Nancy Drew Mystery Stories #16 - The Clue of the Tapping Heels

Our Central Florida Sleuths recently read the first Penny Parker mystery, written by Mildred Wirt (Benson), so we decided for our next book to read the Nancy Drew book that came out in the same year, which was also written by Wirt, so that we could compare the stories and writing to see what similarities and differences we might come across.  What we discovered was certainly more than we were expecting, that's for sure - not just about the comparison between the two books, but about the story itself.  It has been such a long time since I had read the original text version of The Clue of the Tapping Heels (published in 1939, the same year the first Penny Parker book, Tale of the Witch Doll, was published), and there were a number of things that I had completely forgotten about with regard to this book.  There is SO much to talk about when it comes to this book, so let's just dig right in, shall we?

Since the cover is the first thing you see when you pick up a book, let's discuss that cover.  The original cover by artist Russell Tandy depicts Nancy, Bess and George at the ladder that was left behind by whomever had broken into the Drew home.  However, in the book, it is only Nancy that discovers the ladder (p. 55), and there is no one running away in the background (as surely Nancy would have noticed them!).  The first cover by Rudy Nappi more accurately pictures the scene with just Nancy (although we still have that mysterious man in the background running away).  The third and final cover, also painted by Nappi, is a collage that focuses more on the revised text mystery, which deals with more with cats and less with the mystery surrounding Bunce, Carter, and Gussie.  

And that brings us to the mystery.  I read the original text story, as outlined by Edna Stratemeyer and ghostwritten by Mildred Wirt (Benson).  The mystery centers around a certain spinster, Annie Carter, who has a house full of cats.  When Nancy, Bess and George rescue a hungry kitten, they soon find its owner, Miss Carter, has a number of cats, which does not set well with her neighbors - particularly one not-so-nice Fred Bunce!  It seems he and Miss Carter have a connection, as Miss Carter helped protect Gus Woonton from his abusive ward, Mr. Bunce.  But as Nancy and her friends are there, Miss Carter receives news from the hospital where Gus was sent that Gus has passed away, and Mr. Bunce is quick to throw the blame on Miss Carter.  Miss Carter, on the other hand, is certain Gus had a sizable inheritance that Mr. Bunce has squandered.  Nancy smells a mystery, and it isn't long before she has her father helping to investigate the circumstances surrounding Gus Woonton's disappearance and any possible inheritance he may have from his real parents.  The story weaves quite a web of lies, secrets, and hidden familial connections, and before the end of the story, Nancy uncovers not only the truth behind Gus's parentage, but also one of Ned's college classmates!  And while Nancy is practicing tap dancing on the opening page to the story, working out a way to integrate Morse code with the taps, and she ultimately is able to use that code to summon help when she is tied up and locked away in a cabin - and while there seem to be an unusual amount of tapping in the story, dancing and otherwise! - the mystery at no point actually involves tapping or tap dancing, and there is no "clue" that Nancy discovers as a result of the tapping.  Thus, it may be the real mystery for this book is why it is titled The Clue of the Tapping Heels, when the tapping heels provided no clue to Nancy whatsoever!

 

As the Central Florida Sleuths agreed while discussing this book, The Clue of the Tapping Heels reads very much like a soap opera.  You have secret family relationship that are kept hidden; you have surprise revelations regarding people from the characters' pasts; there is embezzlement, kidnapping, lying, danger, and miracle cures!  And, being the nitpickers that we are, we found a number of things in this book that raised our eyebrows or made us question just how heavily the book was edited once Mildred Wirt had turned in the manuscript.  Let's delve into some of those observations...

First, on page three, it is made clear that George is not short for anything, nor is it a nickname - it is George's real name.  "Her real name was George, and she delighted in watching the expression on the faces of people who could not understand this" (p. 3).  It seems there has always been debate on whether George was actually short for Georgia or just simply her real name (and I believe one book does make mention of her real name being Georgia, but I don't recall which one, off hand), but this one leaves no doubt that her name is simply George.  

