WE’RE celebrating the holidays with Harold F. Cruickshank—creator of those great Aces of the Western Front’s Hell Skies—Red Eagle, Sky Wolf, and Sky Devil. But this holiday season it’s going to be a down home Christmas featuring Cruickshank’s Pioneer Folk stories from the pages of Range Riders Western (1945-1952) on Mondays and Fridays; and Cruickshank’s own recollections of homesteading life from The Edmonton Journal’s The Third Column on Wednesdays.

The Edmonton Journal regularly set aside the third column on its editorial page for submissions from freelance writers, of which Cruickshank was an occasional contributor over the years. His columns frequently focused on his life growing up as a homesteader with his father and brother who had all immigrated from Scotland in 1905 to Barrhead, Canada along the famed Klondike Trail, just to the northwest of Fort Edmonton.

It’s Wednesday, so here’s another of Cruickshank’s Third Columns.

The Third Column

by Harold F. Cruickshank • Edmonton Journal, Edmonton, Canada • Saturday, 23 May 1953

Bad Seasons and Good

AFTER forty-seven years of residence in these latitudes, I have found that nature balances her seasons fairly well. Over the long term and as a whole, we haven’t suffered too much through weather capers.

I think today, especially, of our first springtime in this country our first spring (question mark) in the hinterland.

We had trekked in, in the summer of 1906, and had somehow thrived as we survived that most terrible winter on record, the winter of 1906-07. We had, by back-breaking toll, with other work accomplished, cleared five acres of heavy willow-studded land. When the snows at last started to melt, we looked eagerly to the firing of the brush piles, the plowing and the sowing of that first patch of “chocolate-loam” soil. (The descriptive phrase is from publicity pamphlets we had read In Britain in 1905.)

We had, in the winter, hauled in seed oats a distance of seventy miles, over drifted trails. We now saw miniature creeks become raging rivers, for the snow had been heavy, and the spring season tardy indeed.

As I remember it, it was the first week in June before we, at last, got our first few bushels of oats harrowed in.

Five acres of oats! How insignificant now, but how important then! We watched for the first green blades to shoot up through the inadequately tilled sod. When we saw them, we were thrilled!

It was a reward, indeed, for those endless days of toil—grubbing out those horrible willow clumps with axe and mattock, or grub-hoe.

* * *

We were informed by more experienced settlers that the crops of 1907 would never ripen. We were more optimistic, especially as we watched the rapid growth of the green oats.

The “more experienced” settlers were right: An early frost struck the ripening grain and all we had for our efforts was feed oats, though that was something. We had a fairly good harvest of feed oats. Our horses would need them, in bundles and as threshed grain. Sadly enough, though, my father, who in his boyhood had herded sheep in the Highlands of Scotland, bought a small band of sheep. He had visions of quick-turn-over—lambs and wool crop. We, his two sons and George, a youth we had brought out with us, had visions of endless sheep-herding in a wild, coyote-infested wilderness. . . .

Our “visions,” pessimistic as they were, bore material fruit. . . .

It might have been better, or not so bad, had it not been for Samantha-Jane, the bell ewe. Samantha-Jane was the homeliest, most exasperating creature I have ever known—a she-devil if there ever was one.

Tall, rich peavine grass grew close to the homestead area, but Samantha-Jane spurned it. She started out at a trot and kept trotting, always for distant pastures. The flock followed, and of course the herder tried to follow, or to swing the flock back. Samantha-Jane led us over, under, or through twisted labyrinths of fallen brush and timber, through mazes of rosebush scrub, alders, and willows, in her ceaseless search for heaven knew what.

A year or so later, we were extremely sorry for a young Scot who bought the sheep band, when he had the misfortune to fall into a swollen creek. We regarded him as our greatest friend, for he was taking Samantha-Jane away. He was rescued, of course; so were the sheep. . . . Needless to say, Samantha-Jane was the first ashore.

I feel reasonably sure that if, today, I could take a trip up to some of those old haunts. I would see her impudent, mottled face leering at me through a port in a rosebush maze, and hear her blatting. . . .

* * *

Up in the wilds, in those early days, we learned to take the bitter with the better. We established a sense of gratitude for the “better,” which helped us to forget the bitter.

