Happy Fourth of July!

I hope it's a great 250th anniversary of our country's founding for those of you in the United States, and a great day for those you elsewhere, as well. This is the Second July 1922 Number of SNAPPY STORIES with a cover by Carl Becker, an artist I'm not familiar with. I've never read or even seen an actual issue of SNAPPY STORIES as far as I recall, and the only authors whose names I recognize in this one are J.U. Giesy and C.S. Montanye. So it's not a pulp in which I have a particular interest except for the covers . . . and this one ain't bad. Again, Happy Fourth of July to one and all!  

Memorial Day

Many of the pulps had military-themed covers during World War II, such as this one by Rafael De Soto, and some of the stories in this issue of ARGOSY are war-related, too, judging by their titles: "Armchair Admiral No. 2" by Fletcher Pratt, "WACS, Macs and Warlocks" by Theodore Roscoe, "Always Victorious" by Jacland Marmur, "Red Sun Over Bengal" by Kenneth Perkins, "Flight to Nowhere" by Leslie T. White, "Hell Afloat" by Eustace L. Adams, and "Somali Contraband" by E. Hoffmann Price. I don't own this issue, so I can't check those stories to make sure they're actually war yarns, but they sound like it. I'm old enough to remember when Memorial Day was on May 31, no matter what day of the week it fell on, but I don't want to be too much of a curmudgeon and complain about how they've gone to moving holidays around.

Movies I've Missed Until Now: Easter Parade (1948)

Considering that I’m not a big fan of musicals, Fred Astaire, or Judy Garland, it’s not surprising that I never saw EASTER PARADE, a 1948 movie starring those two. But hey, it’s almost Easter, so why not?

You need at least a little plot to hang the songs and production numbers on in a musical, and that’s what you get in EASTER PARADE, a little plot. It’s 1912, and song-and-dance man Don Hewes (Astaire) has his partner in the act (the gorgeous Ann Miller) abruptly desert him to sign with the Ziegfield Follies instead. Angered by this, Hewes tells her he could pick any girl out of a chorus line and make a bigger star out of her. That turns out to be Hannah Brown (Garland), and sure enough, she does become a bigger star and she and Hewes fall in love, although their romance is a rocky one. There’s also a bit of a romantic rectangle with Hewes’ buddy Johnny (played by Peter Lawford, another non-favorite of mine) getting involved with both Garland and Miller.

There’s nothing wrong with that plot. It’s very similar in some respects to the plot of the much better SINGIN’ IN THE RAIN. The script was written by Sidney Sheldon, Frances Goodrich, and Albert Hackett. Goodrich and Hackett contributed to the scripts of some great movies, THE THIN MAN and IT’S A WONDERFUL LIFE among them, and Sheldon won an Academy Award for his screenwriting long before he created the TV show I DREAM OF JEANNIE and became a bestselling novelist. I’ve enjoyed every one of Sheldon’s novels I’ve read, and I was a regular viewer of I DREAM OF JEANNIE when it was new (admittedly, that was mostly because of Barbara Eden and the great character actor Bill Daily). But I’ve been less impressed by the movies he wrote. The script for EASTER PARADE is thin and predictable and only mildly amusing.

The real stars, of course, are the songs by Irving Berlin. The movie wouldn’t exist without them. They’re okay, but after watching the movie, I don’t remember a single one of them except the title song and “Steppin’ Out With My Baby”, the subject of a long, elaborate production number that’s the highlight of the film. Astaire is at his best in that scene, and it’s the only one in the movie that put a grin on my face.

So EASTER PARADE is okay, one of many movie musicals I’ve seen once and enjoyed, and I’m glad we watched it. There are only three musicals I regard as great films, though: WHITE CHRISTMAS, SINGIN’ IN THE RAIN, and BIKINI BEACH. The first two are classics, and before you look too askance at me for that last one, consider: BIKINI BEACH has Frankie Avalon playing both Frankie and British rocker The Potato Bug, Don Rickles as Big Drag, Harvey Lembeck as Eric Von Zipper, a cameo by Boris Karloff, a song by Little Stevie Wonder, and the absolute best closing credits sequence in the history of cinema, Candy Johnson and Renie Riano dancing to “I’ve Gotcha Where I Want You,” by Candy’s band The Exciters. Now that, my friends, is classic filmmaking, and I grinned all the way through it every time I’ve watched it.

Merry Christmas!

"Cowboys Coming to Town for Christmas" by Frederic Remington. I hope it's as good a day for all of you as it seems to be for these ol' boys.