Second, it was a bit surprising to see not just the first and most recent mysteries listed when the story makes its obligatory reference to Nancy's past adventures - but rather, it references The Secret of the Old Clock by name, and then talks about the girls visiting "such interesting places as Red Gate Farm, Shadow Ranch, and Larkspur Lane" (p. 15).  It then references her most recent mystery involving the Haunted Bridge (p. 15).  We all agreed this was not the usual description of Nancy's career; however, I must admit, that is not the case - I happened to look at the previous book, The Haunted Bridge, and discovered a rather intriguing coincidence - on the same exact page of THAT book, the author not only mentions The Secret of the Old Clock by name, but also references Nancy's prior adventures taking her "to such picturesque localities as Red Gate Farm, Lilac Inn, Shadow Ranch, and Larkspur Lane" (p. 15), and then referencing "a strange tale which centered around a queer old abandoned mansion at Sea Cliff" (p. 15).  Thus, referencing several past mysteries, but not necessarily by their formal names, was not quite uncommon in those original stories!

Third, this book features a couple of relatives of the cast who make their one and only appearance in this story.  The first is Mrs. Bealing, who is described simply as "a relative of Mrs. Gruen" (p. 21).  Nancy brings her in to stay with Miss Carter to help care for her and her cats.  The second is Aunt Helen Miller, who is Bess's aunt (p. 142).  Since she is not referred to as George's aunt also, and we know that Bess's and Georges' mothers are sisters, then it can only be assumed she is related to Bess through Bess's father, meaning she must be his sister who married a "Mr. Miller," thus explaining her different last name.  Aunt Helen lives in New York City, so it immediately raises the question - does she know Nancy's Aunt Eloise Drew?  Poor Aunt Helen is never seen nor heard from again, so one can only speculate as to what happened to her (perhaps she moved away from New York before she ever got to meet Aunt Eloise?).

Fourth, while the mystery in the original text does not center around the cats like the revised text, that is not to say the cats do not play a part.  In fact, Carson makes a rather humorous comment when he is told how many cats Miss Carter has at her house - "Twenty-five cats is just about twenty-four to many" (p. 22).  And considering this book was written in 1939, there is another term that is used for the cats throughout the story, and one member of our reading group jokingly commented that Mrs. Slocombe (from Are You Being Served?) would fit right into this story! But, what is shocking is that several of the cats are actually killed in the course of the story (pp. 32-33), which is unusual for a Stratemeyer story to include for children to read.  I have no doubt when younger readers first read this story, their hearts were broken - "Three died last night, and two more this morning," Mrs. Bealing tells the girls - she is sure they were poisoned, and likely by Mr. Bunce!

Fifth involves a continuity error involving time.  On page 45, it is "late" when the girls leave Miss Carter's house.  When Nancy returns home, she finds her father in the garden, and she sits out there and talks with him while he works.  That very evening, Nancy gets a phone call from Horace St. Will - but when he asks about meeting with her father, she informs him Carson Drew is not there and she "sat up until her father came home from a meeting downtown..." (p. 46).  If it were already late when the girls left Miss Carter's house, and then Nancy spent time with her father in the garden before receiving a call from Mr. St. Will in the evening, then what kind of meeting would Carson Drew be having that late at night downtown?  This is an instance where the editing question springs to mind, in that whomever edited the story may have disrupted the continuity of what was happening here.

Sixth is another continuity error involving one of the police officers.  Officer Flynn wrongfully suspects Nancy and George of foul play earlier in the story, and when Nancy and her father go to the police station later, the Chief attempts to apologize.  "It doesn't matter at all," Nancy says, "Officer Flynn was trying to do his duty..." (p. 123).  Then just two paragraphs later, the Chief refers to him as "Sergeant Flynn."  Yet, on the very next page, Nancy and her father are "disheartened by Officer Flynn's failure to arrest Omar" (p. 124).  Either someone wasn't paying attention when they inserted the name into the story, or Flynn had the quickest promotion and demotion in the police force!

