A VOICE FROM THE PAST: JOHN J. MALONE

One of my favorite detective characters from the past is John J. Malone, Craig Rice's hard-drinking defense lawyer.  One way or another, Malone will get his client off the hook -- even if it means bribing someone.  (Yes, Malone can be considered the ancestor of Lawrence Block's far more amoral lawyer Ehrengraf.)

Malone first reached print as a second banana to characters Jake Justus and Helene Brand in the novel Eight Faces at Three.  The soon-to-be-married Jake and Helene quickly moved into the second banana position to make way for the rumpled little lawyer.   (And, as time went by, Jake and Helene were absent from much of the series.)  Malone appeared in many short stories as well as eleven novels by Rice -- the last novel apparently being and early draft written just before her death.

Rice, whose real name was Georgiana Randolph Craig, also published a series featuring Bingo Riggs and Handsome Kusak, stand-alone mysteries, true crime articles, and ghost-written work for Gypsy Rose Lee and George Sanders.  She was the first mystery author (albeit disguised as a man) to make the cover of Time.  Malone stories were the basis of three movies made from 1945 and 1950.  He was featured in a fondly remembered 13-episode television series in 1952-3.  And he had his own radio show, The Amazing Mr. Malone (also known as Murder and Mr. Malone), which appeared on
ABC radio in 1948 and ended on NBC radio in 1951 with the title character played variously by Gene Raymond, Frank Lovejoy, and George Petrie.  Despite her success, Rice had a troubled life and died way too early at the age of 50.

In 1960, Larry M. Harris (perhaps better known as Laurence Janifer) continued the Malone saga with the mystery The Pickled Poodles.  Book-ending this novel, he wrote three classic SF novels with Randall Garrett under the joint pseudonym Mark Phillips whose protagonist (Kevin Malone) is hinted to be John J. Malone's descendant.

The link takes you to three of the radio episodes.

Enjoy.

http://www.oldtimeradiodownloads.com/crime/Amazing-Mr-Malone/index.php

ALLIGATOR, HEDGEHOG

An animal song from Pete Seeger.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xX5yRrO15zU

BAD JOKE WEDNESDAY

What kind of game can you play with a wombat?

Wom.

SEPTEMBER SONG

Willie Nelson.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=S9nSgMwtkK0

OVERLOOKED CARTOON: THE OLD MILL POND

Happy Harmonies was MGM's response to Disney's Silly Symphonies cartoon series and was the studios first major attempt to dip their toes into the animation field.  Rather than create an animation department out of whole cloth, the studio hired out the Harman-Ising Studios which produced 36 animated shorts from 1934 to 1938.

The Old Mill Pond features frogs who happened to bear some resemblance to Cab Calloway, Bessie Smith, Fats Waller, Bill Robinson, and Louis Armstrong.  Sadly, the cartoon emphasizes some unfortunate stereotypes, but the music is great.

https://archive.org/details/OldMillPond

JOE HILL

Here's your Labor Day song.

John McCutcheon.

