“Mr Strike,” said Barrows, “this is Miss Gerry Carlyle.”
On this day, December 12, 2025, I john Presco found
The AI Detective Agency
ALL RIGHTS RESERVED
Several days ago I began looking at Artificial Intelligence. Last night there was a merger with Walt Disney and OpenAI who is going to get a billion dollars. I should be given a billion dollars in order to build the
CITY OF BElLEROSA
The City of the Beautiful Rose
Three days ago I realized Carl Janke’s Twin Pines Amusement Park in Belmont – preceded Playland at the Beach, and may be the
FIRST AMMUZEMENT PARK IN CALIFORNIA
SF FOLKS got on a train to go there and have
A BARREL OF FUN
Walt Disney went to Fairyland in Oakland, and got ideas for his Amusement Park. My grandmother took her four grandchildren there every summer to celebrate Janke’s Park. I am going to suggest to Meg Whitman that she create a New Playland and Janke Park. Why not borrow from Fairyland? How about
RHE BARREL MOVIE THEATRE?
iT;S TIME TO MAKE GTEAT CALIFNRIAN MOVIES IN BELLEROSA.
I see a series based on Arthur Barnes
INTERPLANETARY HUNTERS
Starring Gerry Carlyle , a blonde Splace Huntress.
I hereby Copyright all the writing of Arthur K. Barnes. It is ordained. Watch this High Noon video, and see a light fall on my nose and finger tip.I suspect my grandmother, Mary Rosamond, was a member of
Arthur K. Barnes, as pictured in the February 1932 issue of Wonder Stories.
Arthur Kelvin Barnes (6 December 1909 – 11 March 1969) was an American science fiction author. Barnes wrote mostly for pulp magazines in the 1930s and 1940s. Barnes was most noted for his vivid and believable portrayals of alien life. As such, he is compared to Stanley G. Weinbaum. Before Barnes (and Weinbaum), SF writers usually portrayed aliens as earth-like monsters, with little originality.[1] He was a member of the Mañana Literary Society.[2] Several stories by Barnes were collaborations with the author Henry Kuttner, including several of the Hollywood on the Moon, Pete Manx, and Gerry Carlyle series of stories.
Barnes wrote a series of stories about “interplanetary hunters” Tommy Strike and Gerry Carlyle, collected in the books Interplanetary Hunter (1956) and Interplanetary Huntress (2007).
Bibliography
I got Detective Novels pouring out of my brain – like a flashflood! I’m going to see if that Austiran will build his Bond lawsuit around me, so alas I will have power to do battle with
When you read a great and famous author, delight comes without surprise. But when an obscure writer gives us a book which turns out to be a lot better than expected, the pleasure is laced with the extra tang of astonishment. This is what we get from the tales of roving Gerry “Catch ’em alive” Carlyle, the huntress in the misleadingly titled collection Interplanetary Hunter. Her vocation is to capture exotic alien creatures for the London Interplanetary Zoo, and this theme allows many attractive branchings.
Gerry herself is a likeable, headstrong character, living on her nerves, very capable, yet vulnerable to the threat of what she cannot afford – namely, defeat.
“Mary Rose of the World” refers to two main concepts: the Virgin Mary as the “Mystical Rose” (Rosa Mystica), symbolizing her purity, beauty, and role in salvation, and The Mary Rose, Henry VIII’s Tudor warship, famous for its sinking in 1545 and miraculous rediscovery/raising in the 20th century, representing Tudor power and maritime history. The phrase can also allude to Russian mystic Daniil Andreev’s vision of “The Rose of the World,” a spiritual union of humanity.
Mary, the Mystical Rose (Spiritual/Religious)
Symbolism: The rose is a sacred flower, and Mary is called the “Mystical Rose” (Rosa Mystica) because she’s seen as the most beautiful flower in God’s garden, pure and full of grace, linking humanity to Christ.
Biblical Roots: She’s linked to the “Rose of Sharon” in the Song of Songs and is central to the Rosary (Latin rosarium, “chain of roses”).
