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Post by dem on Jan 28, 2009 12:11:36 GMT
Red Skelton (ed.) - A Red Skelton In Your Closet: Ghost Stories Gay and Grim, selected by the master of comedy (Grosset & Dunlap, 1965) (ghost edited by Robert Arthur) J. Flora Red Skelton - Of Course I Believe in Ghosts Andrew McCullen (Robert Arthur) - The Spook Upon The Stair (verse)
John West (Robert Arthur) - My Displaced Ghosts Lord Dunsany - In A Dim Room Barbee Oliver Carleton - The Wonderful Cat of Cobbie Bean James Whitcomb Riley - Little Orphant Annie Andrew Benedict (Robert Arthur) - To Starch A Spook Saki - The Open Window Washington Irving - The Moor's Legacy James Whitcomb Riley - Nine Little Goblins Richard Middleton - The Ghost Ship Lafcadio Hearn - The Boy Who Drew Cats Robert Arthur - The Haunted Trailer Arthur Guiterman - The Superstitious Ghost Manly Wade Wellman - "O Ugly Bird!" Oscar Wilde - The Canterville Ghost Julius Long - He Walked By Day W.S. Gilbert - When The Night Wind Howls Walter Brooks - Mr. Whitcomb's Genie John Kendrick Bangs - The Water Ghost Jerome K. Jerome - Three Ghost Stories For Christmas Eve: The Faithful Ghost The Ruined House The Ghost In The Blue Chamber
A prolific anthologist in the 'sixties, Robert Arthur (1909-1969) doesn't seem to have received the recognition he deserves, this almost certainly due to the fact that his best work in the field was as the ghost editor of several Alfred Hitchcock collections (see the Was Peter Haining 'Alfred Hitchcock'? thread) and a pair by actor, comedian and clown painter Red Skelton (1913-1997). Arthur would invariably contribute at least one of his own stories to each collection, and the best have something of an Amicus feel to them (think Jack Oleck's ace novelisation of Tales From The Crypt). Personal favourites include The Jokester which sees a morbid mortuary prank go spectacularly wrong, Jack the Ripper outing The Knife, the self-explanatory black magic tale The Mirror Of Cagliostro, The Wall To Wall Grave (as 'Andrew Benedict') a modern day variation on Poe's The Cask of Amontillado, Footsteps Invisible (A mummy avenges itself on an archaeologist) and The Rose-Crystal Bell which reworks The Monkey's Paw. Some of these would be collected in Ghosts And More Ghosts (Random House, 1963), but he's really crying out for 'Best Of ...' treatment. Robert Arthur - Ghosts And More Ghosts (Random House, 1963: Windward, 1972) Footsteps Invisible Mr. Milton's Gift The Rose-Crystal Bell The Marvelous Stamps from El Dorado The Wonderful Day Don't Be a Goose Do You Believe in Ghosts? Obstinate Uncle Otis Mr. Dexter's Dragon Hank Garvey's Daytime GhostArthur ghost-edited a second anthology for Mr. Skelton, but so far I've been unable to find a full contents list. Red Skelton's Favorite Ghost Stories (Tempo, 1970) (ghost edited by Robert Arthur) Harry Kane
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Post by Steve on Jan 28, 2009 13:02:52 GMT
Arthur ghost-edited a second anthology for Mr. Skelton, but so far i've been unable to find a full contents list. Red Skelton's Favorite Ghost Stories is A Red Skeleton In Your Closet retitled, Dem - though I notice it says it's 'abridged'. Don't know what was left out of the paperback but anyway, there you go.
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Post by dem on Jan 28, 2009 16:50:27 GMT
Thanks for setting me straight, Steve. Apart from these and the Alfred Hitchcock anthologies, do you know if he ghosted any more? I know he edited a few under his own name, mostly for the young adult market by the looks of it.
Happy new year to you.
