Hidalgo Trading Company

If you are 15 years old, and really bored, you may decide to count the words used in Doc Savage titles.

You may hide this from your mother who finds you a bit too obsessed with the books in the first place.

Years later, with the advent of inexpensive home computers you check your work. You decide that you were pretty close. Not bad for a bored 15 year-old.

What had you found? Well, the most used word is the. This isn't a big suprise since most books started with the. How many? 119 with 13 serving their place in the middle of titles.

As a matter of fact, there are 599 total words in the Doc Savage titles (counting hypenated words as 1 each, of course) and 37 words occur at least 3 times. Still with me? After "the" the (are you trying to say this out loud?) next most used word is of(26). That's no suprise, but it's followed by Death(13), Terror(12), and some form of Devil(11). The others used 5 or more times are: Man(9), Men(6), Black(6), in(6), Island or Isle(6), Fear(5), and Mystery(5).

I guess the generic Doc Savage title would be: "The Terror Death" or "Terror of the Death Devil". Wait, I kinda like that last one. Wasn't that the May '36 issue?

You say you want to see all the words?
a a a Agate All-White Always-Night Ames and and Angel Angry Angry Annihilist Awful Awful Below Bequest Birds Black Black Black Black Black Black, Bones Boss Brand Bronze By Canary Cargo Cay Cay Center City Cloud Coffin Cold Colors Cormoral Corpse Could Crimson Czar Dagger Danger Day Dead Deadly Death Death Death Death Death Death Death Death Death Death Death Death Death Deep Derelict Derrick Devil Devil Devil Devil Devil Devil Devil's Devil's Devils Devils Devils Die Died Died Disappearing Disaster Dragon Dust Dwarf Dynasty Eagle Earth Earth's East Egg Elf Escape Evil Evil Evil Exploding Eyes Eyes Eyes Fair Falcons Fantastic Fathoms Fear Fear Fear Fear Fear Feathered Fell Fiery Fire Fire Fish Fish Five Flaming Flight Flying for for for Forest Forgotten Fortress Freckled Frightened From from from Genghis Genius Ghost Ghost Ghost Ghosts Giant Giggling Gnome Goblin Goblin Goblin Goblins Gold Golden Golden Grandpa Green Green Green Had Happy Hate Haunted He Headless Hell Hercules Hex Hole Houses I Ice in in in in in in into Invisible-Box is is Island Island Island Island Isle Isle Jade Jiu Joe Jones Ju-Ju Kill King King King Lady Lady Lady Lady Lake Land Land Land Land Laugh Legion Let's Lies Light Lightly Little Living Loki Lonely Long Lost Lost Mad Mad Magic Magic Magician Majii Maker Man Man Man Man Man Man Man Man Man Master Master Master Measures Melody Men Men Men Men Men Men Menace Menace Menace Menace Mental Mental Merchants Mesa Metal Meteor Midas Mindless Mirage Monkey Monster Monster Monsters Monsters Moon More Motion Mountain Munitions Murder Murder Murder Murders Mystery Mystery Mystery Mystery Mystery Mystic Navy No No No North Oasis Ocean Octopus of of of of of of of of of of of of of of of of of of of of of of of of of of Ogre Ogre Ogre on on on on Once One-Eyed Ones Other Over Owl Pacific Parade Peril Peril Phantom Pharaoh's Pink Pirate Pirate Pirate's Playground Poison Polar Pole Pure Purple Pursued Python Quest Quest Qui Realm Red Red Red Red Resurrection Return Roar Rock Rock Round Running Rustling San Sargasso Satan Scared Screaming Se-Pah-Poo Sea Sea Sea Secret Secret Serpent 7 Seven Shape Shark Shoal Shoes Shook Silver Sinister Skeletons Skull Skull Sky Sky Smiled Snakes Snow Snow Solitude South Speaking Spider Spider Spook Spook Spook Spot Spot Spotted Squeaking Stone Stone Stop Stork Strange Su Submarine Suit Swooning Takes Talking Target Ten Terrible Terror Terror Terror Terror Terror Terror Terror Terror Terror Terror Terror Terrors That The The The The The The The The The The The The The The The The The The The The The The The The The The The The The The The The The The The The The The The The The The The The The The The The The The The The The The The The The The The The The The The The The The The The The The The The The The The The The The The The The The The The The The The The The The The The The The The The The The The The The The The The The The The The The The The The The The The The The The the the the the the the the the the the the the the They Thing Thousand-Headed Three Three Three Time Times to Ton Too-Wise Treasure Trouble Tunnel Twice Under Unknown Up Up Valley Vanished Vanisher Was Waves Wears Wee Weird Werewolf Whisker Whistling White Who Who Who Who Widow Wild Witch Wizard World World World's Wraith Yellow Yellow Yesterday

The 1936 Hidalgo Bombers are still considered the finest team ever to play professional baseball. The team appeared from nowhere and vanished almost as quickly. The were led by one of the most mysterious men ever to own a baseball team, Clark "Doc" Savage, Jr.


Many consider this triple threat -- Savage owned the team, managed it, and started in center field -- to be the purest player in history. In the space of 154 short games Savage destroyed the Babe's home run record, took home a 20 game winning season as a starting pitcher, and brought the World Series title to a country that had never played baseball before.


It's well know among baseball fans that the banning of Savage and his crew by Kenasaw Mountain Landis was politically motivated. The other owners couldn't buy any of the Bombers. Threats against Savage and his team were laughed off -- it's reported those making the threats just disappeared!


