GREAT DETECTIVES & PEOPLE OF MYSTERY #9

CRAIG KENNEDY, SCIENTIFIC DETECTIVE

 "There is a distinct place for science in the detection of crime...the same sort of methods by which you chase out the presence of a chemical, or run an unknown germ to earth," said Craig Kennedy, one of the earliest and most popular "scientific detectives".  Clean cut, tall and handsome, pipe smoking Kennedy was a chemistry and science professor at Columbia University in New York City and at the height of his fame he was known as the "American Sherlock Holmes".  His popularity rivaled Holmes on this side of the pond and the Craig Kennedy mysteries were the first by an American to gain wide readership in England.  His use of submarines, dictaphones, gyroscopes, x-rays, lie detectors, and portable seismographs - while accurately predicted - must have seemed like science fiction to some readers.  Scientific "miracles" are commonplace in the Kennedy stories as he uses science to solve crimes, but he was also one of the first to use psychoanalytic techniques.  He was a man of action as well as thought and often used a gun when circumstances required it.  He was also a master of disguise (go figure!) and subsidized his income as a professor by earning fees as a consulting detective.  Inspector Barney O'Connor of the NYPD frequently asked for unofficial help from Kennedy.  Kennedy shares an apartment with another "confirmed bachelor" who chronicled his adventures.  An old college chum and ace reporter of The Star, Walter Jameson is initially assigned by his editor to write an article about the scientific detective, but it turns into steady coverage with one criminal case after another.  Jameson tries solving some cases on his own with a predictable lack of success.

Arthur B. Reeve (1880-1936) was the creator of Craig Kennedy.  Reeve graduated from Princeton in 1903 and went on to study law, which he never practiced, becoming a journalist instead.  He became interested in scientific crime detection when he wrote a series of articles on the subject and subsequently created Kennedy, who would become the most popular fictional detective in America for many years.  Reeve's pseudoscientific methods and devices are outdated today (many of them never had a solid technical basis in the first place) and he's pretty much forgotten today.  His major achievement was the application of Freudian psychology to detection decades before psychoanalysis gained substantial public acceptance.  During WWI Reeve was asked to help establish a spy and crime detection laboratory in Washington, D.C.

The first Craig Kennedy story appeared in the December 1910 issue of Cosmopolitan in "The Case of Helen Bond".  Craig Kennedy stories pretty much became a regular feature in the magazine as he ultimately made 82 appearances in Cosmopolitan with the last in August 1918.  His stories also appeared in other "slicks" like Hearst's Magazine, The Popular Magazine, Country Gentleman, and Everybody's Magazine.  In the 1920s he began appearing in the pulp magazines and became more or less a regular detective.  His adventures were found in Detective Story Magazine, Complete Detective Novel Magazine, Dime Detective, Popular Detective, Weird Tales, Clues, Black Book Detective Magazine, and Thrilling Detective, though many of the pulp stories appear to have been ghost-written as they lack the style of Reeve's earlier tales.

BIBLIOGRAPHY

1912 "The Silent Bullet" (s.s.), 1913 "The Poisoned Pen" (s.s.), 1914 "The Dream Doctor" (s.s.), 1915 "The War Terror" (s.s.), 1915 "Gold of the Gods", 1915 "The Exploits of Elaine" (novelization of film), 1916 "The Social Gangster" (s.s.), 1916 "The Ear in the Wall", 1916 "The Romance of Elaine" (novelization of film), 1916 "The Triumph of Elaine" (novelization of film), 1917 "The Treasure Train" (s.s.), 1917 "The Adventuress", 1918 "The Panama Plot" (s.s.), 1919 "The Soul Scar", 1921 "The Film Mystery", 1923 "Craig Kennedy Listens In" (s.s.), 1924 "Atavar", 1925 "The Fourteen Points" (s.s.), 1925 "The Boy Scouts! Craig Kennedy" (s.s.), 1925 "Craig Kennedy on the Farm" (s.s.), 1926 "The Radio Detective", 1926 "Pandora", 1932 "The Kidnap Club", 1934 "The Clutching Hand", 1935 "Enter Craig Kennedy", and 1936 "The Stars Scream Murder".

