Thu 25 Jul 2019
Pulp Stories I’m Reading: ERLE STANLEY GARDNER “Night Birds.”
Posted by Steve under Pulp Fiction , Stories I'm Reading[9] Comments
ERLE STANLEY GARDNER “Night Birds.” Novelette. El Paisano, aka The Roadrunner #1. Argosy Weekly, August 5, 1933. Probably never reprinted.
This is the first of five recorded adventures of yet another of Erle Stanley Gardner’s series characters he created for the pulp magazines in the 20 and 30s. Known as both El Paisano and the Roadrunner, and yet no other name, he is a man of mystery, flitting across the Mexican border and back with ease, invariably leaving dead villains, gang leaders and various henchmen in his wake.
What makes him such a formidable foe is that he can see in the dark far better than most men. Whether better able to see unsavory characters with knives waiting for him in the night, or young beautiful women he can then follow across darkened rooms without them knowing, it makes his tales of adventure and narrow escapes all the more interesting.
Being the first time any of Gardner’s readers had met this new hero, he spends considerable time making his abilities clear, but not to the expense of the story, which consists of a dead man in an alley, pursuit, rescue (in an inadvertent way) by a slip of a girl with her mind focused on a suitcase filled with a fortune in stolen money.
It all ends well, but only once the young slip of a girl is fully convinced that the Roadrunner is on her side, which she finally does. There’s otherwise not a lot of depth to this tale, but I certainly wouldn’t mind reading another.
July 25th, 2019 at 7:47 pm
The name meant enough to Gardner he named his production company after it. Sounds like a fairly typical Gardner pulp tale otherwise.
July 25th, 2019 at 7:59 pm
You’re right. I’d forgotten about that.
July 25th, 2019 at 9:08 pm
Not just his company.
Erle Stanley Gardner called his estate in Temecula CA – Rancho del Paisano.
This is where Uncle Erle set up The Fiction Factory – headquarters for all the characters, all the novels, all the articles, the TV scripts that came through for his once-over – all of it.
Gardner had a great fondness for his pulp days; little wonder that he would commemorate them thusly.
July 26th, 2019 at 4:04 pm
How many series characters did he create? A few days ago I just learned about Gardner’s Paul Pry — oddly a name that Margaret Millar also used for one of her few series detectives.
I’m reading my first Doug Selby novel and once again I’m amazed at Gardner’s timelessness (D.A. CALLS IT MURDER, the books I’m reading, is tangentially about political corruption) and his talent for fast-paced storytelling. I’m eager to read them all now.
July 26th, 2019 at 5:33 pm
John
I don’t know how well the information below will look after being copied and pasted from the Thrilling Detective website, but in answer to you question about Gardner’s series characters, here’s the answer and that’s where I swiped this from:
https://www.thrillingdetective.com/trivia/triv353.html
CHARACTER
DESCRIPTION
MOSTLY APPEARED IN:
Sheriff Billy Bales
Clues
Jerry Bane
A wealthy, “self-appointed detective.” Similar to Paul Pry.
Argosy
Dave Barker
Three Star Magazine
Black Barr
aka “Fate’s Executioner
A Western gunslinger & detective.
Black Mask, Rapid Fire Detective
Dred Bart
A well-heeled criminologist/psychologist.
Clues, Detective Fiction Weekly
Dudley Bell
A wealthy dandy who “smoked monogrammed cigarettes and didnt care about money.”
All Detective
Dick Bentley
Dime Detective
Jax Bowman
The “White Ring” series.
Argosy
Major Copley Brane
A freelance diplomat/spy.
Argosy
Perry Burke
Shared a mansion with “The Cleaning House of Crime” and supposedly fought “organized crime twenty-four hours a day.”
Clues
Terry Clane
Cosmopolitan; appeared in two novels.
Ken Corning
A crusading New York attorney, full of tricks, and an obvious predecessor to Perry Mason.
Black Mask
Sheriff Bob Crowder
All Detective
Speed Dash
The clean-living “Human Fly.”
