PoS Book Club
Exploring the worst and weirdest books the world has to offer. Who appointed these guys critics? No one.
PoS Book Club
S2E5 The Hardy Boys: Footprints Under the Window by Franklin W. Dixon
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Gather 'round, gumshoes. The boys are on the beat this week cracking the case of 1933's Footprints Under the Window, a remarkably racist entry in early Hardy Boys canon centered on anti-Chinese xenophobia. Beyond the text, our detectives dig into the sleazy world of the Stratemeyer Syndicate (also known for Nancy Drew) and their immense impact on American YA fiction and the book world at large.
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Intro
SPEAKER_02The boys heard a violent pounding from the vicinity of a closet at the end of the hall. Don't let him out, shrieked the nurse. He'll murder us all. It's a Chinaman, screamed Aunt Gertrude.
SPEAKER_04Alrighty, to all the members present and worldwide. I hereby call this meeting of the Piece of Shit Book Club to order. I'm your esteemed chair, Grant C. Ashcroft, and thank you so much for making time in your busy schedule to attend this meeting today. We got a jam-pack agenda, and uh looking around the room, I see we well, we don't quite have quorum, but uh let's go with it anyhow. Before we get things rolling, let's take a minute to introduce the piece of shit members present today. Chip Wilson, thanks so much for making time in your schedule, Chip.
SPEAKER_03Hey, good morning. I'm happy to be here.
SPEAKER_04Good day. And uh joining as ever is our resident young adult orientalism literature expert, Dr. Bo Dashington, PhD. Doctor, thank you so much for joining us.
SPEAKER_05Hey, thanks for having me. I mean, you know me. You invite me, I turn up on the dot on time. You never have to wait a second for me. I'm here, I'm ready to go.
SPEAKER_04Much appreciated. And also joining us is oh no, not Jane Lynch, because Jane Lynch slept in and has punked us. So let's see if Jane decides to shove for his own podcast later on.
SPEAKER_03Might I add, after requesting, we change the recording day.
SPEAKER_04Yeah, 100% correct. We're recording this on a different day at his request, and then he punks us. That's that's a real power move. So I'm doing fantastic today, by the way. Thanks for asking. Um, I not to get off on a little tangent here, but I have been putting off getting a physical for years. And this week I decided to get a bunch of tests done, and I opened my test results right before the podcast today on the picture of health.
SPEAKER_05I clean as a whistle.
SPEAKER_04Congratulations. I got I got high cholesterol, but ace the HIV test. Like, just totally massive. Like no one's ever seen. No one's ever seen the all the ultrasound. So I got everything done. I got like urine, stool, blood, x-rays, heart monitor, uh, full abdominal scan. The ultrasound doctor told me I had the best all like this guy just spends his whole day doing dozen doll channels. He said, This is the best one I've seen all day. But but the cherry on top, and I'm putting this out as a challenge. This is not primal blue chip club talk. I am a high tea boy officially, so got my T checked. I'm off the charts. There's a a reference interval for men aged 20 to 50, and I am above the reference interval. Okay. I'm even beating 20-year-olds. Okay, careful with phrasing, but an insane amount of testosterone just coursing through my blood right now. So just look out.
SPEAKER_03Well, congrats. It sounds like you're very comfortable with your body, feeling good.
SPEAKER_04And if you guys want to go for like a tea challenge, um, I'm happy to put it out to anyone out there. Let's reflect on that and we'll get back to you. All right. Well, like look getting back to the uh the business at hand here. For today's book, this one's wow, we're really reaching into the uh the shit pile today. So picture this. It's 1933. Anti-Asian sentiment is at a fever pitch, uh, immigration from Asian countries is strictly banned. Fears of yellow peril dominate the tabloid press, and into that toxic atmosphere steps the Hardy Boys. Two pint-sized detectives who are mostly known for solving small town mysteries. Yes, it's Frank W. Dixon's uh footprints under the window. So ostensibly, it's about an evil Chinese human trafficker. The dialogue in this book is so rife with cartoonishly offensive caricatures of Chinese people that all of the podcast members have refused to read any passages today. So from what I understand, we have a we brought in a special guest star to do the the racist heavy lifting, I think. Uh, but yeah, we'll we'll see. We'll see how that works out. Uh before we step on that landmine, though, of course, as we always do, we need to crack open the book report. So the book report is our grab bag segment of news, doings, happenings, and new releases. Before I open it up to the members assembled here, uh just a little bit of quick housekeeping. So the majority of our listeners are coming to us from Apple iTunes, but we don't actually have any reviews there yet. So if you're a Tim Apple fanboy, fangirl, take a second and give us a review. You'd be doing us a big favor. Your name will be automatically inducted into the piece of shit book club on a roll. An extremely exclusive group of people, um, seeing as I just made it up. All right, book boys.
News and Doings: Upcoming Reviews, Patriotic Literature, Men's Groups, Modelland and more
SPEAKER_04What's on your mind?
SPEAKER_05Can I just say I've got a couple points that are slightly relevant, maybe slightly relevant. Firstly, calling the segment the book report has always confused me. Because to me, the book report is like the big report on one book, like like you do at school. It's too late to be changing the names of stuff. What do we even call the main segment? I thought it was like the feature. The feature, you know, main feature. Okay.
SPEAKER_04Look, if you have great ideas as to what you want to call the book report, then have at it.
SPEAKER_03The main section is called the book report part two, the real book report. Report two, electric boogaloo. Yeah, yeah.
SPEAKER_05Well, there we go. So, point number two. Point number two, which is just, you know, I was listening to last week's podcast, and when you know, when our previous week's host, whatever his name is, was talking about the aliens, he kept making references to the Jetsons. This week we're talking about the fucking Hardy Boys. The episode before that, we were talking about the important distinctions between Lonnie Anderson and Goldie On. I think we should Which are important, which are all very important. I think we're making ourselves seem significantly older than we actually are. Like this, that's not our none of that stuff's our generation. That's all at least one, if not two generations before us. Why are why are our de why are our references so dated and shit? Grant used the word punked three times in the intro. No one said punk since 2008.
SPEAKER_04Yeah, but that's that's our generations. Guys get punked, you know, in the aughts in the the late 90s. Everyone was getting punked back then. Like you couldn't stop Ashton Kutcher.
SPEAKER_03If we want some more recent references, I could I could start working some like Star Trek Deep Space Nine stuff into it, I think.
unknownYeah.
SPEAKER_04I've been doing a rewatch of classic Law and Order. That's about as recent as I'm getting these days. Well, nice.
SPEAKER_05Watching watching perps get punked.
SPEAKER_04Exactly. Uh, okay. Well, I don't think we're gonna have updated references uh in this book. You've read it, you've you've heard the terminology that's employed in uh this week's feature book. Don't count on anything. I think it was antiquated even for the 1930s. So okay, point number two, and uh moving along, point number three.
SPEAKER_05I I don't have a point number three. That's all my points I see the rest of my time.
SPEAKER_04You didn't read anything?
SPEAKER_05Nothing you want to contribute to the book report in terms of and I read books, but I I don't read books that are relevant for discussion about pieces of shit literature. Um but I suppose maybe like maybe quick chat on like what what we've been talking about um reading for next week. We've been talking about Tyra Banks Model Land. We've been talking about um reading one of those James Patterson books. Uh because James Patterson is like he's one of the if not the best-selling author of all time, he's right up there. But he is accused of using ghost writers, and he writes he's written books with Bill Clinton and with Hillary Clinton.