Well! Well! I thought Spielberg was on Meg Whitman’s side and was behind Quibi? I wondered if Meg was playing a game when she posted that pic of Spielberg – who was not onboard yet. They should have let me perform my Bohemian Labyrinth Augur Ritual. My families barrel company has cursed Meg’s project. I got a dog in this race! My intentions are pure. Seth is an art piece…………..The Art of the Double Cross!
Seer Jon
Many Hollywood heavyweights flocked to Apple’s Cupertino, Calif. headquarters to help reveal the tech giant’s revamped steaming service Apple TV+ on Monday — but one such legend was so polarizing he became a national trending topic on Twitter for simply showing his face.
Steven Spielberg was the first to appear in a dramatic short film about the power of creative content, cued up by Apple CEO Tim Cook and played at the top of a presentation of the many original series the company has ordered.
“You want my help with your opener?” rang out Spielberg’s voice over a black screen. He then art-directed the opening shot of the short, which featured testimony from the likes of J.J. Abrams, Octavia Spencer, Jennifer Aniston and Reese Witherspoon about what filmed content means to global audiences. Spielberg then took the main stage of the Steve Jobs Theater to discuss his Amblin Entertainment series “Amazing Stories,” ordered by Apple.
“Buzz surrounding Nelson joining Quibi began building on Tuesday when Janice Min, the former co-president and chief creative officer of The Hollywood Reporter who now oversees daily programming at Quibi, tweeted a picture of Steven Spielberg in the Quibi offices in which Nelson could be seen behind the Ready Player One helmer. Whitman retweeted the picture.
Landing Nelson is a coup for Quibi, given that she spent 22 years at Warner Bros. and left a significant footprint on the direction of the DC universe, which has expanded well beyond the core films like Justice League, Wonder Woman and the new Aquaman. Nelson’s decision to leave Warners was a blow considering that she developed a close relationship with Harry Potter author J.K. Rowling and spearheaded the management of what became one of the biggest franchises and brands in the first decade of the 21st century.
It’s an extraordinary sum for a start-up that hasn’t announced any shows or launched an app. However, Katzenberg and Whitman need a hefty war chest to make their offering stand out as companies such as Netflix, Apple and Amazon.com spend billions to woo established directors, writers, actors and producers.
I just found this in the parallel business world. William Broderick, the husband of Alice Stuttmeister, was the Vice President (a Director) of the California Barrel Company that was located in the Dogpatch, south of San Francisco, and Arcate in Humbolt County where the photograph of Melba and her grandfather is taken. The photo says it is her father, but, it is her grandfather, William Oltman Stuttmeister. I know this because according the Daryl Bulkley, William was very tall, and William Broderick, was short. That is how I remember him.
The President of Cal-Barrel, was Frederick Jacob Koster, who was a member of the Bohemian Club, as was Joaquin Miller, and George Stirling, seen in a traditional tent at the Grove Gathering. When Rosemary would show us the family photos, she would say this about our kin gathered in the redwoods of the Oakland Hills.
“Those are you Bohunk kin.”
Why Rosemary would say this, knowing the Prescos came from Bohemia in 1882, is puzzling. Was she once told they were Bohemian Bohos?
My father and I own the same facial features Will Stuttmeister does, who has a long face.
Cleanup is currently underway at the industrial area surrounding the old Potrero Power Plant site and adjacent shoreline. Draft plans were recently created and unveiled for a 29-acre Central Waterfront site at 1201 Illinois Street (bounded by Illinois, the Bay, 22nd and 23rd Streets). This area is being prepared for over 5 million square feet of development rising up to 300 feet in height.
The project is currently funded and led by California Barrel Company, with support from Associate Capital and Meg Whitman, the CEO of HP Enterprise. The overall development would introduce up to 2,700 new housing units, 220 hotel rooms, 600,000 square feet of office space and more than 100,000 square feet of retail (including a new grocery store).