FILMS

At the beginning of the 20th Century a rash of enterprising young entrepreneurs rushed into motion picture production and distribution.  In less than a dozen years there were thousands of nickelodeons and movie palaces across the American landscape.  An immediate problem arose as to how to satisfy the demands of theater owners for new product, especially product that would draw fans to one person's establishment at the expense of a competitors.  For the answer to this problem the Edison Company turned to the pages of a popular periodical McClure's Ladies World which was featuring a series of adventure stories called "What Happened to Mary?"  The movie company and the publisher entered into an arrangement whereby a series of one-reel films would be released simultaneously with a fictionalized novel serialized in the magazine on a monthly basis.  So it was that in 1912 "What Happened to Mary?" became the screen's first movie serial.  The results were successful and all the studios began making serials as well, as the movie serial became an important genre.

An entire story would be told over the course of 12 or 15 or 20 chapters with a new chapter released each week.  And the serials earned the name "cliffhangers" because each chapter would end with a thrilling catastrophe that spelled certain doom for the hero - thus luring the audience back to the theater the following week to reveal how the hero cheated death, and set him up for the next climatic chapter ending.  "The Perils of Pauline" (1914) was the finest example of this early genre and the star, Pearl White, became the biggest serial star of the silent era.

"The Exploits of Elaine" Electric/Pathe 1915.  14 chapter serial.  Pearl White (Elaine Dodge), Arnold Daly (Craig Kennedy), Creighton Hale (Walter Jameson), Sheldon Lewis, Raymond Owens.  Director: George B. Seitz.  With the help of Craig Kennedy, the scientific detective, Elaine tries to capture the masked criminal The Clutching Hand who has murdered her father in an attempt to get Elaine's inheritance.  The Clutching Hand proves to be quite scientific himself, wielding death rays and creating poison-gas epidemics.  In one chapter Kennedy brings a dead girl back to life with "Dr. Leduc's method of electric resuscitation", a machine he wheels out of a corner of his well-equipped lab.

"The New Exploits of Elaine" Electric, 1915.  10 chapter serial.  White, Daly, Hale, Edwin Arden (Wu Fang).  Directors: Leopold & Theodore Wharton.  

"The Romance of Elaine" Electric, 1915.  12-chapter serial.  White, Daly, Hale, Lionel Barrymore, Warner Oland.  Director: George B. Seitz.  A torpedo invented by Craig is stolen.

"The Carter Case" Oliver Films, 1919.  15-chapter serial.  Herbert Rawlinson (Craig Kennedy), William Pike (Jameson), Marguerite Marsh, Ethel Grey Terry, Kempton Greene, Colt Albertson, Joe Smith Marba.  Director: Donald MacKenzie.  Shelby Carter, owner of a big chemical works whose secret formula is stolen and given to competitors abroad, is driven by fear from his secret observation tower and killed by the mysterious Avion.  His daughter Anita, despite protests of her fiance, calls in Kennedy to solve the mystery.  Kennedy uses the wireless and x-rays while being trapped in a vacuum-sealed room and shot with phosgene bullets.

"The Radio Detective" Universal, 1926.  10-chapter serial.  Jack Mower (Kennedy), Jack Daugherty, Margaret Quimby.  Directors: William Crinley, William Craft.  Craig comes to the aid of an inventor and devoted Boy Scout leader whose radio wave discovery is a gangster's target.

"The Clutching Hand" Stage & Screen, 1936.  15-chapter serial.  Jack Mulhall (Kennedy), Rex Lease (Jameson), William Farnum, Marion Shilling, Yakima Canutt, Ruth Mix, Mae Busch, Robert Frazier.  Director: Albert Herman.  Craig Kennedy's only sound-era film.  The director of a large industrial corporation announces the discovery of synthetic gold and is kidnapped by The Clutching Hand.  The hooded villain contacts his many (numbered) agents by way of television as he sits before multileveled monitors.  The electronic and video tape gimmickry, rampant throughout the serial, and upon which the solution depends, is really extraordinarily sophisticated for its day.  

COMICSTRIPS

"Craig Kennedy" written by Arthur B. Reeve and drawn by Harry J. Fleming was distributed by the McNaught Sundicate, June 7 - December 4, 1926.

"Craig Kennedy" written by Reeve and drawn by William B. Johnstone was distributed by Craig Kennedy Service, April 15 - May 11, 1929.

TELEVISION

"Craig Kennedy, Criminologist" was syndicated for the 1952-1953 season.  26 half-hour episodes were produced and set in modern day Los Angeles.  Donald Woods was Craig Kennedy, Lewis Wilson was Jameson, and Sydney Mason appeared as Inspector J. J. Burke.  The average cost of each episode was $9000.  The show attracted several up-and-coming stars like Mara Corday and Suzanne Dalbert, but most interesting was Jack Mulhall who appeared in 7 episodes (he played Craig Kennedy in the 1936 serial "The Clutching Hand").