SPEAKER_04Yeah, I don't know. What do you think? And the Russell Brand book, but we were waiting for trial to commence.
SPEAKER_03Well, I mean, I I proposed Model and I'd kind of like to do it because I I took a little peek, I read some of it, and it's just so bad shit. And there's almost this like unintentional body horror component to the way that Tyra Banks writes, and I'm pretty sure that one's distinct. That like I think she actually did write it. It's not just some like ghost-written thing because it's it's far too strange for like a professional writer to put together. So that's what I'm really interested in.
SPEAKER_04And it probably ticks your box of modern references, you know.
SPEAKER_03I'm sure it's geared towards Gen Alpha, you know, it's all about mogging and yeah, but isn't Tyra Banks like she was really popular like 20 years ago, wasn't she?
SPEAKER_04Yeah.
SPEAKER_03I mean, that's what just makes you sound even older that you think she's modern.
SPEAKER_04Yeah, um, I I could go with models. I uh, you know, I I really try not to get too involved in the book selection. Uh, you know, I'm just here to moderate and make sure that we have a well-run meeting that adheres to Robert's rules. Really, that's kind of what I see my role as.
SPEAKER_03I I do like with a lot of the threads that we've been pursuing, because like a lot of the narratives or social movements that the books reflect, um, they have these like weird origins. Like there's modern grifters, let's say, but there's like a generation of grifters or two generations or three that precede them. And so I think it is sometimes interesting to kind of go back to the origin of some topics. And um on that, I don't know if you can see what I'm sharing here, but what I was gonna bring for the book report, uh, actually a friend found this. A circle of men, which is a 92 the original manual for men's support groups. So it's got all this uh details on how you start a new men's group, um, running your training, making uh safe space for risk taking, opening to the male mode of feeling. And for existing men's groups, he's got guides on creating rituals, what to expect at your group matures, dealing with problems, going deeper, missing fathers, our wounds as men.
SPEAKER_04So the cover has a picture of a bunch of men on it, and it looks like a group of men on the dole. Uh or maybe up to no good.
SPEAKER_03So I think this guy is co-founder. This is from Bill Kauf. Kout Koth, sorry, um, or Koth, I'm not sure, but uh co-founder of the New Warrior Training Adventure. So I'm pretty sure these are the guys where you go and it's like a weekend training thing, uh, where you kind of be wild men, something like that.
SPEAKER_05They scream at you and call you a pussy.
SPEAKER_03Yeah, that kind of thing. So that's one that I'm I've got in hard copy.
SPEAKER_04Well, actually, on that note, I've got uh there's a great new release that I'm keeping an eye on. That's actually right up uh your alley if you're into men's groups. So it's called The Man of Zero: A Guide to Primal Power, Boundless Sex, and the Freedom Beyond Ambition by this guy, David Dida. Uh, I'm gonna read from the back cover. This might appeal, it appeals to me greatly. It might appeal to you as well. When you don't want to do anything and life feels meaningless, what's the next step? Zero motivation can be a portal to a deeper way of living. The man of zero shows a way to relax through the doorway of emptiness into a freedom more powerful than sex and more boundless than success. Written in short chapters of essential instructions that evoke immediate insight and experience. Dida shows how to live your life while resting as zero, being effortlessly present, aware, and complete without the need for striving.
SPEAKER_03Without the need for striving?
SPEAKER_04Yeah. Man of Zero. Number one new release in men's gender studies, uh, 2631 on hardcover. Uh, and it came out uh 12th of May 2026. So it's already out there if you wanted to pick it up and see how you can live your life as a zero.
SPEAKER_03Men's gender studies is kind of a funny phrase. Sounds like it's like gender studies, but only under the control of men. You know what I mean? Or only done by men. Right. Patriarchy studies.
SPEAKER_04Also, there's a tremendous amount, a tremendous amount of patriotic literature that's coming up for the 250th anniversary of July 4th. Oh god. So there's there's a lot of great ones to choose from. There's America, I'm so glad you were born, celebrating the country we love by Ainsley Earhart. Uh, you know her, I love her from uh Fox and Friends. There's All American Patriotism, celebrating 250 years of America's greatness. Uh, there is Revolution, the birth of the greatest nation in the history of the world by Steve Deese. And those are just a few of the many patriotic titles that uh are on Amazon's new releases. The America, I'm So Glad You Were Born, is number one bestseller in Children's Independence Day books. So it's a tough category to be number one, but uh Ainsley has done it. Congrats. Also, and the last book that I were keeping an eye on this week, new release, uh, this is Unburdened, a memoir by a lady named Dorrit Kemsley. You know her from The Real Housewives of Beverly Hills. It's a candid memoir in which she reveals the unscripted moments that shaped who she is today. She reveals the true stories behind hashtag PantyGate and hashtag puppy gate. And the terrifying home invasion that shattered her sense of security, the dissolution of her marriage, and the pressure of living under constant public scrutiny. Uh 256 pages, 2060 on hardcover. Uh just came out June 2nd. So it's available. And uh three point three point eight stars on Amazon, uh, number one bestseller in television performer biographies. 3.8 stars, you might think it's not that good. But if you look at Hitler 1941 to 1944, Inside the Fuhrer Bunker, written by Adolf Hitler, that's got 3.73 stars out of five. So it's it's slightly edging out there. Uh Adolf Hitler's from Inside the Fuhrer Bunker. Why is this book a piece of shit?
SPEAKER_05Like, it's not a topic that I find interesting, uh, diary of a real housewives person, but is she running some grift or something? Or is it just why you gotta step on my contributions to the book reporter?
SPEAKER_04It's just asking. It's a it's a it's a memoir from a lady on Real Housewives of Beverly Hills. You think it's gonna be a great piece of literature?
SPEAKER_05I just read a book by a uh former cast member of Survivor called Ross Rub Sester Nino, a book called The Tribe and I Have Spoken. And it's just about the reality TV show. It's nothing, it doesn't claim to be anything else. It's just about Survivor. I fucking loved it. It was a great book.
SPEAKER_04Alright, well, maybe you want to pick up Unburden then. This might be right up your avalanche.
SPEAKER_05My my my point was that it might be. I wonder if it's a good book for the people who are really into real housewives and just not of interest to anyone else.
SPEAKER_03Can I include a memoir that's maybe not a piece of shit since we all have? Please. Fifth Chinese Daughter by Jade Snow Wong. This is one I got that's like the original 1950. It's like the memoir of a young woman growing up Chinese in the US. I guess it's second generation. Did I give that to you as a present? I think you did.
SPEAKER_05Yeah, yeah. I think I brought I brought it from I was in Hotlanta and found this old bookstore and for some reason saw that and picked up some of his brothers.
SPEAKER_03Well, there you go. A little bit of book club lore as well, showcasing a friendship dating back uh nearly decades, like decades now. Topical for the uh the Hardy Boys take on uh Chinese immigration. Uh interesting to kind of see the perspective of uh someone who grew up at that time in the in the 1930s in the US. But uh it's kind of interesting though, as I was just looking a little bit on at online discourse about it, and like a lot of people don't like it in retrospect because it's sort of the story of her being like a kind of model uh immigrant and assimilating and so on. So people have their critiques of that. But nonetheless, it's a it's a pretty good reader, a important part of you know what I mean, the immigrant story in the US for the Chinese community.