To ensure capacity for these new businesses, new parking will be added for nearly 2,600 cars and 1,700 bikes. There are also plans to add a dedicated bike land down 23rd Street. Interestingly, the plans call to keep the power plant’s old smokestack and its nearby Power Block structure intact.
Credit: SocketSite
The proposed plan also calls for adding six acres of open space and parks. This includes a central Power Station Park, a waterfront park, and promenade connected to San Francisco’s Blue Greenway. Lastly, the project team is debating the construction of a new dock that could provide water access for recreational, commercial, and municipal watercrafts.
Except for one 30-story building on the western side of the site, which is roughly the same height as the existing boiler stack along the bay, the other 18 proposed buildings range from 65 to 180 feet in height. Current zoning for this area limit buildings to 65 feet in high, so expect some amendments at some point.
The Potrero development site is near many other very large mixed-use projects such as the 28-acre Pier 70, 14-acre India Basin, the proposed Golden State Warriors arena, and the Hunters Point Shipyard and Candlestick Point.
The original power plant was previously owned by PG&E and stopped operating in 2011. It was considered one of the dirtiest energy producers in the state of California and its predecessors operated on the site going all the way back to the 1870s.
The ultimate hope is that the power plant property will become an extension of Pier 70, where a dozen historic industrial buildings will be preserved. We’ll keep you posted as we find out more.
I am almost certain Arthur K. Barnes and John K. Butler are in these two photographs with my grandmother. I will tie Barnes and Butler to C.S. Lewis, Tolkien, and Ian Flemming. Add Dashiell Hammet to the mix. He would go camping on Anacapa Island with my grandfather, Royal Rosamond.
Elizabeth Rosemond Taylor is my only Muse. Liz, Christine, and I, are the only family members I want to be associated with. I am going to found a California Cultural Reserve in order to survive The Moron of Dark Tower and his Neo-Confederate Thunder Turds.
Author JOHN K. BUTLER is best-known, at least in our little neck of the woods, for the numerous stories he pounded out for such pulps as Black Mask, Detective Fiction Weekly, Double Detective and especially Dime Detective.
His best known series character, of course, was Steve Midnight, the trouble-prone hack for the Red Owl Cab Company of Los Angeles, who appeared in nine stories in Dime Detective, but he was also responsible for the adventures of police detective Rex Lonergan and undercover cop Tricky Enright. but his forté seemed to be tough, competent sleuths with unlikely professions, such as Midnight, or hard-boiled phone company inspector Rod Case. Butler even penned at least one story about Sandy Taylor of the Harbor Police.
Butler was also one of the most prolific writers of B-pictures, eventually cranking out over fifty screenplays, mostly for Republic Pictures, more than half of them westerns, and many of them featuring Roy Rogers. Okay, so they were mostly B-flicks, but among his screen credits are such classic — and occasionally alternative classics — as Ambush at Cimarron Pass, Drums Along the River, My Pal Trigger, The Vampire’s Ghost and– get this — Post Office Investigator, about a hard-boiled, um, post office inspector. A nitrate print of it survives in the UCLA Film and Television Archives but is not listed for preservation.
In the fifties, Butler moved on to television, again favouring westerns, although he also wrote for shows like The New Adventures of Charlie Chan, The Adventures of Dr. Fu Manchu and 77 Sunset Strip.
Butler was also a bit of a wingnut, dressing up in cowboy drag and galloping through Griffith Park on his horse Prince. You might even say he died in the saddle — he broke his back during a ride in 1964.
