many years following her career at Disney, she died in 2020 at age 79; Tim Rooney appear in the ABC sitcom Room for One More, and co-starred with his father in the short-lived Mickey, he was 59 when he died in 2006 from pneumonia, complicated by the rare muscle disease dermatomyosis; Bronson Scott, at 7, was the youngest Mouseketeer, appearing for only one season, her IMDb listing notes only that she died in 2023, giving no further credits beyond The Mickey Mouse Club;  Mark Sutherland, nicknamed "PeeWee," was let go after the first season and left show business, refusing to participate in the 25th anniversary celebration of the show, he died in 2022; Mickey Rooney, Jr. went on to a career in film and television production, and also ran an evangelical ministry, he died in 2022; Dickie Dodd was a Boston Red sox fan and performed "Dirty Water" at the 2004 World Series and at the team's opening game in 2005, he died from cancer in 2013; Cheryl went on to many television and film roles, including an occasional role as Wally Cleaver's girlfriend in Leave It to Beaver, and retired from acting after marrying race car driver Lance Reventlow (she had previously dated Australian singer Lucky Starr, Tim Considine, Fabian Forte, Elvis Presley, Tony Dow, Ricky Nelson, Bobby Rydell, Don Grady, Tommy Kirk, and Michael Anderson, Jr.), after Reventlow's 1972 death in a crash she reportedly dated Michael Crichton, her second husband was indicted for being the ringleader of an international drug smuggling operation, her third husband -- 26 years her elder -- was a prominent Democratic Party fundraiser and the treasurer of the California campaigns of John F. Kennedy and Lyndon Johnson, she died of lung cancer in 2009, age 64; Charley Laney's only credit on IMDb is for The Mickey Mouse Club, he died in 1997 of undisclosed causes; Larry Larsen is perhaps not the actor from Sigmund and the Sea Monsters. the Mickey Mouse Larry Larsen was born in 1939, making him the oldest of the Mouseketeers, coincidentally the Sigmund Larry Larsen was also born in 1939, but if they were the same person, no one told IMDb about it, the Sigmund Larry Larsen died in 2018 of multiple internal organ failure; Don Agrati (Don Grady), among other things wrote the theme song for The Phil Donahue Show, myeloma took him in 2012; Bonnie Lynn Fields died from throat cancer in 2012, age 68; and Lynn Ready went to play a fraternity brother in The Adventures of Ozzie and Harriet, he also wrote the soundtrack for Faster, Pussycat!  Kill!  Kill!, he died in 2008 of cancer.

Other tidbits from the first incarnation of The Mikey Mouse Club:

• The very first person hired to be a Mouseketeer was 13-yer-old Dallas Johann, who suffered from stage fright so badly that he could not perform and was let go before the first episode was filmed.
• Both Mickey Rooney, Jr. and his brother Tim were fired for sneaking into the Disney Ink and Paint Department and switching  paints into different containers.
• Paul Peterson was canned for punching a crew member who had been continually teasing him; unfortunately Peterson threw the punch while Walt Disney was watching.
• Eager to get out of the image of young Mark McCain in The Rifleman, Johnny Crawford jumped into a full frontal role in the Hugh Hefner-produced The Naked Ape.  Crawford then went on to be the first man to appear completely nude in Playboy.  Neither stunt significantly helped his acting career.
• Mouseketeer Billie Jean Beanblosson appeared for only one season one the show, but she made history in 1995 when she became the only Mouseketeer to be robbed at gunpoint in the parking lot of Disneyland when she was with her children and grandchildren at the park.  To make matters worse, she said, Disney security refused to help following the robbery and later held her group "against their will" for several hours questioning them.  Her grandkids were also traumatized when they saw Disney Characters remove their heads in from of them.
• In 1998, Darlene Gillespie was convicted of 12 "counts of conspiracy, securities fraud, mail fraud, obstruction of justice, and perjury," and sentenced to two years.  She maintained her innocence.  Darlene had also been sentenced to three months for check fraud, battled Disney in court for compensati0on, and was gain accused of mail fraud in 2005.