Then, there were no drive-in theatres, or local baseball tournaments, or radios, or regular mail service. . . . We were happy enough, after riding through muskeg or circumnavigating swampland, to be able to pick up long overdue mail which might include a seed catalogue, a letter or newspaper from the homefolk, or that always welcome periodical—the fat weekly which came from Montreal.

* * *

Soon, again, June will be “bustin’ out all over,” and we shall be able to forget all about a rather miserable April, as we bounce right into summer.

But, for those readers who cannot agree with me, there is the philosophy of that priceless frontline character, Old Bill: “If you know of a better ’ole, go to it. . .”

After nearly half a century hereabouts, this writer is sticking around. He wants to see what John Ducey’s Eskimos have to offer and what those other Eskimos, in football harness, will have to offer. . .

Old Lady Nature will take care of our crops. . . . Just wait and see!

WE’RE celebrating the holidays with Harold F. Cruickshank—creator of those great Aces of the Western Front’s Hell Skies—Red Eagle, Sky Wolf, and Sky Devil. But this holiday season it’s going to be a down home Christmas featuring Cruickshank’s Pioneer Folk stories from the pages of Range Riders Western (1945-1952) on Mondays and Fridays; and Cruickshank’s own recollections of homesteading life from The Edmonton Journal’s The Third Column on Wednesdays.

Cruickshank wrote 35 stories chronicling the trials and tribulations of Dal and Mary Baldwin as they carved out their piece of the Wilderness in Sun Bear Valley, Wyoming and establish a growing community. Another family arrives in the valley in the form of Tom and Ella Bruce and their infant daughter. Unfortunately for Dal, they took the advice of that rascally half-breed Quirt Malotte on their way there and their dog and flock of sheep they’ve brought with them arrive first and trample through Dal’s crop and Mary’s garden. The Bruces more than make up for it when lightning touches off a fire in the valley.

From the December 1945 number of Range Riders Western, it’s Harold F. Cruickshank’s Pioneer Folks in “Red Harvest!”

Dal Baldwin and his wife Mary can even forgive woollies when a sheepman comes to their aid in a time of trial!

• Download “Red Harvest” (December 1945, Range Riders Western)

Be sure to stop back Friday when the Baldwins find themselves with “Terror Neighbors!”

WE’RE celebrating the holidays with Harold F. Cruickshank—creator of those great Aces of the Western Front’s Hell Skies—Red Eagle, Sky Wolf, and Sky Devil. But this holiday season it’s going to be a down home Christmas featuring Cruickshank’s Pioneer Folk stories from the pages of Range Riders Western (1945-1952) on Mondays and Fridays; and Cruickshank’s own recollections of homesteading life from The Edmonton Journal’s The Third Column on Wednesdays.

Cruickshank wrote 35 stories chronicling the trials and tribulations of Dal and Mary Baldwin as they carved out their piece of the Wilderness in Sun Bear Valley, Wyoming and establish a growing community. The Baldwins are settled in to their cabin in Sun Bear Valley, but an old nemesis returns and a new couple arrive in the valley just as Mary is about to give birth.

From the Fall 1945 number of Range Riders Western, it’s Harold F. Cruickshank’s Pioneer Folks in “Spring Borning!”

New life visits Sun-Bear Valley, but not without bringing back an old terror for courageous Dal Baldwin to battle!

• Download “Spring Borning” (Fall 1945, Range Riders Western)

Be sure to stop back Monday when the Baldwins face the terrifying “Red Harvest!”

THIS holiday season, we’re going to celebrate it with Harold F. Cruickshank—creator of those great Aces of the Western Front’s Hell Skies—Red Eagle, Sky Wolf, and Sky Devil. But this holiday season it’s going to be a down home Christmas featuring Cruickshanks Pioneer Folk stories of young couple of homesteaders trying to establish a life and home for themselves in the wild west from the pages of Range Riders Western (1945-1952).

We’ll be pairing these with Cruickshank’s own recollections of his life as a homesteader in Barrhead, Canada before The Great War that appeared in the Edmonton Journal’s The Third Column feature during the ‘50. The Edmonton Journal regularly set aside the third column on its editorial page for submissions from freelance writers, of which Cruickshank was an occasional contributor over the years. His columns frequently focused on his life growing up as a homesteader with his father and brother who had all immigrated from Scotland in 1905 to Barrhead, Canada along the famed Klondike Trail, just to the northwest of Fort Edmonton.

