Frank Merriwell is a fictional character appearing in a series of novels and short stories by Gilbert Patten, who wrote under the pseudonym Burt L. Standish. The character also appears in numerous radio serials and comic books based on the stories.

The model for all later American juvenile sports fiction, Merriwell excelled at football, baseball, basketball, crew and track at Yale

Yale University

Yale University is a private, Ivy League university located in New Haven, Connecticut, United States. Founded in 1701 in the Colony of Connecticut, the university is the third-oldest institution of higher education in the United States...

 while solving mysteries and righting wrongs. He played with great strength and received traumatic blows without injury.

A biographical entry on Patten noted dryly that Frank Merriwell "had little in common with his creator or his readers." Patten offered some background on his character: "The name was symbolic of the chief characteristics I desired my hero to have. Frank for frankness, merry for a happy disposition, well for health and abounding vitality."

Merriwell's classmates observed, "He never drinks. That's how he keeps himself in such fine condition all the time. He will not smoke, either, and he takes his exercise regularly. He is really a remarkable freshie."

Merriwell originally appeared in a series of magazine stories starting April 18, 1896 ("Frank Merriwell: or, First Days at Fardale") in Tip Top Weekly

Tip Top Weekly

Tip Top Weekly was a magazine, published by Street & Smith, which ran for more than 800 issues. It began April 19, 1896 with an August 12, 1912 title change to New Tip Top Weekly...

, continuing through 1912, and later in dime novels and comic books. Patten would confine himself to a hotel room for a week to write an entire story.

The Frank Merriwell comic strip began in 1928, continuing until 1936. Daily strips from 1934 provided illustrations for the 1937 Big Little Book.

Characters

There are at least three generations of Merriwells: Frank, his half-brother Dick, and Frank's son, Frank Jr. There is a marked difference between Frank and Dick. Frank usually handled challenges on his own. Dick has mysterious friends and skills that help him, especially an old India

India

India , officially the Republic of India , is a country in South Asia. It is the seventh-largest country by geographical area, the second-most populous country with over 1.2 billion people, and the most populous democracy in the world...

n friend without whom the stories would not have been quite as interesting.

Radio

The Adventures of Frank Merriwell first ran on NBC

NBC

The National Broadcasting Company is an American commercial broadcasting television network and former radio network headquartered in the GE Building in New York City's Rockefeller Center with additional major offices near Los Angeles and in Chicago...

 radio from March 26 to June 22, 1934 as a 15-minute serial airing three times a week at 5:30pm. Sponsored by Dr. West's Toothpaste, this program starred Donald Briggs in the title role. Harlow Wilcox was the announcer.

After a 12-year gap, the series returned October 5, 1946 as a 30-minute Saturday morning show on NBC

NBC

The National Broadcasting Company is an American commercial broadcasting television network and former radio network headquartered in the GE Building in New York City's Rockefeller Center with additional major offices near Los Angeles and in Chicago...

, continuing until June 4, 1949. Lawson Zerbe starred as Merriwell, Jean Gillespie and Elaine Rostas as Inza Burrage, Harold Studer as Bart Hodge and Patricia Hosley as Elsie Belwood. Announcers were Mel Brandt and Harlow Wilcox, and the Paul Taubman Orchestra supplied the background music.

Film

A film serial entitled The Adventures of Frank Merriwell

The Adventures of Frank Merriwell (serial)

The Adventures of Frank Merriwell is a Universal movie serial based on the Frank Merriwell books by Gilbert Patten.-Production:The Adventures of Frank Merriwell is set in 1936 instead of the 1890s of the source material....

 was created by Universal Studios

Universal Studios

Universal Pictures , a subsidiary of NBCUniversal, is one of the six major movie studios....

in 1936.

External links

• Tip Top Weekly (January 6, 1900): "Frank Merriwell's Limit (full text)
• Adventures of Frank Merriwell collection, at the New York Public Library for the Performing Arts
• American Heritage Article Frank Merriwell at Yale Again and Again http://www.americanheritage.com/articles/magazine/ah/1961/4/1961_4_24.shtml