Johnston McCulley
Encyclopedia
Johnston McCulley was the author of hundreds of stories, fifty novels, numerous screenplays for film and television, and the creator of the character Zorro
. Many of his novels and stories were written under the pseudonym
s Harrison Strong, Raley Brien, George Drayne, Monica Morton, Rowena Raley, Frederic Phelps, Walter Pierson, and John Mack Stone, among others.
McCulley started as a police reporter for The Police Gazette and served as an Army public affairs officer during World War I
. An amateur history buff, he went on to a career in pulp fiction and screenplays, often using a Southern California backdrop for his stories.
Aside from Zorro, McCulley created many other pulp characters, including Black Star, The Spider, The Mongoose, and Thubway Tham
. Many of McCulley's characters — the Green Ghost, the Thunderbolt, and the Crimson Clown — were inspirations for the masked heroes that have appeared in popular culture from McCulley's time to the present day.
Born in Ottawa, Illinois
and raised in Chillicothe, Illinois
, he died in 1958 in Los Angeles, California
aged 75.
and Altus Press
. Pulp Adventures Inc. has published two oversized trade paperback volumes reprinting many of the original Zorro stories.
McCulley's Zorro
character was first serialized in the story "The Curse of Capistrano
" in 1919 in the pulp magazine
All-Story Weekly in 1919.
Zorro
became his most enduring character, appearing in four novels (the last three were all serialized in Argosy
Magazine, which had absorbed All-Story). The first appeared in 1919, the second in 1922, then there was a significant gap before the appearance of the third novel Zorro Rides Again in 1931. The appearance of the 1920 Douglas Fairbanks
silent movie
The Mark of Zorro
, based on the first novel, was the direct cause for McCulley reviving what had originally been a one-time hero plot. The appearance of the character (black mask and hat) was actually defined by Fairbanks' movie version rather than McCulley's original story, and McCulley copied the Fairbanks incarnation for subsequent stories, as did the many film and television variations that followed.
The popularity of the character led to three novellas appearing in Argosy
in 1932, 1933, and 1934. In between he wrote many other novels and stories set in early Spanish California which did not have Zorro as the lead character. The last full length novel "The Sign of Zorro" appeared in 1941, and was very likely also written in response to the popularity of the character in the movies. Republic optioned the character for a serial Zorro's Fighting Legion which was released in 1939 and was well received. Over the coming decade Republic released three other serials connected in some way with the Zorro character. In 1940, The Mark of Zorro remake
starring Tyrone Power
and Linda Darnell
made the character much wider known to the public at large, and McCulley decided to bring Zorro back with new stories.
McCulley made an arrangement with the pulp West Magazine to produce a brand new Zorro short story for every issue. The first of these stories appeared in July 1944 and the last one appeared in July 1951, the final issue of the publication. Fifty-three adventures in all were published in West
. An additional story (possibly a story originally written for West
which went unpublished when West folded) appeared in Max Brand's Western Magazine in the May 1954 issue. The final Zorro story appeared in Short Story Magazine April 1959, after McCulley's death and after Walt Disney
's Zorro television program starring Guy Williams had become nationally popular.
on 5 March 1916.
Black Star was what was once termed a "gentleman criminal", in that he does not commit murder, nor does he permit any of his gang to kill anyone, not even the police or his arch enemy Roger Verbeck. He does not threaten women, always keeps his word, and is invariably courteous, nor does he deal with narcotics in any of his stories. He is always seen in a black cloak and a black hood on which is embossed a jet black star. The Black Star and his gang used "vapor bombs" and "vapor guns" which rendered their victims instantly unconscious, a technique which pre-dated the Green Hornet
's gas gun by several decades.
These stories were very popular with the readership of Detective Story Magazine
and some of them were reprinted by Chelsea House, a division of Street & Smith, in a series of inexpensive hardback books. The character lasted through the end of 1930.
beginning in 1926, and immediately attracted reader interest, so much so that Street & Smith published two hardback collections of his adventures. The Crimson Clown (1927) was rushed to press just as soon as there was enough material available to fill a hardback volume. This was followed by The Crimson Clown Again (1928).
The Crimson Clown is Delton Prouse, a wealthy young bachelor, able veteran of The Great War, explorer, and all around adventurer who functions as a modern Robin Hood
, stealing from the unjustly rich and returning money to helpless victims or worthy organizations. He dresses in a mostly white clown suit and uses a tear gas pistol (later this became a "gas gun").
By the end of 1931 McCulley had permanently retired the character.
. The Los Angeles Times
obituary gives an address in Los Angeles of 6533 Hollywood Blvd. at the time of his death, an address which is confirmed in the Marquis volume and places McCulley in the Hillview Hollywood Apartments. There is no record of when he moved there, although the Marquis article may have been originally prepared in the late 1940s/early 1950s, with additional material appended on in the late 1950s. The New York Times obituary mentions that he died "after a series of operations" a phrase echoed in other newspaper obits from other parts of the country, most likely taken from a New York Times feed.