The Bombers won 119 games that year. That's a record only the 1998 New York Yankees and 2001 Seattle Mariners could chase. How did the Bombers do so well? In addition to Savage's mighty bat and his baseball cunning, the team possessed 6 other players so great that all were voted as special members of the Hall of Fame. Each after being in baseball for only one season!




The First Baseman, John "Renny" Renwick, carried the heaviest bat in baseball. Some joke that the bat leaning against the Louisville Slugger Museum is his. That bat drove many a run in for Renwick. Batting third for the Bombers, Renwick led the league in triples, doubles, and singles. A feat no one else has ever engineered. According to the Bombers, Renwick stood 6-4 and weighed 250.

One of his opponents, Ty Cobb, remembers Renwick, "His damn hands weighed more than 250! They were the biggest, boniest, ugliest buckets I ever saw. I saw him take a called third from some dumb a** NL umpire in the series and Renwick just glared at the man. Damn, but that umpire turned white! Renny just strode off the field and with one punch the boy knocked a hole through a solid wood door! That's when I decided to retire. Figured it was a game for the young."




Covering second for the Bombers was another peculiar player.
William Harper "Johnny" Littlejohn, would stand near second and seem to be looking in the first-base stands. Rumor was the man couldn't see a lick out of his left eye. That didn't stop him from playing second like an octopus. One of the tallest second basemen I've ever seen, Littlejohn was listed at 6-6, but he had to be 6-10. He looked half-starved, but could run like the wind. He led off for the Bombers and stole more bases in one season than anyone until Luis Aparicio tied his record with the White Sox in '60.

Littlejohn was called "Rocks" by the local press. When he found a rock in the dirt he didn't throw it off the field like most players. He'd carry them in his pocket and study them between innings. But it wasn't only his fondness for stones that identified Littlejohn...his vocabulary was larger than Webster's. Doc would always send Littlejohn out to talk to the writers after a game, and a more humorous sight outside of Abbott and Costello couldn't have been found. Sportswriter Lester Dent remembered Littlejohn, "Doc must have had a strange sense of humor, because Johnny spoke a brand of English no one outside of Harvard and Yale could understand. Let alone a bunch of dumb sportswriters."

"We'd spend half the interview asking Littlejohn to spell one of the 10 dollar words he has just threw at us. It was probably 5 minutes of Littlejohn answering the first question and 25 minutes of us asking him to repeat what he just said. I don't think we got to ask a second question all season. Hell, when we'd look up all those blasted words he always seemed to say the same thing: "We played well."



"Long Tom" Thomas Roberts played third for the entire season with the Bombers. Actually, that was a greater feat than you'd think. Roberts didn't look like a player with the stamina of Cal Ripkin. Actually, he seemed on the verge of death every time he ventured onto the field. Thin and not very tall, Roberts was ghostly white and always could be heard complaining about the mosquitoes on the Polo Grounds. As a matter of fact, Long Tom set up a scary looking contraption on the fence near third for most of the Bombers home games. He called it his "Jersey Canary" killer. Radios would give only static and over half the city would dim every time Roberts plugged in his contraption.



The shortstop for the team was one Theodore Marley Brooks. A slender, waspy, quick handed "dude". Brooks looked as fancy as his name sounded. Possibly the first player to have all his uniforms hand sewn by the finest tailors in New York. Opposing pitchers didn't laugh when Brooks stepped to the plate though. With his trademark black Slugger, Brooks was able to pepper hits to any position on the field. During the Bombers first cross town series with the Dodgers he would have set a record for stealing home in one game -- if it wasn't for the unfortunate porcine incident the ninth inning. As the pitcher went into his windup Brooks tore for home. It would be his 4th steal of home that day. Out of nowhere a pig ran onto the field and slid into home one step ahead of the shortstop. The umpire called interference and sent Brooks back to third.


After the papers dubbed him "Ham", Brooks seemed to take his wrath out on one of the other Bombers. Rumor was that the Bombers catcher, Andrew Blodgett "Monk" Mayfair, had taught a pet pig he named Habeas Corpus, to slide. He even dressed the pig up in a Bombers uniform with Brooks' number on his back.

Monk was an apt name for the catcher. At just over 5 feet tall the catcher outweighed everyone except Renwick. He had the build of a gorilla and a chest that had to be thicker than it was wide. Brooks claimed that Mayfair wasn't actually human, but a "missing link." It didn't stop the ladies from swarming to Mayfair. He always seemed to be chatting up a young miss while standing in the on deck circle. He was ready to bat when his turn came though. Mayfair would settle into his stance and stare at the pitcher. He wouldn't move his bat or his feet. He stood at the plate like a statue.

Monk stood so close to the plate that he set another record for the Bombers -- most hit by pitcher. Mayfair took more pitches than the rest of professional baseball combined. No pitcher was able to brush him back. He was beaned so hard in the last game of the series that the owners voted in the off season to make helmets a mandatory part of the game. Mayfair took that pitch to his hard head and simply trotted to first.



Savage broke a baseball barrier years before the women's leagues played. He started his cousin, Patricia Savage, in left field for a series of home stands. Though many called the move a public relations ploy equal to Bill Veek's pinch hitting a Little Person for the St. Louis Browns, Ms Savage was an accomplished fielder. Her fielding average for the 25 games was .990 and she hit a respectable .245 batting eighth for the team. Many of the opposing pitchers wasted pitches "brushing back" Ms Savage. She would hit the dirt, stand and glare at the pitcher, and pound the next pitch. In one celebrated instance Ms Savage was "brushed" to the ground for the 5th time in one game. She stood, pointed to the left field stands and took hurler Rube Waddell's next pitch into the upper deck for her only home run of the season!

When was Doc Savage born?

Philip Jose Farmer chose a day.

