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The Bayport Times
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Hardy Boys
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Issue # 14       March 1999       Editor: Bob Finnan
  Bayport Beat  

Welcome to the Bayport Times.

This month featuring new collectible discoveries, letters and my review of The Mystery Of Cabin Island.


Lately the good old Bayport Mail Bag has been pretty thin. Am I the only Hardy fan that makes new discoveries or has any thoughts whatsoever on the Boys? I realize that the Bayport Connection message board is somewhat responsible for the dropoff in letters but I'm surprised because, while the counters indicate that readership of the Bayport Times is steadily rising, the number of fans willing to contribute has dropped to almost nil. I can't do this all by myself, so you guys & gals will have to pitch in.
South Jersey Series Collectors Meeting
Sea Bright NJ - Saturday April 17
Displays, guest speakers, book sales & more!!!!!
Click Here For Details
Research Help Needed
Tony Carpentieri makes the following request:
As part of our research, we are determining when the author's name on the cover of brown books was compressed. It was certainly in late 1947 (first 2 printings of Phantom Freighter were wide), but we're trying to get an exact handle on it.
If you have any HB books listing 25-27 titles on the DJ (or otherwise recognizable as being from 1946-1948, even without DJ) please send an e-mail with your phone number to acsb@netcom.com
New Web Sites
Hardy fan and Bayport Times contributer Jake Brownell has set up his own web site - check it out!
Dave Baumann has a great new X-Bar-X Boys page. Very detailed and well designed.
FOR TRADE
I have a copy of a Disney Hardy Boys Comic The Mystery Of Ghost Farm (Dell #887) that I'll trade for any other Disney Hardy Boys comic. This one has a few chips along the edge of the front cover but otherwise is in nice shape.
NEW PROJECT!
I would like to set up a cover art gallery for the digests.
If anyone out there has a scanner and access to all the digests, please contact me. Thanks!
HELP WANTED
Due to the underwhelming response to my last plea, I STILL need your help to locate the following books for my personal collection:
2 in 1 editions: #8 Sinister Signpost/Figure In Hiding; #9 Secret Warning/Twisted Claw
Hardy Boys Classic: Treasure Island
Nancy Drew & The Hardy Boys Campfire Stories
Any help would be appreciated. Thanks!
We pause here for a commercial message!
I've just added many new books to my SALES PAGE .
Many Hardy Boys with DJ's and dozen's of like new PC editions as well as other series like Tom Swift, Tom Corbett and more.
If you would like to contribute an article, letter or announce a new Hardy Boys discovery, please send e-mail to: fwdixon@yahoo.com - Please use "Bayport Times" as your subject heading.

See you next time!
 

  Hardy Boys News  
  • New Collectible Discoveries
    Promotional Brochure - Late 1970's(?) - Apparently issued by Grosset & Dunlap

    Shaun Cassidy record - Date unknown - Record with Shaun's picture imbedded in the vinyl!

    Video Promotional Poster - Date unknown - Poster issued by MCA(?) to promote their release of the Cassidy/Stevenson Hardy Boys video tapes. Designed for in-store use.

    Library Binding - Many of these turned up on eBay. Yet another example of the many different styles of library rebindings found in the Hardy Boys series. This one seems to date from the 1970's.

  • New On The Shelves
    Digests
    #154 - The Caribbean Cruise Caper
    Clues Brothers
    #11 - The Monster in the Lake

  Hardys In Review  

This Month: The Mystery Of Cabin Island
#8 in the series - 1929 - Written by Leslie McFarlane

It's Christmas time in Bayport and the Boys and their chums are enjoying themselves iceboating out on Barmet Bay. They decide to explore lonely Cabin Island but are chased away by a surly stranger (Hanliegh). On the way back, they nearly come to ruin in an accident with another iceboat manned by Tad Carson and Ike Nash, a pair of obnoxious bullies.
Heading home from this near disaster, they find a message from Elroy Jefferson (who's car they recovered in The Shore Road Mystery). They head over to Jefferson's posh digs to collect a reward and obtain permission to camp out on Jefferson's Cabin Island retreat over the Christmas school holiday.
The Boys along with Chet and Biff head out to the island on their iceboats and have an unpleasant encounter with Ike and Tad, who are in cahoots with Hanliegh. They chase Hanliegh off the island and settle in for some rousing winter adventures.
Soon, they find their supplies stolen and head to the nearest town to get more from elderly storekeeper, Amos Grice, and, incidentally, discover from him that Jefferson had a valuable stamp collection stolen many years ago.
Back at the island, they have more adventures, discover a notebook dropped by Hanliegh indicating that the stolen stamps are hidden in the chimney of the cabin. They make a search and, surprise, find nothing.
Later, during a howling blizzard, they are forced to rescue Hanliegh who has come to grief in an iceboat accident. The storm increases in intensity, finally blowing down the chimney of the old cabin. Searching through the rubble, the Boys discover the stamp collection which miraculously has escaped any damage whatsoever despite being walled into a chimney over a huge fireplace for more than twenty years. They return the stamps to Jefferson and pick up yet another reward and Jefferson's offer to let them use his Cabin Island retreat any time they want.
Comments: This tale appears on almost everyone's list of favorite Hardy Boys stories and with good reason. The story is well written and paced and the prose is charmingly evocative and descriptive. One can almost picture oneself ice-boating and camping along with the Boys and their chums.
The mystery is, as usual, solved pretty much by dumb luck (aided by the infamous foul weather that seems to plague Bayport) but this doesn't take away from the excitement and mystery presented here.
The action is not too far removed from that which a teenage detective could accomplish. The villians are bad but not too bad and the mystery not too difficult to solve.
As in a few other of the earlier stories, the Boys arm themselves in this book (this time with rifles) and, although they threaten to use them, no shootings take place (except for a hapless fox who meets his demise in a totally extraneous sequence.)
Apparently the accident with the iceboat shook up Frank more than he cared to admit because the suggestion to go camping had to be made twice to him! When the suggestion was made the second time, Frank acts like he never heard of such a thing before - oh well!
I'm glad to note that, for once, the Boys' chums got a share of the reward but sadly there was no lip-smacking feast to cap off the Boys triumph in this case!
The revised version of this story by Andrew Svenson sticks close to the plot of the original and although the charm of McFarlane's prose is completely lost, it still ranks among the best of the revisions.
Rating: A+

