Dick Tracy Secret Service Patrol badges

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Another good mail day in a trio of them, but this one ranks among the best: a complete (minus Patrol Leader bar, the highest level) set of the six badges of the Dick Tracy Secret Service Patrol, a kid’s group created as a promotion for the Dick Tracy radio show by the show’s sponsor, Quaker Puffed Rice and Puffed Wheat cereal, from the mid-late 1930s, including the actual certificate of the kid – I’ve censored her name for this post – who jumped through all of the hoops (read: she ate a lot of cereal and had a lot of friends) to get all six badges, including the ultra-rare Inspector-General's badge:

A shadow box containing a 1938 certificate from Dick Tracy's Secret Service Patrol and, below it, six badges, including the ultra-rare Inspector General's badge.

Not only are they all from the same kid, but they're in remarkable condition – clearly loved and cared for. Sent the seller a message with the picture above of the collection's new home and learned the story of how the badges came to them (which I'll withhold out of respect for their privacy), which makes me treasure this collection even more.

(Note: the blemish above the R in inspector is on the glass of the shadow box, NOT on the badge itself.)

If you're interested in the hoops she jumped through – during the Great Depression, nonetheless – here's a look at the Captain and Inspector-General requirements via a 1939 edition of the Secret Service Patrol Secret Code book, which I had purchased from another seller. Didn't include it in my display as it's not from the same source – and published a few months after the collector earned her Inspector-General's badge; I'd love to find an copy from the year of her rank-ascension (March '38 to Feb '39). Hint hint.

Two pages from the Dick Tracy Secret Service Patrol code book

(If you'd like to see the whole code book, shoot me an email and I'll provide the snapshots from my copy).

As I've mentioned before, I'd rather the items in my collection have a personal history behind them than be in pristine condition: that this complete treasure has such a rich and deep – down to the handwriting – one (and are in such stunning condition) will make this one of those "pinch me" pieces of the collection for a long time to come.

THE CREMATOR (Herz, 1969)

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(Directed by Juraj Herz from a script by Herz and Ladizlav Fuks; starring Rudolf Hrušínský, Vlasta Chramostová, Jana Stehnová, Miloš Vognič, Jiří Menzel, and Ilja Prachař. Released 14 March 1969; watched 2023w13 via Criterion Channel)

A still from THE CREMATOR: Rudolf Hrušínský looks on, in black and white.

If ALL MY GOOD COUNTRYMEN followed the horrors of Post-WWII conformity (led, as here, by Ilja Prachař) to an oppressive regime, THE CREMATOR – one of the most frightening horror films I've seen – offers a darkly (pitch black) comic unfurling of the spiral of possession of one (already primed) man and a populace just prior to the outbreak of WWII by the ultimate evil of the 20th century. Hrušínský is a revelation - that I'd never heard of or seen anything of this treasure is a crime I'll be further rectifying (as seems to be the way with my current Czech New Wave obsession) - his performance as Kopfrkingl reminding me, on more than one occasion, of Peter Lorre's Hans Beckert in M. Every great villain – whether fully formed or in the process of becoming – is convinced that they're doing the right thing: Hrušínský's Kopfrkingl is one of the greats and then some. Brilliant, brutal – and essential – viewing.

THE LIVING SHADOW / THE SHADOW LAUGHS

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Yesterday and today being two very very good mail days:

Both are the first hardcover edition Ideal reprints of the first SHADOW story – THE LIVING SHADOW (originally published in THE SHADOW MAGAZINE No. 1, April 1931) – and the third – THE SHADOW LAUGHS (originally published in THE SHADOW MAGAZINE No. 3, October 1931), from 1935 and are in stunningly good condition. My shelves, they sing - and will sing even louder next week: just found the second Ideal reprint, THE EYES OF THE SHADOW, (THE SHADOW MAGAZINE No. 2, July 1931), which will complete the trifecta.