GREAT DETECTIVES & PEOPLE OF MYSTERY #29

HILDEGARDE WITHERS

Hildegarde became known as the American Miss Marple.  Created by Stuart Palmer, she was a thin, angular, horse-faced spinster detective.  Formerly a school teacher, Miss Withers retires to devote her energy to aiding Inspector Oscar Piper of the NYPD in solving a long series of murder mysteries that began with "The Penguin Pool Murder" (1931) in which a body is discovered in a New York aquarium.  Miss Winters is noted for her odd, even eccentric choice of hats and the black cotton umbrella that she always carries.  She collects tropical fish, abhors alcohol and tobacco, and appears to have an irritable disposition.  She was based on Stuart Palmer's high school English teacher Miss Fern Hackett.

Stuart Palmer (1905-1968) was born in Baraboo, Wisconsin and was a descendent of colonists who settled in Salem, Massachusetts in 1634.  He was educated at the Art Institute of Chicago and the University of Wisconsin.  He later held a wide variety of jobs from iceman, sailor, apple picker, newspaper reporter, taxi driver, copy writer, public relations, poet, editor, and ghost writer.  He began writing mystery stories in 1931 when "The Penguin Pool Murder" was published.  Palmer later gained employment as a screenwriter for the movies, writing 37 screenplays - mostly mysteries for Bulldog Drummond, the Lone Wolf, and the Falcon.  His personal trademark was a picture or drawing of a penguin.

BIBLIOGRAPHY

1931 "The Penguin Pool Murder" / 1932 "Murder on Wheels" / 1932 "Murder on the Blackboard" / 1933 "The Puzzle of the Pepper Tree" / 1934 "The Puzzle of the Silver Persian" / 1935 "The Puzzle of the Red Stallion" / 1937 "The Puzzle of the Blue Banderilla" / 1941 "The Puzzle of the Happy Hooligan" / 1947 "Miss Withers Regrets" / 1947 "The Riddles of Hildegarde Withers" (s.s.)/  1949 "Four Lost Ladies" / 1950 "The Green Ace" / 1950 "The Monkey Murders and Other Tales" (s.s.)/  1951 "Nipped in the Bud" / 1954 "Cold Poison" / 1963 "The People vs. Withers and Malone" (s.s.)/  1969 "Hildegarde Withers Makes the Scene" (completed by author Fletcher Flora after Palmer's death.)

Palmer collaborated with author Craig Rice to produce a collection of short stories involving Rice's character John J. Malone and Palmer's Hildegarde Withers.  These were collected in the volume "The People vs. Withers and Malone" in 1963 but were previously published in Ellery Queen's Mystery Magazine.  Here are the stories and dates of publications:

"Once Upon a Time" (Oct 1950) / "Cherchez la Frame" (June 1951) / "Autopsy and Eva" (Aug 1954) / "Rift in the Loot" (Apr 1955) / "Withers and Malone - Brain Stormers" (Feb 1959) / "Withers and Malone - Crime Busters" (Nov 1963).

Stuart Palmer also wrote many short stories with his creation Hildegarde Withers, most of which appeared in Mystery magazine in the 1930s and Ellery Queen's Mystery Magazine in the 1940s and 50s.  Here are those stories:

"Riddle of the Dangling Pearl" (Mystery Nov 1933)/  "Riddle of the Flea Circus" (Mystery Dec 1933)/  "Riddle of the Forty Costumes" (Mystery Jan 1934)/  "Riddle of the Brass Band" (Mystery Mar 1934)/  "Riddle of the Yellow Canary" (Mystery Apr 1934)/  "Riddle of the Blueblood Murders" (Mystery June 1934)/  "Riddle of the Forty Naughty Girls" (Mystery July 1934)/  "Riddle of the Hanging Men" (Mystery Sept 1934)/  "Riddle of the Black Spade" (Mystery Oct 1934)/  "Riddle of the Marble Blade" (Mystery Nov 1934)/  "Riddle of the Whirling Lights" (Mystery Jan 1935)/  "Riddle of the Green Ice" (Chicago Tribune Apr 13, 1941)/  "Puzzle of the Scorned Woman" (New York Sunday News Dec 27, 1942)/  "Riddle of the Twelve Amethysts" (EQMM Mar 1945)/  "Snafu Murder" (EQMM Nov 1945)/  "Riddle of the Black Museum" (EQMM Mar 1946)/  "The Monkey Murder" (EQMM Jan 1947)/  "Riddle of the Double Negative" (EQMM Mar 1947)/  "The Long Worm" (EQMM Oct 1947)/  "Fingerprints Don't Lie" (EQMM Nov 1947)/  "Riddle of the Tired Bullet" (EQMM Mar 1948)/  "Fear Death by Water" (Triple Detective Winter 1949)/  "Where Angels Fear to Tread" (EQMM Feb 1951)/  "The Jinx Man" (EQMM Dec 1952)/  "Hildegarde and the Spanish Cavalier" (EQMM Dec 1955)/  "You Bet Your Life" (EQMM May 1957)/  "Who is Sylvia?" (EQMM July 1961)/  "The Return of Hildegarde Withers" (EQMM July 1964)/  "Hildegarde Withers is Back" (EQMM Apr 1965)/  "Hildegarde Plays it Calm" (EQMM Apr 1969, posthumously).