Will Murray thought PJF might have been thinking of the day Lester Dent starting writing the first novel.

But neither answer the question: What was the day Clark Savage, Jr. was born?

Determining the birth date of a fictional character is not a simple task. I began my quest to find Clark Savage's birth date after reading about the confusion regarding the exact day and time in alt.fan.doc-savage. I had no idea where to start or the path to take, but that never stopped me before.

First, I looked to Doc Savage's parents. No, not Clark Savage Senior and his wife, but Henry Ralston and Lester Dent. As Doc's "creators" they had the perfect opportunity to set his birth date in stone.

They didn't.

Nor did any of the numerous "Kenneth Robesons" who followed Dent (including the latest Robeson, Will Murray.) As Doc's "mentors" these authors had the chance to give us Doc's birthday. Oh, they hinted, but never a clear cut date.

Finally, Doc's biographer, Phillip Jose Farmer, set the matter to rest by declaring Doc's birth date to be November 12, 1901 based on evidence in the novels.

Unfortunately, he was mistaken.

He was close, very close, but in the rush to meet a deadline Farmer missed a few key clues. Just enough key clues to throw him off the track. Let's look at Farmer's path to the day and where he went astray.

The Search Begins in Ernest (er, Lester)

In "Doc Savage: His Apocalyptic Life" Farmer mentions that the editorial page of the May-June 1947 issue of Doc Savage states that "This thing started November 12, 1932. This brusque notation, so it happens, was made the day the writing of the first Doc Savage novel began...."

Farmer continues by relating that the notebook actually reads "This thing started December 10, 1932." He proposes that "Dent was actually thinking of Doc's birth date, November 12, when he told the editor about the first day of writing the Man of Bronze."

In that one clue Farmer decides that Dent's poor memory pointed to Doc's birthday. Farmer was so sure that he didn't investigate further. He took a little trouble to unearth 1901 as the year Doc was born. That left fans everywhere with the belief that Doc was born November 12, 1901. Simple and end of story. Except, as I said, Farmer missed a couple of clues.

I went back to the canon to check Farmer's work: the 180 odd novels published between 1933 to 1949.

Consulting them we find that only two mention Doc's birth. In Peril in the North, Pat Savage mentions that "Monk, Ham, Johnny, Long Tom, and Renny are all getting ready to throw you a birthday party. They have everything all set. The trouble is, they haven't been able to find you. Where have you been? They thought you'd be at that doings at the Ritz-Astoria."

The "doings" Pat mentioned was described by Doc to Snooker as "reception for foreign notables and army commanders here at the hotel, and I am supposed to be in the receiving line." Remember this, it'll be important.

Of course, Peril in the North doesn't mention the month or year. We can deduce the latest the events could have occurred though. Peril in the North was published in November 1941. We know it takes awhile to write a novel, edit it, and publish it. So, Doc's birthday party wasn't in November 1941. Farmer places the novel in his fine chronology in November 1940. It fits our available facts and with a little more digging we can set the day. Again, remember this, we'll get back to it.

---

As an aside:

Doc does have an unusual reaction
to hearing about the party.


"Doc Savage did not ordinarily talk a great deal. Now that he thought of it, he had talked more tonight than was his custom. He felt, for some reason or other, more free. It might be because it was his birthday. But the truth was that he had completely overlooked the fact that this was his birthday."


Now we know why there are so
few mentions of Doc's birthday.
He just rarely noticed.

---

The Golden Man Knows Where to Start

The other novel that mentioned Doc's birth was The Golden Man, published in March 1941. (By the way, Bantam published these two novels as a double: #117/#118. Aren't they just the most considerate company?)

In the novel Doc has his world rocked by the "Golden Man." Doc meets the Golden Man for the first time and the man recognizes Doc Savage on sight before any introductions are made. Doc is "amazed" and asks the man, "You know me?" Obviously, Doc was being sarcastic. After all, who wouldn't know a bronze man well over 6 feet tall who has been mentioned in almost every major newspaper of the world for the past decade?

That aside, the Golden Man does let slip an important piece of info for our quest: "Since that stormy night when you were born on the tiny schooner Orion in the shallow cove at the north end of Andros Island, you have done much good, and many things that are great." Wow, not exactly an impressive piece of biography, is it? But "Doc was floored, figuratively." Doc knew of no living person who knew of his birthplace. It wasn't even something he had shared with his crew.

So add two mentions in the novels to some generous research and add a smidgen of conjecture and, viola, Doc's birth date! We've given you the novel excerpts. Let's move on to Farmer's conjecture. Though much research recounted in his book, Farmer set Doc's birth year as 1901. The clues seem solid. We'll leave it to you to investigate his reasoning. We'll call this one a given.


The Golden Man states Doc's birthplace is Andros Island. There are actually two islands called Andros. The first is off the coast of Greece. The second is one of the Bahama Islands. Farmer believes it is the latter island. He barely explains his reasoning for that decision. We can't call the location a given. We'll leave it to another article to decide this question.

I consulted world weather patterns and as many weather records for the time as I could find. I wasn't able to unearth weather records for 1901 for either island and had to rely on seasonal averages. Both islands have a rainy season in November. According to the Climate Advisor (Gilbert Schwartz, 1977) this is the end of the season for the Bahama islands. The mean annual rainfall there ranges from more than 150 cm for the Northern islands to less than 65 cm for the Southern. Hurricanes occur primarily from May to September. The gist of the weather information is: a storm is easily possible on both islands in early November.

What about 1940?