SPEAKER_05Yeah, whatever. Yeah, that's what they're doing.
SPEAKER_03Yeah.
SPEAKER_05Look, I just read a book on Chinese immigration, all right? I don't need to read another one.
SPEAKER_04And so closes this chapter's book report. Thank you for your contributions, piece of shit, book
Feature Segment: Hardy Boys Footprints Under the Window Discussion
SPEAKER_04club members. I will now cede the floor to Dr. Bo Dashington, PhD, for our feature segment on Footprints Under the Window by Frank W. Dixon. Take it away, Dr. Dashington.
SPEAKER_05Yeah, thanks so much. I'm not really sure why we decided to do the Hardy Boys this week, but yeah, we're doing the Hardy Boys. And so we're this is actually book number 12 in the Hardy Boys series, and it was published in 1933. Part of a successful series. It was deemed so racist so quickly that the publishers rewrote the whole thing within 20 years. But we'll we'll we'll get to that. But yeah, the Hardy Boys. We've got our own history with the Hardy Boys. Grant, I think you said at the beginning that you you read the Hardy Boys when you were a kid.
SPEAKER_04Yeah, I love the Hardy Boys growing up. Uh, I had uh a few of the books on hardcover, just kind of fun, uh innocent, small town mystery, detective stories. Um, it's really accessible, they're fast-paced, and they use actually a lot of advanced language for a YA book. So yeah, it always kind of appealed to me. It seemed wholesome.
SPEAKER_03I think in a way, we're sort of like the Hardy Boys of book clubs. Sort of digging deep into the mysteries behind some ne'er do wells, the bit of juvenile humor thrown in there.
SPEAKER_05Let's well, let's take that as a compliment for getting all the all the racism parts that we're right about to discuss. Before we get to that, before we dive into the book, because not everyone out there may be sort of up to speed with who the Hardy Boys are and what they what they represented. This series was it was produced by this book packager called Edward Stratemeyer, who basically pioneered the model of publishing lots and lots of books in a series and producing them at really low cost and getting ghostwriters to write. So the Hardy Boys series is all written under the pseudonym Franklin W. Dixon, but he didn't actually exist. Um, and there were many other ghostwriters that uh that wrote the the books that were published. And this this model was one that is like a little bit exploitative of the authors. Like they had no rights to the book afterwards. During the Great Depression, he slashed their wages because he realized he could pay them a hell of a lot less. So not necessarily the nicest guy, but created this um this extremely influential series. Depending on how you count, there's there's 190 books in the original Hardy Boys Mystery Stories, which is the main canon series. Um, but there's a number of other series of books since. And the total is is actually uh almost 500 books have been published in the Hardy Boys. The first one published in 1927, it's their 99th birthday this year. And it's kind of hard to exaggerate how huge the Hardy Boys were. Like I think probably nowadays no one really thinks about the Hardy Boys, but they were they sold 70 million copies, which is a hell of a lot of copies of books, um, you know, in in the time period we're talking about. And to and to draw a comparison with other series, it's about the same amount of books that Winnie the Pooh sold, and only a little bit less than the Song of Ice and Fire series, the Game of Thrones series.
SPEAKER_04What about last meeting? Wasn't it 70 million that Chariots of the Gods sold? Or do I have that wrong?
SPEAKER_03Yeah. Oh wow.
SPEAKER_05Well, there you go.
SPEAKER_03So it's like about as influential as Chariots of the Gods.
SPEAKER_05Yeah. Which is incredible. Yeah. That's amazing. What a compliment. Compliments just keep coming.
SPEAKER_03But even like I didn't I didn't read the Hardy Boys a Kid, but like obviously growing up, it felt like you automatically knew what the Hardy Boys were or the whole thing.
SPEAKER_05I had a bunch of the books, but I never I never read a single page of one of them. I don't know why. I just I read a lot as a kid, but never had the slightest interest in them.
SPEAKER_04You talked a little bit about this Stratermeier Syndicate. You know, you mentioned that these these guys, it was this publisher. Later it passed on to his daughters. His daughters would write the treatment, um, so it would be an outline, and then they would give it to the ghostwriter in order to finish. Um, the ghostwriter of of this piece was uh the book we're reading this week, this guy named Leslie McFarlane, uh, who was actually a Canadian journalist.
SPEAKER_02Yeah.
SPEAKER_04And he abored this work. You know, he would he was paid, as you say, somewhere in the neighborhood of 85 to 100 bucks per book. He didn't get any residuals. There's some there's some fun quotes from him. This is from his journal, 1933. So this came out right around around the same time that this book was published. Quote, tried to get at the juvenile again today, but the ghastly job appalls me. Uh Strattermeyer set along the advance, so I was able to pay part of the grocery bill and get a load of dry wood. So I mean he lives in north, he lives in in like wintry northern Ontario, where if you don't have dry wood, you're going to freeze. He died. Yeah. They give him an outline, but to make it palatable, he'd come up with different characters. He'd he'd add color, huge, large words, and then when he'd finish, he'd always say, like, I'm never gonna write another one of these pieces of crap again. And a lot of the secrets of this Stratermeyer syndicate came out during a civil case when they tried to switch publishers in the 80s. And so a lot of them had to go on record, they had to testify, they had to do depositions, and it came out like exactly how sleazy the practices of this uh syndicate was. So ghostwriters weren't allowed to contact one another. They they couldn't identify themselves, they weren't even told how many other ghostwriters were working for a Hardy Boys franchise or any of the other popular franchise they ran because they didn't want these ghostwriters to unionize. They couldn't discuss pay rates. Uh, and there was also a lot of like corporate espionage on them. So they kept invasive dossiers on the writers' personal lives, financial desperations, their families. And they'd use all of this as leverage in order to keep the per book rates as low as possible and suppress any sort of request for for royalties. So a real sleazy operation from top to bottom.
SPEAKER_03Yeah, it's it's that's Came through to me as well, is like just how in retrospect, how like exploitative and like I don't know, cold-blooded capitalist the uh the the Hardy Boys were at the end of the day.
SPEAKER_04Yeah, they they innovated YA fiction. I mean, they were the first ones to really write for for teens, and so they get a lot of credit for creating a cultural movement, but yeah, it was real sleazy.
SPEAKER_03Leslie McFarlane has a has a memoir actually called The Ghost of the Hardy Boys, which I I didn't get to read, but uh apparently it's quite interesting because he's kind of an interesting character. He wrote like was it 19 out of the first 25?
SPEAKER_05Something like that.
SPEAKER_03Yeah, they they they would send him these treatments, but he kind of like built out the world and the lived-in component of it, like of the town of Bayport is based on his hometown in in Ontario, this sort of thing. So it it is kind of interesting, despite we'll get into a lot of the issues with the book, the way that this this guy who was complaining about writing for like writing these books for like 50 bucks so he can buy firewood ended up uh kind of creating this little universe.
SPEAKER_04It's also interesting, too, that when the books came out, they were really panned by critics and and a lot of establishment types. So, like libraries would refuse to carry any of these Hardy Boys books. They they also did the Nancy Drew books, which are kind of the girl equivalent of the Hardy Boys. The books were thought to cause, quote, mental laziness and fatal sluggishness, and it would ruin a child's chances of gaining an appreciation for for good literature. There was also the the way that the cops are portrayed in the Hardy Boys books, is is not very flattering. So it was thought that the books also undermine respect for authority and contempt for social conventions. Um the there was this guy, Franklin K. Matthews, he was chief librarian for the Boy Scouts of America, and he wrote an article called I mean, he wouldn't call it this today, but Blowing Out the Boys' Brains. Um, where he criticized. Yeah, he he aired a lot of these criticisms of the Hardy Boys franchise.
