GREAT DETECTIVES & PEOPLE OF MYSTERY #20

THE HARDY BOYS


By the 1920s the literacy rate in America had climbed to over 90% and publishers began thinking about getting mystery readers at a younger age.  Edward Stratemeyer, owner of the Stratemeyer Syndicate which was a book-packaging firm, introduced the Hardy Boys to a juvenile audience hungry for adventure.  Frank and Joe Hardy were teenage brothers that comprised a trouble-shooting detective team.  Frank was 16 and Joe was 15, and they lived in the fictional Northeastern town of Bayport on Barmet Bay with their father Detective Fenton Hardy, mother Laura, and aunt Gertrude.  In the original stories the Boy's mysteries were often linked to their father's confidential cases.  They were constantly involved in action and adventure but they "never lose their nerve...They are hardy boys, luckier and more clever than anyone around them."

The quaint little town of Bayport becomes the location of murder, drug-dealing, racehorse stealing, diamond smuggling, bank robbery, kidnapping, dynamiting, burglaries, medical malpractice, auto theft, hijackings, and espionage.  It would seem that the one career path in Bayport that offered the most job security was the fellow who changed the population sign outside of town.  Between death and incarceration the number of citizens must have steadily decreased.  And when Frank and Joe weren't busy solving crimes in their own backyard they traveled to Mexico, Scotland, Iceland, Egypt and Kenya to tackle mysteries.  Supposedly the brothers attended high school, but it was rarely mentioned and never hindered their mystery solving ("Please excuse Frank and Joe from school yesterday as they were busy solving the recent flurry of burglaries that have plagued our community").  And what of their police detective father whose cases were solved by his teenage sons?  Did anyone in Bayport ever suggest that Mr. Hardy might be inept at his job?  Friends frequently helped the boys solve mysteries, particularly overweight, good-natured Chet Morton.  (His sister Iola is a sweetheart of Joe).  The boys have a car and a boat (nicknamed Sleuth) and often use their father's private plane while solving complicated cases at home and abroad.

It didn't matter that the stories pushed the bounds of credulity, young readers rejoiced in the books...then and now!  You can't argue with success - worldwide sales over 70 million, translated into 25 languages, a million sales annually today, and reprints of the first book "The Tower Treasure" (1927) still sell 100,000 a year.  Edward Stratemeyer, who also created Tom Swift and the Bobbsey Twins, conceived the idea of the Hardy Boys then turned it over to Canadian author Leslie MacFarlane who wrote the first 16 novels in the series.  More than anyone, MacFarlane established the tone and style of the Hardy Boys series.  The books were credited to Franklin W. Dixon, a house name used by the Stratemeyer Syndicate, so no matter who the actual author was there would be continuity.  At the time ghostwriters at Stratemeyer were paid $125 a book, though during the Depression prices went down to as little as $75.  Grosset & Dunlap published the first three books in the series in 1927 and they were an immediate hit.  Grosset & Dunlap continued publishing the books until 1979 when they went from hardcover to paperback.  Unhappy with a decline in sales the Stratemeyer Syndicate took the series to Simon & Schuster in 1980 where it remains today.  Beginning in 1959, Grosset & Dunlap pressured the Stratemeyer Syndicate to revise the earlier editions before anymore reprints were published.  Stratemeyer resisted but eventually conceded.  To baby-boomers who grew up on the originals this seemed blasphemous.  But the revisions were less about updating slang and rumble seats and seamed stockings and more about removing depictions of racial stereotypes.  Blacks and Orientals were not treated kindly in the earlier volumes.  The first 38 books were extensively revised between 1959-1973.

BIBLIOGRAPHY

I am not going to list all of the volumes published, but will cite the first 16 written by Leslie MacFarlane.

1927 "The Tower Treasure", "The House on the Cliff", "The Secret of the Old Mill";  1928 "The Missing Chums", "Hunting for Hidden Gold", "The Shore Road Mystery";  1929 "The Secret of the Caves", "The Mystery of Cabin Island";  1930 "The Great Airport Mystery";  1931 "What Happened at Midnight";  1932 "While the Clock Ticked";  1933 "Footprints Under the Window";  1934 "The Mark on the Door";  1935 "The Hidden Harbor Mystery";  1936 "The Sinister Signpost";  1937 "A Figure in Hiding".