And here's the intro to the 1977 reboot

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=WxdrkdlPbj8

-- and three different Roll Calls from 1977

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5bq_SceIips

This incarnation of the show was well after my time and, as such, not really worth my consideration.  The notable cast member from this group was Lisa Welchel, who went on to star in the sitcom The Facts of Life and became a well-known Christian author.  We should also note that one of the Mouseketeers was Mindy Feldman, sister of actor Corey Feldman.  Rock musician Courtney Love claimed to have auditioned for the show, reading a Sylvia Plath poem, but was not selected.

And here's the introduction to The New Mickey Mouse Club, 1989

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=D0_NZbSq3kM

Again, much after my time, the show ran from 1989 to 1996.  The episodes from 1993 to 1996 version are notable for a number of Mouseketeers who went on to bigger things:  Ryan Gosling, Justin Timberlake, JC Chavez, Britney Spears, Christina Aguilera, Kerri Russell, Deedee Magno, Rhona Bennett, and Nikki DeLoach, some of whom brought about a bad-boy/bad-girl image that seemed to telescope as other Disney shows began to burn through child stars at a rapid rate.

Over 41 years and through various incarnation, The Mickey Mouse Club has seen some of its actors rise to height, some to fall to depths, and others to vanish into mediocracy and obscurity.  I feel bad for many of the children who were caught in Disney's grasp.

HYMN TIME

Jim & Jesse and the Virginia Boys.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0iWR1Xf60NQ

CLANCY OF THE OVERFLOW #1 (circa NOVEMBER 1956)

"Legend tells of a stockrider who could break the wildest brumby horse, fight the forces of evil with fists or hunting knife or deadly carbine...a man who lived with one aim in his carefree heart...to right the wrongs of the big, lusty growing continent that was his home...,and still is!....for Clancy of the Overflow, the stockrider of song and story still lives!"

Published by Australia's Apache Comics from Cleveland Press, Clancy of the Overflow used the title character of the 1889 poem of the same name by noted bush poet A. B. "Banjo" Paterson (1864-1941) and reimagined the free-spirited drove as a legendary hero.  Paterson, one of the greatest writers of Australia's colonial period, is best known for his poem "Waltzing Matilda" (1907 -- and which has been recorded more than other Australian song); as well as "The Man from Snowy River," "Saltbush Bill," and "We're All Australians Now," among many others 

Eight issues of Clancy of the Overflow were published, all drawn in fine style by Hal English.

Riding southward, Clancy comes across a young boy being attacked by a wild tribe of aborigines (or "native blacks" -- 1950s Australia was not noted for being politically correct).  Scaring the attackers off with his rifle, Clancy swoops down and places the boy on his horse, and escapes.  The boy is Tim Barker from Raintree Station.  Tim, an orphan who has been placed at the station, ran away because the manger beat him.  Troopers are on the lookout for murderous cattleduffers (cattle thieves, for all of you non-Aussies); Tim fears they are searching for him.  The troopers spy Clancy from a distance; thinking h is a cattleduffer they give chase, but Clancy (because he is Clancy) easily avoids them and stumbles up a secret valley.  But the valley is where the cattleduffers have their base of operations.  When one of the baddies tries to capture Tim, Clancy and his fists put paid to that idea.  The captured man (his name is Moleskin) tells Clancy that the boss of then outfit is a moonlighter* named Blackie Norseman, who broke out of Cockatoo gaol a year before.  As Clancy and Tim go to find the troopers, he meets a local farmer, Jim Colly, and his daughter Velvet.  Clancy leaves Tim with them as he rides off for help.  While this is happening, Moleskin manages to escape and meet up  with Blackie Norseman, who has a plan.  Clancy soon finds himself falsely accused by Russ Madson, the manager of the Raintree and Tim's nemesis.  The troopers arrest Clancy.  Can Clancy get out of this mess?  Will Tim be safe?  Will Blackie Norseman, Moleskin, and Russ Madson get their comeuppance?

What do you think?