SPEAKER_05And they were like you both kind of mentioned it, but it was a major craze. Like the this also spawned off the Nancy Drew series, which was in some ways even more influential than Hardy Boys because it was the first major series targeted at girls. And it was also much more bizarrely more successful than the Hardy Boys. It sold more than 200 million copies. Um, and yeah, the it was it kind of sparked off this like youth reading craze that wasn't really seen again until like the Harry Potter series. And and you know, if you I actually looked back and read some articles about the initial uh Harry Potter craze in like the early 2000s, and people were referencing like, oh, people kids haven't been reading books like this since the Hardy Boys, which now seems insane because nobody talks about the Hardy Boys anymore. I also read a series, a review of all the books by a guy uh from the New York Review books called Daniel Leffords, who had a great quote. It just says, It's hard to imagine a product more mainstream, more embedded in the very DNA of America than the Hardy Boys. I mean, they were a major part of like growing up for that mid-century American, suburban, largely white families. And it represented everything, like all of their ideals about being tough. You have know-how, heterosexual, but you're non-sexual, you know, you're masculine, and of course you're white. It's uh yeah, yeah. It's so, it's so influential and so representative of the US at that time.
SPEAKER_03And also this thing that like kind of established a model for like IPs. Uh yeah, it's just every like creative work now is like just this IP that you build out a universe in. And even with, you know, like restructuring them, retrofitting them. The Hardy Boy was doing that in the 60s when they started doing these re-releases of of the original books that are like with completely different plots or or different things sanitized, that sort of thing. I was thinking about that. I'm like, that's like so much like how all these different film franchises and TV series operate now. But I'm sure we'll get to that later, because this this book, uh, there's two versions of it. There's the 1933 one that we're like officially reviewing, then there was one re-released in in 65.
SPEAKER_04Because the original is far too racist. Yeah. And so yeah, they got they they updated the entire series. But yeah, we'll I'm sure we'll get into that.
SPEAKER_05We can dive into the actual book in a second, but before we do, um, since the readers probably didn't read the previous 12 Hardy Boys books, just to just to let them know what's been established in the Hardy Boys world at this point by the time of book number 13. So the Hardy Boys are two brothers, Frank and Joe. You pretty much they're almost completely indistinguishable, except Frank is is usually older, 17, 18, and has dark hair, and Joe is usually younger and he has light hair. And that's the only distinctions you ever really get between them. They also, some some articles say Frank is more of like the thinker and Joe is more the doer. I personally didn't didn't feel that at all in reading these books and found them they're they're completely impossible to tell apart.
SPEAKER_03I see Frank is kind of the Grant Ashcroft and Joe is kind of the Bo Dashington.
SPEAKER_05Which one's which? I'm the doer. I'm the impulsive athletic one. Okay.
SPEAKER_03You're the one with lighter hair. I'm the high T guy. Yeah. Sorry, which high which Hardy boy had higher testosterone? Was that established? It was Frank.
SPEAKER_05He he was the sporty athletic type. They they live in some play at made-up town called Bayport in Barmett Bay, which in different books is reported to be in different states, apparently. Sometimes it's New Jersey, sometimes it's Massachusetts. Importantly, their father is a retired NYPD detective, and they want to be just like him when they grow up. So they're constantly solving mysteries. It's one of those things where it's you have to suspend disbelief about the amount of nonsense that takes takes place in this small town. There's espionage, kidnapping, smuggling, trafficking, bank robbery, you know, international. Midsummer murders. It's midsummer murders, yeah. It's something like that. It's uh it's like a Norman Rockwell painting, but with with with crime that is all okay in the end. Like the Scooby-Doo mysteries or something like that. It is no one's everywhere. That needs a real update reference.
SPEAKER_04Those are the modern references that we're looking for here.
SPEAKER_05Yeah, Norman Rockwell and Scooby-Doo, yeah. That's so that's the world. Should we start talking about the actual book and the plot of the book, and then we'll pick out some key themes along the way? Spoiler alert, one of them's gonna be racism.
SPEAKER_03Mm-hmm. Yeah, let's get into the dirty laundry.
SPEAKER_05One thing that's really frustrating about this book, we chatted about this beforehand, is there there kind of is a plot, but there also isn't. It's just a series of stuff that happens that in no particular order, and they're not really solving a mystery. I think that's what I found really frustrating. They're just kind of bumbling from one scene to the next, doing things that don't really make any sense and taking part in some, you know, bizarrely sexist and racist activities. I was, I have to admit, when I started reading the book, I have made them the first thing I wrote in my notes was like, like, how long until they say something sexist or racist and which one's gonna come first? The book wasn't as sexist as I thought. Definitely is definitely we'll get to the racism. But anyway, the book starts with the boys are hanging out at home and they get a message that Aunt Gertrude is coming to visit. And Aunt Gertrude is an old battle axe, always telling them what to do. So they gotta clean the house. They gotta do the laundry. So where are they gonna go with for the laundry? They're gonna go see their friend Sam Lee, who is, and this is according to Joe, the best Chinese laundryman in town. They go down to the Chinese laundry, but unfortunately for them, Sam Lee is nowhere to be found, and instead, we are introduced to the main antagonist of the book, a guy called Louis Fong. Do either of you want to take up the physical description of Louis Fong? Chip? I'd I so we're gonna have a few a few clips from the book. None of us were willing to read them. So, and I'm not usually a big proponent of AI, however, we're gonna let AI uh read some of the book. Louis Fong is described in a really kind of like stereotypic way. He's basically a Fu Manchu character with uh, you know, described as extremely yellow, he's horribly evil looking. Um cat-like cat-like, yeah. I'm gonna share. And do we have a special guest reader? We have a special guest reader. I'll let you I'll let you see for yourself who it is. Here's how Louis Fong is is introduced. There we go.
SPEAKER_00Steam issued in a cloud from the front door, and when the boys stepped inside, the evil face of Louis Fong popped up from behind the counter like a jack in the box. Hello, you come for Laundlee. No got, Louis Fong said sharply. What's the idea? demanded Frank. Sally! No got Tomola, maybe. That's another day lost, complained Joe. Why weren't you working yesterday? That's why we can't have our laundry today. No worky yesterday, said Louis Fong. Big Chinese hoy day. Go, Vay, he ordered shrilly. Why you come here and talkie talkie? Ask question. Longly not letty until Tomola. Go, Vay, come back to Mola.
SPEAKER_04So I use the same app as you uh in order to read this book, and I had the same gentleman read me the book, uh, Mr. Burt Reynolds. Another modern reference. And like, yeah, hearing hearing Burt Reynolds bumble through offensive Chinese pigeon English is just like it just it it it brings the book to the next level.
SPEAKER_05It's it's it's it was almost kind of hard to to know which kind of clip to use to kind of strike the right balance of showing the racism of the book, but not not trying to almost perpetuate what the what the book's actually doing. But they the the Asian Chinese characters, almost all of them always speak like this, right? In this horrible cartoonish caricature, except for the one good Asian, Sam Lee, who speaks in they even make a point of saying he speaks perfect English and has no hint of an accent. But all the suspicious ones, the bad ones, they they speak like this.