Now on to the fun stuff. Just what was happening in New York City in November 1940? (Remember, we set that month as the "true date" for the events written as Peril in the North.) Let's look first at November 12th, 1940 in NYC. There were showers and the weather report mentioned that it was "colder" than it had been. The New York Times reported that the forecast was for "rather cold" on the 13th. In the news there was still talk about the death of Neville Chamberlain on November 9th, and reports on the activities during the 22nd anniversary of Armistice Day (November 11th).

Nowhere in Peril in the North is any of this mentioned. The weather doesn't seem to be cold. No one is mentioned wearing coats. There is not a hint of the cold causing breath to be visible. And especially, no mention of the death of one of the world's leaders just days before.

Why? The answer is simple. Doc's birthday is not November 12th. Farmer didn't have the time to check every fact while writing the book. Some things he just had to propose and let history debate the question.

So when was Doc born? Well, Farmer was close. Very close. I started investigating the events of the city for the month of November. Some days fit the weather, some had events that were close, but no day fit as well as November 7, 1940.

Remember the "Ritz-Astoria" we mentioned earlier as the site for the conference? Street and Smith had no desire to allow a mention of THE Waldorf that might bring a lawsuit. Obviously, the various Robeson's were instructed to tweak the names of actual locations. So, enter the actual location for the conference: on November 7, 1940 there were two conferences at the Waldorf-Astoria.

The first was the First Annual Medical Meeting of the National Foundation for Infantile Paralysis. The agenda included information by Dr. Herbert Hipps regarding their new operation to "improve the strength of selected muscles in victims of infantile paralysis that have failed to improve with rest."

Can you imagine Doc, one of the world's foremost surgeons, not attending that event? Immediately after the medical meeting was a meeting of the Allied Relief Fund and British War Relief Fund at the same hotel.

Remember that Peril in the North mentioned that Doc was at a meeting of foreign dignitaries and war types at the hotel. A war relief fund meeting would certainly attract "foreign dignitaries and war types." Not to mention one of America's leading citizens: Doc Savage. These two conferences are perfect for the events as related in Peril in the North.

Moving on to the weather for the 7th: The New York Times reported that the weather was mild for the day and the forecast was simply for "partly cloudy." Sounds like another match for the 7th.

And so we conclude...

No date fits better than November 7th, 1901. It fits everything we know about Doc's birthday. The possibility for storms exist at Andros Island in 1901. Moving to 1940 we find the reception that Doc attends in Peril in the North. The weather is just as was described in the novel. The facts simply favor the 7th. Any questions?

Now it's up to Frozencat to figure Doc's horoscope.

He is an unassuming man. You'd pass him on the street without a second look. Under that façade is the most respected man of his profession. Though you've never heard his name before you've read some of his best work.

He knows most people have no idea of the years he spent perfecting his craft. The long hours. The deadlines. A marriage sacrificed. No fame or fortune. He doesn't care. Fortune is not why he did it.

He is probably the first man you connected with Doc Savage. No, not Jim Bama. Think back to the time you saw Fear Cay for the first time. You turned over that pristine copy to read:


It was all a great mystery. Who was this man called Dan Thunden who claimed he was one hundred and thirty years old? Did he really have the secret of the fountain of youth? What was this island called Fear Cay that spelled horror and death? What was the strange thing that turned men to bone? These were the mysteries that Doc Savage and his fearless crew had to solve at peril of their very lives.


Nick D'Annuzio laughs when he recalls writing that pithy description, "Asked a lot of questions…never gave many answers." From the Man of Bronze to Up From Earth's Center D'Annuzio was "The Man of Blurb."

The blurb -- that bit of marketing designed to lure you into buying a product. Blurb writers are not a high-priced commodity in the publishing field. Usually they're omnivorous readers who major in Liberal Arts during college. D'Annuzio did and went back to get a Masters in Marketing. He still studies today, "It's a little more casual now. I check out the mags. 'Next Month' columns and the like. Oh, and the news. Amazing how much a politician can talk and how little he'll give away in 30 seconds. Always gives the impression he's Thomas Jefferson though."

How did Nick and Doc get together? "When I was nine I picked up an issue of National Geographic. I skipped past the tribal pictures - too young then - and was fascinated by the writing. Not the articles. They were long and boring. I was astounded by the Next Month column. I wanted to read those articles!"

Imagine how disappointed I was when I saw that next issue. More long and boring articles. But my spirits soared with 'Next Month.' I knew then and there I wanted to be a blurb writer. Didn't know the word yet, but I knew I wanted to write them. As a matter of fact, I ended up ghost writing a few of those National Geographic columns when (Richard) "Professor" Laflamme had that strange accident in 78."

For a man who gets to the point when he writes, D'Annuzio often wanders to the point when he speaks.

"Yeah, you asked me about Doc Savage." He pulls out a folder. He has kept all his notes. "Back in '62 I packed up my Bug and traded notebooks at Northwestern for legal pads at Bantam. My first project was a one-shot…Doc Savage. If it took off we'd have 180 more to go. I took home the galleys for "The Man of Bronze." and worked all night.


High above the skyscrapers of New York, Doc Savage engages in deadly combat with the red-fingered survivors of an ancient, lost civilization. Then, with his amazing crew, he journeys to the mysterious "lost valley" to search for a fabulous treasure and to destroy the mysterious Red Death.


Sure, I had to get their attention without giving anything away. That isn't easy. I wasn't quite into the swing of things then. Too many declarative sentences and no questions. I cringe when I read it today. That's what they wanted though. You always make the company happy.

D'Annuzio dug out his first draft for the blurb, "Who dares to challenge the Man of Bronze? Does Death always win? Will Doc and his team defeat Death in the Valley of the Vanished? Will the mysterious Red Death claim them? Will it snuff their lives --- as it did the only man who truly knew the origin of Doc Savage…his father, Clark Savage, Senior?