The first series of books, published from 1927-2005, is called The Hardy Boys Mystery Stories.  58 books were published by Grosset & Dunlap through 1979.  In 1980 Simon & Schuster took over and published 132 additional titles through 2005 for a total of 190 books.  The Hardy Boys Casefiles series ran 1987-1998 and produced 127 more books.  This series tackled more mature themes.  Beginning with the first book in the series "Dead on Target" a bomb is planted in the Hardy Boys car and blows-up Joe's longtime girlfriend Iola Martin, sister of their friend Chet.

The Undercover Brothers series (2005-2012) yielded another 40 books beginning with "Extreme Danger".  A series of graphic novels (2005-2010) produced 20 titles.  Nancy Drew and the Hardy Boys collaborated in multiple volumes.  The Hardy Boys Adventures series (2013-present) has produced 25 titles so far, beginning with "Secret of the Red Arrow".  The Hardy Boys Secret Files (2010-2015) had 19 titles, and The Hardy Boys Clue Book (2016-present) has 16 books thus far.  All total, the Hardy Boys have appeared in over 440 different books and haven't aged a day.

TELEVISION

Walt Disney contracted with the Stratemeyer Syndicate and Grosset & Dunlap to produce two Hardy Boys serials to be aired on episodes of the popular "The Mickey Mouse Club".  The first, "The Mystery of the Applegate Treasure" was based on the first novel in the series "The Tower Treasure".  The serial consisted of 19 episodes, each lasting 15-minutes, and debuted in 1956 with Tim Considine as Frank and Tommy Kirk as Joe.  The total cost of producing the serial was $5700.  A second serial, "The Mystery of Ghost Farm" ran for 15 episodes in 1957.  From all indications the serials were a success but no more were produced after that final outing.  Tommy Kirk, star of many Disney films, died on September 28, 2021.  Tim Considine recently passed away on March 3, 2022.

In the mid-1960s sales of books began to drop and Stratemeyer conducted a survey and found that books were competing with television.  As a result they put together an hour-long pilot for a new proposed series with Tim Matheson as Joe and Rick Gates as Frank.  Based on "The Mystery of the Chinese Junk" (1959) the show aired on NBC, September 8, 1967.  It did poorly and the proposed series was abandoned.  Teri Garr and Jan-Michael Vincent also starred.

In 1969 ABC produced an animated Saturday morning series.  Created by Filmation the series ran 1969-1971.  The Boys were members of a rock band that solved mysteries.  It was most notable as the first cartoon to include a black character.  Frank and Joe encouraged their juvenile audience to wear seat belts and not to smoke.  Filmation made 34 12-minute cartoons that were shown two in a half-hour show.  These ran from September 6 to December 27, 1969 then repeated throughout the end of the series in 1971.  Music from the show was released on records by a group calling themselves The Hardy Boys. "Here Come the Hardy Boys" reached #199 on the Billboard charts.  A second album "Wheels" was released and went nowhere.  It was bubblegum music of moderate quality and no commercial success.

ABC launched another series "The Hardy Boys / Nancy Drew Mysteries" 1977-1979.  Parker Stevenson was Frank and Shawn Cassidy was Joe.  Pamela Sue Martin played Nancy but was replaced by Janet Louise Johnson.  During the first season the series alternated with Hardy Boys one week, Nancy the next.  During the second season the format changed to focus more on the Hardy's with Nancy appearing mostly in crossover episodes.  Martin, concerned that her character was being minimalized, quit and was replaced by Johnson.  The show returned for a third season but dropped the Nancy character completely and shortened the title to "The Hardy Boys".  The series ran January 30, 1977 to January 14, 1979 and produced 46 episodes.

In 1995 "The Hardy Boys" was a syndicated series produced by the Canadian company New Line Television.  Colin Gray was Frank and Paul Popowich was Joe.  The show only lasted one season of 13 episodes due to poor ratings.  It ran September 23-December 16, 1995.

In 2020 "The Hardy Boys" began streaming on Hulu with Rohan Campbell as Frank and Alexander Elliot as Joe.  13 episodes were released on Hulu December 4, 2020, and a second season of 10 episodes began on April 6, 2022.

COMICS

Dell Four-Color Comics released the first of four comic books "Walt Disney's The Hardy Boys" #760 in December 1956.  "The Secret of the Old Mill" #830, August 1957; "The Mystery of the Ghost Farm" #887, January 1958; and "The Mystery of the Caves" #964, January 1959, followed and would seem to indicate that Disney had plans to do more serials.  The Mickey Mouse Club magazine also featured Hardy Boys stories and the TV serial was promoted on the covers of select issues.

1970-1972 Gold Key Comics issued four comic books tied to the 1969 animated TV series.

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