SPEAKER_03Yeah. It's also like the description of uh the Chinese characters as well, or by other characters in the book, the use of the word, you know, uh let's just say Chinese gentlemen, maybe we could say instead of the actual term they use for them. I'm sure listeners know what I'm getting at, but the racial epithet for Chinese gentlemen is shows up like 180 times in the book across like 180 pages. It's like the only way that the that those characters are described, aside from other things like Oriental or Yellow or Ugly. It's it's kind of interesting because a lot of the books we cover are, let's say, going against the grain for their contemporary sensibilities a little bit, and maybe they're proposing something that's like misogynistic outside of the realm of how most people feel. But this one is kind of just expressing what was normal and standard at that time, and how much it beats you over the head uh that that how ugly and villainous immediately these like Chinese characters are is is quite stunning.
SPEAKER_05It's not only Chinese people that the book has total contempt for. Um, the book also really hates fat people. And one of the additional characters is the two Hardy Boys have a best friend whose name is Chet Morton, uh, who I I think is also uh I think we might have had a Chet Morton chair of the podcast at some point. But Chet Morton is basically their bumbling friend, right? Mm-hmm.
SPEAKER_06Yeah.
SPEAKER_05And he is like the book goes out of its way to constantly remind you what a fat, dumb piece of shit this kid is. Right. Like it's constant. He's always described as either plump or fat. He's often just referred to as their their fat friend or their plump jum. He he's constantly asking them for food. They make fun of him for being fat. He's at one at one scene for no specific reason. He just wanders off and comes back shoving a quote tremendous wedge of pie into his face. That's a classic comedy. He goes for pie at two separate occasions during this book. Uh, and another point, he he he takes an apple out of his pocket, he polishes on his sleeves and destroys it with one bite. Just like he's just a fat, dumb kid.
SPEAKER_03He's sort of the he's sort of the Chip Wilson of the Hardy Boys world, I think. Right. Another part of contempt, can I say one thing I did like actually that's that's very early in the book? I do like the contempt for the police. Um especially compared to the other book, uh the the rewrite of it. The only real time they interact with a police officer in this, it's it's I think it's written in a fairly genuinely kind of funny way, where he's like unhelpful to them. There's someone that's trapped in a phone booth, and he's like kind of like, oh, well, that yeah, that's on the property of this person. Oh, blah, blah, blah. I'm gonna take care of uh the property of people before someone that's in danger, this sort of thing. So I thought that was kind of funny. Grant alluded to it, but like a contempt for authority and uh of like the adult world being a bunch of bumbling idiots. So that that I did like that.
SPEAKER_04And and the ghostwriter Leslie McFarlane actually addressed that in in that uh memoir of his that you referenced where he said, like, because it was a point of criticism, he's like, Why shouldn't kids be aware that sometimes people in authority are idiots and you know the world is sometimes led by fools? I'm paraphrasing, but that was sort of his general sentiment.
SPEAKER_05Yeah, it's slightly subversive in in that regard, in that it's it's challenging authority. And as I think you might have mentioned at the in the opening comments, Grant, this was all completely removed from the rewrites in the 60s. Authority was taken much more seriously, the cops were always very serious and helpful, but you can also see why it happens for the plot of the book, right? You the the authorities can't, in this small town, can't quite solve these big crimes, so the hardy boys have got to step in and do their bit.
SPEAKER_03And the the world is like kind of nice and and lived in in a way. And there's like the Marshall McLuhan quote that like you don't you don't read the morning newspaper, you get into it like a warm bath, that kind of thing. I think when we're talking about the plot and like the how important the plot is in the book, it's more about just kind of like settling into that town of being work and the characters are going around. And it does feel kind of like weirdly, despite all the issues with it, feels like kind of genuine and and uh and lived in in a way.
SPEAKER_04Yeah, yeah, there's an effort at wood building for sure.
SPEAKER_05Yeah, not to not to go back to to the dated references, but the the the it it's the literary equivalent of a Norman Rockwell painting, right? It's this like this lily white, perfect, you know, nostalgic view of Americana uh at this time. And that, you know, that perfect little town, perfect setting is being destroyed by these immigrants for coming into it and and ruining it.
SPEAKER_04There's an interesting quote I read from um from uh this was like a cultural critic, but so when the original publisher died, as I mentioned, his daughters took over this syndicate, this publishing syndicate, and Garriott Adams at times had rebuked Leslie McFarlane, the ghostwriter, for not sufficiently following her instructions regarding portrayal of African American characters. So this is not specific to this book, but this is more general. And so this critic, and I'm quoting here, uh, whether Adams rewrote parts of McFarlane's manuscripts to add racist details or to what extent these early texts would now be considered even more seriously racist had McFarlane followed Adams' instructions more carefully. So basically, that as racist as this book is, the publisher wanted it to be more racist, and he toned it down. Yeah, wow. Wow.
SPEAKER_03Yeah, and that's definitely, you know, you feel a cynicism in the rewrites as well when it comes to why they tone down some of the racism. Because in in the later editions, a lot of the overt uh slurs and negative descriptions of non-white people are removed, but there's still like a clear underlying narrative of uh the danger of the other, that sort of thing. So it does, you know, it's it's does seem consistent with that.
SPEAKER_05So yeah, so the plot continues, the plot thickens. Um, we've got our enemy Louis Fong and his gang of of Chinese immigrants. We've got the Hardy Boys with their ally, uh, Chet Morton. I'm just gonna skip most of the plot because most of it is just so uninteresting and and complicated. Like there's a guy posing as another guy, and they find both guys, and like, why are you posing as another guy? And it's it never really pays off in an interesting way.
SPEAKER_04A massive red herring that goes nowhere. Yeah. I and I think the plot is kind of secondary to what's interesting about this book.
SPEAKER_05So yeah, true. But just to to kind of lay out the plot, there's someone snooping around the Hardy Boys house, and they they do some investigating and they find some footprints under the window, just like in the title. Um, and they measure the footprints. They're weirdly obsessed with measuring footprints in this book. Um, they kind of find out about this guy, Orin North, who's a local fishing magnate who's been hired by their dad to do uh to do to do some investigating. Um, but they want to investigate Louis. I almost said Louis Thoreau. Uh what's his name? Louis Fong. They want to investigate him too. He was buddies with Jimmy Savile. I mean, you know, it's it's it's worth looking into. They go to this bar called Lantern Land, where they're uh gonna poke around and try to find more about this Louis Fong. And that's where they come across another of the bad stereotype characters whose name is Tom Watt. And Tom Watt is kind of a victim of a stabbing and he hates Louis Fong, but for some reason he refuses to say why. And it's still, I mean, the only reason he doesn't say anything is because that would solve the mystery right from the beginning, right? The Hardy Boys are seen, there's a fight, they run away with Tom, and for some reason they decide that the only way that Tom Watt can survive safely is if they dress him up as a woman. And so they take a costume of one of the burlesque dancers and then force this man to wear it.
SPEAKER_03And it's because of his, you know, his feminine features and his his lithe frame and so on.