FILMS

The spinsterish Miss Withers was effectively portrayed by Edna May Oliver in a series of RKO pictures.  James Gleason as Inspector Piper was also well suited to the role of the crusty, unrefined cop who forms an uneasy alliance with the dry, reserved teacher when murder and the fates bring them together.  Piper is a bachelor, accustomed to having things his way.  The comic badinage and the hints of middle-aged romance that occur in the films gave the series much of its charm.  Edna May was born Edna May Nutter in Boston in 1884.  She wanted to be an opera singer but lack of funds to pursue voice training in Europe compelled her to go on the stage instead.  When RKO was looking for actors with good stage voices for their talking pictures a telegram was sent to Edna May asking how much she wanted to sign with RKO.  She wired back with her price and they responded "nothing doing".  She remained on the stage and sometime later they wired her again.  This time her figure was greater.  RKO responded, "All right.  Button up your overcoat, come out and join the family".  For the first time in her life Edna May could afford a home.  She had a house with a white picket fence surrounding the front yard and a garden in the rear.  She went swimming in the ocean every day, rain or shine, summer or winter.  Her face was soon recognized by everyone and she had mixed feelings about it.  "Happiness is tinged with just a slight flavor of bitterness", she said.  "If any woman wants to be thought beautiful, let her surround herself with me, and she will be."

"The Penguin Pool Murder" RKO, 1932.  Oliver, Gleason, Robert Armstrong, Donald Cook, Edgar Kennedy, Mae Clarke.  Director: George Archainbaud.  Based on the novel.  On a class trip to the aquarium, school teacher Withers spies a corpse in the penguin tank.  She becomes an unofficial aide to Inspector Piper and manages a courtroom surprise at the finale.

"Murder on the Blackboard" RKO, 1934.  Oliver, Gleason, Kennedy, Tully Marshall, Jackie Searle.  Director: Archainbaud.  Based on the 1932 novel.  The staff of Miss Withers' public school are being eliminated in the grim old building, the cellar of which is secretly being used as a storage place for bootleg liquor.

"Murder on a Honeymoon" RKO, 1935.  Oliver, Gleason, Morgan Wallace, Lola Lane, Dorothy Libaire, George Meeker.  Director: Lloyd Corrigan.  Based on "The Puzzle of the Pepper Tree" (1933).  On a flight to Catalina Island a gangster is killed by a poisoned cigarette.  Miss Withers and a pair of newlyweds are on board.  Later, on the resort island, several more murders occur.  This film was Miss Oliver's last appearance as Hildegarde Withers.  Illness forced her to withdraw from the role.

"Murder on a Bridle Path" RKO, 1936.  Helen Broderick (a less bony but equally assertive Miss Withers), Gleason, John Carroll, Louise Latimer.  Directors: Edward Killy and William Hamilton.  Based on "The Puzzle of the Red Stallion" (1936).  Out for a morning walk in Central Park, Miss Withers comes upon the body of a girl supposedly thrown from a horse - but Hildegarde insists that the victim has been murdered.  More deaths follow in a gloomy house bordering the park.

"The Plot Thickens" RKO, 1936.  Zasu Pitts (replacing Broderick as a scatterbrained, more fragile, and less acerbic Miss Withers), Gleason, Latimore, Owen Davis, Jr., Richard Tucker.  Director: Ben Holmes.  Based on the 1933 short story "Riddle of the Dangling Pearl".  The death of a girl's escort, shot in a parked car, leads Miss Withers to a museum where another murder occurs and a priceless Cellini cup is stolen from a display that had been thought to be impregnable.

"Forty Naughty Girls" RKO, 1937.  Pitts, Gleason, Marjorie Lord, George Shelley, Joan Woodbury.  Director: Eddie Cline.  Based on the 1934 short story.  First a press agent and then the leading man of a Broadway musical comedy are murdered, with Inspector Piper and Miss Withers in the audience.  The title refers to the show's chorus line.  The last film in the RKO series.

The team of Hildegarde Withers and Craig Rice's John J. Malone inspired the 1950 MGM film "Mrs. O'Malley and Mr. Malone", although Miss Withers was changed to Mrs. O'Malley, a backwoods widow played by Ma Kettle (Marjorie Main), so I don't consider this a true entry into the Miss Withers' filmography.

TELEVISION

"The Amazing Miss Withers" is a lost TV pilot from 1955.  It was to star Agnes Moorehead as Withers and Paul Kelly as Piper, which would have been a great pairing.  This was reported by Billboard magazine at the time, but I've been unable to find any more information about the show.

"A Very Missing Person" ABC, 1971.  Eve Arden was a less antique, more emancipated Miss Withers, portraying a former school teacher turned private investigator.  Based on "Hildegarde Withers Makes the Scene" (1969) the last book in the series.  A suicide note leads Miss Withers on a hunt for a missing young heiress.  James Gregory was Inspector Oscar Piper.  Miss Withers employs a motorcycle-riding, denim-clad male assistant (Dennis Rucker).  Julie Newmar also co-starred.  The film was a pilot for a series that did not materialize.