Top-Notch Magazine
Señor Arnaz de Lobo
A Mexican adventurer and soldier of fortune.
Detective Fiction Weekly
Double Decker
Written as Kyle Corning.
Detective Story
El Paisano
Another scam artist. He can see in the dark.
Argosy
Sheriff Bill Eldon
The Country Gentleman
Go Get ‘Em Garver
Dime Detective
Ben Harper
“The Man Who Couldn’t Forget”
All Detective, Detective Fiction Weekly
Hard Rock Hogan
Ed Jenkins
A con artist/thief; “The Phantom Crook.”
Black Mask
Rex Kane
An escaped con with plastic surgery problems that forced him to always smile.
Detective Action Stories
Jax Keen
A movie company troubleshooter.
Double Detective
Barney “Want-Ad” Killigen
A perpetually struggling lawyer with a knack for cutting corners. Known for his habit of placing numerous ads in the papers to aid in his investigations.
Clues
Bob Larkin
Adventurer. An amateur juggler, his weapon of choice is a pool cue.
Black Mask
Win Layton
A girl reporter.
This Week
Lester Leith
Another of Gardner’s wealthy gentleman thieves. A “jaunty figure of assured indifference.”
Detective Fiction Weekly
The Man in the Silver Mask
Essentially a costumed crimefighter, thanks to that mask.
Detective Fiction Weekly
Mr. Manse
His eyes were said to emit “a cold fire of conccentration.” Wealthy.
Detective Action Stories
Jerry Marr
Detective Fiction Weekly
Fish Mouth McGinnis
A Western hero.
The Smart Set, Complete Stories
Ed Migraine
“The Headache,” particularly to those this ex-soldier of fortune encounters.
Double Detective
Sam Moraine
Written under the pseudonym of Charles Kenny.
The American Magazine
Old Walrus
West and a few other cowboy pulps
The Patent Leather Kid
A confidence man on the side of the angels; has a thing about leather.
Detective Fiction Weekly
Paul Pry
A wealthy scam artist; aka “The Crime Juggler.”
Peter Quint
The Saturday Evening Post
Steve Raney
Clues
Buck Riley
West, Brief Stories
Snowy Shane
An unorthodox P.I. Like, Gardner wrote any other kind?
Dane Skarle
A crime-solving carny.
Dime Detective
Small, Weston & Burke
A law firm specializing in bizarre cases. Or is it “Smith, Weston & Burke”?
Dime Detective
Pete Wennick
A lawyer who worked as an undercover investigator for his firm.
Black Mask
Grandpa Wiggins
Appeared in two novels.
Slicker Williams
An ex-con who uses “the tricks of crookery” to rescue a damsel in distress.
Yee Dooey Wah
Clues, Detective Fiction Weekly
Bob Zane
A philosophical middle-aged prospector. The “Whispering Sands” series.
Argosy
Sidney Zoom
A millionaire adventurer & master of disguise. Had a police dog.
Detective Fiction Weekly
July 27th, 2019 at 10:14 am
Steve, that’s a really long answer to that question! ESG was a writing machine and much of his work holds up over time. I have a dream of watching all the Perry Mason TV episodes (and reading any of the Perry Mason novels they might be based on). Can you imagine writing a million words a year like many of the pulp writers?
July 27th, 2019 at 11:31 am
Like many prolific mystery writers, Gardner may have continued writing longer than he should have — in his case the Perry Mason books — but in his early years he not only wrote a ton of stories, but as others have said, they still hold up in great fashion today.
July 28th, 2019 at 6:10 pm
George in comment 6 asks “Can you imagine writing a million words a year like many of the pulp writers?”
We actually have such a writer now. James Reasoner has written a million words a year for 14 or 15 years in a row. He is the modern day equivalent of a pulp writer.
July 28th, 2019 at 6:27 pm
You’re right, Walker. James is a modern day writing phenomenon, no doubt about it. I think I’ve read that he’s thinking of slowing down, but I’m not so sure about that.