Let’s get the ball rolling with one of Cruickshank’s Third Columns.

The Third Column

by Harold F. Cruickshank • Edmonton Journal, Edmonton, Canada • Tuesday, 8 September 1953

Of Homesteading Days

NOT all tales from the pioneer days were “tall” tales . . . Some extraordinary characters moved in to settle the wild land.

A good example was a lone newcomer who, after introducing himself, vanished into the heavy brush to the south of us. We saw nothing of him for several weeks; we were very busy: he waa very busy.

One night, a friend and I decided to visit some more distant newcomers and had to trek through the bushland of the “mystery” man’s homestead.

We were suddenly startled by weird, banshee-like shrieks or wails which seemed muted by some muffler. We were a bit afraid of the very ground we stood on. But we moved on and in time reached a small clearing and smelled wood-smoke, but there was no shack!

Finally, we came to a flat sod roof, close to the ground, a roof through which protruded a stovepipe and a split-pole ventilator shaft.

Part of the mystery was solved, the newcomer had constructed a dugout-type shack. Neatly cut clay steps led us down to a split-pole door. The caterwauling had ceased, but as we hesitated at the door it broke out again. However, this time it was recognizable as a series of skillfully-lipped scales on a cornet.

Our new neighbor was a professional musician. He made us welcome, and we admired his cosy little dugout. After much persuasion, he treated us to some very fine numbers on his cornet.

Some time later, he packed the instrument and the rest of his belongings and moved silently away. We never saw him again.

* * *

ONE of the earliest settlers to the north of us was a delightful, widely-traveled Irish bachelor I shall call “Doc.”

Doc had tired of circling the globe and decided to try his luck in our wild country. A great horseman, he brought in some excellent saddle stock, among which was a handsome Arabian gelding.

One evening, as he finished his lone supper at his shack, he heard human voices. Since he was about the first settler in his district, his interest was aroused; such sounds were a rarity. Moreover, these were of special interest because they included voices in the feminine register.

Outside, through a light drizzle of rain, he located the wagon outfit, bogged down. Doc could have walked, but he saddled up the Arab steed and galloped down to execute a swashbuckling rescue.

The party, of Scots, included a lovely, titian-haired girl, who at once sent Doc’s heart into a series of cartwheels. . . He commenced to plan.

Doc got the outfit bog-hauled to dry ground and whipped up a supper for them; then, mounting his horse, he piloted them on to their homestead area. He hustled the sons, getting up tents. When all were secure for the night, and Bessie, the cow, was safely tethered. Doc rode away.

He was back the next day. and the next, and the next, always eager to lend a hand. He was welcome, too, until the old skipper suspected that he was paying too much attention to his lovely daughter. Then, Doc got the cold shoulder.

* * *

DOC just stayed away, until one morning, bright and early, he happened to be riding the north line, past the Scottish camp and saw that the party was in despair. The womenfolk hailed him, but he rode on. . .

A “sudden change of heart,” however, halted him. He turned his horse and rode into camp.

Tearfully, the mother told of the disappearance of Bessie, the cow. Doc shook his head sympathetically. Cautioning them to remain in camp, lest they become lost, he promised to hunt through the entire township, and rode on into the bush.

At sunset, it was the lovely red-head who first spotted the weary rider coming up the survey-line. It was Doc, spent from the hunt, but successful. He led the slow-moving Bessie.

Doc was at once proclaimed a hero!

In due time, he and the titian-haired beauty were married.

For the conclusion of this tale, it would be best to quote what Doc said, in the presence of his wife, to my wife and me:

“What the old folks never did know,” he said with a sly chuckle, “was that, the night before all the excitement, I’d sneaked up, untethered Bessie, and trailed her to the bush near my place. There I kept her until the time was ripe for the big show, rescue and restoration and”—he smiled mischievously at his wife—”reward!”

THIS week we have a story from the short-lived Sky Devils magazine by Anthony Field. Anthony Field was a pseudonym used by Anatole Feldman who specialized in gangland fiction—appearing primarily in Harold Hersey’s gang pulps, Gangster Stories, Racketeer Stories, and Gangland Stories. His best-known creation is Chicago gangster Big Nose Serrano. But he also wrote a number of aviation stories including four stories for Sky Devils featuring Quinn’s Black Sheep Squadron!