SPEAKER_05Chet loves it, I think, doesn't he? Yeah, yeah. Chet Morton's got a got a hardy on for the um for uh for Tom Watt. Um, you know, Chet Morton says he looks like a swell-looking lady. Or sorry, she looks like a swell-looking lady because he thinks it is a lady. But there's no specific reason why they make him dress up. I think this is the part where like the sort of the cruelty of the of the humor and of the view really comes out of like just how fucking much these kids love laughing at this guy, this grown man that a bunch of teenagers have forced to to dress in women's clothing. And that's where I would play the second of our audio clips. Welcome in, Mr. Reynolds. Uh, this one might not be Mr. Reynolds.
SPEAKER_02The boys heard a violent pounding from the vicinity of a closet at the end of the hall. Don't let him out, shrieked the nurse. He'll murder us all. It's a Chinaman, screamed Aunt Gertrude. A Chinaman exclaimed Joe. Frank seized the knob, turned the key, and stepped back. Out tumbled Tom Watt, with a girl's hat down over one eye and the skirt dragging about his heels. Me of late of lady, he babbled. Muchie of late of lady, her locking me up. The hardy boys roared with laughter. Joe sat down on the floor, weak with mirth at the spectacle of the bedraggled and frightened Chinaman.
SPEAKER_05Yeah, it's like they love torturing this man.
SPEAKER_03It's it's like the the wellspring of mirth uh in this book is this guy, this guy dressed up as a lady. Uh it's like it's like there's several bits where they're all they're just falling over laughing about it.
SPEAKER_04Great choice of John Wayne, too, because like he John Wayne, I don't know, if you ever see uh his uh portrayal of Genghis Khan full yellow face. So he's a man who knows what he's talking about here.
SPEAKER_05Yeah, that's right up there with Mickey Rooney, uh Mickey Rooney's Bid in Breakfast at Tiffany's is, I think, um one of Hollywood's worst. That might be worse. If not, uh both of them are pretty bad.
SPEAKER_03Couple more up-to-date references for you kids out there. Can can I can I can I also comment on this? Uh, you know, the the the central plot is like a there's these revolves around human trafficking, basically.
SPEAKER_06Yes.
SPEAKER_03With these Chinese uh immigrants coming in or getting smuggled in and so on. This is the first time in the book that the Hardy Boys themselves start smuggling around uh one of the Chinese men. Uh first of several.
SPEAKER_05They and it's about this time that, yeah, they they they find their old friend Sam Lee, who basically spills the beans. That's the point that we learned that the fishing magnet Orin Hatch is working with Louis Fong to smuggle Chinese immigrants in the country, where they're essentially being held as slaves, like indentured labor, uh, by Louis Fong. And then we get to the final we're basically at the final scene already, because really not that much happens in the book. Yeah, they the Hardy boys get themselves dressed up in grease paints and their father's old undercover accent from when he was doing some investigating in Chinatown, and they transform themselves, according to the book, into very, you know, very realistic uh disguises. And then they go to try to trap Louis Fong. Um, but they're rumbled because they forget to to speak in their in their pidgin English, and their father comes at that moment. He walks. Walks in and Louis Fong says, Ha ha, we've trapped you. And the father basically says, No, you didn't. I knew what was going on the whole time. And then a bunch of cops burst in, beat everyone up, arrest uh all the Chinese guys apart from Sam Lee, and then that's the end of the book. And they they realize that the secret footprints under the window were actually their dad because he was snooping around the whole time doing some investigating at the same time they were, which basically means that nothing they did served any purpose. They didn't really contribute towards actually solving the crime, and the entire book is just kind of a waste of time. Investigating the investigators. Who investigates the investigator? That's a book. I found the book really kind of a bit of a chore to get through. It's not interesting. It's not like there isn't like I thought it'd be more like a crime thriller, like where you're actually trying to find out what's going on. Um, and it's really boring. There's no action, and this probably isn't the worst thing about the book. Why the fuck is it called Footprints Under the Window? Why isn't it called the case of the dirty laundry? It's it's right there. Like it's it's that title's right there.
SPEAKER_04I didn't mind the book so much, to be honest with you. You know, besides the fact that that it's dated and offensive and everything like that, I thought it was actually kind of a breezy read, especially compared to some of the other trash books that we've struggled through in recent book club meetings. I mean, this like compared to trying to read Chariots of the Gods or uh Stephen Segal's novel, like this was this was a treat.
SPEAKER_03Yeah, and and I thought for like 1933 it was like quite modern. You can see uh why it was you know so influential and such a hit. It moved quickly. Like you said, the plot wasn't interesting in the sense that like in like a fun spy book or thriller, you sit down and think about things and they all come together nicely. It's less about like a kind of something that comes together with coherent logic, and it's more like kind of these bits chapter by chapter. Yeah, you know, there's like these little set pieces, and this happens or out on the boat, and they have to dodge this rock, that sort of thing.
SPEAKER_04But for a hundred-year-old book, I thought it was like a really sort of modern portrayal, as you say, of teen culture. You know, you often hear about rock and roll and America's top 40 and transistor radios being the the birthplace or the nucleus of teen culture in America. But this, you know, there's there's kids, they have a roadster, they're driving around in their car, hanging out with their buddies, you know, they're grab-assing, they're paling around. Like it's this is teens having fun.
SPEAKER_05They are not, excuse me, I'm stepping in here. They were not grab-assing. That was absolutely not the the most sexual thing that happens is I think Joe calls one girl swell looking. Um, and I think it's Chet's sister.
SPEAKER_04And also the uh the Asian fella in the lady's dress gets called a swell-looking dame as well. But yeah, you're right. Not maybe not a lot of grab ass.
SPEAKER_05But it is that kind of like, as Chip kind of mentioned before, it's got it's more about the kind of the world of just stepping into that place of like this simpler, s simpler slice of American of Americana, where you know, you they're tough and you're doing the right thing, and you're driving around in your jalopy with your pals and you're bullying minorities, and it's just kind of like, oh, what a what a swell time. The good old days.
SPEAKER_03There were aspects that I thought were were were kind of interesting, but then you know, that there's one reading I wanted to share. Uh, I got a friend of the show, Kevin O'Leary, to read this one. Yeah. Um, from the very beginning, like the way that the Hardy boys are so fascinated and also terrified by these Chinese people they're interacting with, uh, even before they really know what's going on, just by seeing them at first. So, this is like a quote from early on when they're reflecting on the first time that they uh uh uh some some of the early hijinks that they got into with the Chinese uh down at the dock.
SPEAKER_01The rain had settled to a steady downpour. I think I'll dream of Chinaman tonight, yawned Frank as he took off his shoes. What with Sam Lee and Louis Fong and the Chinaman on the dock, and the Chinaman who talked to Mr. Pebbles and that story he told us, added Joe. However, neither of the lads dreamed of Chinaman, for they slept heavily.
SPEAKER_03I I just thought that was one of the craziest passages I've read.
SPEAKER_04There's another section where they're like, well, cause because the the aunt, the stern aunt, dreams of a Chinese person in the house as well. And she's like, Yeah, was there any Chinese people in the house? They're like, Chinese people in the house? Absolutely. What are you talking about? Like, don't be outrageous. Of course, there's no Chinese people in the house. But that also doesn't pay off, right? No. There was no she actually was dreaming. No, it was it was the dad who was in the house because he stole his own papers.
SPEAKER_03Hey, he might have been still in his old disguise from his previous. Why did she think he was a China?