SHORT STORIES
“Murder Alley” (April 1, 1935, Dime Detective; Rex Lonergan)
“The Corpse Parade” (June 1, 1935, Dime Detective; Rex Lonergan)
“Fog Over Frisco” (July 1, 1935, Dime Detective; Rex Lonergan)
“The Stairway to Hell” (November 1, 1935, Dime Detective; Rex Lonergan)
“‘G’ Heat” (November 1935, Black Mask)
“Guns for a Lady” (March 1936, Black Mask)
“Seven Years Dead” (January 1936, Dime Detective; Tricky Enright)
“Dark Return” (May 1936, Black Mask; Mark Dana)
“Blood on the Buddha” (May 1936, Dime Detective; Rex Lonergan)
“Parole for the Dead” (August 1936, Dime Detective; Rex Lonergan)
“You Can’t Bribe Bullets” (August 1936, Black Mask)
“The Mad Dogs of Frisco” (October 1936, Dime Detective; Rex Lonergan)
“No Rest for Soldiers” (October 1936, Black Mask)
“The Lady in the Grave” (October 31, 1936, Detective Fiction Weekly)
“Federal Bullets” (November 1936, The Feds)
“Celluloid Doom” (December 1936, Ten Detective Aces)
“The Mirror Maze” (February 1937, Ten Detective Aces)
“The Walking Dead” (February 1937, Dime Detective; Rex Lonergan)
“Reunion on River Street” (March 6, 1937, Argosy)
“The Blood Barrier” (March 1937, Ten Detective Aces)
“Death on the Hook” (March 1937, Headquarters Detective; Sandy Taylor)
interplanetary Huntress the gerry carlyle stories of arthur k barnes
When you read a great and famous author, delight comes without surprise. But when an obscure writer gives us a book which turns out to be a lot better than expected, the pleasure is laced with the extra tang of astonishment. This is what we get from the tales of roving Gerry “Catch ’em alive” Carlyle, the huntress in the misleadingly titled collection Interplanetary Hunter. Her vocation is to capture exotic alien creatures for the London Interplanetary Zoo, and this theme allows many attractive branchings.
Gerry herself is a likeable, headstrong character, living on her nerves, very capable, yet vulnerable to the threat of what she cannot afford – namely, defeat.
…This day was to be one of many surprises for Tommy Strike and perhaps the greatest shock of all came when he stood beside the sloping runway leading into the brightly lighted belly of the ship. For, awaiting him there, one hand outstretched and a cool little smile on her lips, stood the most beautiful girl he had ever seen.
“Mr Strike,” said Barrows, “this is Miss Gerry Carlyle.”
The trader stared, thunderstruck. In those days of advanced plastic surgery, feminine beauty wasn’t rare but even Strike’s unpracticed eye knew that here was the real thing. No synthetic blonde baby-doll here but a natural beauty untouched by the surgeon’s knife – spun-gold hair, intelligence lighting dark eyes, a hint of passion and temper in the curve of the mouth and arch of nostrils…
But Miss Carlyle’s voice was an ice-water jet to remind the trader of earthside manners.
“You don’t seem enthusiastic over meeting your temporary employer, Mr Strike…”
Stid: Old-fashioned stereotype here, eh? Wilful female eventually tamed by male who knows best…
Zendexor: I’d say, as a matter of fact, that the relationship between hero and heroine is particularly well handled. In action-adventure you don’t want anything too subtle, but let me summarize the writer’s achievement in this regard, by saying that we end up by accepting both Tommy Strike and Gerry Carlyle as real people. The man is quietly competent and content to allow the woman the starring role. The woman lives on her nerves, under great pressure to succeed in a man’s world.
Stid: A “man’s world” – in the interplanetary age? There you have it.
Zendexor: You mean, it’s stereotypical because it’s out of date? Don’t see why the one implies the other. Even if it did – every period of history generates its own rich crop of stereotypes, and isn’t it a relief to take a holiday from ours, once in a while? But this is a digression. Actually, stereotypophobes have nothing to fear from this book. As the two main characters grow to love and respect each other, the reader can share their mutual regard, as well as appreciating with zest the mutual double-crossing of the subsidiary characters, Van Zorn and Quade.
Harlei: It’s fiction, Stid, in case you hadn’t noticed. Pulp-era fiction. Explain to him what historical context means, Zendexor.
Zendexor: Yes, well, the stories are old-fashioned, no doubt about that. Arthur K Barnes wrote them in the late 1930s and early 1940s. But they still have the power to entertain us with the unexpected originality of their ideas, the fresh vigour of their old-fashioned characters, and above all the inventiveness of their portrayal of alien creatures.