He is still proud of that work. The editors at Bantam wanted less philosophy and more action. "Get murder, danger and the bad guy in every one. That's what they wanted. I gave it to them. I grabbed you with 50 words or less.

D'Annuzio remembers the glory days of Doc Savage in the 60s. Sometimes they seemed to write themselves, "I'd work every night from midnight to 2 am. That's the absolute best time to write a blurb. You're right on the edge of sleep. Your mind can't hold a complex thought. Words are ethereal.

Like Lester Dent, D'Annuzio had a touch of wanderlust. He once traveled the Caribbean in a seaplane and farmed a few blurbs out. He won't reveal who, but assures us we'd recognize the name.

Cadwiller Olden was only three feet tall, but he was the most dangerous man on Earth. With his legion of brutal giants, and control of REPEL -- a massive, devastating energy force -- the murderous midget began an all-out assault against the defenseless bastions of the free nations. As the entire world huddles in fear, Doc Savage battles against the bizarre doll criminal, and the unleashed fury of his deadly tool of destruction, REPEL!

"He just didn't work out. Too wordy. Writes a great horror story though."

Ask D'Annuzio what blurb he is most proud of and you'd be surprised, "None. It wasn't the blurbs I sweated over. They just flowed -- it was the titles I put my heart into."

D'Annuzio not only wrote blurbs for 181 adventures - he was the first blurb writer who titled his work. Each blurb featured the title in bold on the back cover. "I was able to give alternate titles to 82 of the Doc Savage novels. I started with "Soul of the Mystic Mullah". They were sporadic at first. Bantam didn't place much emphasis on them. They'd just not use the title line sometimes. After Bantam started receiving letters from my fans - yep, those days we had blurb groupies - usually Bryn Mawr girls - they didn't miss a one from "Doc Savage Out West" to "Trapped in a Steel Tomb."

A new editor was assigned to the Blurb Department at about the same time the Doc Doubles started. "At first I had about the same amount of lines, but gradually I had to fit into less space. The omnibuses almost killed me. No titles and usually just room for a sentence or two to grab you. I was really looking forward to the time we start publishing the new adventures. One story per book and room for a paragraph or two blurb.

It wasn't meant to be. D'Annuzio was shocked to find that Bantam didn't call him out of retirement for the new editions of Doc Savage. "Said they wanted new blood. Said my last one was the capstone of my career."

A shipwrecked lunatic, a mysterious cavern, and a plump little man with a fear of fire lead Doc on his strangest and most legendary adventure ever -- straight to the gates of hell itself!

His career is far from over. Brill's Content called him for the blurbs they used in their early promotional work. Utne Reader depends on D'Annuzio as their Senior Blurb Editor. And the New Yorker has featured three all D'Annuzio blurb issues in the past two years. Still, D'Annuzio hopes someday again to pen the words "fearless crew" for Doc Savage.

Savage Cosmetics

Re-discovered by CG Welch


While doing a little research I stumbled on a rare advertisement from Patricia Savage's cosmetic company. Many have read about her exclusive beauty salon, but few were aware of her foray into cosmetic sales.

For the sake of argument pretend you were born around 1920.

Now jump forward to when you turned 13. (Let's say May 17, 1933.)

You've been buying each issue of the new Doc Savage Magazine as soon as it hits the newsstand. (Where are you getting the money? You sell Grit.)

You become successful. From Grit you graduate to the New York Times. Pretty soon you're in college, but you never stop buying Doc Savage Magazine. They're taking up room in the attic, but Mom loves to have something of yours at home

You're kinda sad when you buy the last issue just before your 29th birthday. You hoped to have a son and introduce him to the Fabulous Five.

Flash forward to 1964. You're 44 and your son is 13. Miracle of all miracles! He finds the Bantam copy of The Man of Bronze at Parrino's Drugstore. He's hooked!

After a few months you're disappointed to find they're not in the order you remember them. You'd get out the old issues for the boy, but you threw them away a few years ago when your wife convinced you to build her a sewing room of her own in the attic.

You had the pool room downstairs. What could you say?

The years go by. Bantam re-releases Docs in something that looks like random order. Sometimes one a month...sometimes months between reissues.

It's October 1990. You're 70. You're on the porch with your grandson. He's 13. (Amazing isn't it?) He brings you a book he found at Hawley-Cooke. He remembered you and his Dad talking about the Man of Bronze. He's got a copy of Doc Savage Omnibus #13.

You look over Up From Earth's Center and get that feeling again. You tell your grandson it's been over 40 years since you saw that story and you still remember it.

"Fourty-one years and three months, grandpa." You thank God the kid has his mother's brain. You wonder aloud, "I wonder how long it was between when a novel came out and when Bantam reprinted it?"

The next day your grandson...he was named after you after all...gives you a printout.

"I figured it out for you Grandpa. You had to wait an average of 37 years and 8 months between the time a novel was first published and the time Bantam reprinted it."

You give your grandson a funny look. Gas, but he misinterprets it.

He shows you the list. "See here Grandpa? The Green Eagle came out in July 1941 and Bantam reprinted it in May 1968. That's 26 years and 10 months."

"That would have been the shortest wait. The longest was Bequest of Evil. It was first printed in February 1941, but Bantam didn't reprint it until June 1990."

You look up, "That's, uh, almost 50 years."

"49 years and 5 months, grandpa. I put them all on that printout I gave you."

You smile at the boy and think, "He'll give up all this foolishness as soon as he discovers girls."
He leaves you alone as you nod off thinking about your salad days.