Quinn’s Black Sheep is another of those squadrons populated with other squadron’s troublemakers like Rossoff’s Hell-Cats or Keyhoe’s Jailbird Flight or any number of other examples. It seemed every author had a series with a black sheep squadron. But it’s odd to find a WWI series starting in 1938. By then, many of the air war stories were getting away from being set during The Great War as a possible second Great War loomed on the horizon. Additionally, many of the anthology air war titles no longer carried series characters—Dare-Devil Aces final series characters were Hogan’s Red Falcon and Smoke Wade, both of whom moved to G-8 and his Battle Aces in 1938.

Field wrote four stories with Quinn’s Black Sheep. “The Devil Looks After His Own” is the first of those four stories, appearing in the premiere issue of Sky Devils, March 1938.

Captain Jack Quinn is brought in for disciplinary action and manages to convince the General that he could solve a lot of his headaches by hand-picking the problem aces out of other squadrons and forming an essentially independent squadron to take on the Boche. Thus, Quinn’s flight was a crew of hard bitten aces who had been tempered—to a man—in the cauldron of war, having unflinchingly facing Death many times before.

Quinn assembled his squadron with Lieutenants Sam Steele and Jerry Twist from his own 40th pursuit squadron—Steele was thin, wiry, with eyes as hard as the name he bore while Twist was the opposite with laughing eyes and usual good-humored nature. To them he added: Sergeant Abe Solomon from the 64th—a short, swarthy man who weighed no more than a hundred and twenty pounds. His hands were small, his eyes twin coals in his narrow skull and his lips were bitter. He could fight and didn’t take any lip from other mugs just because they had shoulder bars. Major Nordstrom—heavy, thick set, brutal. Lieutenant Murphy, a mad, wild Irishman with a bull voice that put Quinn’s to shame. Captain Percy Dake—aka “Killer Drakę”—from the 12th, ex-ganster, ex-killer. Lieutenant Krueger, man of mystery who never talked and who walked silently like a cat. De la Roche, Captain in the French Army, an oily dandy who would have slit a throat without batting an eye, yet who had twenty planes to his credit. Von Goetz, German born, who had an undying hatred for the Prussian Military Machine. Lieutenant Janko, heavy, stolid, too lazy to move until he was behind the stick of a fighting plane. And lastly, Lieutenant Stephen Arden, a Britisher and a toff. He was reported to have broken a bottle of Scotch over a General’s head, his only regret being that the liquor had flowed away. Record, eighteen German planes, a half dozen machine gun slugs in his body and hard to handle when drunk.

Each man looked at Quinn with red murder in his heart—but Captain Quinn was the devil’s fair-haired boy.

• Download “The Devil Looks After His Own” (March 1938, Sky Devils)

about the author
(mostly stolen from his wikipedia entry)

Anatole France Feldman (1901-1972) is primarily known as a pulp magazine writer from the late-’20s to the late-’30s. He specialized in gangland fiction, appearing primarily in Harold Hersey’s gang pulps, Gangster Stories, Racketeer Stories, and Gangland Stories. He also appeared in the rival magazines, Gun Molls and The Underworld.

His best-known creation is Chicago gangster Big Nose Serrano. Big Nose began as a pastiche of the 1897 Edmond Rostand play, Cyrano de Bergerac. Serrano’s homely nose made him an unlikely romantic hero who thus composed love poetry for a better-looking associate. The plot and characters of the first Big Nose story, “Serrano of the Stockyards” (Gangster Stories, May 1930), roughly follow the corresponding elements in the play. Serrano’s overwhelming popularity with readers brought him back for further adventures. The stories are unrelentingly violent, and often intentionally amusing, providing a unique fictional take on Chicago’s gangland and the latter years of Prohibition. Feldman ended up publishing twelve of the Serrano adventures from 1930-35 in Gangster Stories, Greater Gangster Stories, and The Gang Magazine. As the series progressed, the Cyrano angle was dropped, and Serrano became an unlikely crusader against the social ills of the Depression, albeit applying the gangster’s methods of violence, kidnapping, and murder to the problems.

He stirred up a lot of controversy with the readers of Gangster Stories, with his novelette “Gangsters vs. Gobs,” a story that improbably pitted the underworld against the Navy. The controversy filled the letters column for several issues.

