Fairgeth: Introduction (Part I)
Originally published at The Codex Continual. You can comment here or there.
“Wassat? You ain’t never been here before? Dis is a town like no other, pal! Ya say yer prayers, don’tcha?”
-“Hack Harry” (cabbie played by Albert Sonarm) in ACE BARRIGAN™ and the Fairgeth Phantom (1941)
“From the first, Fairgeth was accursed, for Bartram Algeth’s founding of the town came from blood and hate and gold and greed. Over time, the settlement spread, almost despite itself. Its dark heart beat everywhere but in its now-ironic name of Fairgeth. Its citizens have seen its share of dark days, evil nights, and horrors undreamt in other conurbations. But a bloody dawn now heralds the worst day ever visited upon this blighted burg. ”
-DOCTOR ENIGMA™ in “Fairgeth on Fire,” Hero Thrills #3 (July 1941)
I’m told that the city of Fairgeth has existed since 1927 when the horrid character of BOSS MACKAY™ came to life in “His Teeth Made a Racket under My Fist!” (Gangland Thrills #28, July 1927). Apparently, the story was written by a far younger Carson Cullen than the man who wrote my first movie role in 1941. It wasn’t named in that story; the city first got clearly identified in “Aces and Hates,” an ACE BARRIGAN™ story in Occult Thrills #282 (May 1937).
As for me, I’d never heard of this town before until I got a chance for an audition at Luxury Pictures. I walked into Sidney Masters’ office and was handed script pages for the climax of ACE BARRIGAN™ and the Fairgeth Phantom (1941). Reading the details of the demonic altar, the cultists’ robes, and seeing the sketches of some of the exterior sets-that’s when the “city cursed from flagstone to flagpole” (one of my favorite lines of a writer describing Fairgeth) first became something real to me.
I was a young ingénue-never you mind exactly how old-and I was simply thrilled to have a role alongside rising star Max Dawes. (Now there was a man who indeed knew how to treat a lady correctly.) I played the unfortunate kidnap victim and eventual love interest of Max’s ACE BARRIGAN, who had to save me again and again in the course of the movie. I had a ball dressing up in lovely evening gowns, but let me advise any young actress to insist on flats rather than heels if you’re having to run down the streets when being chased by thugs.
When the actors weren’t in shots, the crew had many Bulwark pulps at hand for us to read for inspiration about the city and its characters. I confess to enjoying A.J. Soltare’s magical P.I. stories the best. While my character of “Mary Stevens” had not appeared in stories before Fairgeth Phantom, Mr. Soltare was an absolute dear and he wrote her into two stories in 1942. I know this as he delivered them to me personally in Morocco. I was shooting Daisy of the Desert (1943) and he said he ran across me by total accident as he was there traveling for research purposes. Such a dear, and I’m so heartened by his success as an author in the years since.
That “Mary Stevens” role spurred interest in me as an actress (and Max’s patronage was no small part in that either). Therefore, I’m beholden to Fairgeth for a rewarding career that has lasted more than a few decades. I might truly be among the few who can say that the curses of Fairgeth have never darkened my door.
Oh dear. Have I just doomed myself there?
Mona Davidson
Hollywood, August 1987
Editors’ Note: The above was the original introduction to Fairgeth on File: Travelogue of a City without Shame (Bulwark/Prospect, 1988). While attributed to Oscar-winning actress Mona Davidson, the piece was ghost-written by assistant editor Dinah Pierce from a terse phone interview and later approved by Ms. Davidson’s agents.
© 2009 by Steven E. Schend. All rights reserved.