Judy Garland and the Hoodoo Costume

Here we are with another in the long line of "Authorized Editions" published by Whitman back in the 1940s.  The series featured big names like Deanna Durbin, Bonita Granvile, Ginger Rogers, Betty Grable, Ann Sheridan, Shirley Temple, Dorothy Lamour, and a number of others, so it should come as no surprise that Judy Garland's name should be among them.  After all, her role in The Wizard of Oz in 1939 made her a household name, and her many other movies (including several with Mickey Rooney in the "Andy Hardy" series) during the late 1930s and well into the 1940s kept her in the limelight.  So, it is only natural Whitman would want to use her name for a character in one of their "Authorized Edition" mysteries.  Unlike most of the other books, in this one, the main character is actually the famous actress whose name is being used (and one of the characters actually refers to her as a "famous actress" on p. 71).

 

Judy Garland and the Hoodoo Costume finds our protagonist agreeing to take an  expensive dress to its owner, unaware that this small errand is going to become a nightmare of a mystery.  It begins innocently enough, as Judy delivers a gift to the sister of a friend of hers.  While at the sister's house, she stumbles across a rather expensive dress that the sister claims is not hers - but she knows to whom it belongs!  Oddly enough, she asks Judy (a person she does not even know, other than as an actress she has seen on the movie screen) to take the dress to its owner.  Judy reluctantly agrees; but when she arrives at the boarding house where its owner resides, the two women who run the house inform her that Frederica Hammond has left to care for an ill relative not some distance away.  Judy gets lured into taking a bus to a secluded old house where Frederica is believed to be staying - and upon arriving, Judy finds herself facing a night of Gothic terror!

 

Yes, Heisenfelt once again takes her protagonist and places her in unusual circumstances, where she finds herself trapped in a foreboding old house with unseen danger lurking around every corner.  If you don't believe me, go back and look at Ann Rutherford and The Key to Nightmare Hall or Betty Grable and The House with the Iron Shutters, or even Ann Sheridan and The Sign of the Sphinx.  Of course, one of her best examples is Jane Withers and The Swamp Wizard.  In fact, this book has a lot of similarities to that last one, as both books feature a supernatural character of sorts that has people in the household frightened.  Heisenfelt seems to focus on a similar theme for all of her stories (well, at least with all of the ones I have read of hers thus far!), and it makes me wonder if perhaps at some point she did not delve into the world of Gothic paperback tales in the '60s and '70s, as her Whitman mysteries would fit perfectly in that genre.

 

From the moment of Judy's arrival at the old house, the Gothic tropes are at play.  A mysterious figure chases Judy outside, forcing her to run around the back of the house and enter in a rush through the kitchen.  She is then rushed upstairs by the very girl she was there to meet, as both the girl and the housekeeper are fearful that "Mr. Frazer" may find out she is here.  Judy then learns that Frederica, while not adverse to helping her aunt, is being forced to remain in the house, allowed no contact with the outside world.  Judy also overhears conversations that lead her to realize Mr. Frazer, along with Frederica's cousin and her uncle are hatching a plot against Frederica's aunt, who may or may not be ill - are the relatives convincing her of an illness, feeding her medication in hopes she will die and they can inherit her fortune?  One of the biggest surprises comes, however, when Judy finally sees the bed-ridden Mrs. Mattis and recognizes her - not as Myrta Mattis, however, but as a famous songstress by the name of Lucia Grayson!

 

While this book offers up some songs that Lucia Grayson allegedly sang (p. 130 - songs such as "Still as the Night," "Evening Star," and "Then You'll Remember Me"), a bit of research reveals that no such singer named Lucia Grayson existed.  However, there was an actress named Kathryn Grayson who sang in a number of MGM musicals alongside greats such as Gene Kelly and Frank Sinatra.  This real Grayson dreamed of doing opera, but instead ended up signing a contract with MGM to do film work; yet, interestingly enough, she received an offer to sing Lucia at the Met, but she was convinced to turn it down. This book was published in 1945, four years after Grayson's film debut in Andy Hardy's Private Secretary.  It does lead one to question if perhaps Heisenfelt based her aged character's name on this young up-and-coming singer/actress of the day.

 

The story takes place literally over the course of 48 hours - meaning there is 248 pages of mystery and suspense that lasts merely two days!  Heisenfelt spends considerable time having her protagonist worry and dwell on everything going on around her, constantly questioning her own actions, the motives of those around her, and the possibilities of what may happen to her - which is something the author seems to relish doing in all of her stories.  Despite her main characters being based on actresses who normally portray rather strong female characters in their films, Heisenfelt manages to turn them into whining, worrisome, and nearly wearisome characters who spend most of their stories agonizing over what is happening rather than taking any action to overcome the circumstances in which they find themselves.  While all of this anxiety of the characters may build some level of suspense, it does get a bit tiresome to read after a while, and I, for one, find myself reaching the point where I don't really care whether she makes it out of the house or not!

 

One difference between this and Heisenfelt's other books in this series is that this story actually features two mysteries - the first involves the happenings inside the old house and poor Mrs. Mattis (a/k/a Lucia Grayson); the second involves a con artist who is taking money from Mrs. Mattis' groundskeepeer and other neighbors, leading them to believe there is a lady ghost who comes from the lake.  Poor Judy, trying to escape the house, ends up a pawn in the con artist's game, and she must try and outwit him in order to escape his machinations. This second mystery is almost like an intermission in the main story, as it really has no connection whatsoever to Mrs. Mattis or her relatives.  One is left to wonder if perhaps the main story was not long enough, so Heisenfelt added this in order to "pad" the story out to a proper length for publication.

 

The illustrations are provided by Ruth Ruhman, who illustrated a large number of children's books, as well as (surprisingly!) a few comics back in the day, including pages in Big Jon and Sparkle, published by Ziff-Davis Comic Group back in the early 1950s.  She did quite a bit of work for Western Publishing, who acquired Whitman Publishing in the early 1900s, so it should not be any surprised that her illustrations would appear in one of Whitman's Authorized Editions.  While she does not do an exact likeness of Garland in her art, there are a couple of the illustrations in this book that do capture Garland's facial expressions pretty well.  The endpages, thankfully, do not spoil any of the story; rather, they depict the scene where Judy first arrives at the dark, old house and is forced to run in the freezing snow around to the back in order to escape the man chasing her.

 

While this book does read better than most of Heisenfelt's other stories (with the exception of Swamp Wizard, which I actually rather enjoyed), it certainly does not rate the same quality of story as most of the other Whitman Authorized Edition by other authors.  I've seen a few online sites that indicate this is one of Heisenfelt's most popular books; I can only postulate that the reason is because of the star name, Judy Garland, as opposed to the story itself.  Not the worst, but definitely not the best.

 

RATING:  6 stark white capes with high collars out of 10 for an attempt to thrust Judy Garland into a Gothic landscape of suspense and fear to create a story half-worth the read.