McCulley is entombed in Forest Lawn Memorial Park, Glendale
, Los Angeles, California.
Zorro
Zorro is a fictional character created in 1919 by New York-based pulp writer Johnston McCulley. The character has been featured in numerous books, films, television series, and other media....
. Many of his novels and stories were written under the pseudonym
Pseudonym
A pseudonym is a name that a person assumes for a particular purpose and that differs from his or her original orthonym...
s Harrison Strong, Raley Brien, George Drayne, Monica Morton, Rowena Raley, Frederic Phelps, Walter Pierson, and John Mack Stone, among others.
McCulley started as a police reporter for The Police Gazette and served as an Army public affairs officer during World War I
World War I
World War I , which was predominantly called the World War or the Great War from its occurrence until 1939, and the First World War or World War I thereafter, was a major war centred in Europe that began on 28 July 1914 and lasted until 11 November 1918...
. An amateur history buff, he went on to a career in pulp fiction and screenplays, often using a Southern California backdrop for his stories.
Aside from Zorro, McCulley created many other pulp characters, including Black Star, The Spider, The Mongoose, and Thubway Tham
Thubway Tham
Thubway Tham is a pulp fiction character created by Johnston McCulley, who was also the creator of Zorro. He first appeared in Detective Story Magazine on June 4, 1918, and he continued to appear in several pulp fiction publications from the 1910s to the 1960s....
. Many of McCulley's characters — the Green Ghost, the Thunderbolt, and the Crimson Clown — were inspirations for the masked heroes that have appeared in popular culture from McCulley's time to the present day.
Born in Ottawa, Illinois
Ottawa, Illinois
Ottawa is a city located at the confluence of the Illinois River and Fox River in LaSalle County, Illinois, USA. As of the 2010 census, the city population was 18,786...
and raised in Chillicothe, Illinois
Chillicothe, Illinois
Chillicothe is a city on the Illinois River in Peoria County, Illinois. The population was 5,996 at the 2000 census. Chillicothe is just north of the city of Peoria and is part of the Peoria, Illinois Metropolitan Statistical Area.- Geography :...
, he died in 1958 in Los Angeles, California
Los Angeles, California
Los Angeles , with a population at the 2010 United States Census of 3,792,621, is the most populous city in California, USA and the second most populous in the United States, after New York City. It has an area of , and is located in Southern California...
aged 75.
Works
Some of McCulley's tales are available from Wildside PressWildside Press
Wildside Press is an independent publishing company located in Maryland, USA. It was founded in 1989 by John Gregory and Kim Betancourt. While the press was originally conceived as a publisher of speculative fiction in both trade and limited editions, it has broadened out somewhat since then, both...
and Altus Press
Altus Press
Altus Press is a small-press publisher of works primarily related to the pulp magazines of the 1920s and 30s. Founded in 2006 by publisher Matthew Moring, Altus Press has focused on four categories of publications: Lost Race Library, New Pulps, Pulp Histories and Pulp Reprints.Altus is also the...
. Pulp Adventures Inc. has published two oversized trade paperback volumes reprinting many of the original Zorro stories.
Zorro
Zorro
Zorro is a fictional character created in 1919 by New York-based pulp writer Johnston McCulley. The character has been featured in numerous books, films, television series, and other media....
character was first serialized in the story "The Curse of Capistrano
The Curse of Capistrano
The Curse of Capistrano is a 1919 story by Johnston McCulley and the first work to feature the fictional Californio character Zorro...
" in 1919 in the pulp magazine
Pulp magazine
Pulp magazines , also collectively known as pulp fiction, refers to inexpensive fiction magazines published from 1896 through the 1950s. The typical pulp magazine was seven inches wide by ten inches high, half an inch thick, and 128 pages long...
All-Story Weekly in 1919.
Zorro
Zorro
Zorro is a fictional character created in 1919 by New York-based pulp writer Johnston McCulley. The character has been featured in numerous books, films, television series, and other media....
became his most enduring character, appearing in four novels (the last three were all serialized in Argosy
Argosy (magazine)
Argosy was an American pulp magazine, published by Frank Munsey. It is generally considered to be the first American pulp magazine. The magazine began as a general information periodical entitled The Golden Argosy, targeted at the boys adventure market.-Launch of Argosy:In late September 1882,...