SPEAKER_05Oh. But then what but why is he sneaking around? It's his house.
SPEAKER_04Uh but that that was just like an old fear. Like, I so one of the things I reflected on when I was reading this book is because it's no doubt that there's still a tremendous amount of anti-Asian racism in in American and North American culture. But this sort of specific, like being scared of of Chinese people is like, it's there's something unique maybe to this period, or it was the racism in that period was sort of was was really punctuated by this fear of Chinese people taking over. And so there was there was one time. Now my grandma was like a lovely old lady, but we were she was visiting uh the city where I lived as a kid, and we took her for a walk through Chinatown, and she was like holding on to my mom's arm. And my mom said later, like, she started digging into my arm so hard that I thought she was gonna leave marks on my arm. And we're like, What was what's all that about? And later, so my I guess my dad talked to her and found out that like she's terrified of Chinese people, like, not so much that she hates them, it's not that kind of bigotry, but just like completely terrified of Chinese people because she thought that she might get trafficked into the white slave trade. And it's like, okay, even on the off chance that you know, the guy who runs the Chinese fruit and veg mart in Chinatown is running some sort of 1930s white slave racket, he's not looking for 75-year-old grandmas. Like, you've aged out of this one. Um, it's not something you have to be too concerned about, grandma. So it's like, it's you know, this this seems like a real anachronism, this sort of this specific type of racism, but it's uh, you know, it's alive and well in in some of our seniors. It's like a tr true phobia in like a yeah, yeah. Like actually afraid. Yeah.
SPEAKER_03It's like yeah, it's like guys who are homophobic who like are in genuine panic anytime they're around gay guys, like this this different.
SPEAKER_04Yeah, I guess it's yeah, it's like the Chinese version of gay panic.
SPEAKER_03Yeah. But I mean, I would say, like honestly, these days, it's I don't know, it doesn't seem necessarily that anachronistic, uh, at least the way that a lot of people are comfortable talking about immigrants these days. Uh, I would say probably more directed towards like the South Asian community. At least here it's pretty shocking what people will say in casual conversation or what what goes for acceptable within polite society right now.
SPEAKER_04Well, and I guess if you want to look at the the sort of geopolitical situation as well, there is an intense anxiety around mainland China and what kind of threat they pose to our way of life in the West.
SPEAKER_03I showed Speed solved that. He went to China, he fixed everything. He did his big streams there, and nobody nobody's worried about China anymore.
SPEAKER_04Nice. Okay, good stuff.
SPEAKER_03Is that that's I'm trying to do a modern reference.
SPEAKER_04Modern reference.
unknownYeah.
SPEAKER_05Nice, nicely done.
SPEAKER_03Thank you.
SPEAKER_05Um, speaking of modern uh and modernizing, uh, this book was, of course, modernized in uh 1965, and the book was uh the the publishers decided to to strip back a whole bunch of the the first 20 or so Hardy Boys books and uh uh to make a number of changes. Number one was they were consciously actually trying to remove a lot of the racism, um, but also as I think Chip mentioned earlier, putting in more respect for authority, but also streamlining the plots and removing anything literary or removing any big words. I didn't read it, but Chip, I believe you did.
SPEAKER_03Yeah, it's so it's updated for 1965. It's re-released, same uh name. So with these re-releases, some of them they would like do a completely different plot and just keep the name of the book. Sometimes they rework the plot a little bit. This one stays quite close to the original, except, you know, in terms of removing racism and stuff, uh, I don't know how much they really accomplished that goal because they basically they real they just replace Chinese with South Americans. They don't use the same kind of there's no real slurs, but uh people are described as you know, swarthy, bushy eyebrows, dark complexioned individuals. They're actually they're called aliens quite often as well. But they're almost I I would say that the the the sort of villainous minority in this case are are almost presented as like more of a threat than they are in the original. Because in in the remake, they're all spies that are operating on behalf of a dictatorship on an island just south of the US, uh, which is obviously a placeholder for Cuba. And what happens in this book is with what's introduced that's different than the original is that there's like a secret um military satellite that's being developed in Bayport for some reason. I'm not really sure why. Yeah, not really sure why. And so all the um all the South Americans that are getting smuggled in and spying are trying to get information on this thing. When you when you mention that that it's written to have more respect for authority, one thing that comes through is like the the Hardy Boys for some reason this one are just always cooperating with immigration and customs enforcement, or or one at that time. And so they're meeting with them like yeah, yeah, they're Hardy boys are meeting with them like every two chapters and like reporting on all these uh all these uh dark complexioned fellows that they keep running into. And they're like, Yeah, exactly. And so when you read it now, I'm like, I don't know, like I don't know. This this seems uh equally or just as bad on the on the sort of xenophobic or racist front. It's also shorter. And the parts you you the criticism you spoke to on the on the plot, Bo, where things just kind of happen. It's just these like these punches of action that uh feel like filler. So it's much worse, I would say, actually, than than the original book, despite the fact that it might, the language is is sanitized a little bit. Oh, and sorry, one more thing that is makes it even worse. They take the footprints thing, right? So same thing, same plot point. There's footprints outside their their window, those turn out to be his dad's at the end. It's just this like red herring. But the gang they're chase they're pursuing in this is also just randomly called the the footprints gang for for no reason in particular. And the that's lazy. I the island nation that's like a placeholder for Cuba is called uh it's Spanish for footprints as well. So they just I don't really know why, but they just throw these things in there to to keep with the title.
SPEAKER_05So if there was a 1965 revamp, did you know that there is a 2026 unvamp, if that's a word? Um, there is a a right-wing American press uh called Passage Publishing, led by this guy called Jonathan Kieperman, um, who's basically, with big support from like Steve Bannon and a bunch of others, has started this publishing company whose goal is to publish sort of right-wing political stuff that has been hashtag cancelled and needs to be brought back. So they've started republishing just at the end of in December of 2025 and then into this year, started republishing the original versions of the Hardy Boys series. They haven't got to this one yet, but it looks like they're going to be republishing this so that avid readers across the US can get back to the original text before the woke fake news media mob came and uh brainwashed everyone into believing them that horrible racism was wrong.
SPEAKER_04Well, the book is in the public domain, as far as I know. Um, but it's good to see that Steve Bannett is still up to important work.
SPEAKER_03Well, I was gonna say these grifters are always one step ahead of us because I was gonna suggest we do that. Not as a right-wing thing, but with the books all entering public domain, the original ones, if they're ripe for doing your own thing with the Hardy Boys right now. You could do like a you could do like a wicked treatment of this, where like Louis Fong and Sam Lee following their backgrounds before they though that's that's really that's really popular.
SPEAKER_05There was a book James by oh what was his name? Percival Everett? That was looking at the character Jim, who's it from the the Mark Twain series, his his name usually has the N-word in front of it. They're telling the story from his perspective. Yeah, so you're right. There should be uh Louis Fong's dirty laundry. Um there's a real chance there.
SPEAKER_03It's it's ripe for that kind of stuff. So I hope some people hop on it that maybe people other than Steve Bannon can profit from it.
SPEAKER_05Speaking of the other books in the series, um, I I didn't take a look at the the Redux version, but I did take a look at two of the other books. There's basically kind of like a racism trifecta in within the Hardy Boys, books 12, 13, and 14. So this one, footprint under the window was 12. 13 is the mark is called the mark on the door, where the gang encounters basically African Americans. And 14 is where they go to they go to Mexico.
