Pulp Gallery: DIME DETECTIVE (1933)

Pulp Gallery: DIME DETECTIVE (1932)

Pulp Gallery: DIME DETECTIVE

1933

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1940

1935

1940

Pulp Gallery: DIME DETECTIVE (1932)

Forgotten Books: AT THE STROKE OF MIDNIGHT by John K. Butler (1998)

I've told this story before. My hardboiled mania began back in 1976 with the release of Jim Steranko's graphic novel Chandler. After burning through Raymond Chandler and Dashiell Hammett, I cast a wider net and found Ron Goulart's anthology The Hardboiled Dicks. And that's when I discovered John K. Butler, along with a bunch of other guys I've been blabbing about for years: Frederick Nebel, Richard Sale and Norbert Davis to name but a few. And I started hunting pulps with stories by them all. 

That Butler tale in The Hardboiled Dicks was "The Saint in Silver," starring his chief series character, Steve Midnight, making the rest of that series a high priority. But try as I might, I managed to score only two more Midnight adventures, along with a dozen or so other stories. (A few years back, I posted one of those non-series stories HERE.)

So I was mighty pleased when this complete collection came out in 1998 from Adventure House. All nine stories, originally published between 1940 and 1942 in Dime Detective. And all were scanned from the pulps, complete with illos and ads, the way they were meant to be read. 

Unlike most of the other Hardboiled Dicks guys, Butler never got around to writing a novel. He cut his pulp career short in 1943, when he succumbed to the call of Hollywood, where he turned out film treatments and screenplays for the next fifteen years. I've been watching 77 Sunset Strip on MeTV (you should be, too) and recently saw an episode called "The Inverness Cape," where Butler was credited as a co-writer. I'll be on the lookout for more. 

Dime Detective Library (Series 3) from Altus Press

Details and order info HERE

What the Well-Dressed Pulp Fan is Wearing (Part 1)

As worn (to many an admiring glance) by Yours Truly.

All available from ALTUS PRESS, HERE.

Altus Gallery: PULP COMPANIONS

Altus Gallery: Fredrick Nebel's COMPLETE CASEBOOK OF CARDIGAN

On Hallowed Ground: Where the Pulps were made

Frank Munsey Co./Red Star

You may have noticed I've been posting pics from the recent trek my wife and I made to New York City. One of my goals was to see what's become of the editorial offices of my favorite pulp magazines. The results were underwhelming. The building above, at 280 Broadway, is the best of the bunch. Near as I can tell, construction on this one began back in 1845, with additions and such until 1917, when the New York Sun moved in. The Sun was a Munsey paper, and the offices for such Munsey mags as Argosy and Detective Fiction Weekly were housed here. Coincidently, this is only about a block from the current office of Dell Publications, the modern day heir to the pulp tradition. 

Popular Publications

 

205 East 42nd Street - little more than a block from Grand Central Station - was home to Popular Publications, purveyors of such fine magazines as Dime Detective and The Spider. This building went up in 1927, and tenants now include CUNY and the United Way of New York. I could almost imagine Frederick Nebel going in the front door to meet with Harry Steeger, if I could tell where the front door was.

 

Street & Smith

 

Street and Smith, from whence The Shadow and Doc Savage ventured forth, was at 79 7th Avenue. This building, at 77, has eclipsed that space, on the edge of toney Chelsea. That's the Westside Market at street level. Condos in this place now go for up to - and over - a million bucks. Heck, wouldn't you cough up a million to live in the Shadow's sanctum?

Trojan Publications

 

From this hallowed ground at 125 East 46th Street came such classy mags as Dan Turner - Hollywood Detective and the Spicy line. That address no longer exists, but its replacement houses a bakery on the corner, and one of the main tenants is a branch of the New York Public Library. Gotta wonder what those librarians would think of the building's spicy past.

Black Mask

During the Joe Shaw years, Black Mask was headquartered here at 575 Madison Avenue. I'm sure this 21-story monster bears no resemblance to the original building, but from a distance it does look black. More than a coincidence? It would be pretty to think so.

Pulp Gallery: Walter Baumhofer on DIME DETECTIVE

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