An ideal publication for the American youth. Part 1 of 4.

to increase. With this came a need for inexpensive, interesting literature;

thus was born the “dime novel.” Many publishing companies began turning these out on a weekly or bimonthly basis in a variety of sizes, ranging from a booklet that could easily fit in a pocket to a much larger newspaper size.

These novels were the television, video games, and DVDs of the day. They were inexpensive and often sensational or melodramatic, featuring romance or adventure. They covered the gamut of topics: the American Revolution, the Wild West, detective and mystery stories, big-city life, and countless other themes, including serials guaranteed to entice the reader to buy the next issue. No matter what the theme might be, the writers were faced with the challenge of producing a story to meet their one- or two-week deadlines.

As the 1800s moved to a close, competition was extremely fierce among the various publishing companies. The average novel had about 32 pages of print with few, if any, illustrations.

During the 1890s, the first color covers began to make their appearance. Seeing an alluring color illustration on the magazine rack was a most inviting feature to the prospective reader. Going one step further to attract customers, many companies dropped their price to 5¢ an issue. This made the publication much more accessible, not only to adults but to youthful readers as well. Thus, the new nickel weeklies were and continue to be classified as the dime novels of yesterday.

Brown University scholar Frank C. Acker maintained, “Turn of the century dime novels had a greater positive effect on millions of American youth than any other influence before or since.” Acker spoke, however, before cable TV, cell phones, and the technology of the 1990s and beyond. It may be questionable, however, whether this most recent technology has had the same “positive effect” on youth that Acker spoke about. It is estimated that the number of dime novels produced exceeded 400 million.

Into this picture stepped Frank Merriwell, the best-known and most-revered character of the 5¢ weeklies. William Gilbert Patten created Merriwell for Street

/ t the conclusion of the Civil War, literacy rates in the United States began

and Smith Publishers of New York. Gil Patten was just 19 years old in 1896 when he was asked to create a character for a new magazine to be titled Tip Top Library. On April 18, 1896, the first issue of the magazine, with the name changed to Tip Top Weekly, appeared on the newsstands. Patten also underwent a name change, using the pen name Burt L. Standish for his stories.

Patten was eventually to become known as “the dime novel king.” He earned this title by writing more than 800 Merriwell stories, most being 20,000-word novels written each week. The circulation for these stories reached 135,000 copies weekly. Many of them were read by several family members or friends and were often traded or resold. It was estimated that over half a million youths read these stories each week.

The Merriwell brothers ruled

Frank Merriwell and his half brother, Dick, were the stars. They were clean-cut country boys who distinguished themselves first in military school and then at Yale University. They were invincible in every sport they contested and in every mystery or dilemma they encountered. They were triumphant in all their engagements with Harvard, much to the chagrin of Harvard’s alumni.

The original stories began with the 1896 issue and ran through 1910. They were then reprinted in the New Tip Top Weekly until 1916. In addition to the magazine, multiple story plots were published in a “thick book” series that ran about 150 to 200 pages in a pocket book edition. The Merriwells also appeared on film, in Big Little Books, in stage presentations, and in radio programs in the mid-1930s.

all, the stories enjoyed an impressive 51-year run of popularity.

My first contact with Merriwell was in the early 1990s in a used bookstore in Wheeling, West Virginia. I was in Wheeling as a guest of Big Boy Restaurants for the Elby’s Distance Classic, where our children were running the races and my wife and I were announcing the halfway split times in the 20-kilometer run. In the 1960s, I had begun to accumulate running as well as track and field items. In the 1970s, I became a more serious collector as I sought out items related to the sport. On that day in Wheeling, as I rummaged through the vintage books and paper goods, I spotted a May 22, 1909, copy of Tip Top Weekly titled Dick Merriwell at the Meet. Dick was on the cover in his Yale singlet, preparing to put the shot at what was to be a new record. The color graphics were impressive, and the magazine instantly piqued my interest in discovering more about it. I began to wonder whether other track issues might be available.

This was an era before eBay and Google, so the search was not an easy one, and track titles were discovered on a haphazard basis. Since the computer age, however, the search has produced more finds that might have been impossible just a few years earlier.