Cross the colour and thought-provoking variety of Weinbaum‘s interplanetary adventures with the frontier wonderment of Campbell’s Penton and Blake saga, and you might get some idea of what awaits you with Barnes’ series.
Though I hasten to add that Barnes writes much, much better than Campbell. Only in the realm of ideas, of pure concepts, may Campbell equal him; but I hesitate even to say this. And it is Barnes who is by far the better at world-building.
…She sniffed noting what all newcomers to Venus learn. Although the view is a drab almost colorless one, an incredible multiplicity of odors assails the nostrils – sweet, sharp, musklike, pungent, spicy, with many unfamiliar olfactory sensations to boot.
Strike explained. On Earth flowering plants are fertilized by the passage of insects from one bloom to another, they develop petals of vivid colors to attract bees and butterflies and other insects. But on Venus, where perpetual mist renders impotent any appeal to sight, plants have adapted themselves to appeal to the sense of smell, therefore give off all sorts of enticing odors…
Such passages help promise the reader, that the story will rest upon logical foundations. So, when the heroine faces a mighty challenge, the reader is reassured that the author won’t cheat – that it won’t all be fixed by some lazy trick.
The challenge, in the Venus story, is provided by the ‘Murris’.
…Gerry Carlyle’s temper flared.
“What is the mystery about this Murri, anyhow? Everywhere I go, on Venus, back on Earth among members of my own profession, if the word Murri is mentioned everyone scowls and tries to change the subject. Why?”
No one answered. The Carlyle party shifted uneasily, their boots making shucking sounds. Presently Strike offered, “The fact is, you’ll never take back a Murri alive. But you wouldn’t believe me if I told you the reason, Miss Carlyle. I – “
“Why not? What’s the matter with them? Is their presence fatal to a human in some way?”
“Oh, no.”
“Are they so rare or shy they can’t be found?”
“No, I think I can find you some before you take off.”
“Then are they so delicate they can’t stand the trip? If so, I can tell you we’ve done everything to make hold number three an exact duplicate of living conditions here.”
“No, it isn’t that either,” the trader sighed.
“Then what is it?” she cried. “Why all the evasions and secretive looks?…”
I certainly didn’t guess the mystery. This author, in my view, really does deliver the goods. The stories – all of them – are unpredictable yet always manage to make their own kind of sense. We’re taken to several varied worlds: Venus, Amalthea, Triton, a comet, Saturn and Titan. Each time we’re given a starkly different kind of native life, with biological inventiveness to match that of Stanley G Weinbaum.
Harlei: Just a moment, Zendexor – you’ve said some good things about the book but I want you to praise it some more, in a different way. I’m a bit worried that some prospective readers might get the wrong impression from what you’ve said so far. I can imagine some of them thinking: well, maybe the stories are colourful and inventive, but still, they’re likely to be a bit repetitive, if each and every one of them is mainly concerned with the heroine capturing some difficult beast… I mean to say, if that’s the only structure the stories have –
more stuff to come, apparently
Zendexor: I get the point. But – no need to worry: Gerry’s plans run into plenty of other problems. It’s not just about catching beasts! There are alien intelligences too. Not that she is out to ensnare intelligent species, of course, but, unsuspecting, she meets some nonetheless, on Titan and on Almussen’s Comet. Also, the plot can hinge upon hostile action by her human enemies, for she has plenty of trouble from her own species, and these crises mingle with the simultaneous dangers from alien beasts and environments. Think of what happens on Triton and on Jupiter Five.
Stid: So, you’re giving it all the thumbs-up.
Zendexor: Look, such tales have the virtues and limitations of frontier adventures. They won’t give you what you get from Burroughs, Hamilton, Brackett, or from Clark Ashton Smith in The Immortals of Mercury and Vulthoom, namely the thrill of wandering among the ancient mysteries of exotic civilizations. Nevertheless if you follow Gerry and her “Ark” you will get the thrill of discovery, like in Smith’s other interplanetary masterpiece, The Immeasurable Horror. Although one must admit that Barnes is not a match for Smith stylistically, he’s still good enough, and his achievement will be appreciated by old-style OSS fans.
