There's a little town in Illinois, right on the Ohio River, which has never been populous enough to qualify as a city except by Bronze Age archaeological standards, and which, due to extreme stubbornness about changing its name even after it became clear that its promise would never be fulfilled, has enjoyed a modest tourist trade since, oh, 1938:
Street & Smith had a policy of never naming names. It may have been to preclude lawsuits from (in)famous people or companies who objected to their trademarks being used without compensation or just to be "protect the innocent" but it also meant that they wouldn't get letters from readers reacting for or against their depiction of known entities.
This is oneof the reason why the building in which Doc had his 86th Floor HQ is never named, even though there was only one building in NYC (or the world, for that matter) that had 86 floors.
You can see an example of how this policy restrained writers in World's Fair Goblin. The Transportation Zone of the 1939 New York World's Fair had not one but three pavilions: the Ford Pavilion, the Chrysler Motors Building and the General Motors Building, but in WFG there's only one: the generically-named Motors Building.
It's probably intended to the Chrysler Motors Building, because it's described as a streamlimed Art Deco structure with stainless steel gargoyles, but that description doesn't match
( ... )
Thanks for the information, I'm glad to learn this. Sometimes when reading the reprints as a kid, I would feel something was funny about a secondary character without really knowing why... and decades later, I would be listening to an old time radio show or reading about the 1930s and suddenly realize who that character was supposed to. The closure gave me deep satisfaction.
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Seriously, you try coming up with a name weird enough that someone hasn't really named a place that.
Then come tell me about it.
I'm not far from Fresno, but a little closer to Gilroy.
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Knob Noster, Missouri
Pie Town, New Mexico
Puesey, A mythical town in North West Missouri. Everyone knows kind of where it is, but know one can tell you how to get there.
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Metropolis.
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This is oneof the reason why the building in which Doc had his 86th Floor HQ is never named, even though there was only one building in NYC (or the world, for that matter) that had 86 floors.
You can see an example of how this policy restrained writers in World's Fair Goblin. The Transportation Zone of the 1939 New York World's Fair had not one but three pavilions: the Ford Pavilion, the Chrysler Motors Building and the General Motors Building, but in WFG there's only one: the generically-named Motors Building.
It's probably intended to the Chrysler Motors Building, because it's described as a streamlimed Art Deco structure with stainless steel gargoyles, but that description doesn't match ( ... )
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In the article titled "The Top Ten Doc Savage Novels -- and One Stinker," this is the stinker.
I thought Mr. Murray was rather harsh.
In other news, I read "Mad Mesa" in December and that was the last one left. I've now read all the Doc Savage novels! And it only took me 35 years!
For the record, my favorite is "Fortress of Solitude." And in my opinion, the worst one is "The Headless Men."
- Tony Seybert
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