Oliver Quade
Created by Frank
Gruber (1904-1969)
"And now I'm going to give each and every gentleman
here tonight an opportunity to learn the answeers... to any question
that may arise today, tomorrow or any time during the year. This
book has the answers to ALL questions. The Compedium of Human
Knowledge, the knowledge of the ages crammed into one volume,
two thousand pages. classified, condensed and abbreviated...."
.
"The price of this magnificent volume is not twenty-five
dollars as you might expect, not even fifteen or ten, but a paltry
two-ninety-five. It sounds preposterous, I know, but it's really
true!" The knowledge of the ages for only two ninety-five!"
(Oliver lays it on for a gathered crowd, in "Death
at the Main")
A crime-solving hot-shot encyclopedia salesman. I kid you not.
Yet another fine product from the multi-talented pulpster Frank
Gruber.
OLIVER QUADE has a photographic memory and a brain capable
of soaking up the most varied, arcane and often downright ridiculous
trivia, which has earned him the nickname "The Human Encyclopedia."
Okay, maybe he gave it to himself -- Oliver's not the modest type,
but nonetheless, armed with numerous copies of the single-volume
encyclopedia, this cocky, brash Willie Logan with the gift of
gab travels from town to town, solving crimes and racking up sales,
"salting away twenty thousand dollars every year."
Gruber was one of the most prolific of the great pulpsters,
and recounted his experiences in The
Pulp Jungle, a critical study. He also found the time
to create several different private eye series. Beside Otis Beagle and Joe Peel,
he wrote about Fletcher and
Cragg, and Simon Lash and Eddie
Slocum, and came up with TV hybrid P.I./cowboy
Shotgun Slade.
SHORT STORIES
- "Death at the Main" (December 1936, Thrilling Detective)
- "Ask Me Another" (June 1937, Black Mask)
- "Funny Man" (May, 1939, Black Mask)
- "Death Sits Down"
- "Dog Show Murder"
- "Forced Landing"
- "Oliver Quade at the Races"
- "Rain the Killer"
- "State Fair Murder"
- "Words and Music"
COLLECTIONS
FILM
- DEATH OF A CHAMPION
(1939, Paramount)
67 minutes, black and white
Based on the story "Dog
Show Murder" by Frank
Gruber
Screenplay by Stuart Palmer
and Cortland Fitzsimmons
Directed by Robert Florey
Starring Lynne Overman as
OLIVER QUADE
Also starring Joseph Allen, May Boley, Hal Brazeale, David Clyde,
Virginia Dale, Harry Davenport, Robert McKenzie, Donald O'Connor,
Robert Paige, Susan Paley, Walter Soderling, Frank M. Thomas,
Pierre Watkin
Preliminary report respectfully submitted by
Kevin Burton Smith.
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