*"Moonlighter" is an idiom that has many meanings.  Evidently the most common one in Australia today is a braggard.  One older meaning(taken from the Irish) is a thief or a burglar who operates at night, often a cattle thief.

(It's interesting that, in 2014, the staff of the Banjo Paterson...more than a Poet Museum in Yeoval, Central New South Wales, were not aware of this comic cook, but were happy and amazed at the liberties taken with Paterson's character.)

For the curious, here's Paterson's original poem:

Clancy of the Overflow

I had written him a letter for which I had, for want of a better

Knowledge, sent to where I met him down the Lachlan, years ago,

He was shearing when I knew him, so I sent the letter to him,

Just on spec, addressed as follows, "Clancy, of the Overflow".

And an answer came directed in a writing unsuspected,

(And I think the same was written in a thumb-nail dipped in tar)

'Twas his shearing mate who wrote it, and verbatim I will quote it:

"Clancy's gone to Queensland droving, and we don't know where he are."

In my wild erratic fancy visions come to me of Clancy

Gone a-droving "down the Cooper" where the Western drovers go;

As the stock are slowly stringing, Clancy rides behind them singing, 

For the drover's life has pleasures that the townsfolk never know.

And the bush has friends to meet him, and their kindly voices greet him, 

In the murmur of the breezes and the river on its bars,

And he sees the vision splendid of the sunlit plains extended,

And at night the won'drous glory of the everlasting stars.

I am sitting in my dingy little office, where a stingy

Ry of sunlight struggles feebly down between the houses tall,

And the foetid air and gritty of the dusty, dirty city

Through the open window floating, spreads its foulness over all.

And in place of lowing cattle, I can hear the fiendish rattle

Of the tramways and the buses making hurry down the street,

 And the language uninviting of the gutter children fighting,

Comes fitfully and faintly through the ceaseless tramp of feet.

And the hurrying people daunt me, and their pallid faces haunt me

As they shoulder one another in their rush and nervous haste,

With their eager eyes and greedy, and their stunted forms and weedy,

For townsfolk have no time to grow, they have no time to waste.

And I somehow rather fancy that I'd like to change with Clancy,

Like to take a turn at droving where the seasons come and go,

While he faced then round eternal of the cash-book and the journal --

But I doubt he'd suit the office, Clancy of the Overflow.

FORGOTTEN BOOK: BEYOND THE POLE

Beyond the Pole by A. Hyatt Verrell  (first published in two parts in Amazing Stories, October and November 1926; reprinted in The Gernback Awards 1926:  Volume 1edited by Forrest j. Ackerman; available online at Roy Glashan's Library, at Faded Page, and at https://stillwoods.blogspot.com/2010/01/ahverrill-his-story-so-far.html, which provides links to all of Verrill's science fiction, as well as many of his other works, fiction and nonfiction)

Beyond the Pole is a lost race tale, taking place in 1917.  The narrator, a sailor from an ill-fated voyage to the far southern reaches in search of sea-elephant oil to aid the war effort, finds himself apparently the sole survivor, after a series of violent storms that had wrecked his ship and stranded at the South Pole.  This South Pole is not a frozen wasteland though.  It is a land where he encounters a forty-foot long lizard and giant rodents.  He roams a land of blue light, desperate for food and water.  finally finding water, he slakes his thirst, then, exhausted, he collapses.

He wakens to find a strange and horrifying creature towering over him:

"Slowly I opened my eyes and as I did so I screamed aloud with terror and wonder.  Standing over me was a fearsome, terrible creature.  That he was not a man I knew at my first glance, and yet, there was something that resembled a man about him, but so terribly monstrous, weird and incredible, so utterly inhuman, that I felt sure I must be dreaming or out of my senses.  He or it was fully eight feet in height, standing on two legs like a man, and seemingly clad from head to foot in some soft, downy material that glistened with a thousand colors, like the throat of a humming bird or the tints on a soap bubble.  Above the shoulders was a large, elongated, pointed head with a wide mouth and a long pointed snout.  From the forehead projected long stalks or horns and on the tip of each of these was an unwinking, gleaming eye like the eyes of a crab.  In place of eyebrows, two long, slender, jointed, fleshy tentacles drooped down over the creature's shoulders, while the ears were long, soft, and pendulous like those of a hound.  There was no hair upon the head, but instead, a number of brilliant, shiny scales or plates, lapping one over the other from the forehead to the nape of the neck."

