Peggy Lane Theater Stories No. 1 - Peggy Finds the Theater

What better way to start a new month than with a new series (well, new to me at least ... well, new for reading purposes ... anyway ...).  With my love of theater, my love of vintage series books, and my love of stories with female protagonists, it should come as no surprise that I have all eight books in the Peggy Lane Theater Stories series.  Published from 1962 to 1965, the series follows the adventures of a nearly twenty-year old Peggy Lane, whose desire to become an actress leads her to forego a college education and head off for New York City to fulfill her dreams.  The author is given as "Virginia Hughes," which is actually a house pseudonym.  According to Jennifer White's website, the only known author is Geraldine Wallis, who wrote the third volume in the series; the other four books were likely written by four different men.  It would be interesting to learn just who those men were that authored the books (although judging from the information provided on Jennifer White's website, John Ott may have been one, based on his own background as an actor and director).

 

Peggy Finds the Theater is the first book in the series, introducing readers to the dark-haired protagonist and her rather large supporting cast.   Peggy Lane and her best friend, Jean Wilson, live in the fictional town of Rockport, Wisconsin (p. 6).  While there is a Rockport Park in the State of Wisconsin, and there is a city called Rock in Wisconsin, there is no actual Rockport.  The book indicates the travel time by plane from Rockport to New York City is approximately three hours (p. 22), which would place the town somewhere along the western portion of the state (since standard flight time from Wisconsin to New York City is only about two-and-a-half hours).  The story opens with Peggy working hard to convince her parents to allow her to step back from Rockport Community College, where she has finished her first year, and move to New York City to pursue her dream of becoming an actress.  In the end, she makes a bargain with them that will allow her a year to pursue her dream, and if she has not achieved any level of acting goals in that time, she will return home and finish college before attempting it again.  

 

This was very reminiscent of the Carol Page theater series written by Helen Dore Boylson, who makes a very similar deal with her parents in order to get permission to pursue an acting career.  The Carol Page series was released a decade prior to this series, so it seems the attitudes of parents towards their daughters who want to pursue theater as a career did not change much over that time.

 

This first book deals very little with the theater itself and more with Peggy making the move to the big city, starting a very prestigious acting school, making new friends, and joining an off-Broadway theater group who are working to put together their first play.  While there is mention of Peggy's previous experience on the stage while she was in high school, we never actually get to see Peggy perform (other than a couple of scenes where she is rehearsing the monologues she plans to use when she auditions to be admitted into the acting school).  The author does reference real plays, however, including the classic Twelfth Night (p. 23), a play by Shakespeare; the satire Skin of Our Teeth (p. 24), a play by Thornton Wilder; and the drama, Winterset (p. 24), a play by Maxwell Anderson.  The author also makes reference to Variety magazine, with which anyone in the acting community is well acquainted.  However, in the book, one of Peggy's new housemates indicates the magazine has casting call pages for the theater (p. 70); yet, some quick research online reveals Variety never really had theater casting calls, but focused more on the entertainment industry, i.e. television and film.  Backstage or Broadway World are the magazines more easily recognized for theater casting call notices.  Perhaps the author just felt readers might more easily recognize the Variety name than the others.

 

The rather expanded cast of characters are introduced in chapter six, which is aptly titled "Cast of Characters."  It is here we learn all about the girls with whom Peggy will be sharing a house while in New York.  First, there is Gaby (Gabrielle), whose father works for the UN, is French and learning English so she can hopefully break into the acting world; then there is Dot, a native of California who is a comedienne and eccentric dancer; next is Greta, who is from Boston and is working as a script editor while waiting for her big break;  following her is Irene (not her real name!), who previously acted in some television shows and is currently supporting herself as a model; also in the house is Maggie, a dancer from Ireland, who has been dancing since she was three years old; and then comes Amy, a small town girl from North Carolina who, like Peggy, has just arrived in New York hoping to find success on the stage.  May Berriman is the house mother, who takes care of the girls.  (This set up is also similar to the Carol Page series, where Carol lives in a boarding house with a number of other actresses.)