A Blue Book Christmas Eve

Even though I was born eight years after this issue of BLUE BOOK was published, in a place where a White Christmas is very, very uncommon, pictures like this cause a great rush of nostalgia in me. I won't go so far as to say that the world was a better place then--in many ways, it certainly was not--but that time had some good qualities that are sorely missed today. At any rate, I really like this wraparound cover (the back half is below; Luddite that I am, I couldn't figure out how to combine them), and I wish all of you a warm and happy Christmas Eve.

Review: Buzzards Fer Thanksgivin' - Cleve Endicott (Norman W. Hay) (Wild West Weekly, November 28, 1936)

I came across this issue of WILD WEST WEEKLY on the Internet Archive, and since it features a novelette with the great title “Buzzards Fer Thanksgivin’”, I decided to go ahead and read that yarn so I could post about it today. It’s the November 28, 1936 issue, and the cover is by R.G. Harris. I’ll read the rest of it and feature it as a Saturday Morning Western Pulp in a week or two.

For those of you unfamiliar with the Billy West/Circle J series in WILD WEST WEEKLY, it was the most prolific Western pulp series with more than 400 entries between 1927 and 1943, written by at least 15 different authors under the house-name Cleve Endicott. The protagonist is Billy West, the young owner of the Circle J cattle ranch in Montana’s Bitterroot Mountains, along with his sidekicks, the colorful, grizzled old-timer Buck Foster and feisty, redheaded Joe Scott.

In “Buzzards Fer Thanksgivin’”, it’s the day before the holiday and the Circle J’s Chinese cook Sing Lo is on his way back to the ranch with a buckboard full of supplies for the Thanksgiving feast when he interrupts a stagecoach robbery and is taken prisoner by the outlaws. Meanwhile, in town, Buck Foster competes in a turkey shoot to win a prize gobbler and runs afoul of some other hardcases. Unknown to any of our heroes, these two circumstances are connected and will soon lead them into a whirlwind of action.

In fact, this story is almost all action, but it’s well-written and Billy, Buck, Joe, and Sing Lo are very likable protagonists. Despite the thin plot, I found it to be a very enjoyable yarn. The actual author is Norman W. Hay, who wrote more of the Circle J stories than anyone else. If you’re a Western pulp fan and need something to do after your nap this afternoon (I assume everyone takes a nap on Thanksgiving, like I do), I can recommend reading “Buzzards Fer Thanksgivin’”.

Happy Thanksgiving!

A very happy Thanksgiving to all of you who celebrate the holiday. As always, I have a great deal to be thankful for, including all of you reading this blog. I appreciate your patience and your continued interest after all these years. That's the First December 1930 issue of TOP-NOTCH MAGAZINE, by the way, and it looks like a pretty good issue with stories by Donald Bayne Hobart, John Wilstach, Ben Conlon, and a Kroom, Son of the Sea yarn by house-name Valentine Wood. (I feel confident in saying that no one else will mention Kroom, Son of the Sea to you this Thanksgiving, but feel free to bring him up around the dinner table if you want to.)

Happy Fourth of July!

 

The art on this cover is by Robert Gibson Jones, who did a bunch of covers, most of them excellent, for FANTASTIC ADVENTURES. William Brengle, author of the lead novella, is a house-name, and the actual author behind this one is Howard Browne. Also on hand in this issue are William P. McGivern, Robert Bloch (twice, once as himself and once as Tarleton Fiske), Don Wilcox, Harold Lawlor, and Leroy Yerxa. That's a pretty good line-up. I don't own this issue, but you can find a PDF of it here, along with a bunch of other issues of FANTASTIC ADVENTURES. In the meantime, Happy Fourth of July to everyone reading this in the United States, and I hope it's a great day for you and everyone elsewhere in the world, too.

A Cowboy's Christmas Prayer - S. Omar Barker

I first posted this twenty years ago tonight, the year I started this blog. I couldn't have predicted that I'd still be around or that the blog would, but I am and so is the blog, and some of you reading this saw that post back in 2004, too. So here it is again, my favorite Christmas poem, but I don't guarantee I'll post it again twenty years from now.

On the other hand, I might.

A COWBOY'S CHRISTMAS PRAYER
By S. Omar Barker (1894-1985)

I ain't much good at prayin', and You may not know me, Lord
I ain't much seen in churches where they preach Thy Holy Word,
But you may have observed me out here on the lonely plains,
A-lookin' after cattle, feelin' thankful when it rains,
Admirin' Thy great handiwork, the miracle of grass,
Aware of Thy kind spirit in the way it comes to pass
That hired men on horseback and the livestock we tend
Can look up at the stars at night and know we've got a friend.