Bantam #	Magazine #	Wait #	Bantam Title	Years	Months
24	101	1	The Green Eagle	26	10
25	95	2	The Devil's Playground	27	5
29	83	3	The Other World	28	9
30	76	4	The Flaming Falcons	29	5
23	68	5	Fortress of Solitude	29	6
37	81	6	Hex	29	7
40	82	7	The Dagger in the Sky	29	9
2	17	8	The Thousand-Headed Man	30	3
41	77	9	Merchants of Disaster	30	3
39	74	10	World's Fair Goblin	30	4
42	75	11	The Gold Ogre	30	6
3	13	12	Meteor Menace	30	7
9	23	13	The Mystic Mullah	30	10
14	34	14	The Fantastic lsland	30	11
28	56	15	The Deadly Dwarf	30	11
12	29	16	Quest of Qui	31	0
7	14	17	The Monsters	31	2
15	33	18	Murder Melody	31	2
5	11	19	Brand of the Werewolf	31	3
21	43	20	Cold Death	31	4
57	79	21	Poison Island	31	5
13	25	22	Land of Always-Night	31	6
1	1	23	The Man of Bronze	31	7
6	7	24	The Lost Oasis	31	7
11	19	25	Fear Cay	31	8
4	4	26	The Polar Treasure	31	10
33	50	27	The Terror in the Navy	31	10
34	51	28	Mad Eyes	31	10
16	26	29	The Spook Legion	31	11
59	72	30	The Yellow Cloud	32	2
10	10	31	The Phantom City	32	3
8	2	32	The Land of Terror	32	4
50	61	33	Devil on the Moon	32	4
20	27	34	The Secret in the Sky	32	6
27	36	35	Mystery Under the Sea	32	6
36	45	36	Resurrection Day	32	6
56	65	37	The Giggling Ghosts	32	6
49	57	38	The Sea Angel	32	7
58	66	39	The Munitions Master	32	7
48	55	40	The Feathered Octopus	32	8
55	58	41	The Golden Peril	33	0
65	69	42	The Green Death	33	0
66	71	43	Mad Mesa	33	0
67	73	44	The Freckled Shark	33	0
63	64	45	The Submarine Mystery	33	2
32	32	46	Dust of Death	33	3
47	47	47	Land of Long Juju	33	3
62	62	48	The Pirate's Ghost	33	3
54	53	49	He Could Stop the World	33	4
64	63	50	The Motion Menace	33	4
61	59	51	The Living Fire Menace	33	5
46	42	52	The Midas Man	33	7
53	49	53	The Mental Wizard	33	7
17	6	54	The Red Skull	33	9
18	8	55	The Sargasso Ogre	33	9
26	20	56	Death in Silver	33	9
52	46	57	The Vanisher	33	9
45	38	58	The Men Who Smiled No More	33	10
31	22	59	The Annihilist	34	0
19	5	60	Pirate of the Pacific	34	2
51	40	61	Haunted Ocean	34	2
22	9	62	The Czar of Fear	34	4
38	24	63	Red Snow	34	5
94	143	64	The Hate Genius	34	5
35	18	65	The Squeaking Goblin	34	8
44	21	66	The Sea Magician	35	2
78	78	67	The Crimson Serpent	35	2
98	146	68	Cargo Unknown	35	3
106	154	69	The Screaming Man	35	7
60	31	70	The Majii	35	8
97	141	71	Satan Black	35	8
43	12	72	The Man Who Shook the Earth	35	10
100	142	73	The Lost Giant	35	10
79	70	74	The Devil Genghis	35	11
82	86	75	The Evil Gnome	36	1
96	125	76	Mystery on Happy Bones	36	3
74	48	77	The Derrick Devil	36	5
75	52	78	The Land of Fear	36	5
81	80	79	The Stone Man	36	5
85	87	80	The Boss of Terror	36	6
101	136	81	The Pharaoh's Ghost	36	7
104	137	82	The Man Who Was Scared	36	9
71	35	83	Murder Mirage	36	10
72	37	84	The Metal Master	36	10
73	39	85	The Seven Agate Devils	36	10
86	84	86	The Angry Ghost	36	11
87	85	87	The Spotted Men	37	0
103	134	88	The Whisker of Hercules	37	0
107	140	89	Jin San	37	0
70	30	90	Spook Hole	37	1
99	127	91	Hell Below	37	1
90	89	92	The Flying Goblin	37	2
77	44	93	The South Pole Terror	37	4
109	138	94	The Shape of Terror	37	5
76	41	95	The Black Spot	37	9
114	145	96	The Ten-Ton Snakes	37	9
83	67	97	The Red Terrors	37	10
91	91	98	The Purple Dragon	37	10
110	132	99	Death Had Yellow Eyes	37	11
130	178	100	The Swooning Lady	37	11
102	119	101	The Time Terror	38	0
129	177	102	The Angry Canary	38	1
69	15	103	The Mystery on the Snow	38	2
92	88	104	The Awful Egg	38	4
111	131	105	One-Eyed Mystic	38	5
93	90	106	Tunnel Terror	38	6
84	60	107	The Mountain Monster	38	7
108	121	108	The Black, Black Witch	38	7
105	117	109	They Died Twice	38	8
68	3	110	Quest of the Spider	39	0
113	123	111	The Talking Devil	39	7
142	175	112	The Pure Evil	39	7
89	54	113	The Magic Island	39	10
112	113	114	The Man Who Fell Up	39	11
147	174	115	I Died Yesterday	40	1
146	173	116	Once Over Lightly	40	3
145	172	117	Let's Kill Ames	40	5
144	171	118	The Monkey Suit	40	7
80	16	119	The King Maker	40	8
143	170	120	No Light to Die By	40	9
116	112	121	The Speaking Stone	41	0
115	111	122	Pirate Isle	41	1
120	122	123	The King of Terror	41	2
134	152	124	The Thing That Pursued	41	3
182	181	125	Up From Earth's Center	41	3
126	129	126	The Secret of the Su	41	4
125	128	127	The Goblins	41	5
136	155	128	Measures for a Coffin	41	5
133	149	129	King Joe Cay	41	6
181	180	130	Return From Cormoral	41	6
119	116	131	The Laugh of Death	41	8
151	166	132	The Disappearing Lady	41	8
155	169	133	Danger Lies East	41	8
180	179	134	The Green Master	41	9
88	28	135	The Roar Devil	41	11
122	115	136	The Fiery Menace	42	1
150	161	137	Fire and Ice	42	1
118	106	138	Peril in the North	42	2
121	114	139	The Three Wild Men	42	2
138	144	140	Strange Fish	42	4
141	147	141	Rock Sinister	42	5
179	176	142	Terror Wears No Shoes	42	5
154	158	143	Five Fathoms Dead	42	7
117	98	144	The Golden Man	42	10
137	135	145	The Three Devils	43	1
128	124	146	The Running Skeletons	43	2
172	165	147	The Devil Is Jones	43	3
159	153	148	Trouble on Parade	43	4
176	168	149	The Death Lady	43	4
153	148	150	The Terrible Stork	43	5
175	167	151	Target for Death	43	5
124	100	152	The Headless Men	43	6
135	130	153	The Spook of Grandpa Eben	43	6
170	162	154	Three Times a Corpse	43	6
167	157	155	Terror and the Lonely Widow	43	8
169	160	156	Colors for Murder	43	8
174	164	157	Death in Little Houses	43	8
171	159	158	Death is a Round Black Spot	43	9
177	163	159	The Exploding Lake	43	9
163	151	160	Terror Takes 7	43	10
162	150	161	The Wee Ones	43	11
168	156	162	Se-Pah-Poo	44	0
123	92	163	Devils of the Deep	44	2
158	139	164	Weird Valley	44	6
132	107	165	The Rustling Death	45	0
131	103	166	The Mindless Monsters	45	4
127	97	167	The All-White Elf	45	5
156	126	168	The Mental Monster	45	7
140	108	169	Men of Fear	45	8
139	102	170	Mystery Island	46	2
149	110	171	The Magic Forest	46	4
178	133	172	The Derelict of Skull Shoal	46	7
165	120	173	Waves of Death	46	9
164	118	174	The Devil's Black Rock	46	11
160	105	175	The Invisible-Box Murders	47	8
166	109	176	The Too-Wise Owl	47	8
148	93	177	The Awful Dynasty	47	9
161	104	178	Birds of Death	47	9
157	99	179	The Pink Lady	47	10
152	94	180	The Men Vanished	47	11
173	96	181	Bequest of Evil	49	4