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Post by doug on Mar 3, 2009 7:18:21 GMT
Hi! This is my first post. Robert Arthur is also the guy who wrote/created the "Three Investigators " series! en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Three_InvestigatorsDoes anyone remember these? I'm from Ohio and they were very popular when I was young ( early 1970s.).
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Post by dem on Mar 3, 2009 11:43:11 GMT
Hi doug, thanks for joining and i hope you have a good time with us.
I'm afraid i missed on the 'Three Investigators' books, but he's one of those authors who snuck up on me in that i never realised how much i enjoyed his work until i started lumping the titles together for this thread.
So, of the 'Investigators ... ' books: have any got particular horror or supernatural interest?
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Post by The Lurker In The Shadows on Mar 3, 2009 11:57:49 GMT
They had a few "Three Investigators" books in my primary school library. A bit like "The Hardy Boys", except the 3 youngsters here were forever dropping by the movie studio to ask Alfred Hitchcock for advice on their cases.
The title that sticks in mind, though not the plot, is "the Green Ghost", and I think I remember ones with mummies and vampires, too.
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Post by Johnlprobert on Mar 3, 2009 12:11:50 GMT
The Three Investigators' Books were the young JLP's staple reading along with Dr Who books before I saw the mummy face of Pan Horror Volume 9 and dived into a harder sexier more gruesome world.
I loved them! Well the first ten or so anyway. I don't think they had much of a horror angle but I remember Secret of Terror Castle (No.1) scaring me, and the graveyard climax of The Mystery of the Stuttering Parrot was very atmospheric in my 8 year old mind. Favourite was The Screaming Clock - I always loved the ones where 'complicated' codes had to be solved.
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Post by dem on Mar 3, 2009 12:13:29 GMT
Thanks, Lurkio. Do they follow the Shudder Pulp/Scoobie Doo approach - the 'monster' is eventually revealed to be the kindly Mayor or the frail old spinster with a previously unsuspected talent for disguise and bomb-making - or are we talking real mummies, ghosts and vampires here?
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Post by The Lurker In The Shadows on Mar 3, 2009 12:24:12 GMT
Pretty sure they all had rational explanations, though the criminals were a wee bit more exotic than the disgruntled ex-fairground employee-types. I think there were mad oriental scientists and the like, though it's been thirty years or so since I read any of them.
I must have read "The Secret of Terror Castle", since I know I read the one where they first met Alfred Hitchcock. And, like I say, "The Green Ghost" is a familiar title. But I've no idea how many of these, or how many Hardy Boys books, I ever actually borrowed from the school library before I moved onto "The House of the Nightmare", the one horror anthology I remember them having.
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Post by Craig Herbertson on Mar 3, 2009 12:35:32 GMT
Hi Doug.
I read about ten of them several times over.
I remember Secret of Terror Castle (No.1) scaring me John
Unfortunately I remember nothing about them except the covers and that I must have enjoyed them.
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Post by dem on Apr 9, 2009 1:34:17 GMT
Should really give him is own thread, but seeing as this one has much more to do with Arthur than Skelton, might just as well continue here. Found these spread over a number of anthologies and they really should be collected. The novella, The Mirror Of Cagliostro is maybe the stand out, but the only one I wasn't greatly fond of was The Haunted Trailer.
The Mirror Of Cagliostro: "Jacques the Ripper. Never was caught, this Jaques. He froze to death in the gutter one winters night - but only after the spirit of Cagliostro had safely quitted his mortal flesh .... One has heard of the Marquis de Sade ...." Young Bostonian Harry Langham travels to Paris while researching his thesis on Cagliostro, reputedly the most powerful black magician of the eighteenth century, although equally likely to have been a clever charlatan. Professor Thibaut, a leading authority on Cagliostro, warns him against following up on his information as "evil never dies", but Langham isn't to be dissuaded. In the catacombs below St. Martins church he is given a private viewing of the tomb of Yvette Dulaine, the woman who spurned the magician and whose perfectly preserved body is neither dead nor alive. Harry furiously berates the curator for showing him a "wax model" but the face of Yvette haunts him in the night.
