Cover Date: March 1942
Volume 19 #1
Copyright Date: Friday, February 20, 1942
Author: Lester Dent
Editor: John Nanovic
Story Length: 39,148 words
Cover: Emery Clarke
WHMC: The collection contains six folders for this story, f. 734-740
Recurring Characters. The entire Iron Crew are all present in this story.
TABLE OF CONTENTS
“The Too-Wise Owl” by Kenneth Robeson
“As It Is Written” by Francis Chase, Jr.
“Cat Swing” by David Lavender
Doc Savage Club
Letters From Readers
Editor’s Page
An owl named Owasso arrives at Doc Savage’s headquarters with an urgent tag. The bird has been trained to fire a revolver; it escapes, is briefly recovered by a precocious twelve-year-old named Jasper, and becomes the focus of a deadly chase involving men with ski poles, diamonds, and a Rolls-Royce.
Owasso belongs to African scientist Jefferson Shair, who has invented “Vitamin M,” a brain-food compound that dramatically increases mental capacity. Shair tested it on the dull orphan Jasper, turning the boy into a walking encyclopedia who quotes dictionaries but lacks judgment or social sense. A rival pair, Edwin Quell True and Pinestopp, want the formula. They pursue the owl because analysis of the treated bird’s brain tissue will reveal the chemical composition. They also seek a supposed reverse compound that produces stupidity, intending to use both on wealthy victims.
Doc, Monk, Ham, and Long Tom follow the trail to a remote mountain lodge in ski country. After battles, avalanches, and the capture of Shair and Lola Huttig, the gang is destroyed when Long Tom triggers a snow slide that sweeps the killers over a cliff. Shair, horrified by the unbalanced genius he has created, destroys every sample of Vitamin M and burns his notes. He admits the “stupidity” compound never existed—it was only molasses. Monk, who had secretly drunk a green-labeled bottle believing it was the brain food, is left believing he has permanently dulled his own mind, much to Ham’s lasting amusement. The secret dies with Shair’s decision that nature’s balance is best left undisturbed.
“Men of Fear” dealt with a “fear” vitamin. This story deals with an “intelligence” vitamin. The vitamin angle is simply too similar to have these stories appearing back-to-back. The editor is to blame here.
The Vitamin “M” developed here in this story may be the very thing talked about in “The Mental Wizard.” In that story, the Pharaoh Klantic, in ancient times, had developed a compound that greatly increased the powers of the human mind.
The color red also connects the two stories. Klantic’s compound is red. The labels for the mental vitamin in the later story are also red.
Jasper Coogle is described as resembling Fritz Katzenjammer. This was popular comic strip that ran from 1914 to 1949.
Jasper states that skis were invented by Olaf the Ache. This is a pun based on “All of the ache.”
Owasso is the name of a very smart owl. It is also the name of a city in Oklahoma located near Tulsa. It is likely Dent was familiar with the town as it is on the route driving to his hometown of La Plata, Missouri.
Some of the inspiration for this story likely comes from a vacation Dent took in 1939.
Writer to Return in April to La Plata – Lester and Mrs. Dent are currently vacationing in Lake Placid, New York. Dent notes that the resort is near the Canadian border. He states Olympic tryouts are currently underway nearby. The Dents plan to return to New York for about a month and then travel to La Plata in early April.
Kirksville Daily Express (Kirksville, Missouri), Friday, February 24, 1939, page 8
Macon Chronicle-Herald (Macon, Missouri) Saturday, February 25, 1939, page 3
This story was submitted in September 1941. The United States was not at war. The story was published in February 1942. Consequently, there is some strangeness in the story if one compares actual conditions at publication to what was written.
The later part of the story involves air travel to Canada. There is nary a mention of the wartime restrictions on private civilian air travel between the United States and Canada. On December 8, 1941, the Civil Aeronautics Board suspended all private pilot licenses. Three days later, new rules were issued requiring civilian pilots to carry a photo identification card that included a signature and fingerprint.
The rules in Canada had changed in 1939 with the start of World War II. All foreign aircraft had to obtain prior permission before entering Canadian airspace. Those entering Canada had to first land at a specified port of entry. There were certain geographical areas in which any flight was prohibited. Additionally, aircraft were restricted to flying along specific air corridors while in Canada.
Two clues in the story are coins. One is from South Africa, while the other is a newly minted Portuguese coin. Doc Savage remarks that Portugal has colonies in Africa. The nearest such colony to South Africa would have been Portuguese West Africa, now known as Mozambique.
The powers and abilities of Doc Savage have been toned down quite a bit from those of the prior decade. Doc is tied up with rope and must be cut loose. The old Doc would have simply broken the ropes using his enormous strength. At one point, Doc does his physical isometric exercises in the airplane. He notes to himself that he is basically too excited to perform his normal routine of mental exercises.
Doc Savage pulls a page from “The Spook Legion” from the likes of Telegraph Edmonds. While prisoners in a car, Doc, Renny, and Long Tom are forbidden to speak. They resort to using a variation of sign language to communicate with each other. It should be noted that the magazine editor, John Nanovic, had written several books on secret codes. One of these books, “Secret Writing” published in 1936, under the alias Henry Lysing mentions a “school code” that uses finger configurations, taps, and different physical mannerisms to secretly transmit information.
Long Tom is shot in the hip and wrist. Ham described his hip as “shattered.” There was no kind of planning or series continuity in the series. But it is an interesting coincidence to note that Long Tom only appeared in eighteen of the remaining seventy-two stories. Neither did he appear “In Hell, Madonna,” which was only published in 1979.
This story is better than most for some of the later stories, but it tends to fall short. Doc Savage is not a larger-than-life character. There is one mistake I noticed that leaves me discombobulated. The story about Ham’s half-brother, Oliver, makes no sense.
1. Shair shoots a man who stepped out of a doorway who turns out to be Oliver Brooks. This is very up close and personal. The idea that Shair did not recognize the man he shot is unbelievable.
2. Shair later states he did not know Oliver Brooks.
3. Shair states at the story ending that Oliver Brooks worked in his lab.
I suspect that some parts of this story were rewritten but not checked very carefully. I also found fault with the scene near the story climax where Monk sneaks off to guzzle the Vitamin M solution does not put him in a very good light.