So-called “girlie” pulps had been around for a couple of decades — and groaned about for equally as long — when the “Spicy” pulps first appeared.
By 1934, the moaning and groaning was boiling over as “girlie” publishers were being fined and threatened with jail terms. In fact, a photo featured in the January 1934 Pep Stories almost had publisher Harry Donenfeld tossed into prison. He was only spared when a clerk in his accounting department took the rap for the offending snapshot.
Deciding to clean up their act, managing editor Frank Armer and Donenfeld addressed the do-gooders’ concerns by combining sex with adventure, detective, mystery, and western fiction. Calling themselves Culture Publications, the two launched Spicy Detective Stories in early 1934. Not only did the new pulp help reduce the pressure being applied to the publisher, it also proved a hit. Sex sells!
The second issue of Spicy Detective Stories introduced the character that would become the “star” of the magazine — Robert Leslie Bellem’s Dan Turner. Featured in a story entitled “Murder by Proxy” published in June 1934, Turner would return time after time in the new pulp magazine. After that first appearance, Bellem’s Turner would be featured in every issue of Spicy Detective Stories straight through the pulp’s demise as Speed Detective in the issue dated February 1947. In between, Dan would also appear in Private Detective Stories and Hollywood Detective (which was called Dan Turner, Hollywood Detective for its first ten issues). Bellem’s wise-cracking gumshoe is thought to have appeared in more than 300 prose stories and about sixty comic strip tales.
The other “star” of Spicy Detective Stories would wait for the November 1934 issue of the Culture Publications detective pulp for her debut. Created by Adolphe Barreaux, the art director of Donenfeld Magazines and Culture Publications, Sally the Sleuth thereafter appeared in every issue of Spicy Detective Stories. Nearly 20 years after her debut, Sally was still battling crime in the pages of Trojan Comics’ Crime Smashers.
Besides Dan and Sally, there was a whole host of spicy gumshoes, from E. Hoffmann Price’s Cliff Cragin and Honest John Carmody to Edwin Truett Long’s Jarnegan and Johnny Harding to Hugh B. Cave’s The Eel, Norvell Page’s Bill Carter, and James Olsen’s “Hard Guy” Dallas Duane.
We hope you’ll join PulpFest 2024 on Thursday, August 1, at 7:45 pm as we welcome writers Will Murray and John Wooley who climb “Under the Covers with the Spicy Gumshoes.”
Will Murray has written extensively about Lester Dent’s Doc Savage, as well as countless other pulp and pop culture topics. The literary agent for the Lester Dent properties, he has written over twenty adventures of Doc Savage, a solo adventure featuring Pat Savage, three novels about the Popular Publications hero, The Spider, as well as new adventures of King Kong, Sherlock Holmes, and Tarzan. His non-fiction books include Writings in Bronze and Wordslingers: An Epitaph for the Western. Recently reissued — more than 30 years after its debut — is his “Spicy” pastiche, Spicy Zeppelin Stories. You can learn more about Will’s “Wild Adventures” books at adventuresinbronze.com.
John Wooley is probably the leading authority on Dan Turner, the “star” of Spicy Detective Stories. Wooley became interested in the work of Robert Leslie Bellem during the 1960s, when he acquired some issues of Trojan Publishing’s Hollywood Detective. A writer, novelist, lecturer, filmmaker, radio and TV host, and podcaster, John’s specialties include movies, literature, and music. He’s also a pop-culture historian.
John has written, co-written, or edited nearly 50 books, including the recent 1930’s-set horror trilogy — The Cleansing — with Robert A. Brown. Besides that, John has scripted several documentaries, including the Learning Channel’s Hauntings Across America, as well as the made-for-TV feature Dan Turner — Hollywood Detective and the award-winning independent movie, Cafe Purgatory. His scripting extends to comic books and graphic novels, including Plan Nine from Outer Space and the miracle squad, which he co-created with artist Terry Tidwell.
Along with movie historians Michael H. Price and Joey Hambrick, John does a monthly podcast called Forgotten Horrors. For the past 18 years, he has also hosted a weekly western-swing radio show and writes, co-hosts, and co-produces a weekly TV program, Film Noir Theatre, for public television.
PulpFest 2024 begins on August 1 and runs through August 4 at the DoubleTree by Hilton Hotel Pittsburgh – Cranberry in Mars, Pennsylvania. We’ll be celebrating “Spice, Spies, Shaw, and More” at this year’s convention.
The general public is welcome to attend our evening programming events free of charge. To learn more about our programming, please click the Schedule button at the top of this page.
For those who also want to enjoy our dealers’ room, you can join PulpFest by clicking the registration button at the top of this page. And don’t forget to book a room at the DoubleTree. They’re going fast!
If you want to sell at this year’s PulpFest, our wall tables are sold out. Island tables are still available, but they won’t last long. Register soon!
Our featured image is excerpted from Joseph Szokoli’s cover for the February 1947 issue of Speed Detective, the final issue of the retitled Spicy Detective Stories. When H. J. Ward — the regular cover artist for the spicy pulps — unexpectedly passed away in 1945, Szokoli “provided continuity to the cover designs by creating dozens of covers that resemble Ward’s sensational subjects and compositions.” The artist was a master of airbrush technique.
Our lead image was adapted by PulpFest advertising director William Lampkin from H. J. Ward’s cover art for the May 1939 issue of Spicy Detective Stories, published by Harry Donenfeld’s Culture Publications. Spicy Detective Stories was home for Dan Turner and other “Spicy” gumshoes.
Robert Leslie Bellem’s Dan Turner first appeared in the second issue of Spicy Detective Stories. Dated June 1934, the issue featured a cover by H. L. Parkhurst. After Ward, he was the most prolific of the Spicy cover artists.
Adolphe Barreaux’s Sally the Sleuth comic strip debuted in the November 1934 number of Spicy Detective Stories. The issue featured front cover art by H. J. Ward. The excerpt from Barreux’s Sally the Sleuth strip is entitled “The Scarab Murder” and originally appeared in the August 1936 issue of Spicy Detective Stories.
Ward also contributed the cover art for the February 1935 number of Spicy Detective Stories. The issue featured the first appearance of E. Hoffmann Price’s Cliff Cragin. The character appeared in eleven issues of Spicy Detective Stories, along with three more appearances in Private Detective Stories, a Trojan Publications pulp.
Our final image is also by H. J. Ward. It’s the May 1937 number of Spicy Detective Stories. The issue featured the last of eight Jarnegan stories published in the pulp magazine, all written by Edwin Truett Long. The stories were published as by Cary Moran, a pseudonym that Long often used in Culture Publications’ “Spicy” pulps. A prolific contributor to the pulps — particularly the “Spicy” pulps — Long is perhaps most remembered for the Doc Harker stories that ran in Munsey’s Detective Dime Novels and Red Star Detective.
For more on Spicy Detective Stories, please visit our YouTube Channel for “PulpFest Celebrates Spicy Detective Stories in 2024.”
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