The next time some family member chides you about your interest in Doc Savage just mention he is taught in college.

Yes, a college course in an accredited college in the United States teaches anthropology using Doc Savage as an example.

But, wait, there's more!

The professor isn't using the Doc Savage text. He's using the 1975 film Doc Savage: Man of Bronze. Obviously a sign of the end of days.

Thanks Professor Warms for taking Doc to a College other than Crime.

A golden man falls from the sky. He claims the night is his mother and the sea his father. And he has knowledge of the past and future not possessed by ordinary mortals. Later, upon meeting Doc Savage, the Golden Man says, by way of telling Doc he knows who he is,

"you were born on the tiny schooner Orion in the shallow cove at the north end of Andros Island" . . . Doc was floored, figuratively . . . by the fact that this golden man knew the exact place of his birth. It was astounding. Doc himself had known of no living man who had those facts. His five aides did not know. It was in no written record.

Later, the Golden Man reveals himself to be "Paul Hest . . .chief of intelligence for . . . an unnamed nation" which seems to be Great Britain*. The Golden Man was sent to prevent "another nation"--Germany--from framing his country for a U-boat attack, turning the U.S. against her nominal ally. This is as much as we are told about Doc's birth in the entire series, as it is related in The Golden Man (which occurred Autumn 1940). The "Andros Island" mentioned by the Golden Man is not specified whether it is the one in the Caribbean Sea or the one in the Mediterranean Sea, but given Doc's father's interest in Central America--he made at least two trips there around 1910, according to The Man of Bronze and They Died Twice--the island is likely located in the Caribbean Sea. The question remains, how did Hest come by this information?

What Doc believes about the availability of the information about his birth cannot literally be true. Hest got it, somehow. Because Doc is a thorough individual, we can infer that Doc knows for fact that there are no eyewitnesses to his birth still alive, and that there are no official records pertaining to his birth in existence. This leaves us with three indirect methods of getting this information: an eyewitness told someone of Doc's birth, and that confidante was contacted; an eyewitness left an unofficial written account of Doc's birth, such as a diary, and this was discovered by someone and it came into Hest's hands; or a confidante of an eyewitness left an unofficial written account of Doc's birth, and it came into Hest's hands. The Golden Man later explains:

Paul Hest smiled faintly. "The intelligence departments of most leading nations know things that apparently no one could know. I happen to have a prodigious memory--or did I say that? Anyhow, that accounts for me knowing your men, knowing you, knowing about your friend who was to be killed in Vienna"

While it may be easy enough to believe that British Intelligence found a source of information about Doc, it is not so easy to understand why this particular man, the head of British Intelligence, would have information about Doc's birth. In fact, Doc Savage has an association with British Intelligence predating his own career which began with The Man of Bronze (Autumn 1931). He possesses a commission with Scotland Yard, gained while working with the British Secret Service, "some years" prior to The Thousand-headed Man (Summer 1933). The Sea Magician (Autumn 1933) states Doc has "an honorary inspector's commission with Scotland Yard". It is likely that he was thoroughly investigated before being given this commission.