To sum up, this book is much, much better than it looks. And the Emshwiller illustrations are a delightful bonus. I have given only the Venus ones on this page; there are many more from the other worlds visited in the stories.
Arthur K Barnes, Interplanetary Hunter (1956).
See the Amalthea page for the visit to that moon, including a reference to the fearsome Cacus.
See the Triton page for the adventure set on that moon.
“The Damsel of the Holy Grail” by Dante Gabriel Rossetti (1874),
Where Art Thou?
by
John Presco
ALL RIGHTS RESERVED
Last night I purchased BELMONTSODAWORKS.COM
I own this domain KNIGHTSTEMPLAROFTURIN.COM
I own this domain CALIFORNIABARRELCOMPANY.NET
There have been many books published in the last thirty years that connect Jesus to Mary Magdalene in un-common ways. A million women believe Mary and Jesus were married. Ten years ago I began to consider Jesus was a Moabite King after Boaz, and – was married to Mary who was – HIS RUTH! This would constitute the Jesus Holy Blood Holy Grail Iiniage several authors have eluded to, Dan Brown eavesdropped on several E-Groups I belong to, and authored The Davinci Code. Brown emploued a famois work of art ‘The Last Supper to tell his Mystery Tale. Has the Getty Villa ever show a Leonardo Davinci work?
How long ago has it been since I took about five negatives to Dot Dotson’s and got them developed. The woman who did this, POINTED OUT the man sitting next to MARY MAGDALENE ROSAMOND…is holding a gum. The Codex scene from Brown’s movie came to mind. Who is that guy?
There is not other name. Mary Magdalene Rosamond is a name that stands – by itself. She could look up into her Rosy Tree, and see artists, and grandchildren at the Getty Villa. Consider….The Louver!
Four days ago I contacted The Villa. This post is a portion of the history I will be sending to them. I want them to sponsor a three day visit to the Villa, so I conduct my earnest search for….
Around four this afternnon, I got a box containing the urn for Drew Benton’s ashes. It was not what I ordered. It was black, with an object I could not identify on it. Then I saw it was the Titanic! WTF?
What potence has this brought. On the news I see homes on fire. Three hours later I see the Getty Villa is at the edge of the INFERNO that may burn a large area of residential LA.
JRP
EXTRA!
EVACUATION ORDER ISSUED FOR NORTHERN SANTA MONICA
Nancy Kirkwood Crane Davis was also the daughter of mystery writer Frances Crane, a fact uncovered by Tom and Enid Schantz while researching Davis’s life for their introduction to the Rue Morgue Press editions of his books. If you’re interested in learning more about Norbert Davis and his life, you’re strongly urged to read it. It’s excellent and definitely worth your while.
NORBERT DAVIS (1909-1949): A BIBLIOGRAPHY –
by Steve Lewis, Bill Pronzini & Victor A. Berch
NOVELS & COLLECTIONS –
The Mouse In The Mountain. Morrow, hc, 1943. [Doan and Carstairs.] McLelland, Canada, hc, 1943. Grosset & Dunlap, hc reprint, 1944. Cherry Tree #190, UK pb, 1944, as Rendezvous with Fear. Handi-Books #40, pb, 1945, as Dead Little Rich Girl. Rue Morgue Press, trade pb, 2001.
If there was a bloodline of Jesus – was it located in southern France or the deserts of Qumran in modern Israel? Did Jesus die on the cross or did he somehow survive to raise a family? There are legends that Mary Magdalene fled to France after the crucifixion and carried out missionary work across Provence. There is a sanctuary at Sainte-Baume, long thought to be a cave where Mary lived and prayed.
Today is Father’s Day. I’m sure my niece, Drew Benton, misses her father, Garth Benton, who did the murals for the Getty Villa that is celebrating 50th. birthday. Two days ago I discovered John Moffitt helped my brother-in-law with the Getty murals, and many murals they did for Movie Stars.