Magazine, which had absorbed All-Story). The first appeared in 1919, the second in 1922, then there was a significant gap before the appearance of the third novel Zorro Rides Again in 1931. The appearance of the 1920 Douglas Fairbanks
Douglas Fairbanks
Douglas Fairbanks, Sr. was an American actor, screenwriter, director and producer. He was best known for his swashbuckling roles in silent films such as The Thief of Bagdad, Robin Hood, and The Mark of Zorro....
silent movie
Silent Movie
Silent Movie is a 1976 satirical comedy film co-written, directed by, and starring Mel Brooks, and released by 20th Century Fox on June 17, 1976...
The Mark of Zorro
The Mark of Zorro (1920 film)
The Mark of Zorro is a 1920 silent film starring Douglas Fairbanks and Noah Beery. This genre-defining swashbuckler adventure was the first movie version of The Mark of Zorro...
, based on the first novel, was the direct cause for McCulley reviving what had originally been a one-time hero plot. The appearance of the character (black mask and hat) was actually defined by Fairbanks' movie version rather than McCulley's original story, and McCulley copied the Fairbanks incarnation for subsequent stories, as did the many film and television variations that followed.
The popularity of the character led to three novellas appearing in Argosy
Argosy (magazine)
Argosy was an American pulp magazine, published by Frank Munsey. It is generally considered to be the first American pulp magazine. The magazine began as a general information periodical entitled The Golden Argosy, targeted at the boys adventure market.-Launch of Argosy:In late September 1882,...
in 1932, 1933, and 1934. In between he wrote many other novels and stories set in early Spanish California which did not have Zorro as the lead character. The last full length novel "The Sign of Zorro" appeared in 1941, and was very likely also written in response to the popularity of the character in the movies. Republic optioned the character for a serial Zorro's Fighting Legion which was released in 1939 and was well received. Over the coming decade Republic released three other serials connected in some way with the Zorro character. In 1940, The Mark of Zorro remake
The Mark of Zorro (1940 film)
The Mark of Zorro is a 1940 American adventure film directed by Rouben Mamoulian and produced by Darryl F. Zanuck for 20th Century Fox. The action movie stars Tyrone Power as Don Diego Vega , Linda Darnell as his love interest, and Basil Rathbone as the villain...
starring Tyrone Power
Tyrone Power
Tyrone Edmund Power, Jr. , usually credited as Tyrone Power and known sometimes as Ty Power, was an American film and stage actor who appeared in dozens of films from the 1930s to the 1950s, often in swashbuckler roles or romantic leads such as in The Mark of Zorro, Blood and Sand, The Black Swan,...
and Linda Darnell
Linda Darnell
Linda Darnell was an American film actress.Darnell was a model as a child, and progressed to theater and film acting as an adolescent. At the encouragement of her mother, she made her first film in 1939, and appeared in supporting roles in big budget films for 20th Century Fox throughout the 1940s...
made the character much wider known to the public at large, and McCulley decided to bring Zorro back with new stories.
McCulley made an arrangement with the pulp West Magazine to produce a brand new Zorro short story for every issue. The first of these stories appeared in July 1944 and the last one appeared in July 1951, the final issue of the publication. Fifty-three adventures in all were published in West
West
West is a noun, adjective, or adverb indicating direction or geography.West is one of the four cardinal directions or compass points. It is the opposite of east and is perpendicular to north and south.By convention, the left side of a map is west....
. An additional story (possibly a story originally written for West
West
West is a noun, adjective, or adverb indicating direction or geography.West is one of the four cardinal directions or compass points. It is the opposite of east and is perpendicular to north and south.By convention, the left side of a map is west....
which went unpublished when West folded) appeared in Max Brand's Western Magazine in the May 1954 issue. The final Zorro story appeared in Short Story Magazine April 1959, after McCulley's death and after Walt Disney
Walt Disney
Walter Elias "Walt" Disney was an American film producer, director, screenwriter, voice actor, animator, entrepreneur, entertainer, international icon, and philanthropist, well-known for his influence in the field of entertainment during the 20th century. Along with his brother Roy O...
's Zorro television program starring Guy Williams had become nationally popular.
Black Star
Probably his second most popular character from the pulps was "The Black Star", a criminal mastermind who is pursued by Roger Verbeck-Flagellum and Muggs, a millionaire bachelor and his ex-thug partner. Black Star first appeared in the Street & Smith pulp Detective Story MagazineDetective Story Magazine
Detective Story Magazine was an American magazine published by Street & Smith from October 15, 1915 to Summer, 1949 . The first pulp magazine devoted to detective fiction, it consisted of short stories and serials....
on 5 March 1916.
Black Star was what was once termed a "gentleman criminal", in that he does not commit murder, nor does he permit any of his gang to kill anyone, not even the police or his arch enemy Roger Verbeck. He does not threaten women, always keeps his word, and is invariably courteous, nor does he deal with narcotics in any of his stories. He is always seen in a black cloak and a black hood on which is embossed a jet black star. The Black Star and his gang used "vapor bombs" and "vapor guns" which rendered their victims instantly unconscious, a technique which pre-dated the Green Hornet
Green Hornet
Green Hornet may refer to:* The Green Hornet, a fictional character created by Fran Striker for the 1930s radio program and adapted into several media versions...