 

In addition to their housemates, Peggy (and by default her new best friend, Amy) become involved with a group of students at New York Academy who are putting together a play that they hope to have produced off-Broadway.  These students include Peter Piper (yes, they acknowledge the source of the name in the story), known to his friends as "Pip," and Connie Barnes, another comedienne; also a part of the group is Mallory Seton, the director, and Randy Brewster, the producer.  Rounding out the group are Mona Downs and Thomas Galen, both of whom are older actors (neither of whom are students, but both of whom are seasoned actors who do not mind doing off-Broadway shows [p. 91]).  They have the script, the actors, and the financing - all they need to do is find an available theater, which is next to impossible in New York City.  This is where Peggy comes in!  Peggy volunteers to find a theater.  "I used to help out as a reporter on my father's newspaper, and I'm used to digging up facts," she tells the group (p. 99).  Thus, not only is Peggy an actress, but she is a reporter as well!  Talk about your well-rounded career girl! All she needs to do is add amateur sleuth to that resume ... oh, wait, she does!

 

Yes, Peggy stumbles across a very minor mystery while searching for a theater.  She and Amy find the perfect location in a building that houses a theater on the top floor; but the janitor gives them the brush off, which makes Peggy automatically suspect something criminal is going on at the building (because no one would ever be rude in NYC, right?).  She convinces the theater troupe, and before you know it, they are staking out the back alley to see if anything criminal takes place.  Soon enough, Peggy and Amy witness a truck delivering boxes into the building late at night, with an armed guard.  Convinced there is something criminal about the whole affair, they tell the police, who not only give credence to her story, but manage to catch the crooks in the middle of delivering their next shipment of stolen goods into the building!  Not only does the insurance company provide the girls with a rather substantial reward for recovering thousands of dollars worth of furs and silverware and liquor (as well as $20,000 worth of nylon stockings - as the book says, that "is an awful law of nylon stockings" [p. 172]), but the owner of the building, who lives in Florida (of all places!), is only too happy to rent the troupe not just the top floor for a theater, but the whole building (p. 173)!  So, Peggy's three-chapter mystery ends up solving all of the acting troupe's problems - way to go, Peggy!

 

The title of the book has a double meaning:  Peggy does "find" the theater, inasmuch as she takes off to New York City to pursue her dream of being an actress on the stays; at the same time, she literally "finds" the theater that the other students have been so desperately seeking for their play.  The art for the book is provided by Sergio Leone - and no, that is not the Italian film director of the same name.  I could find no information whatsoever about Mr. Leone, other than the apparently provided art not only for children's books in the 1960s and '70s, but he also apparently provided some painted covers to paperback Gothic novels from that same time period.  The painted cover for this book is rather simple, with a headshot of Peggy, and the lights of New York City in the background.  The internal black-and-white illustrations are not overly exciting scenes, but instead pictures of Peggy and Randy dancing, Peggy with her parents at the airport, Peggy and Amy with their dates eating a late dinner.  About the only illustration that could be said to contain any "suspense" at all is the final image of Peggy and Amy on their stakeout, as a cat jumps out beside them, startling them (p. 163).  Oddly, the frontis piece and the first internal (p. 25) are the only two that are full page with captions; the remaining illustrations are half to three-fourth page with no caption.  The end page are by far my favorite, as it depicts Peggy and her friends in a theater and on the stage, in what appears to be a moment from a rehearsal (this scene, however, appears nowhere in this book).

 

While I would not say this was an exciting story, and the mystery was so limited as to barely be there, I did thoroughly enjoy the story. This series might not appeal to mystery enthusiasts, but for those who enjoy career girl stories, or those who love good theater tales, this book will definitely satisfy those tastes!

 

RATING:   10 servings of pheasant under glass out of 10 for providing readers with a somewhat true-to-life look at what life is like for a theater actor trying to break into the field in New York City!