SPEAKER_04Yeah, ghostwriter Leslie McFarlane must have been going through some difficult social issues or period in his life when he wrote those three in a row. Like, yeah.
SPEAKER_03A firewood for the winter. Freezing cold hunched over his typewriter in northern Ontario writing a racist read.
SPEAKER_04Never never met a Chinese guy or a black guy in his life, too. He's like way up in Tamiskomin.
SPEAKER_03Up in the yeah, worst case Ontario. This is the stuff that was allegedly not racist enough for the publisher as well.
SPEAKER_05According to the second book, as well. I'm gonna play one more clip from this book because the plot's really simple. It's basically someone's been stealing from one of the local wealthy people in town, and it and that guy employs several African Americans, and it turns out that the African Americans have been stealing from the guy that employs them. The Hardy Boys kind of track down the mystery. They work with another African-American kid who's basically their friend who talks like normally, not as a caricature, sort of the same thing as the previous book where the one good minority, you know, uh speaks like a white suburban middle class kid. But this book takes a really dark turn. Basically, once the crimes have been exposed and the guilty parties have been found, the town finds out that these African American kids have been stealing, and they are not that happy about it. And so they take matters into their own hands.
SPEAKER_00The mob, inflamed with anger, immediately jumped to the conclusion that the Hardy Boys had been accomplices. Lynch them, went up the cry. The street was now crowded, and the Hardy Boys were roughly handled by the infuriated people. A rope seemed to come from nowhere, his loop settling down over Eval and the Hardy Boys. Throw the rope over that bow and string them up, yelled someone in a rough voice. Cheers greeted the suggestion. The three prisoners were thrust forward to what seemed to them certain doom. The rope tightened. There was a mighty pull, and the three struggling figures were hauled into the air.
SPEAKER_05Yeah, the Hardy Boys are lynched because of their association with a black guy, who is obviously also lynched. They escape. It shouldn't be it shouldn't have to tell you that, and obviously they're gonna escape. They escape, but man, that book gets dark.
SPEAKER_04So what are we uh we're probably coming up towards the end of our discussion here. How do we kind of tie a bow on this? What's the Jerry Springer final thought of all this?
SPEAKER_03I I think that what one thing, at least for me, that stood out about them, or at least when you do an exercise like this reading an old book, it's like, of course, there's gonna be a lot of like racism and in terms, descriptions, plot points that that you wouldn't see now. But I guess it's it's it's like a useful exercise as a reminder of like what was commonplace at the time. Like this is not uh a fringe book by any stretch. These are the most popular books, some of the most popular books at the time. And they also, I think, kind of like uh in footprints, they set a lot of these there's a lot of like comic ideas and things like that that you still saw in like Hollywood for like decades and decades after, with guys dressed dressed up in yellow face and and so on.
SPEAKER_04Peter Sellers made a Fu Manchu movie in the 80s. I mean, yeah, this I don't know.
SPEAKER_03This stuff was also so recent and uh and uh still uh uh an issue in a lot of places right now. So I don't know. It's a it's I found it like a good reminder, I guess is is what I'd say.
SPEAKER_06Yeah, I think that's a good way to put it.
SPEAKER_04Good. Well, anything else that you wanted to add, uh Dr. Dashnan before we wrap today's meeting?
SPEAKER_05For for concluding thoughts though, I don't uh I think uh yeah, Chip Chips at it best. I think it's these books are kind of interesting to look at and try to get a glimpse on why they were so popular and really how influential they are, and in some ways really ahead of their time in terms of like, you know, mass marketing, some sort of IP, um, and you know, undercutting writers. Um, but also, yeah, just a that even in like the most American things possible, um, you find just really, really shocking, offensive, overt racism that is unfortunately nowadays, uh, not only is it not not acknowledged, but now potentially even being celebrated as publishers want want this type of stuff to be back out there again.
SPEAKER_04It's interesting. Yeah, I wonder how much of that I absorbed as a kid reading these books that didn't really even register with me consciously, but maybe perhaps uh had imprinted on me. Um, I uh I I had no idea that the Hardy boys were uh right-wing villains. I always thought of them as just, yeah, pure Americana. But uh yeah, once again, we've uh we've ruined another franchise.
SPEAKER_03Pure America. I think, but was this our first book written by a Canadian author?
SPEAKER_05Yeah, I think it was. I had the say the exact same thought.
SPEAKER_03I meant to say something about that. I'm gonna put this front and center in our application for Council of Arts funding.
SPEAKER_04Please do. Exhibit A. Yeah. I'll look forward to that grant.
SPEAKER_05Yeah, I wonder if that says something odd about racism in Canada. You know, as you both mentioned before, this guy who's in the middle of nowhere in northern Ontario, probably interacted with very, very few minorities. There's probably some type of difference between an American type of racism where it's racism between minorities that live in that community, like between white people and African Americans in the South, and a racism from a country that's almost entirely British European, apart from a minority native community that's that's largely pushed off into reserves and outlying places. And the real racism in the literature and in the popular culture comes from people who've never even interacted with uh with the minorities that they're that they're that they're creating these stereotypes about. To be completely honest, it reminds me of some of my people from my hometown, including family members, who have really racist views from people from countries they've never been to and have never met, of like complaining about Mexicans and all, you know, just the worst dumb stereotypes of Mexicans that have been online. It's like you fucking never met a Mexican. Why on earth are you racist against them?
SPEAKER_03Absolutely. You notice one thing that's funny that I noticed is he mentions in the book specifically that talking about the high head tax on Chinese and and how they're smuggling them as a way to avoid it, it was only Canada that had that higher head tax on Chinese. The US had different exclusionary laws, but so he accidentally snuck in a specifically Canadian policy into the book.
SPEAKER_04That's interesting. Yeah, because as far as I knew, the US just outright banned East Asian immigration at that time. Um, and so I was trying to reconcile that because I was like, uh yeah, I thought the the head tax was uh US had it before, but at that point had basically abolished it because they had sort of gone a little bit further.
SPEAKER_03Yeah.
SPEAKER_04And so that that clears that up because I was trying to make sense of that.
SPEAKER_03I think he was just wrong and he was just accidentally sneaking in the Canadian experience a little bit there.
SPEAKER_04Right. All right. Well, having no further business to attend to this meeting, uh, the chair will entertain a motion to adjourn. Uh I would I submit a motion to adjourn the meeting. Do I have a seconder?
SPEAKER_05I submit to the motion.
SPEAKER_04You second the motion?
SPEAKER_05No, no, I submit to it.
SPEAKER_04All right, well, whatever. We'll we'll get this eventually.
SPEAKER_03Uh so at least we showed
Outro
SPEAKER_03up.
SPEAKER_04Yeah, yeah, exactly. Yeah. Showing up is like half the battle. Thank you, book club members, so much for sticking it out to the end of a uh kind of an unpleasant book club meeting today. We love having you with us. Really, we wouldn't be able to do this without all of the fantastic book club members that show up each and every meeting. We would love to hear from you. We had put out a call for voicemails last meeting. We didn't get any, so we're putting it out again. Look for the link in the show description. Send us a voicemail, visit us at posbookclub.com, visit our subreddit, our Piece of Chip Book Club. We are on YouTube at POS Book Club, and you can always email us at POS Book Club at gmail.com. Until next time, take care of yourself and each other. Meeting adjourned.