My pulp magazine focus this year is on Argosy All-Story Weekly in 1926, ninety-five years ago. My aim is to read all the issues I possess (currently around 18) in the week that corresponds to the week the issue would have been available, bearing in mind that the date on pulp magazines was the date when they went off sale, so they were on newsstands for the week prior.
The second issue of Argosy All-Story Weekly for the year included the first installment of a new serial, The Vanishing Professor, concerning an academic researcher who develops a means of making someone invisible, and the adventures that follow. (I’ll not be reading that serial, as I do not own all the issues that contain it, but I did read the book version several years ago.) Other serials in the issue include Pirate Bold (Part 2 of 3), There Goes the Bride (Part 3 of 5), and Murk (Part 4 of 4); in my reading this past week, I skipped all of these, as I do whenever I lack some of the parts of a serial. Instead, I concentrated on the works appearing in their entirety, both prose and occasional verse.
The novelette for the issue, The Handsome Young Men, features Hulbert Footner’s sophisticated and savvy sleuth Madame Rosika Storey, here employing all her skills in detection and disguise to discover just who in fact murdered a newlywed groom, if not the irate father of the bride, or the bride herself. The investigation leads Madame Storey to discover a racket involving luring wealthy women into marriages with men who would bilk them, but much peril awaits as she and her assistant try to uncover the murderous leader of the ring. Recommended, as are all the Madame Storey mysteries/thrillers. It’s a pity they were never brought to the screen, as her strong character, particularly vis-à-vis the police, rivals, and criminal opponents, and her penchant for disguises would have had the same sort of appeal as is to be found in some of the Sherlock Holmes movies.
The short story “The Rescue of Happy Towers,” by George M. Johnson, tells of a dude ranch bunkhouse gang’s efforts to save their pal from — they fear — the trifling attentions of a wealthy Eastern visitor. A nice bit of humor in a slight story.
Better was the second short story in the issue, “Mr. Skinner Spends a Dollar,” by Jack Bechdolt, recounting how a young woman successfully outwits a tricky skinflint who played her fiancé for a sucker.
A wealthy young man looking for a lark masquerades as a chauffeur to woo a nursemaid he spotted in the park one day tending a young child. But surprises are in store for our protagonist as he begins to fall in love for real. Pleasant enough, but nothing special.
The occasional verse varied as usual in this magazine, with no real standouts in the issue.
Pulp magazine 1 for 2021.