Mary Worth: 1943 Career Girl Drama - a Blackthorne Publishing Collection

Anyone that has ever read the "funny pages" from a newspaper is more than likely familiar with the name Mary Worth. The name is pretty much synonymous with the soap-opera-style comic strips, such as Rex Morgan, M.D. and Apartment 3-G, among others.  The strip began in 1938, although sources indicate the strip started even earlier than that in a previous incarnation as "Apple Mary," which had its beginnings in 1934.  "Apple Mary" was a strip created by Martha Orr, with art and lettering by Dale Conner and Ruth Belew, respectively.  When Orr left the strip in 1941, and this is when Allen Saunders took over the writing, and Ken Ernst came in to take over the art.  By 1940, the strip was already using "Mary Worth's Family" as a subtitle, and when Saunders and Ernst took over, it eventually transitioned to simply Mary Worth.  There is, of course, disputes regarding whether "Apple Mary" really was a precursor to Mary Worth, but respected sources, including Saunders himself, indicated it was.

 

In 1986, Blackthorne Publishing was doing a number of collection of comic strips under the "Comic-Strip Preserves" banner, including Betty Boop, Brenda Starr Reporter, and others.  One of those was Mary Worth, with, unfortunately, only had this one book.  Labeled a "1943 career girl drama," the book features a storyline that ran from October 1943 through April 1944.  A number of things surprised me about the strips as I sat down to read them.  First, the name of the strip alternates between "Mary Worth's Family" and simply "Mary Worth."  Second, and probably most surprising, is the fact that the title character actually features very little in this story!  She plays heavily in the first few strips, as she heads to Elm City where Bill Biff is to have found them a place to live, and she shows up in the last few panels to bid some of the major characters farewell, as two of them head out on military duty.  Otherwise, she is only seen in a few strips, and usually those scenes are simply as a plot device to move the characters in a certain direction!  This is a far cry from the strip I remember glancing out now and again as I was growing up, where the elderly woman was always sticking her nose into everyone's business and offering advice, whether it was solicited or not!

 

This sixth month tale is, in reality, the story of Gypsy Monez, a professional dancer from New York City.  She happens to be on the same train as Mary Worth, and she sneaks into Mary's cabin, asking her to hide her from the men that are looking for her.  Mary (and the reader) knows there is more to the story, so it goes without saying that Mary helps her sneak off the train at Elm City.  Mary opens up her new home to the young actress (over the objections of Bill Biff, who is upset to be put out of his own room!).  Soon enough, Gypsy is directing the charity benefit to support the war effort - there is only one catch - she must use the chairwoman's son in the leading role!  Gypsy is unsure until she meets the boy, who turns out to be a handsome young man.  The two quickly hit it off, but as with any good story there's a snag.  An unscrupulous man discovers by accident the secret Gypsy is keeping from everyone and threatens to expose her if she does not date him instead.  As her feelings for Bud (the chairwoman's son) grow stronger, she eventually walks away from the man blackmailing her - a decision she is sure to regret.

 

The story takes a romantic tangle of a turn when Bud's older brother comes home on leave from his service in the armed forces.  He happens to be on the same train Gypsy is on after spending time in New York City (no, I'm not going to spoil her reasons for being there - let's just say, it has to do with the resolution of the first half of the story), and, of course, the two hit it off, neither suspecting who the other really is.  Once home in Elm City, though, Rick is the one to realize his new love is actually his brother's fiance-to-be.  He tries to bow out, but his feelings for Gypsy and hers for him are too much.  Luckily, another young lady happens to come to town, and she catches Bud's eyes - and with a little help from Mary Worth, the entangled lives become untangled, and we end up with two very happy couples. Well, happy that is, until the final panel, when both Rick and Bud head off into the service for their country!

 

Again, it is odd (to me, at least) that the title character appears so little in the strip.  While I didn't necessarily expect to see her in every panel, I did expect her to have a much larger role than simply an advice giver every couples of weeks or so, and matchmaker for a few strips.  We can't even go so far as to say "Mary Worth's Family" is an appropriate title, since the characters involved in this story are not a part of her family at all.  I am now curious to learn when did Mary Worth take a much more active and consistent role in her own strip? 

 

The art, by Ken Ernst, is enticing, and he gives each of his characters very distinctive looks that make them easy to identify without being named repeatedly.  His rendition of Gyspy is pretty spot on, since she is meant to be a seductive beauty - he even manages to give her clothing that only accentuates her sexy side - when she tries to wear "normal" clothes that would be appropriate in Elm City, it comes across very unnatural.  Unlike Mary Perkins, On Stage (another strip that I have been reading in collected editions),  this strip does not always concern itself with detailed backgrounds; in fact, a number of panels have no backgrounds at all - the characters simply appear against empty space.  This does not detract from the storytelling, though.  In some cases, it actually gives more focus to the character(s) speaking, so the reader is not distracted looking at what is in the background.