But it is equally likely Doc was investigated because of his growing disreputation over the years. He is framed, on average, once a year, for some horrendous crime, not against merely an individual, but against entire nations. Doc Savage is impersonated half dozen times over a ten year period. Probably the intelligence service of every civilized nation on earth has a thick file on Doc Savage, the Man of Bronze.

The story of Clark Savage, Jr., better known to the world as Doc Savage, begins at the turn of the twentieth century. The Golden Man does not reveal what year Doc was born in, but there are clues throughout the novels. Cargo Unknown states that Doc was born about "twenty years" prior to The Man of Bronze, suggesting a date around 1911. But, according to They Died Twice (Summer 1941), young Clark "is already known as Doc Savage" by 1911, and therefore was at least a few years old. Doc was probably born between 1906 and 1910, then. This range is confirmed by a statement in Devil on the Moon (Winter 1936), which reveals that Doc is "young". He is probably no older at that time than half the life expectancy for his generation, then, or thirty-two years old, placing his birthyear no earlier than 1904.

At the beginning of Peril in the North (Spring 1941), Doc's friends attempt to throw him a birthday party. It is near midnight, and it is not explained why they wait until this hour to do so. According to my chronology of the series, this puts Doc's birthday in very late May (it is chilly, but the "midnight sun" is visible near Greenland, placing this adventure between May 25 and July 25).

Although Doc apparently forgets that it is his birthday, he may, subconsciously, be feeling sentimental over the fact. Later in the adventure, one of Doc's assistants, Monk Mayfair, makes a speech about being willing to sacrifice his life in order to save others that brings tears to Doc's eyes, the only such time recorded in the entire series, which covers nearly two decades. Doc's nationality is never referred to in the series, so we may assume he is American by birth. Since he was born abroad, outside United States borders, at least one of his parents must have had American citizenship prior to his birth.

The only relatives of Doc's mentioned in the series, other than his parents, are his "uncle" Alex Savage and "cousin" Patricia, Alex's daughter, though Doc's exact relationship to them is a point of contention, as Pat's relation to Doc fluctuates throughout the series. They are probably close cousins--Doc's father and Alex being first cousins--as later accounts suggest. Alex Savage settled in western Canada circa 1890, as related in Brand of the Werewolf (Autumn 1932), and one of Pat's grandfathers travelled the "northwest" (whether this is the American northwest or the continental northwest is unclear) and "fought Indians", according to I Died Yesterday (Spring 1947).

However, the original story idea for Brand of the Werewolf states that Alex and Pat live in the Pacific Northwest, in the U. S. This at least suggests that the Savage family is American. At the time of Doc's birth, Doc's father, Clark Savage, Sr., is a wealthy man: "He had amassed a tremendous fortune", "early in life", according to The Man of Bronze. Of Doc's mother, nothing is known, not even her name. But not long after Doc's birth, something happens. Something awful. The Man Who Was Scared (Summer 1943) states:

Doc's father, about the time Doc was born, evidently received some sort of shock which completely warped his outlook--made him devote the rest of his days to raising a son who would follow the career of righting wrongs and punishing criminals who seemed to be outside the law. Doc never knew what happened to his father to give him such an idea.

But this is not entirely true. Doc himself writes in a public statement, in No Light to Die By (Winter 1946):

My father, victimized by criminals, imagined he could turn me into a sort of modern Galahad who would sally out against all wrongdoers who were outside the law, and who would aid the oppressed. My father, before his death, outlined a stringent course of training in which I was placed in the hands of a series of scientists, criminologists, physical culture experts, psychiatrists--I won't bore you with an endless list of these experts, but they had me in their hands from the time I was fourteen months old until I was twenty years old--so that I might be fitted for this career of righting wrongs and punishing evildoers.

That Doc's father did not push him to be a lawyer (criminal prosecutor) or a policeman but rather the ultimate Nemesis of evil, as Doc is often referred to as throughout the series, suggests that the circumstances of this crime were somewhat fantastic, like Doc's own adventures. Cargo Unknown (Summer 1944) adds,

Doc had never known his mother; she had died when he was less than a year old. The elder Savage had died about the time Doc's unusual training had been finished . . .

just prior to The Man of Bronze (Autumn 1931). The text does not state that Doc's mother died in childbirth, and in fact implies that she did not, so we may take it that she did not. So: Doc's mother dies when he is less than a year old. Doc's father victimized is by criminals. Young Doc's training begins when he is fourteen months old. Could the thing that warped Doc's father be the murder of his wife by men beyond the reach of the law?

* Note: I realize this identification is controversial, and fortunately not central to the deduction of Doc's birthday. Briefly, my reason for making this identification is that Great Britain, who, at first glance appears to be behind the sub attacks, had more to lose by the ruse than Germany.

We've discussed reading Doc novels in published order or submission order or by author. I propose that if you really want to experience reading a Doc novel like they did in 1939 you drop by A Day in Radio . "On September 21, 1939, WJSV, an AM radio station in Washington, D.C., recorded the entire 19 hours of its broadcast day."

That means you can read the "latest" issue of Doc Savage magazine -- The Stone Man (October 1939 was on the stands by that date) with the "proper" background sounds. (Note: Those of you who procrastinate reading would be finishing Poison Island.)

For other Background Sounds...