Seventh involves the price of the evening gown that the young spoiled actress, Beverly Barrett buys.  In the book, Nancy sees the price tag of $189 for the one dress.  Now, that was in 1939 - when you inflate that amount to today's prices, that dress would have cost over $3,800!  Talk about an expensive dress! And while we are on the subject of Beverly Barrett - the young actress that Miss Carter has been supporting, even though she barely has enough money to sustain herself and her cats - let's take a look at her name.  I wondered if perhaps there was any actress of the time with a similar name from which Mildred Wirt may have gotten the idea from - and the closest I could find was an actress named Judith Barrett, who did a number of films in the 1920s and '30s - and coincidentally enough, Judith Barrett also did films under the name "Nancy" Dover (from 1928-33).  Even more of a coincident, her last film was Those Were the Days!, starring William Holden and none other than Bonita Granville (who, as Nancy Drew fans will recognize, starred as Nancy Drew in the four films produced in the 1930s).  And to further the coincidences, Beverly Barrett is described in the book as a "beautiful young woman" (p. 146) - and Judith Barrett was noted for her beauty (being described in the October 16, 1939 edition of the Baltimore Sun as a "pretty and blonde actress ... the first Telegenic Girl to go on record. In other words, she is the perfect type of beauty for television...").  So, did Mildred Wirt use Judith Barrett as her idea for Beverly Barrett?  Food for thought...

 

Eighth, when the stewardess on the boat unlocks the door to find Nancy bound and gagged, her first reaction is, "A stowaway!" (p. 195) - this, despite the fact George and Bess had heard Nancy tapping out the world H-E-L-P and had pretty much forced the stewardess to unlock the door to the room.  I'm sorry, but if I went into a locked room and found someone bound and gagged on the floor, my first reaction would not be that the person was a stowaway.  I mean, seriously, who would tie themselves up and lock themselves in a room in order to stow away aboard a boat?

Finally, this book has a surprising amount of references to "colored men" and "Negroes" and even one very surprising reference to a "darky" (p. 79)!  Obviously, we have to look at the time period in which the book was written, long before society as a whole realized the horrific and insulting meaning to these terms - but even in that context, I can't recall any other Nancy Drew book from that period that had as many references as this to such derogatory terms.  It begs the question of whether these references were in the outline by Edna, or written into the story by Mildred, or were added to the story when edited by Harriet.  This is definitely a case where I wish the NYPL had the outlines and/or original manuscripts for these books, so we can delve deeper into the behind-the-scenes making of this book!

Now, before I sign off, I do want to take a look at how this compare to the first Penny Parker mystery, Tale of the Witch Doll, which was published the same year as The Clue of the Tapping Heels, and was probably written by Mildred Wirt around the same time (and judging from dated correspondence between Mildred and Harriet at the time regarding this manuscript, as well as the fact that Mildred wrote a total of 12 books that were published in 1939, we are judging that Tale of the Witch Doll was likely written prior to The Clue of the Tapping Heels).  Either way, there are a number of similarities between the two books, despite their entirely differing plots:

(a)    Both books have scam artist posing as either an Egyptian astrologer (Omar) in Tapping Heels or a nefarious medium (Osandra) in Witch Doll - and the names of both characters begin with "O";

(b)    Omar wears a long robe and sit on a raised gold platform in Tapping Heels, while Osandra sits on a black throne with dark velvet robes in Witch Doll;

 

(c)    Nancy and her friends eat at the always crowded restaurant,The Black Cat Restaurant, in Tapping Heels; while in Witch Doll, Miss Harmon claims to have had her jewelry stolen while at The Black Cat Club;

 

(d)    Annie Carter, the woman Nancy tries to help in Tapping Heels, is former actress; Helene Harmon, the woman Penny tries to help in Witch Doll, is a dancer/actress;

 

(e)    Gus Woonton was hospitalized in Riverside Home in Tapping Heels; and Penny Parker calls Riverside her home in Witch Doll; and

 

(f)    Nancy Drew hides in the basement at the end of Tapping Heels to try and figure out where the tapping noise is coming from; and Penny Parker ends up in a basement cave under the doll shop at the end of Witch Doll, held captive by the unrepentant criminal!

 

While I would not call this the worst of the Nancy Drew Mystery Stories by any means, I will admit that I think I enjoyed the first Penny Parker book better than this one.  This had so many plot elements to it (I didn't even mention in this post the ship that overturned while Ned and Nancy were on it, the fact that a very minor character - Ned's classmate - turns out to be the son of the captain of the ship that overturned, none of which had anything to do with the whole Carter/Bunce/Woonton mystery - plus add in the whole Egyptian astrologer aspect, and the spoiled young actress in New York City) - it's enough to make one's head spin!

RATING:  7 pairs of self-tapping dancing shoes out of 10 for managing to take a convoluted plot with a huge cast and wrapping it all up nicely by the end!