 

I will admit - I took a look online to see what the strip looks like today - and it is a FAR CRY from these strips from the 1940s!  While I loved June Brigman's work on Marvel's Power Pack back in the '80s, her work on the current Mary Worth strips does not hold a candle to Saunders' work represented in this collection.  It is a shame no one has collected more of these early years of Mary Worth.   I'm aware there is a mass-market paperback collection out there, as well as a comic collection published by a company called Argo; and there are several issues of a Harvey-published comics; but that is so little compared to eighty years of daily newspaper strips!  Someone needs to get work preserving these strips for future readers!

 

As a side note - I'm not really sure where the "career girl drama" banner on the cover comes from.  Mary Worth is definitely not a career girl, so the only thing I can figure is that it is referring to Gypsy Monez, who settles down in Elm City and opens a fashionable clothing store for the women about town. 

 

RATING:  9 autographed photos of Gyspy Monez out of 10 for an interesting trip back in time to the simpler times of comic strip tales filed with romance, drama, and lessons learned!

Kitsy Babcock, Library Assistant - an Avalon Books Career Girl Romance/Mystery

A dear friend of mine who has taken seriously ill was moved up north to live with her daughter - and because of that, her daughter listed her house and all the belongings for sale through an estate sale company.  Now, my friend was planning to open a used book store focused on mysteries (for both children and adults), but sadly, that never was able to happen due to problems with the city.  Thus, her house still had literally thousands of mystery novels, including hundreds and hundreds of children's mysteries.  I was notified of the estate sale and went to her house to buy some books that would be a keepsake and a reminder of my dear friend.  One of the books I purchased was one that I had never heard of, but which piqued my interest because it featured a librarian - and, let's face it, it's not like there are a ton of children's mysteries out there featuring a library assistant as the main character!  Plus, since another good friend of mine happens to work in the library, I thought it might make for a fun read.

Kitsy Babcock, Library Assistant was published back in 1958 by Avalon Books (although the copyright appears to have been held by Thomas Bouregy & Company).  The author is listed as Joan Sargent, but some research shows this was a pseudonym for Sara Lucile Jenkins Cunningham (1904-1963), according to the Library of Congress records.  Mrs. Cunningham wrote books in both the children's / young adult genre, as well as in the adult romance genre, utilizing this same pseudonym, as well as others.  What I found interesting about the book (well, one of the many things I found interesting about the book) is that according to the inside front flap of the dust jacket, Avalon Books apparently included a "Plasti-Kleer Jacket Cover on all Avalon Books."  This leaves me wondering if the jacket protector on the book is actually the original plastic cover used to protect the dust jacket.

In any event, the story turned out to be a different type of read for me.  I had expected somewhat of a mystery for Kitsy to solve (and "Kitsy," by the way, is a nickname for Katherine), but while there is a slight mention here and there of something that could potentially be a mystery, nothing really develops until more than half way through the book!  The first half of the book focuses more on Kitsy's money problems, her desire to remain at "University" (which, oddly enough, has no name other than simply "University"), and her obtaining a job at the "City Library" (yes, that's the name used).  Readers follow along as Kitsy learns in the ins and outs of working at the library, as well as her growing interest in the black-haired artist, Donald Mitchell, who also works at the library.  I did enjoy the relationship between Don and Kitsy, as there was plenty of fun banter back and forth, and the joking dialogue came across as natural and real for two young people who are fast becoming friends (and, eventually, more).  What starts off as a nervous meeting for Kitsy quickly grows into a casual friendship, then a deepening, more trusting friendship, and ultimately a loving relationship.  It develops naturally over the 220 pages of story, making the characters seem more real than not.