While in London he buys an antique mirror which he immediately recognises as Cagliostro's from Bob's Odds & Ends in Soho. Genial stage cockney Bob explains to him that the previous owner, the Duke of Burchester, met his end as a result of it falling on him while he was attacking it with an axe, but Harry isn't listening. Although the glass is concealed behind a layer of black paint, there is a strip that has peeled away, and briefly he catches a glimpse of the terrified Yvette crying out to him in silent scream.
Having cleaned the mirror, Harry learns to his cost that Cagliostro is still a force to be reckoned with as he finds himself trapped in the mirror, the magician commandeering his body to indulge his insatiable passion for rape and murder.
The Jokester: Serial practical joker Dave Bradley of The Express plays one of his mean pranks on old Pop Henderson, the slow-witted night attendant at the morgue, getting him in bother with Sarge Roberts who's been waiting for an opportunity to fire him. Bradley's second victim of the night is a little guy in a bar, who doesn't take kindly to being given the hot-foot. Unfortunately for Bradley, said little guy is Kid Wilkins, hot-tempered prize-fighter, who promptly punches him out, the journalist breaking his neck on the way down. When Bradley comes to he finds himself back in the morgue, and old Pops has had his fill of 'hilarious' jokes for one night ....
The Knife: Herbert Smithers finds the antique knife in a pile of muck along Dorset Street, Whitechapel. When the barmaid of The Three Oaks tries to take it from him to get a better look at the ruby embedded in the hilt he snaps and plants it in her breast. Horrified at what he's done, Smithers runs from the pub leaving behind the murder weapon which Edward Dawes greedily retrieves. He's trying to prize the jewel free when his wife disturbs him and becomes another victim of the demon knife. Both men are apprehended and swear that the blade acted independent of them. Inspector Frayne wonders about a previous owner.
The Rose-Crystal Bell: This is Arthur's take on The Monkey's Paw and almost brilliant in an Amicus kind of way. As they approach their 20th wedding anniversary, Dr. Mark Williams and wife Edith revisit the old antique shop in Mott Street where he bought her the rose-crystal necklace as a honeymoon present. This time, at her insistence, Mark buys the a broken rose-crystal bell from which the clapper has been deliberately removed as it is said to summon the dead. Of course, the pendant on her necklace fits the ornament and soon the cast are dying and returning with abandon. For each person who returns, however, one must die. Now their son is reported incinerated in a car smash and nothing can persuade Edith against reviving him ....
I said almost brilliant as Arthur pulls his punch at the end and opts for subtle over sheer horror but it's still well worth a read.
Footsteps Invisible: Times Square. Blind newspaper vendor Jorman has a highly developed sense of hearing and can identify people by their footsteps. One rainy night he gets talking to the English archaeologist Sir Andrew Carraden, a man with a guilty secret from his time in Egypt excavating the tomb of Tut-Ankh-Tothet. The ghastly guardian has pursued him relentlessly across the globe and he’s seen what it can do to a guard dog ….
The Wall-To-Wall Grave (as 'Andrew Benedict'): Morton's daughter Lucy drowned herself after Davis, the star player on the college football team, broke her heart. Morton, taking inspiration from Poe's The Cask Of Amontillado, chains Davis to a radiator in a high-rise block. "No-one has entered that room for two years ....."
The Haunted Trailer: Melvin Mason's impending marriage to his beloved Monica is scuppered by the ghosts of five tramp's who commandeer his trailer. The five, led by Spike Higgins and Slippery Samuels, pick up where they left off in life and embark on a crime spree and Mason's nuptials looked doomed - until he learns that Monica's dying uncle happens to be their old nemesis, "Dan Bracer, the toughest Bull that ever kicked a poor 'bo off a freight." Dan contentedly drops dead, his spectre rises to take on his old enemies, so now all Melvin has to do is not blow it with Monica .....
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