Heisenfelt & the Stars

[JackBurley]

Yesterday someone asked me if I'd read any of the Deanna Durbin, John Payne or Judy Garland mysteries. I had no idea what she was talking about. So she pointed me to a series of books from the 1940's with titles like Judy Garland and the Hoodoo Costume, Jane Withers and the Swamp Wizard, and John Payne and the Menace of Hawk's Nest. What's the story behind this? Katherine Heisenfelt was the author? Who was she and what was her relationship with the studios? At first, I thought the stories must have been studio tie-ins to help promote movies by the company. But these actors weren't movies featuring the story lines of these books. And these actors worked for different studios, so it's doubtful that Heisenfelt worked for the individual studios. Has anyone seen any of this series of books?

[jdb1]

Jack, now that you mention it, I do remember reading Jane Withers mysteries when I was about 10 or 11 (hey - they were old books then!) They were just Nancy Drew knock-offs, and I suppose the whole exercise was similar to the Olsen Twins and other book series for kids featuring 'real' celebrities.

 

I don't know anything about these older ones, though. I think I found the Withers books in my local public library, which seem to have only the oldest and most delapited books for children, which were good reads, nonetheless.

[ayresorchids]

Hi, Jack. There was a trend in the 1930s and '40s of mystery stories with movie stars as characters. I've got "Ginger Rogers and the Riddle of the Scarlet Cloak," which features "Ginger," but she's not a movie star--she's a character rather like the ones she played in her early 1940s films. Ostensibly, this mystery was penned by her mother Lela, who had worked as a writer in pictures years before.

 

I think these mysteries were produced by an outfit like the one that churned out Nancy Drew, the Bobbsey Twins, and the Hardy Boys (maybe it was even the same company?!).

 

I've always been fascinated by the history of stuff like this; I'd love to know more about the publishers who produced Movie Story, Screen Stories, and the other countless movie magazines that once were offered. It is very hard to find out anything beyond the publisher's name.

[JackBurley]

Thanks you two. I'm fascinated about this. Since the studios had such powerful PR departments, I imagined they would have wanted input on the stories. I wonder if the publisher/writer had to get permission from the studio to use each star as the subject of their book?

 

A pal just found something more on the internet about the stories:

 

"While the heroine is identified as a famous actress, the stories are entirely fictitious and center around a mystery that convenient appears while the heroine is briefly visiting a dear friend. In some of these stories, many of the other characters fail to recognize the actress in spite of her openness about her identity! Occasionally, the actress hopes not to be recognized and tries to alter her appearance. The most bizarre and amusing instance occurs when Bonita Granville pretends not to be Bonita Granville but insists that people call her Bonita since everyone thinks she resembles Bonita Granville! Bonita's story results in Bonita receiving a few odd looks from her new acquaintances."

 

Funny, eh?