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Philip Spiess
And now for another edition of "Wait! This Really Happened in Cincinnati?"
The Set-Up: Several posts ago I dropped a "Tom Swiftie" verbal quip into the Forum mix; Jerry Ochs, ever erudite, knowing the game, joined the fun. (A "Tom Swiftie" is a statement in which the adverb of the clause makes a pun on the statement which Tom Swift has just made.) The verbal game is named after the juvenile fictional hero of the series of books written pseudonymously in the early 20th century (starting 1910) by "Victor Appleton," but actually produced by Edward Stratemeyer, who later syndicated (1914) a whole writing factory of pseudonymous authors -- "Franklin W. Dixon," "Carolyn Keene," "Laura Lee Hope" -- which produced a number of series of much-beloved children's books: "The Hardy Boys" mysteries; the "Nancy Drew" mysteries; "The Bobbsey Twins"; "The Rover Boys"; etc. The "Tom Swift" series featured a youthful inventor who invented such items as "the electric rifle," "the motor-cycle," and "the giant cannon" (which saved the construction of the Panama Canal, then taking place, by blowing a hole through a mountain, thus diverting a flash flood into an adjacent valley). The overblown and overly dramatic language of these books is what led (much later) to the creation of the "Tom Swifties" verbal ploys. In the 1950s, in my youth (and yours, too), the Stratemeyer Syndicate issued a new series, "Tom Swift, Jr." (written by "Victor Appleton II"), in which the son of the original Tom Swift invented more modern devices, such as "the rocket ship," the "aquamarine" (an advanced submarine), and "the giant robot."
Our Hero: But in this same time period of the early 1920s through the 1930s, Cincinnati had a juvenile fictional boy hero as famous nationally -- possibly even more so -- as Tom Swift. This was "Seckatary Hawkins," a pleasant and morally upright fat boy with a cowlick hairdo, who faithfully recorded the adventures of a gang of boys, "The Fair and Square Club" (Hawkins was the secretary, hence his name), which met at their own clubhouse (complete with heating stove, telephone, and organ for singing practice) on the banks of a river (much like or quite near the Ohio; the descriptions were based on the Licking River, the Kentucky River, and the Ohio; "Watertown" in the novels was Cincinnati). These adventures were recorded in a series of eleven novels: Stoner's Boy; Seckatary Hawkins in Cuba (a.k.a The Cazanova Treasure); The Red Runners; The Gray Ghost; Stormie the Dog Stealer; Knights of the Square Table; ChingToy; The Chinese Coin; The Yellow Y; Herman the Fiddler; and The Ghost of Lake Tapaho; these books were illustrated memorably by Carll B. Williams, director of the Cincinnati Enquirer art department, in clean line drawings. In the adventures, which were led by Seckatary Hawkins, the club solved mysteries and kept the river bank safe from marauders (of which there were several). Each chapter ended (mostly) with a determination of action -- and then the phrase, which became memorable (as my father told me) "Which we did."
The Author: The author of this series of boys' books was Robert F. Schulkers, who was born in Covington, Kentucky, but who went to work for the Cincinnati Enquirer in 1911 as secretary (you see a connection here to his fictional hero?) to the paper's publisher, W. F. Wiley. In 1918, the Enquirer's editor asked him to write "something weekly." So he wrote the first "Seckatary Hawkins" story, "The Snow Fort" (subsequently republished under several slightly different titles) for the children's section magazine. Later in the same year he wrote "The Rejiment" story, that being the name of the gang's clubhouse.
The Clubs: By 1922 there was a growing bi-monthly magazine which contained "Seckatary Hawkins" club news, an ongoing series of stories, member letters, radio news (more of which anon), contests for free books, and the opportunity to purchase various "Seckatary" paraphernalia -- blue and white pins (the club colors), spinners, flag banners, statue bookends (featuring a model of "Seckatary Hawkins" by artist William F. Mcdonald, and produced by the Rookwood Pottery Co.). These clubs spread nationally; there were several million members worldwide in "Seckatary Hawkins" heyday, 170,00 members in Cincinnati and 300,000 members in Pittsburgh in 1930. In the 1920s, over one hundred newspapers carried "Seckatary Hawkins" nationally (both stories and comic strips); there were "Seckatary Hawkins" days at Coney Island.
The Radio Shows: The first "Seckatary Hawkins" half-hour radio shows were transmitted to crystal radio sets, often built by the boy readers themselves, from Cincinnati's WSAI on Saturday evenings. The Milwaukee Journal's WTMJ featured him daily in the evening and for one hour on Sundays. By 1929-1930, nationally broadcast radio shows of "Seckatary Hawkins" were broadcast from the Chicago Merchandise Mart, with Robert Schulkers doing the readings of the scripts.
The Movie: The Milwaukee Journal's WTMJ radio station sponsored a silent movie "Home Run Hawkins," with an all-club cast: every member of the club was an actor. The movie was filmed with the Kemper Log Cabin (1804), then located in the Cincinnati Zoo (as it was in our youth; now located in the Heritage Village Museum in Sharon Woods), as the club's clubhouse, and the Zoo's surrounding grounds as backdrop. [Note: The movie is now lost.]
"Seckatary Hawkins" and To Kill a Mocking Bird: In 1960 Harper Lee wrote her now famous novel To Kill a Mocking Bird. There are a number of references in the novel to the "Seckatary Hawkins" books, notably in Chapter 1: Dill bets Jem a Gray Ghost against two Tom Swift books. Later, The Gray Ghost and Stoner's Boy are referred to again. But Harper Lee chose to end her book with the moral lessons of Seckatary Hawkins as Atticus Finch reads from The Gray Ghost to Scout (look it up for yourself). [Note: Harper Lee told Robert Schulkers' grandson that she is proud to be a member of the Seckatary Hawkins "Fair and Square Club."]
One Other Note and a Motto: Robert Schulkers' eldest son, Robert Franc Schulkers, Jr., was a graduate of Walnut Hills High School (Class of 1935?); he was drum major and had his own 8-piece band called the "Victorians." And the motto of "The Fair and Square Club"? "A Winner Never Quits and a Quitter Never Wins."
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