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

INCOMING

• Margot Arnold, Dirge for a Dorset Druid.  A Penny Spring and Sir Toby Glendower mystery.
• S. J. Bolton, Blood Harvest.  Billed as a "Modern Gothic."
• Jeanne M. Dams, Denise Dietz, Cynthia P. Lawrence, & Valerie S. Malmount, A Feast of Crime.  Collection of four mystery novellas.
• Brian Herbert, Sudanna, Sudanna.  Humorous SF novel.
• Barb Hendree, Blood Memories.  A Vampire Memories novel.
• Ellen Kushner, Choose Your Own Adventure #58:  Statue of Liberty Adventure.  Juvenile about a young girl transported to 1907 on a ship of immigrants heading to America.  There's enough alternate endings to keep the folks at Ellis Island busy for weeks.
• Camilla Lackberg, The Ice Princess.  An Erica Falck/Patrik Hedstrom mystery.  Translated by Steven T. Murray.
• Joe R. Lansdale, Trapped in the Saturday Matinee.  A collection of 20 pieces by Hisownself and I'm not even going to try to classify them.  Included is "Duck-Footed," which has had a hard-to-find separate publication.  This one was bought with an Amazon gift card that I received last Christmas -- and, yes, I procrastinate.
• Tanith Lee, The Silver Metal Lover.  SF.
• Julian May, Jack the Bodiless.  SF, Book One of the Galactic Milieu trilogy. An uncorrected proof.
• Anne McCaffrey & Elizabeth Scarborough, Maelstrom.  SF, Book Two of The Twins of Petaybee.
• H. Warner Munn, The Lost Legion.  Historical novel of the Roman Empire.  One of a zillion books on my want list.
• Deborah Noyes, editor, Gothic!  Ten Original Dark Tales.  YA anthology.
• Jody Lynn Nye, Taylor's Ark.  SF.
• Mel Odom, The Rover, Shadowrun:  Headhunters, and Shadowrun:  Preying for Keeps.  Fantasies, the last two being gaming tie-in novels.
• Steve Perry, Leonard Nimoy's Primortals:  Target Earth.  Gaming tie-in novel.
• Frederik Pohl, The Siege of Eternity.  SF, the second book in the Eschaton Sequence.
• Kathy Reichs, Spider Bones.  A Temperance Brennan mystery.
• Charles Sheffield, editor, How To Save the World.  SF anthology with thirteen stories.
• Stephen Woodworth, In Golden Blood.  Mystery, the third in the Natalie Lindstom series about a woman who can speak to the dead.
• Patricia C. Wrede, The Enchanted Forest Chronicles.  Omnibus of four fantasies:  Dealing with Dragons, Searching for Dragons, Calling on Dragons, and Talking to Dragons.
• Jane Yolen & Bruce Coville, Armageddon Summer.  YA novel about two kids whose parents believe the world will end on July 27.

I also picked up a bunch of Warhammer and Warhammer 40,000 gaming tie-in books:

• Dan Abnett, The Armour of Contempt (Gaunt's Ghosts), Double Eagle (Sabbatt Worlds), His Last Command (Gaunt's Ghosts), Only In Death (Gaunt's Ghosts), Ravenor:  The Omnibus (contains Ravenor, Ravenor Returned, & Ravenor Rogue), The Saint (Gaunt's Ghosts omnibus containing Honour Guard, The Guns of Tanith, Straight Silver, Sabbatt Martyr), and Traitor General (Gaunt's Ghosts).
• Ben Counter, Daemon World.
• Aaron Dembski-Bowden, Cadian Blood (Imperial Guard).
• Marc Gascoigne & Christian Dunn, editors, Let the Galaxy Burn (Warhammer 40,000 antholgy with 38 stories) and Tales of the Old World (Warhammer anthology with 36 stories).
• Sandy Mitchell, Cain's Last Stand (Ciaphas Cain), Duty Calls (Ciaphus Cain), Innocence Proves Nothing (Dark Heresy), and Scourge the Heretic (Dark Heresy).
• Steve Parker, Gunheads (Imperial Guard).
• Rob Sanders, Redemption Corps (Imperial Guard).
• Steven Savile, Vampire Wars (Warhammer Von Carstein Trilogy omnibus containing Inheritance, Dominion, and Retribution).
• Michel Scanlon, Steve Lyons, & Steve Parker, Imperial Guard Omnibus:  Volume One (contains Fifteen Hours by Scanlon, Death World by Lyons, and Rebel Winter by Parker).
• Lucien Soulban, Desert Raiders (Imperial Guard).
• Gav Thorpe, The Last Chancers (omnibus containing 13th Legion, Kill Team, and Annihilation Squad).
• C. L. Werner, Forged by Chaos (Warhammer Age of Reckoning) and Brunner (Warhammer Bounty Hunter). 
• Chris Wraight, Iron Company (Empire Army).
• Henry Zou, Blood Gorgons (Bastion Wars), Emperor's Mercy (Bastion Wars), and Flesh and Iron (Bastion Wars).