  Bayport Mail Bag  

From: JLNelson23@aol.com (Jennifer Nelson)
Thank you for sending me the info on your web site. I really enjoyed taking a look at it.
I've been recording the old tv episodes from TVland and I'm very happy to have the whole list of episodes now. That will come in handy. Do you happen to know all the Nancy Drew episodes? Or someone who does? I would love that list too.

From: patm@thecore.com (Pat McCauslin)
Your site is the best Hardy Boys site I've found!

From: WardoIII@aol.com
First of all, your site has become pretty darn impressive. My fiance forbids me from gazing longingly at the cover art section while she's home. Anyway, having recently impulsively purchased The Mysterious Case of ND & HB by Kisamric and Heiferman, I was wondering if there are any other books on the market that look at the Hardy Boys canon.
Editor: Check the FAQ page on the Hardy Boys site for a guide to reference books.

From: RNELSONS@aol.com (Bob Nelson)
It's confirmed! The Hardy Boys and Nancy Drew are now showing on Nick at Nite's TV Land M-F at 1PM Eastern Time starting today. I even looked at the schedule myself. Please let any friends that you know who have Nick at Nite's TV Land to tape them, because we may not get another chance to get some good copies, not to mention lost episodes, such as Defection to Paradise, Parts 1 & 2.

From: sabasushi@intellinetusa.com (Angeli Wahlstedt)
Hiya...I'm looking for mysteries involving martial arts, and someone told me there was a Hardy Boys mystery involving a martial art, but she/he didn't remember which title. Would you happen to know which title it might be? I looked at your Hardy Boys website, but I couldn't find what I was looking for.

From: hardyboys@rockford.crosswinds.net (Jake Brownell)
I found a mistake in Eye on Crime (#153). It is in chapter one "Somebody Get Chosen" at the bottom of page 2.
I quote from the book:
"Oh, all right," Callie said with a shrug of her shoulders. She handed the newspaper back to Frank. The blond-haired Hardy quickly unfolded the "Bayport Times" and straightened out the front page.
Frank has dark hair! It says so in all the books!

From: mikebev9@sunset.net (Mike Humbert)
I just stumbled across the 'zine yesterday, and ended up reading all thirteen issues back to back! I found so much good information, not to mention a lot of smiles and nice memories. I was first introduced to the Hardys while in sixth grade back in 1969, where a lone tweed-cover copy of the Hidden Harbor Mystery sat on a back shelf, mixed in with all the other books. While I was a little alarmed by some of the racist content, I couldn't help but be swept away with the pulpish nostalgia of the writing.
In 1969, book stores still had a lot of original text editions mixed in with the rewrites. I noticed my new PC copy of Hidden harbor suddenly had no racist passages, but had a much blander story as well. This blandness seemed to permeate most of the books with the line-drawing endpapers (which I soon learned meant the "modernized" edition.) In my opinion, the Hardys have always worked best when viwed through Norman Rockwellesque eyes. To make the Hardys hip is to miss the point. Want proof? Look at the bell-bottomed, love-beaded Hardys of the 1970 cartoon series! BLEAHH!
Soon I became too old for the Hardys (even the back covers said so). The boys were abandonded and the books sold. Decades passed.
About three months ago, I discovered eBay, and began, as a lark, to type in various elements from my childhood. I was delighted to see 300-plus Hardy boys entries come up. I immediately looked for and found a vintage Hidden Harbor at a reasonable price. Within six weeks (and almost against my will!) I collected all 40 of the pre-PC books. They are an odd mish-mosh of brown or tweed covers, orange or brown endpapers, and only three have dust jackets. But I have them all, and usually spent only three dollars or so per book!
Now I'm actively reading them, and the insider information I get from the Bayport Times (as well as the Hardy Boys main page) is making it even more enjoyable! Now that I know what to look for, the Flying Express is a hoot!
Thanks for the great burst of childhoold nostalgia. Hopefully I can contrubute something of merit to a future issue!

Readers - This is your forum to tell the world your thoughts on the Hardys!
Letters may be edited for content, spelling etc. but, then again, maybe not!
Full name & e-mail address required for your letter to appear here.

  Hardys For Sale  
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