's gas gun by several decades.
These stories were very popular with the readership of Detective Story Magazine
Detective Story Magazine
Detective Story Magazine was an American magazine published by Street & Smith from October 15, 1915 to Summer, 1949 . The first pulp magazine devoted to detective fiction, it consisted of short stories and serials....
and some of them were reprinted by Chelsea House, a division of Street & Smith, in a series of inexpensive hardback books. The character lasted through the end of 1930.
The Spider
The Spider was another long running villain character, and considered by some a significant pulp supervillain. The Spider appeared in 11 short stories and three novels and short story collections between 1918 and 1930. He was injured as a young man and used a wheelchair, but he used his mental abilities to run an international crime ring from his office, 'The Spider's Den'.The Crimson Clown
The Crimson Clown appeared in Detective Story MagazineDetective Story Magazine
Detective Story Magazine was an American magazine published by Street & Smith from October 15, 1915 to Summer, 1949 . The first pulp magazine devoted to detective fiction, it consisted of short stories and serials....
beginning in 1926, and immediately attracted reader interest, so much so that Street & Smith published two hardback collections of his adventures. The Crimson Clown (1927) was rushed to press just as soon as there was enough material available to fill a hardback volume. This was followed by The Crimson Clown Again (1928).
The Crimson Clown is Delton Prouse, a wealthy young bachelor, able veteran of The Great War, explorer, and all around adventurer who functions as a modern Robin Hood
Robin Hood
Robin Hood was a heroic outlaw in English folklore. A highly skilled archer and swordsman, he is known for "robbing from the rich and giving to the poor", assisted by a group of fellow outlaws known as his "Merry Men". Traditionally, Robin Hood and his men are depicted wearing Lincoln green clothes....
, stealing from the unjustly rich and returning money to helpless victims or worthy organizations. He dresses in a mostly white clown suit and uses a tear gas pistol (later this became a "gas gun").
By the end of 1931 McCulley had permanently retired the character.
Filmography
Many of Johnston McCulley's stories were made into motion pictures. McCulley also wrote for motion pictures. Here is a brief filmography.- Ruth of the RockiesRuth of the RockiesRuth of the Rockies is a 1920 Western film serial directed by George Marshall. Two of the 15 episodes survive in the UCLA Film and Television Archive.-Cast:* Ruth Roland - Bab Murphy* Herbert Heyes - Justin Garret* Thomas G...
, 1920, story - Ride for Your LifeRide for Your LifeRide for Your Life is a 1924 Western film directed by Edward Sedgwick and featuring Hoot Gibson.-Cast:* Hoot Gibson - Bud Watkins* Laura La Plante - Betsy Burke* Harry Todd - 'Plug' Hanks* Robert McKim - 'Geentleman Jim' Slade...
, 1924, story - The Ice Flood, 1926, story
- The Red Rope, 1937, story
- The Trusted Outlaw, 1937, story
- Rose of the Rio Grande, 1938, story
- Doomed Caravan, 1941, writer
- Overland Mail, 1942, story
- Don Ricardo Returns, 1946, story
Death
Johnston McCulley died on November 23, 1958 in Los Angeles, CaliforniaLos Angeles, California
Los Angeles , with a population at the 2010 United States Census of 3,792,621, is the most populous city in California, USA and the second most populous in the United States, after New York City. It has an area of , and is located in Southern California...
. The Los Angeles Times
Los Angeles Times
The Los Angeles Times is a daily newspaper published in Los Angeles, California, since 1881. It was the second-largest metropolitan newspaper in circulation in the United States in 2008 and the fourth most widely distributed newspaper in the country....
obituary gives an address in Los Angeles of 6533 Hollywood Blvd. at the time of his death, an address which is confirmed in the Marquis volume and places McCulley in the Hillview Hollywood Apartments. There is no record of when he moved there, although the Marquis article may have been originally prepared in the late 1940s/early 1950s, with additional material appended on in the late 1950s. The New York Times obituary mentions that he died "after a series of operations" a phrase echoed in other newspaper obits from other parts of the country, most likely taken from a New York Times feed.
McCulley is entombed in Forest Lawn Memorial Park, Glendale
Forest Lawn Memorial Park, Glendale
Forest Lawn Memorial Park is a privately owned cemetery in Glendale, California. It is the original location of Forest Lawn, a chain of cemeteries in Southern California. The land was formerly part of Providencia Ranch.-History:...
, Los Angeles, California.
External links
- Works by Johnston McCulley (public domain in Canada and the rest of the world.)