Since discovering that first issue, I have been fortunate to obtain 29 of the magazines and three Merriwell books with track and field or other running-related features. There is one other magazine that I know of with a pole-vaulting cover. How many others are yet undiscovered . . . unknown? Interestingly, of the 800 magazines featuring the Merriwell boys, as of this writing, 30 were of our favorite sport! The following is the list of the 29 titles I know the dates of:

Magazine Number Date Title (all are from Tip Top Weekly) 472 4/29/1905 Frank Merriwell’s Handicap or Hastings, The Hurdler

from Humboldt

478 6/10/1905 Frank Merriwell’s Method (pole vault)

501 11/18/1905 Dick Merriwell’s Stride or the Finish of the Cross Country Run

526 5/12/1906 = Frank Merriwell’s Athletic Field or the Great Meet at Bloomfield

557 12/15/1906 Dick Merriwell’s Running or The Meet at Mechanic’s Hall

580 5/25/1907 —- Dick Merriwell’s Hurdling

587 6/22/1907 — Dick Merriwell Beset (pole vault)

598 9/28/1907 —— Dick Merriwell’s Influence (cross-country running)

625 4/4/1908 Frank Merriwell’s Helper (broad jump)

633 5/30/1908 Dick Merriwell Doubted (cross-country)

642 8/1/1908 Dick Merriwell’s Example (pole vault)

684 5/22/1909 — Dick Merriwell at the Meet (pole vault)

686 6/5/1909 Dick Merriwell in the Marathon

707 10/30/1909 Dick Merriwell’s Gambol (racing a horse)

711 11/27/1909 Dick Merriwell’s Dander (cross-country)

748 8/13/1910 Dick Merriwell Defeated (sprint finish)

784 4/22/1911 ~— Dick Merriwell’s Self Sacrifice (high jump)

828 = 2/24/1912 ~— Dick Merriwell’s Responsibility (tug of war)

847 = 7/6/1912 Dick Merriwell at the Olympics (broad jump)

848 7/13/1912 Dick Merriwell in Stockholm (shot put)

849 7/20/1912 Dick Merriwell in the Swedish Stadium (leading runners on track)

850 7/27/1912 = Dick Merriwell’s Marathon

New Tip Top Weekly

7 9/14/1912 Frank Merriwell, Jr. on Waiting Orders (hurdling) 9 9/28/1912 Frank Merriwell, Jr?s Relay Marathon

13 10/26/1912 Frank Merriwell, Jr’s Guidance (sprint start)

37 4/12/1913 Frank Merriwell, Jr?s Task (on top of shoulders)

38 4/19/1913 Frank Merriwell, Jr?s Cross-Country Race

71 12/6/1913 Frank Merriwell, Jr?s Winning Run

93 5/9/1914 Owen Clancy Among the Smugglers (racing Indian)

Dick Merriwell saves the U.S. Olympic team

One unusual note in the Merriwell adventures occurred during the 1912 Olympics in Stockholm. Starting on July 6 and running for four consecutive issues, stories involved the Games. The actual Olympic Games ended on July 22, so the scheduling of these Olympic adventures was most timely.

The first episode was titled Dick Merriwell at the Olympics; Or, The Winning Jump for America. In this adventure, Merriwell receives an emergency call from the American Olympic Committee. A crisis has developed because some top U.S. athletes unexpectedly cannot make it to the Games, posing a major threat to the supremacy that America had earned at the earlier contests.

Merriwell, who was well knownas an athlete, coach, disciplinarian, and trainer, is directed to take charge of the Yale athletes who have been added to the team. They are to join some of their teammates already at the Games. Leaving New

York on the ship Olympia, some in the group expect a leisurely voyage; however, they soon discover they have a 10:00 p.m. curfew and a 6:00 A.M. training run along with a full schedule of training activities.

Some key members of the group include Jim Phillips, a pitcher on Yale’s intercollegiate championship baseball team; his catcher, Bill Brady; and his teammate

Courtesy of Dr. Edward H. Kezloff

Helstrom (who, along with Phillips, is to broad jump at the Games). Early in the voyage, they unexpectedly meet Barbara Morton (a young lady Phillips is fond of) and her mother. At the last minute, the pair has decided to attend the Games.

The first two days go well with socializing and training; however, some of the foreign passengers are not too enthralled with the American athletes. Two of them try to get Phillips and Brady into a poker game and insult them when they refuse.