John Presco
50 Years of the Getty Villa Museum
As it evolved from a private estate to a vibrant hub for antiquity, the Getty Villa Museum became a beloved Los Angeles institution
Tiffany window in the Janke-Stuttmeister crypt in Colma
Yesterday, The Belmont Soda Works – rose from the ashes like a Phoenix Bird. That a Senator refers to Jason Bourne and “spy movies and books” is a REAL COUP for me, and a testimonial to my amazing research, and this blog. My Man In The Field, Spooky Noodles, suggested more than once, important people -must be reading Royal Rosamond Press! Four of my characters suffer from a Generalized Anxiety Disorder. Victoria Rosemond Bond, does sculptures to deal with her GAD at BAD. I wanted my spies to be VERY HUMAN, for in looking within for what makes us tick, they have boosted their powers of observation.
WE ARE FLAWED
We own….”sticky thoughts”?
John Presco
President: Royal Rosamond Press; Belmont Soda Works; California Barrel Company
At 1:38 A.M. on April 13, 2021, I founded the new Belmont Soda Works. An hour later I found a branch of the Janke family, born of Elizabeth Janke, the daughter of Carl. Her children and grandchild lived and worked in many places in Belmont. I also found proof that my great, great, grandfather brought six portable houses around the Cape and erected them in Belmont, a city that means ‘Beautiful Hill’. This makes Janke a premiere pioneer builder in the Bay Area, and the owner of one of California’s first Theme Parks. Cark and his family are business peers of Walt Disney. I also found the copyrighted post of my families achievements, that precedes all copyrights by anyone who had written about this very important and historic family. Elizabeth and Melba Broderick, my father’s mother, look alike. This post remains untouched, and contains the double posting of images that was occurring at this time, until I learned how to fix this. I will now make the Janke family the premiere family genealogy. I believe the photos above were taken in Janke’s Park. This is one of the or the First Families of the Bay Area. Anyone interested in manufacturing a soda, please e-mail me.
When Eva Adelia Johnson was born on 27 February 1880, in California, United States, her father, Amassa Parker Johnson, was 43 and her mother, Elizabeth Dorothy Janke, was 35. She married Lewis Charles Vannier on 19 October 1901, in Marin, California, United States. They were the parents of at least 1 son and 2 daughters. She lived in Judicial Township 2, San Mateo, California, United States in 1940 and Belmont, San Mateo, California, United States in 1969. She died on 21 December 1974, in San Mateo, California, United States, at the age of 94.
This extremely rare photo of the first west coast Black Mask get-together on January 11, 1936 captures possibly the only meeting of several of these authors.
Pictured in the back row, from left to right, are Raymond J. Moffatt, Raymond Chandler, Herbert Stinson, Dwight Babcock, Eric Taylor and Dashiell Hammett. In the front row, again from left to right, are Arthur Barnes (?), John K. Butler, W. T. Ballard, Horace McCoy and Norbert Davis.
Rosemary told me her father, Royal Rosamond, used to sail to the Channel Islands and camp with his friend, Dashiell Hammett who is seen standing on the right in the photo above.
Aunt Lillian told me she would fall asleep listening to Royal and Erle Stanley Gardner on the typewriter in the living room. Royal was Gardner’s teacher and a member of the Black Mask. I believe I can almost recoginize Black Mask authors under the tree on Santa Cruz Island sitting under a tree with my grandmother, Mary Magdalene Rosamond, who does not look very happy as she embraces a black dog. Who is that woman? Is she a writer? She looks a bit crazed, as does the guy holding a gun. Is Mary hearing some far-out and weird ideas around the campfire?
When I was fifteen Rosemary showed me about six magazines wherein her father’s stories appeared. There were several mysteries. I am going to send the camping photo to some experts. That looks like Raymond Chandler in front of the tent. Is he the guy packing heat?
Hammett wrote the Maltese Falcon that begins with a story about the Knight Templars. Was this a tale passed around the campfire on Santa Cruz Island?
