Universal Weekly (1924-1936)

Universal Buys ''Frank Merriweir' The threo pals in '"liusilrrs oj livd Dofi." Riiymonil li 'lton, Walter Miller (uho's a hero for a change) and John Mack Broun. At the rinhl and left the hero and the villain John Mack Brown and H. L. Woods. FRANK MERRIWELL is bound for Hollywood. Exhibitors Demand Early Dates tip Top exceeded 150 000 weekly. At their flood tide The legendary hero of college athletics, whose exploits filled 882 paper backed volumes of sensational juvenile fiction will shortly appear on the talking screen in serial form. Yesterday Universal purchased all the rights to the famous Merriwell tales from Gilbert Patten, silvery haired author, who under the pen name of Burt L. Standish, wrote this epic of boyhood. Work will be started at once at Universal City on fhe screen play for this serial. Company executives are beginning to consider possibilities for the role of the Immortal Frank, his sweetheart Inza Burrage and for that prime villain Bart Hodge. When it reaches the screen, "Frank Merriwell" should be another serial that will interest parents as well as the youngsters who usually form the principal audience for this type of movie entertainment. Fathers who remember how they waited as boys for the appearance of the Merriwell sagas every week will be as anxious as their sons to see how the hero will look in the films. Gil Patten was the favorite author of their generation. Patten wrote his stories over a period of seventeen years. He wrote a book a week; 52 books a year. Each of these novels ran to 20,000 words. This made the grand total of 17,680,000 words used to chronicle the deeds of the infallible Frank. The stories ran in the Tip Top Weekly a Street and Smith publication founded especially for them. When Merriwell was in his prime the circulation of On "Rustlers of Red Dog 99 SO profitable and so popular have been the two Universal serials. Buck Jones in "The Red Rider" and "Tailspin Tommy" that exhibitors in all territories are pressing VniversaVs Exchanges for earliest possible dates on "Rustlers of Red Dog." This serial which combines Indians, cotcboys, gold rush and covered tvagon. stars John Mack Broivn with a cast tvhich includes many of the best known serial stars and featured players. Joyce Compton is leading lady and H. L. Woods is the villain. Raymond Hatton, William Desmond, Jim Thorpe, Walter Miller, Vredric Mac Kaye, Charles K. French, Lafe McKee, J. P. McGowan, Edmond Cobb, Bud Osborne, Monty Montague are prominent in it. The first four episodes have been seen by the home office executives and everyone is delighted with the fast and furious action of these episodes and the high standard of interest and suspense achieved by director Louis Friedlander. "Rustlers of Red Dog" looks like a better serial than either of the other ttvo released this year. there were millions of copies of the stories spread about the land, being read or waiting to be read. Tip Top sold for five cents. The author used to write his stories about Frank in four days each week and use the remaining three days to think out the next week's novel. After pounding them out on a typewriter for the first eight months, he began dictating them. This lightened the nerve wracking task considerably. He started writing the stories in response to a demand for a variety of juvenile fiction superior to the then waning Dime Novels. It was suggested that the hero's exploits be laid in a school setting. Frank Merriwell was the result. As his first move in constructing the tales Patten concentrated on a good name for his leading man. He decided on Frank for the first name because it suggested an open and straightforward character. Merriwell was chosen as being bright, happy and active. The first story saw Frank as a high school boy. Subsequent episodes carried him through high school and then through Yale. In both schools he specialized in winning baseball, football and other sports classics in the deciding minutes with the unfailing skill that has made his name a synonym for that sort of thing. He was the only person in fact or fiction including Dizzy Dean who could throw a double curve with a baseball. Gilbert Patten was born in Corinna, Maine and is now on the borderline of his seventies.