Based on these elements, I began to feel like the book was more of a career romance story than a mystery.  While I did like the character of Kitsy, I am just not a huge fan of romance stories.  So, when there was a hint of a mystery - the elderly man wanting to donate his collection of papers detailing some of the rich history of Florida (more on that later) who is afraid someone is trying to steal them ... and the strange man Kitsy refers to as "Mr. Gray" who frequents the library but who makes Kitsy somewhat uncomfortable - I kept waiting and waiting for something to develop.  Well, it took more than 130 pages before something happens, but when it does, boy, is it a doozy!  Poor Kitsy walks in on the criminal wanting to steal the papers from the library, gets knocked out, and wakes up in the hospital.  Upon her release, she convinces Don to help her follow up on a clue as to the identity of the thief, but they both end up kidnapped, tied up in a hotel room at gunpoint, and left to figure out how to escape and recover the stolen papers!

Backtracking a second, I was surprised to discover when I started reading the book that the story is set in Florida.  I'm assuming this may be because the author, according to sources I found online, married her husband in Miami in 1952 and died in Florida more than ten years later.  Thus, when this book was published, she was living in Florida, which would have given her first-hand knowledge of the state.  This, of course, created a mystery in and of itself, as Cunningham never actually names the city where Kitsy is attending "University," and everything is described in such generalities, that it is hard to determine an exact location; however, she makes mention of Orlando, Sarasota, St. Augustine, Pensacola, Key West, and other locales being some distance, which basically crosses those cities off my list.  The "City Library" where Kitsy gets a job is described as "larger than she had imagined it, a three-story marble building that covered a block" (pp. 22-23), and it has a "portico that lay behind tall columns" (p. 23).  This could easily described the downtown Orlando Library (which I am more than familiar with, since I work only a few blocks from that building), but since Orlando is mentioned as a distant city, it could not be that one.  I thought perhaps it might be Tampa, since the University of South Florida is a large university there, but none of the libraries in Tampa fit that description.  Then I considered Miami, since there is also a university there, but, again, none of the libraries fit that description.  So, perhaps Cunningham simply used the description of the Orlando library for her fictional town.

 

In addition, the papers that are the subject of the theft are said to be important historical papers from the "Hernandez" family - a family that "[c]ame from Spain and had one of the first grants from the king of Spain ... [their] descendants have always been bookish people and interested in Florida.  They kept scrapbooks and diaries and bought books about the country..." (pp. 34-35).  While not completely accurate, it turns out there was a real Hernandez family who played an important part of Florida history, eventually owning a number of plantations throughout the state (Hernandez Family in Florida).  The book also makes reference to the Frazier family, claiming "John Frazier just about discovered this part of Florida" (p. 46), to which Kitsy responds, "I always thought it was Ponce de Leon" (p. 46).  The story further explains that after the United States bought Florida in 1821, "Mr. Frazier ... came south of Jacksonville and began to tell everybody how wonderful the country was" (p. 46).  Now, doing some research online, I was not able to find a reference to a John Frazier in Florida history such as this; however, I found two "Frazier Parks" in Florida - one in Jupiter and one in Miami Gardens.  Neither of them appear to have a library just across the street, though.  So, it is likely the whole Frazier story is just that - a story made up for this book by the author.  However, it does give some indication that perhaps the setting of the book is on the east coast, since Kitsy assumes Ponce de Leon is the one who discovered "this part" of Florida, where she and Don are. 

Aside from being set in my home state of Florida, there is also a fun connection to Canada. While talking with her dorm-mate, Maggi, Kitsy mentions Maggi's plans to take a trip to Canada over the summer (p. 119).  This throw-away line struck me for two reasons - one, my friend who is a librarian (and who was part of the reason I bought this book) lives in Canada; and two, the copyright page of the book indicates the book was published simultaneously in "The Dominion of Canada by the Ryerson Press, Toronto."  Thus, this book was just full of surprises - the Florida connection, the Canada connection, the sudden danger into which Kitsy is thrust half-way through the book.  It definitely made for a more enjoyable read and increased my liking of the book!

 

And one last thing to mention - this book is apparently not a very easy one to find. Searches on eBay, Etsy, Abe, Amazon, and other sites reveal almost no copies of the books for sale, and definitely none if dust jacket.  I feel very fortunate to have found the dust-jacketed copy that I have (and at such an unbelievable low price to boot!).

RATING:  10 brand new library wings out of 10 for showing the world that a librarian (or even a librarian's assistant!) can solve a dangerous mystery when the need arises!