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Nick Carter

kevinburtonsmith

Created by Nicholas Carter
Pseudonym of John R. Coryell
(1848-1924)

Sound of someone knocking on the door…
Woman: “What’s the matter? What is it?”
Man: “It’s another case for Nick Carter… Master Detective!.”
Announcer: “Yes, it’s another case for that most famous of all manhunters,
the detective whose ability at solving crime is unequalled in the history of detective fiction–
Nick Carter, Master Detective!”
— opening of radio show

What a long strange trip it’s been for New York City detective NICK CARTER, arguably the most published character in American fiction. He’s been an adventurer, a private investigator and a government assassin, in print, film, radio and comic books. And thousands of short stories.

“The Little Giant,” as he was first introduced to readers, first appeared in a story entitled “The Old Detective’s Pupil; or, The Mysterious Crime of Madison Square,” in the September 18, 1886 issue of Street and Smith’s New York Weekly.

It was written by John R. Coryell, but he worked from an outline provided by Ormond G. Smith, the son of one of the founders of Street & Smith, so in a way, Nick Carter had two daddies.

That first story turned out to be quite popular, as did the next two that Coryell wrote, but there was no way one writer could keep up with demand, and soon handed the writing chores over to what would soon become a multitude of writers over the next several decades.

Initially, Nick was young, strong, dedicated to clean living (save for an occasional cigar or glass of beer), confident, a master of disguise, and possessor of a keen mind, filled with more trivia than anyone would ever need to know (except, of course, for dime novel master sleuths!) and posessing otherworldly strength, able to “lift a horse with ease… while a heavy man is seated in the saddle… he can place four packs of playing cards together, and tear them in halves between his thumbs and fingers.”

It seems that Nick’s dad, the legendary detective “Old Sim” Carter, had raised his son from an early age to become a perfect mental and physical specimen. And he succeeded–Nick was essentiall a crime-solving Paul Bunyan. No wonder pulp historian Jess Nevins refers to him as “the Grandfather of superheroes.”

Upon reaching adulthood, Nick becomes the world’s greatest detective, with a swank apartment on Madison Avenue in New York City, although his cases frequently have him hopping all over the world, frequently accompanied by his loyal secretary Miss Patsy and assistant Scrubby.

Although occasionally being accused of being some sort of American Sherlock Holmes wannabe (even though he actually made his debut a year before Holmes), he was really modeled on other popular dime novel detectives of the time, like Old Sleuth, Old Cap Collier and Old King Brady. He did subsequently take on Holmesian attributes, to be sure, but he was always more than a mere knock-off. Another popular hero of the same era, Sexton Blake, suffered the same misconceptions.

Nick Carter first appeared in film in 1908, in Nick Carter, Le Roi Des Détectives. A six-part black and white silent serial, produced in French, it featured Pierre Bressol as our hero, and was the first of many films to appear. There were French nicks, German Nicks, British Nicks and even occasionally American Nicks. There were series and serials, all black and white, all silent. Over forty of them.

By 1949, it was estimated that Carter had appeared in over 4000 stories in various dime novels and pulp magazines, films (mostly silent), comic books, comic strips and radio shows. There were probably more Nick Carter adventures than those of any other fictional detective.

As with any long-running character, Nick went through numerous changes. Originally a pretty straightforward dime novel detective, he soon developed into a sort of two-fisted consulting detective/adventurer. In the twenties, the superhero stuff was toned down a little, and he became more of a standard hard-boiled detective, although his adventures still bordered on the fantastic; more Doc Savage than Continental Op. During the forties, his cases became much more realistic, and more downbeat.

It was as a radio show in the forties, in fact, that Nick really made his mark as a private eye. Nick Carter, Master Detective was one of the first detective radio shows to really hit it big with audiences. In it, Nick was a pretty typical private eye of the time, caught somewhere between the two prevelant models of the time, somewhere between two-fisted tough guy and gentlemanly sleuth, although there were some distinctive touches.

The opening for the show was particularly memorable, and really grabbed you. An increasingly urgent knocking (pounding) on Nick’s office door. A startled Patsy, his assistant (now a female secretary) opens the door and says, “What’s the matter? What is it?” A male voice says, “Another case for Nick Carter, Master Detective!”

While not exactly hard-boiled, there was never any doubt about Carter’s toughness or his abilities. In one episode, Patsy was facing imminent murder and she bet $100.00 to a penny that Nick would save her. Rumor on the street has it that the phrase “In The Nick of Time” can be attributed to Nick’s always arriving just in time.

The story lines usually followed the formula of the classic detective story. Nick would be on the case looking for clues. Each clue would bring him a little closer to the criminal. After the criminal had been apprehended, Nick would explain the meanings and importance of the various clues.

The series was unusual for several reasons. Most, if not all of the episodes followed a 19th century convention and had alternate sub-titles, such as “An Angle on Murder” was also called “Nick Carter and the Mystery of the Mutilated Foot.” Lon Clark played the title role for the entire twelve year run, over 700 episodes! (In roughly the same length of run, no fewer than six actors played Johnny Dollar and two others auditioned.) Nick Carter, Master Detective even fostered a spin-off series, Chick Carter, Boy Detective, which ran from 1943 to 1945; Chick was Nick Carter’s adopted son.

The radio show finally petered out in 1953, but by the 1960s, Nick was back, smack dab in the middle of the James Bond feeding frenzy as a spy, in a long string of “men’s adventure” paperbacks than ran under the title Nick Carter: Killmaster.

The Killmaster series was published from 1964 until the late 1990s, with at least 260 titles published, the transition of our hero from adventurer to globetrotting secret agent handled by (among others) Michael Avallone (creator of Ed Noon), Robert J. Randisi, Bill Crider, Michael Collins, Gayle Lynds and Martin Cruz Smith, all writing under the house name of Nick Carter.

UNDER OATH

SHORT STORIES, NOVELLAS & NOVELS

With over 4000 of these floating around, we may need a bigger boat.

FILMS

RADIO

TELEVISION

FURTHER INVESTIGATION

Original post respectfully submitted by Stewart Wright (December 8, 1998). Additional information by Kevin Burton Smith, Jim Doherty and Jess Nevins. Special thanks to John McDonagh, Nancy Pike and Badre El Amir Bally for their help, as well.

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