Marilyn is a homeless idiot savant living in the ruins of Playland at the Beach in San Francisco. She would be diagnosed with Aspergers that is known to produce beings of extraordinary mental powers. It’s all here! The Archetype of a Masterpiece. This is my farewell to the Generation of Love – and Fun. With the demolition of Playland, and the Fun House, comes the rise of the Righteous Right, the inventors of the new Inquisition bent on attacking the Liberal-Left – where it hurts.
“THERE WILL BE NO MORE MAD PEOPLE HAVING FUN. WE MUST GET SERIOUS AND BALANCE THE BUDGET.”
The Prankster Clowns must be rounded up and put in a Loony Bin, or, buried alive in the ‘Mad Mine’. All the Fun Ore has been depleted. Time to go to work for Ronny McClown the Out of Work Actor, the Right-wing Con Man.
The reason I abandoned this play was the incredibly sad conclusion that the creative telepathic connection I had with my late sister, was no more. I was able to keep that channel open for two years. I had lost contact with Marilyn Reed. My play was turning into a musical. There is a very prophetic number with Aryan dancers singing like Negros as they go down the isles of Limbo Church – that will blow your mine! What muse, what spirit, is dictating my……stuff!
My protagonist is caught up in a legal battle over the land where Bohemian Playland was built. The Yuppiefiers want to build condos. It’s a case of Gentrification. It would not be till the year 2000 that I discovered one of my great grandfathers founded a theme park in Belmont. My sixteen year old daughter came into my life in 2,000. I thought I was fatherless. Instead of having fun together, making up for lost time, she was the point of the compass for unfunny folks waiting in the wings, waiting for me to strike it rich – as a writer! There was not a writer or artist among the lot, but, when they perceived, somehow, their fortune took a turn for the worse, they threw their monkey wrench into my works. Most fun dies like this, with a scowl and a whimper.
“Why?”
Not till this morning did I realize Belle was Marilyn, who “ran with the Psycho-babel Bitches from Hell’ in the streets of New York. Two hours after I met Belle, I am on the phone telling Marilyn Reed I had met a younger version of her. Twenty years later I get a letter from Rena informing me of her amazing memory. Pan is present. The broken merry-go-round is Belle’s parents Labyrinth walk, that came to an end. Or. did it?
Look, there is a fallen tower with the words “Diving Bell” upon it. I captured Beauty in a play that has held a city hostage, for all these years. She who was asleep, is now awoken.
Mon Muse! My beautiful muse! Alas, we are free! “We are all a chuckle and a kiss away from returning to paradise.
On Fri, Apr 18, 2014 at 6:59 PM, John Ambrose wrote:
Belle, my big project in Love Dance, a Broadway musical based upon the music of LOVE. Bryan was my best friend in HS. He was a roadie for the Byrds when he was 17. We hung out in a coffee shop in LA in 1963.
I about choked when you told me your were a dancer! Belle! You ring all my belles and set off all my whistles. It is just the way it is.
I want to see the hippie dance extravaganza on Broadway! How about you?
Jon
I feel I have emerged from the Labyrinth. I feel, so free to say this without regret, without shame, without remorse….I am in love with Belle Burch!
This is a victory for both of us, for within minutes of beholding her, I knew I was going to immortalize her. I knew she was the one after capturing her in a video. I turned off my camera in order to explain to her why she is the one. I just said the name “Rosamond”
Author JOHN K. BUTLER is best-known, at least in our little neck of the woods, for the numerous stories he pounded out for such pulps as Black Mask, Detective Fiction Weekly, Double Detective and especially Dime Detective.
more stuff to come, apparentlyRoyal Rosamond PressFebruary 18, 2020 at 4:56 amEditReblogged this on Rosamond Press and commented:I have identified two Black Mask authors that are camping with my grandparents. These men had to know Dashiel Hammett who I told Bill Arney Royal Rosamond knew.http://www.mikehumbert.com/Dashiell_Hammett_16_Post_Street.htmlReply
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