Feldman also wrote under a number of pennames, including Tony Fields, A.F. Fields, and similar derivations. In 1930-31, he co-edited the short-lived adventure pulp, Far East Adventure Stories. Writing under a Standard Magazines house name, he authored some of the lead novels in The Phantom Detective.

He was married to fellow pulp-writer Hedwig Langer, who published under the names H.C. Langer and Beech Allen. In the 1940s, they co-wrote plays. Feldman’s first performed play had been The Red Thirst in 1920.

In the 1940s, Feldman edited comic books for Hillman, Rocket Comics and Miracle Comics. Later that year he switched to editing true-crime and true confessions magazines for Hillman.

He was later employed at the Thomas Oil Co. in Saratoga, NY. He died in 1972 in Boonton, NJ. Hedwig had passed in 1969 after having been employed at Skidmore College.

FREQUENT visitors to this site know that we’ve been featuring Terry Gilkison’s Famous Sky Fighters feature from the pages of Sky Fighters. Gilkison had a number of these features in various pulp magazines—Clues, Thrilling Adventures, Texas Rangers, Thrilling Mystery, Thrilling Western, and Popular Western. Starting in the February 1936 issue of Lone Eagle, Gilkison started the war-air quiz feature Sky Writers. Each month there would be four questions based on the Aces and events of The Great War. If you’ve been following his Famous Sky Fighters, these questions should be a snap!

Here’s the quiz from the April 1936 issue of Lone Eagle.

If you get stumped or just want to check your answers, click here!

THIS week we have another story from one of the new flight of authors on the site this year—Andrew A. Caffrey. Caffrey, who was in the American Air Service in France during The Great War and worked for the air mail service upon his return, was a prolific author of aviation and adventure stories for both the pulps and slicks from the 1920’s through 1950. Here Caffrey tells the tale of a group of service men filling out the last months of their service stateside after the end of the war before being discharged. From the very first issue of Flying Aces October 1928 it’s Andrew A. Caffrey’s “A Fine Man—The Colonel!”

Corporal Fox didn’t think that one camp would hold HIM, Sg’t Beervat and Adjutant Lowpockets—and it didn’t. But the Colonel was a fine man.

• Download “A Fine Man—The Colonel” (October 1928, Flying Aces)

THIS week we have story of air intrigue by E.W. Chess. Elliot W. Chess was a prominent author in the pulps—his name frequently appearing on the covers to entice readers. His pulp career spanned from 1929 to 1940, but a majority of his output was in the early thirties. Equally adept at both westerns having grown up in El Paso, Texas and air war stories having served in the Royal Flying Corp in the First World War and the 7th Squadron of the Polish Air Force afterward when Russians tried to invade the country. Here, Chess tells a tale of a “Doomed Squadron” whose pilots are mysteriously disappearing one by one. . . .

Thirty-four pilots gone—one by one they screamed to their death, and not a Hun in the sky! And each one that was found had bitten off the end of his tongue . . . . What was the terrible force operating on the Doomed Sguadron?

From the pages of Eagles of the Air, it’s “The Doomed Squadron” by E.W. Chess!

• Download “The Doomed Squadron” (February 1930, Eagles of the Air)

If you haven’t check it out, Pulpflakes posted an excellent post about the life of “Elliot Chess—Fighter pilot, Author” last year.

THIS week we have a story by a new writer to this site, Wallace R. Bamber.

Wallace Rugene Bamber was born in 1895 in Tacoma. A veteran of the First World War, serving in the A.E.F. from 1917-19, during the 20’s he lived in New York City and became a well-known writer of air fiction for pulp magazines. Later he branched out as an editor and publisher of the short-lived Far East Adventure, a fiction magazine of the Orient with a dozen issues from 1930-32, and Amazing Detective Stories with five issues published in 1931. Later he became a traveling representative of the American Fiction guild, and moved to Seattle. He was with the federal writers’ project there, and later a WPA administrative staff official. Bamber also worked for a time as editor of the Port Orchard Independent, and was active in Democratic party affairs. A newspaperman at heart, in 1944 he started publication of a weekly paper, The Bainbridge Merchant, on Bainbridge island where he was then residing, but illness forced him to curtail this venture after two issues. He passed away in November of that year.

From the February 1930 issue of the short lived Flight, we have Bamber’s “Send Him up with Saunders.”