So here's ol' Christmas comin' on, remindin' us again
Of Him whose coming brought good will into the hearts of men.
A cowboy ain't no preacher, Lord, but if You'll hear my prayer,
I'll ask as good as we have got for all men everywhere.
Don't let no hearts be bitter, Lord.
Don't let no child be cold.
Make easy beds for them that's sick and them that's weak and old.
Let kindness bless the trail we ride, no matter what we're after,
And sorter keep us on Your side, in tears as well as laughter.

I've seen ol' cows a-starvin, and it ain't no happy sight
Please don't leave no one hungry, Lord, on thy good Christmas night
No man, no child, no woman, and no critter on four feet
I'll aim to do my best to help You find 'em chuck to eat.

I'm just a sinful cowpoke, Lord-ain't got no business prayin'
But still I hope You'll ketch a word or two of what I'm sayin'
We speak of Merry Christmas, Lord-I reckon you'll agree
There ain't no Merry Christmas for nobody that ain't free.
So one thing more I'll ask You, Lord: Just help us what you can
To save some seeds of freedom for the future sons of man.

Merry Christmas, everyone, and good night.

Happy Thanksgiving!

 

Happy Fourth of July

This is a bit of a somber cover by Robert Fuqua, but modern life has gotten a bit somber, hasn't it? On the other hand, I'm a firm believer in carrying on, since we can't really do anything else. I do hope it's an enjoyable day for those of you celebrating in the United States. My own low-key plans include getting some writing done and maybe watching a few fireworks from our front porch tonight, if the mosquitoes aren't too bad. By the way, "Frank Patton", the author of that cover story, was a house-name. Authorship of this one has been attributed to AMAZING STORIES editor Raymond A. Palmer.

Happy New Year!

By now I know not to say I hope this year is better than the last, but maybe . . . just maybe . . .

Merry Christmas!

I don't have an abundance of the Christmas spirit this year, but I sincerely wish all of you a Merry Christmas and I hope the day goes well for you.

Happy Thanksgiving

Happy Thanksgiving to those of you who celebrate it. I hope it's a good day for all of you. I read this book many, many years ago and don't recall that it actually has anything to do with Thanksgiving, but hey, the title fits, doesn't it?

Happy Fourth of July

 

Sunday Morning Bonus Pulp: New Love Magazine, January 1953

I know very little about the love pulps, but this one from Popular Publications has a very nice cover. None of the authors in this issue are familiar to me, either. But I don't care. That's a beautiful woman, and the art is very evocative of the Fifties. Good enough for me. Merry Christmas to all of you. I hope the day is wonderful.

Saturday Morning Western Pulp: Ranch Romances, Second December Number, 1930

Merry Christmas Eve to all of you! RANCH ROMANCES had many Christmas-themed covers over the years. This is a sweet one, which was common when the magazine was still published by Clayton. Inside are stories by E.B. Mann, Ray Nafziger (writing as Robert Dale Denver), James W. Routh, William Freeman Hough, Marion Castle (writing as Monte Castle), Howard E. Morgan (who wrote a bunch of stories for WILD WEST WEEKLY under numerous house-names), and a writer I'm unfamiliar with, Appleton Wayne. I know Mann, Nafziger, and Routh are worth reading, and I'll bet the others are, too. 

Happy Thanksgiving

A very happy Thanksgiving to those of you who celebrate it!

Dark Harvest - Norman Partridge

(This post originally appeared in slightly different form on October 31, 2011, also a Monday.)

Since today is Halloween, it seemed appropriate to post about a Halloween novel. I decided to read Norman Partridge's DARK HARVEST for two reasons: he has a reputation as a very good writer, and it was handy, sitting in a stack just a couple of feet from my computer. It was a good choice.

DARK HARVEST is one of those novels that takes place in only a few hours of time, something I always like. Set in 1963 in a quiet Midwestern town, it's about a strange ritual called the Run. It seems that every Halloween, a pumpkin-headed monster known as the October Boy rise from the cornfields outside of town and for reasons unknown tries to reach the church in the middle of town. Opposing him are all the boys from the ages of sixteen to nineteen, who compete to see who can kill the October Boy (or Sawtooth Jack or Ol' Hacksaw Face, as the monster is sometimes called).

To be honest, I wasn't too impressed with that setup. It seemed like something out of a low-budget horror movie (not that there's anything wrong with that). But Partridge turns it into something else with a number of nice plot twists and some excellent writing. I usually don't care much for books written in present tense, but if an author can make it work, I don't mind, and Partridge does. A little more sense of the time period might have been nice, but the story hurtles along so well, that's not a real problem.

DARK HARVEST is well worth reading, and if you're in the mood for a Halloween novel tonight and have a copy on your shelves, you should definitely give it a try.

Happy Fourth of July