Donald Bayne Hobart was one of the more prolific contributors to the Western pulps in the Thrilling Group during the Thirties and Forties, but his writing career actually started with a poem sold to SNAPPY STORIES in 1919, followed by other poems sold mostly to LOVE STORY MAGAZINE during the Twenties. He didn’t publish his first Western until 1928, a short story called “The Whistling Waddy Wades In”, published in the January 14, 1928 issue of ARGOSY ALL-STORY WEEKLY. He followed this up with “The Whistling Waddy Warbles On”, in the April 7, 1928 issue of the same pulp, and then tackled a full-length Western serial with “Two-Gun Magic”, published in three consecutive issues of ARGOSY ALL-STORY WEEKLY in July 1928.
While I don’t have the actual pulps to confirm this, I’m fairly convinced that the novel THE WHISTLING WADDY, published by Chelsea House in 1928, is a fix-up of those three stories. It opens with two fairly short sections in which drifting cowboy Solitaire Stevens (also known as the Whistling Waddy because he whistles a mournful air as he’s about to go into action) battles outlaw gangs led by mysterious masterminds known as the Eagle and the Ace. Those sections come from the two short stories. Then the rest of the novel concerns Solitaire’s clash with an outlaw gang led by a mysterious mastermind known as the Chief. Clearly, Hobart liked that plot and didn’t want to let go of it.
Those first two sections aren’t particularly good. Their length works against them—the plots barely get started before a big shootout wraps everything up—and they’re full of melodramatic hokum, even by 1928 pulp standards.
But either Hobart was getting better with experience or else he needed the longer length of a serial, because the rest of THE WHISTLING WADDY is pretty good. Still melodramatic and hokey—at one point, a character leans on a bookcase and it opens up, revealing a secret chamber—but Hobart keeps things moving along nicely. There are some well-done gun battles, some creepily atmospheric scenes, some good hardboiled dialogue, a few touches of welcome humor, and a traveling salesman supporting character who functions as comedy relief but also has an impact on the plot and is better developed than most such characters. The obligatory rancher’s beautiful daughter is tougher than most and matches up well with Solitaire.
The ending is a bit of a letdown that seems to be missing one final twist, but overall, THE WHISTLING WADDY is an entertaining traditional Western. It’s very old-fashioned, though, so if you’re not already a fan of Westerns from that era, it’s probably not best to start with it. If you can put yourself in the mindset of a reader from those days, though, as I can, you’ll probably have some fun with it. It’s never been reprinted, as far as I know, but used copies are out there. I’ve owned more than one over the years. The copy I read is the one shown in the cover scan.
Chelsea House, by the way, was the book publishing arm of Street & Smith and did hardback reprints of serials and fix-up novels like this one based on stories that ran originally in various pulps. Lots of good adventure reading if you can find them.
3 comments:
Almost sounds like this might have been the inspiration for John Wayne's "Singin' Sandy" character who, in turn, led to Gene and Roy and the whole singing cowboy craze. Think it might have played a part?
That's certainly possible, since the stories and the book version came out only a few years before the first singing cowboys on screen. We know people in Hollywood mined the pulps for ideas.
Donald Bayne Hobart wrote tons if text stories for Nedor/Standard animal comics. Frank Frazetta provided illustrations for many of them.
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