The C.O. kept Sanders as a free lance, for more than one reason perhaps. But mainly, no doubt, because there were other observers who could do the regular air work as well or better than Sanders could, while none of them could do the special work that he did. He had one exceptional quality that all the others observers lacked—He could tell a good pilot from a poor one far sooner than the commanding officer, himself, could. When a new pilot came up to the squadron, the first thing the C.O. would say to the operations officer, was: “Send him up with Sanders.”

When a new pilot came up to the Squadron the C.O. said “Send him up with Sanders”—and Sanders never failed to know at once a good pilot from a bad one. And no one knew his method!

• Download “Send Him Up with Sanders” (February 1930, Flight)

As a bonus, here’s an article from THE OREGONIAN where Mr. Bamber discusses what he sees as the state of Pulp fiction writing from February 17, 1931:

FREE-LANCE writers who are getting nothing but rejection slips should take heart because 1931 probably will not be such a tough year in the fiction market as 1930 was and the chances are that 1932 will be pretty good. This is the advice brought from New York by Wallace R. Bamber, publisher of Far East Adventure Stories and Amazing Detective Stories. Mr. Bamber was in Portland yesterday after a brief visit to Spokane, where he grew up and started writing. Speaking of pulp-paper fiction, Mr. Bamber said that, gangster stories now are in most demand, with half a dozen magazines publishing nothing else, and a number of others using this type of story generously. War stories, he said, are now almost unsalable, and the detective Story market, is on the wane after enjoying tremendous popularity. As to what will succeed the gangster story in vogue, “I wish I knew,” he said.

In pulp fiction there are only three kinds of stories, according to Mr. Bamber—love, detective mystery, and adventure. The gangster story is in the adventure, not detective field. In each of these divisions there are three kind’s of conflict—man against man, man against himself, and man against nature.

Furthermore, according to Mr. Bamber, there is only on® plot with which the pulp-paper writer need concern himself. The story opens, figuratively speaking, with the villain on top of the hero with a knife in his hand, and ends with the positions reversed. This one plot can be varied to suit any pulp magazine, the individuality of the story depending upon the characters used and the incidents employed in effecting the reversal of positions.

The magazine publishing business is largely a gamble, in Mr. Bamber’s view, and this is the reason so many pulp publications start and stop abruptly.

• Download “Fiction Field Better” (February 17, 1931, The Oregonian)

“HAW-W-W-W-W!” That sound can only mean one thing—that Bachelor of Artifice, Knight of Calamity and an alumnus of Doctor Merlin’s Camelot College for Conjurors is back to vex not only the Germans, but the Americans—the Ninth Pursuit Squadron in particular—as well. Yes it’s the marvel from Boonetown, Iowa himself—Lieutenant Phineas Pinkham!

Phineas Pinkham was ordered to take two weeks leave or else face not only the wraith of The Old Man, but a Court Martial to boot. The Boonetown jokester couldn’t and the inactivity and found a way to get back in the war and put an end to the Allies Drachen problem as well.

Two weeks’ leave and no Spad to fly anywhere in—what do you do in a case like that? Easy—just take a leaf from Phineas “Carbuncle” Pinkham’s book and go—

• Download “From Spad to Worse” (April 1932, Flying Aces)

BACK with the third and final of Frederick Blakeslee’s “The Roaring Town” featurettes. Blakeslee only produced three installments of his two-page illustrated looks into the boom towns of the Wild West in Pecos Kid Western. Authored by Jhan Robbins, the prolific western story author and editor of pulp magazines, and deftly illustrated by Blakeslee, the feature delves into the story behind noted boom towns of the old west. This time Robbins and Blakeslee tell us the tale of Weaverville, California—a gold rush boom town that made it and still stands today with a lot of it’s old 1850’s charm.

From the January 1951 issue of Pecos Kid Western it’s “The Roaring Towns: Weaverville, California!”

THE ROARING TOWNS: Weaverville, California
by Frederick Blakeslee and Jhan Robbins (Pecos Kid Western, January 1951)

THIS week we have a story by Franklin M. Ritchie. Ritchie only wrote aviation yarns and his entire output—roughly three dozen stories—was between 1927 and 1930, but Ritchie was not your typical pulp author—he was a lawyer who wrote pulp stories on the side to satisfy his yen for flying.