The creature had three pairs of long, many-jointed arms, ending in a number of delicate various-shaped appendages.  Its feet had round-tipped suckers like those on the tentacles of an octopus.  In essence, the creature resemble some odd sort of gigantic crustacean, and it made strange, unintelligible sounds as if it were trying to communicate. **

It offered a sort of biscuit to our narrator.  He tasted it and immediately felt his hunger and thirst going away.  Realizing the creature was friendly and meant him no harm, he then followed the creature some distance to a giant cylinder, where he was greet by two similar creatures.  The cylinder was some sort of vessel but appeared to have no mechanical means of propulsion.  Nonetheless, it ascended into the air very rapidly and soon brought them a large and very strange city, where he was escorted to a gigantic hall where there were many other creatures, presumably there to sit in judgement of him.  Still, he had no fear, in part from the way he was treated in the beginning, and in part because he could not be sure that the entire experience was not a fever dream, brought on by extreme hunger and thirst.

He was amazed, however, to discover that the creatures could communicate with him through some sort of telepathy, and that he likewise could communicate with them.  Here was a race well advanced from mankind scientifically, and perhaps socially, descended from some alternate evolutionary oath which stemmed from crustaceans.  Yet despite its advanced science and flight, it had no knowledge of anything beyond its own world, or of the human race.

As the novel progresses, our narrator learns much about the culture of this race, and seems fated to spend the rest of his life with them.  He does, however, write his experiences down on a strange type of "paper," and seals it in a type of container unknown to the outer world; this he attached to the leg of an albatross, hoping it will eventually find its way to the world of men.

** This critter is illustrated by Frank Paul on the iconic cover of the October 1926 issue of Amazing Stories.

Verrill (1871-1954) was a zoologist (his father was the first professor of Zoology at Yale University), explorer, illustrator and author of at least 115 books, most of them nonfiction about topics ranging from natural history, travel, radio, whaling, engines, and knot tying.  Outside of science fiction, many of his fictional books were aimed at a juvenile market, including four books in the Boy Adventurers series and four books in the Radio Detectives series, as well as the Deep Sea Hunters series.  His books for younger readers were entertaining but criticized for "outrageous fabrications," :lack of scientific dependability," and riddled with error; any other critics and reviewers reacted in an entirely positive manner.  As for his science fiction, Everett Bleiler wrote that his lost race stories were "more literate than most of their competition, but stodgy."

Verrill took part in archaeological expeditions in the West Indies and Central and South America.  He was well travelled throughout the Western hemisphere, and was a friend to Theodore Roosevelt.  Among his other accomplishments was the invention of the autochrome process of natural-color photography.  His wide range of interests made him "one of the most successful and prolific writers" of his time.

DR. TIM, DETECTIVE: THE MYSTERY OF THE SECOND ALARM (1948-ish?)

 He's a detective!  He's a physician!  And he's always handy to give his young friends Jill and Sandy lessons in science and medicine based on his investigations!  What more could you ask for?  Education is more fun if you throw in a mystery.

Beginning in 1948, the show ran for thirteen fifteen-minute episodes; only seven show are believed to have survived.

Not much is known about the show and I cannot name any of the voice actors, nor can I tell you produced, directed, or scripted the episodes.  Even the dates of the show are questionable; although I'm fairly confident of the 1948 date above, at least one expert believes the shows originated in the early 1950s.  There's more mystery about the show than there is in the show.  I do know that the show originated in Denver and was presented by the American Medical Association.

Enjoy this episode, and perhaps, like me, you'll get some flashbacks to Don Herbert's WATCH MR. WIZARD.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=mImWqMA4fbU