Later that night, as Phillips and Brady walk past the wireless office, Phillips, who is adept at Morse code, hears a message giving details about all of the athletes on board, including information that only Merriwell would know. They report this to Merriwell, and the team now realizes something sinister is happening on board. They notice that certain foreigners are always speaking clandestinely and that the night wireless operator who received the suspected message is a German, new to the ship, who got the job under unusual circumstances. They also learn from the other wireless operator, who has been taken into Merriwell’s confidence, that there is a plan to make the ship arrive three days late, after the Games are well under way.

At this point, the foreigners avoid being seen together, and the friendly wireless operator is taken seriously ill by something that has been put in his food. The German wireless operator volunteers to stay on duty 24 hours a day and sleep in the wireless room, a move that inhibits Merriwell from finding out what messages are being sent.

It is decided that Phillips should hide near the wireless room, since he is the only one who can decipher Morse code. He hears a strange message and then sees the German operator disable the wireless console.

Phillips brings the message to Merriwell. It contains a location and a time. They find the location on the ship and discover a bomb meant to disable the ship. They disarm it, bring it to the captain, and—in the process—find a lifeboat missing. A search party is sent out and returns with one of the foreigners. Both he and the German are put in irons. Despite this, others in the gang are allowed to remain free, in hopes of learning about other plots.

The plot thickens

The ship docks safely on Friday and the American team is quartered on the Rhineland, a large, comfortable ship where the team is to prepare for the competition that begins on Saturday. Instead of remaining on the ship, however, Merriwell and a friend go to a hotel to eat and talk in private about competition tactics and the problems on the ship. As they talk, they become aware that they are being observed by those at surrounding tables.

As the two leave the hotel, they decide to walk back to the ship, much to the chagrin of two cabdrivers, who become very agitated that they will not ride with them. As the two walk, they hear a crash and a woman’s scream. As they run around the corner, Merriwell slows just enough to see a thug with a nightstick. Merriwell is able to subdue the man, and it turns out that the scream was a trick to waylay the two men. Luckily, they return to the ship safely.

The next day, the broad jump trials begin. After arriving at the trials, Jim Phillips meets the German ace, Meister, and they immediately bond. Both qualify on their first jump. The second American, Helstrom, qualifies as well, with a leap of 22 feet, 10 inches.

As the morning trials continue, Bill Brady (who speaks Swedish and likes to shop in unusual places) finds himself in a furniture store. In the back of the store, he sees one of the foreigners from the ship angrily speaking to a stranger. The stranger disappears, but there is no visible exit in the store. As the foreigner leaves, Brady goes back to examine the place they had been. It appears that the stranger disappeared into a wardrobe! Brady asks the store owner the price of the piece. The agitated owner quotes a price three times its value. Regardless, Brady says he will buy it, wants to take possession immediately, and will wait until arrangements are made for a wagon to move it. The shop owner becomes even more dismayed because the wardrobe was to have been taken to a place where Phillips would have examined it before the broad jump finals.

The wardrobe is brought to the ship. In the attempt to raise it over the side onto the deck, it is dropped, crashing and breaking, revealing a steel trap that was meant to injure Phillips before he had a chance to get to the broad jump finals.

Back in the stadium later in the day, the broad jump finals begin. Meister, the German great, jumps 23 feet, 8 inches on his second jump; however, a mark is in the pit at 23 feet, 1 inch—even though it did not look like he hit the sand. Merriwell and others who are near the area decide to watch more closely. Meister’s next jump is 24 feet. Then, the U.S. athlete Phillips jumps 24 feet, one-half inch. But again, there is a strange mark in the sand at 22 feet, 11-1/2 inches. Merriwell spots something strange in the pit. He grabs a shovel and digs down to uncover a trowel with a wire attached running to a nearby spectator booth. There, just moments before, one of the foreigners had been sitting, but now the booth is empty. Some of the other competitors want Phillips’s jump to count, but he refuses and takes his last leap. It measures 24 feet, 5 inches to take top honors. As the first day ends, the U.S. team is successful; however, Merriwell and all of the Yale men know there will be more trouble before the Games end. /¥\p

The plot continues in our next issue.