Jack Gorham flew in a trance. “Thirty hours to live!” he muttered, talking to himself under the roar of the motor and the fierce screaming of the wind in his wires. “That’s all a pilot has on the front!” And mechanically he fell into the formation. Swiftly they winged toward the front. The trenches zigzagged under them, and suddenly Gorham realized that he was over German territory, “Thirty hours to live!” he repeated to himself. . .

With a weird shrieking whir, the airplane streaked for earth like a flaming comet. The pilot’s chum turned yellow and fled, but—read it and see for yourself!

• Download “Thirty Hours to Live” (April 1929, Sky Birds)

As a bonus, here’s a letter from Franklin M. Ritchie that Flying Aces published in the March issue—the month before the issue this story ran.

BACK with the second of Frederick Blakeslee’s “The Roaring Town” featurettes. Blakeslee only produced three installments of his two-page illustrated looks into the boom towns of the Wild West in Pecos Kid Western. Authored by Jhan Robbins, the prolific western story author and editor of pulp magazines, and deftly illustrated by Blakeslee, the feature delves into the story behind noted boom towns of the old west. This time Robbins and Blakeslee tell us the tale of Soya, Texas—a town now lost to the sands of time.

From the September 1950 issue of Pecos Kid Western it’s “The Roaring Towns: Soya, Texas!”

THE ROARING TOWNS: Soya, Texas
by Frederick Blakeslee and Jhan Robbins (Pecos Kid Western, September 1950)

THIS week we have a short story by renowned pulp author Frederick C. Davis. Davis is probably best remembered for his work on Operator 5 where he penned the first 20 stories, as well as the Moon Man series for Ten Detective Aces and several other continuing series for various Popular Publications. He also wrote a number of aviation stories that appeared in Aces, Wings and Air Stories.

This week’s story features that crack pilot for World News Reel, the greatest gelatine newspaper that ever flashed on a silver screen—Nick Royce! Davis wrote twenty stories with Nick for Wings magazine from 1928-1931.

Hollywood comes calling at the World News Reel field when J. Harold Shaw and director arrive hoping the World News Reel pilots and cameramen can help them capture a dramatic stunt for the climax of their latest feature. Who’s j. Harold Shaw? Well, his pictures send thrills and chills up and down the prickley spines of a million girls. Right at that minute his likenesses were decorating the dresser-tops of adoring females from coast to coast. Many a dissatisfied wife thought of him as an ideal husband for herself. His face was certainly his fortune. Yes, sir, right then there wasn’t any more heroic hero in the whole flicker business than J. Harold. Needless to say, Nick took an instant dislike to Shaw—especially when he started to put the moves on his gal! From the February 1928 Wings, it’s Frederick C. Davis’ “Hero Stuff!”

Between earth and sky he hung, helpless in the useless parachute—until Nick Royce, sky-eater, jumped into space, a grim smile on his lips as he prayed for an even break!

• Download “Hero Stuff” (February 1928, Wings)

IT’S no secret that we’re big fans of the work of Frederick Blakeslee here at Age of Aces Books. He did the covers for all of Popular Publications’ big Air titles—Dare-Devil Aces, Battle Aces, Battle Birds, Fighting Aces, Dusty Ayres and his Battle Aces, and, of course, G-8 and his Battle Aces. In addition he did the interior art for Dare-Devil Aces, Battle Birds and Fighting Aces. Blakeslee also provided art for other titles as well—including a few special illustrative features. One of those features was “The Roaring Towns” for Pecos Kid Western magazine.

Similar to his “Adventures Into The Unknown” feature that ran in several mystery magazines, “The Roaring Towns” was a two page feature focusing on a different Wild West frontier town each time. Blakeslee teamed with writer Jhan Robbins for the “The Roaring Towns.” Robbins was a Brooklyn-born writer who became an editor for pulp magazines like Big Book Western and Dime Mystery after WWII. With his wife June Stumpe he became a widely known for writing articles—one being nominated for a Pulitzer Prize—and later biographies.

Pecos Kid Western only ran for five issues, and, sadly, “The Roaring Towns” for only the first three of those. The first installment centers on boomtown of Jackson, Nevada which sprung up in 1871 with the discovery of silver. Over the next year, forty thousand prospectors mined more than five million dollars of silver out of dem thar hills.

THE ROARING TOWNS: Jackson, Nevada
by Frederick Blakeslee and Jhan Robbins (Pecos Kid Western, July 1950)