reefer madness / anti- medical marijuana

THE REEFER MADNESS ERA REEFER MADNESS ERA BOOKS

PULP FICTION (a.k.a. Dime Store) NOVELS

Marihuana
While not all students of governmental dis-information agree as to the importance of (what are obviously fictional) dime store novels as propaganda. And no doubt some would even argue that they played no role in the reefer madness campaign. But this author for one feels that they played a much greater role than is generally attributed to them.

However, we would be fooling ourselves if we thought the evil hand of the drug police was everywhere. Unlike magazine editors, no evidence exists of government coercion of any pulp fiction writers or their publishers. But as these covers show, none was needed, many a publisher was in it solely for the money. And soon they had writers jumping over each other to see who could write the most outrageous story lines. As for the true, it was boring and probably wouldn't have sold anyway. Reefer Madness simply made for more fun and money. Where else could one get a story that read:

"A cheap and evil girl sets a hopped-up killer against a city." - "Marihuana turns weak King Turner into a deadly weapon, a conscienceless killer with no more human feeling than a hooded cobra or a mad dog."

For Pulp Fiction novels, the Reefer Madness era started around 1935 and lasted until the early 1960's, at which point the naively long ago had stopped. This is why "Marijuana Girl" by DeMexico, (1969) despite its great byline, --"She traded her body for drugs and kicks," is not included in this index. Let's face it, by 1969, no one was that naļve, therefore the novel fell into the world of pure exploitation, and not Reefer Madness.

To simplify matters, maybe it would best to sub-categorize these Novels as two types, OVERT and OBTUSE.:

OVERT beign where both the Cover are as well as the plot of the story, both revolve around the weed of madness --- Such novels as "Marihuana" by William Irish, with its sleazy (good girl art) cover and plot obviously falls into this category.

And OBTUSE, (the one in which by far most novels fall into) being the ones where marihuana itself has little to do with the novels plot, but when mentioned is always done so in the negative. [hypothetical example]

"Sleazed-bag Johnny, was slithering his way back down the dark streets toward his den of iniquity, when to his right he spotted, Jimmy-the-fink. Hey, he thought to himself, Jimmy always sells good medical marihuana cigarettes-----just what he needed before committing some heinous crime. "Hey, Jimmy, do you have some good smokes for me" he asked? etc."

WARNING NOTES

No attempt is made to even suggest that this index is in anyway, shape, or form, complete. In fact it may not even be accurate --- I mean, let's face it, most of these Dime store novels are pure trash, and it would unreasonable to expect anyone (no matter what the museum) to actually have to sit down and read them. As such we must depend on book covers and the footnotes of others to gage they're content.

1936 LADY IN THE MORGUE By Jonathan Latimer A nude woman found hanging from a bathroom door has no shoes, no name, no friends, and only four dollars. But someone wants her body enough to kill a morgue attendant to steal it (we've got a dead naked blonde, an alcoholic private detective, a marihuana smoker, a drunken bulldog, and a left-handed undertaker --how could you *possibly* need anything more in a mystery.

1938 YOUNG DOCTOR KILDARE BY Max Brand. A real sick book, by Max Brand. Doctor Kildare (who works at the DuPont general hospital) -- An interesting adventure for the doctor as he gets involved with a marijuana racket (picture of a joint on the front and spine of the DJ).

1943 MARIHUANA By Woolrich, Cornell or Irish, --A classic see Cover art.

1945 MARIJUANA MURDER By Anonymous, Canada, Superior Publishers, Limited Cover shows woman in raincoat being grabbed at by hand cover art not credited, rare digest size

1946 IT AIN'T HAY By David Dodge Murder and the Marijuana Traffic. The chapters have titles like, "Quickest road to insanity," or "Dope and homicide" etc. A perfect example of reefer madness and with good reason, technical supervisor was the infamous Joe O'Ferrall (the narc) -- See write up on book.

1948 THE INCONVENIENT BRIDE - By James M. Fox Crime map on back (Marijuana mixup location etc.)

1949 BELOW SUSPICION - (1949) By John Dickerson Carr Dr. Fell pointed to the far end of the eerie, marihuana-smelling chapel. Down there, he said, candles burn at the altar. You grovel before Lucifer. Ect. - She was caught in a frenzied nightmare of murder and profane desire.

1949 THE AMBOY DUKES By Irving Shulman. This is a novel of Wayward youth in Brooklyn. "No girls to tough for the Dukes to handle. No parties too wild for the Dukes to throw. For the Amboy Dukes were one of the wildest toughest of those hard-boiled young gangs who terrorize Brooklyn's sprawling slums, for whom theft, dope, and mayhem are just the ordinary happenings of any average day."

1950 FIGURE IT OUT FOR YOURSELF By James Hadley Chase -- Later on renamed the "The Marihuana Mob"

1950 DUKE By Hal Ellson Juvenile Delinquent gangs and marihuana in Harlem

1951 - Musk, Hashish and Blood - by Hector France. A classic (we think from 1906). Little is known about the book itself.

1951 I'LL GET MINE By Thurston scott Cover reads, "She loved Men, Money and Marijuana"

1952 BEYOND DESIRE by Albert L. Quandt "From the Cheap Thrill of a 'Reefer' to the Life Giving Effect of a 'Shot' here is the tragic account of the helpless & hopeless victims of greed, lust & evil".

1952 "TOO HOT FOR HELL" by Keith Vining. This is a paperback original published by Ace Books for the first time in 1952. Blurb: "Marijuana (marihuana), music and murder made him.

1952 THE MARIJUANA MOB, James Hadley Chase A paperback remake of " Figure it out for Yourself" complete with Good Girl Cover art and Great 1950's references to marijuana.

1952 KISS THE KILLER By Joseph Schallit When Marijuana means murder! (back Cover) A ROTTEN RACKET NARCOTICS - some punk is selling marijuana to teenagers.

1952 HOOKED (Narcotics: America's Peril) By Will Oursler and Laurence Dwight Smith. -"The Brutal Truth about Dope and Crime" - Not actually a pulp, but you could fool me by the cover.

1952 TEEN-AGE VICE by C. R. Cooper The original books about dope, gangs, & juvenile delinquents! Narcotics & drugs, jailbait & sex, gangs & fiends in rare vintage form.

1953 THE HOODLUMS By John Eagle "It had been a wild night. When he awoke there was only Lisette. She was in a ripped slip. One eye was black and blue and swollen. Her hairdo was down. He looked around. On the dresser were empty bottles. He swung his feet to the floor. It was full of ashes, marijuana butts and spilled whiskey" etc.

1953 THE REEFER CLUB By Luke Roberts Stallion Books Cover reads, the story your children WON:T DARE tell you! A Glimpse Into The Lives Of Our Lost Generation / REEFER CLUB by Luke Roberts. "The girl was the slave of marijuana - yet was she wholly bad?" First edition published by Universal, NY,

1953 RAPTURE ALLEY by Whit Harrison (AKA Harry Whittington). of "The Shocking Story Of A Girl Who Took The Road To Dope Addiction" (changed in the 2nd edition to "The candid story of a girl who lived recklessly on forbidden thrills.") The back cover reads "A Smoke, a sniff, a jolt...Dope is no road to ecstasy no matter what people say. It's for defeated people, bitter lonely people Two different Covers of "I'll Get Mine"

1953 DOPE, INC. -By Joesten, Joachim, A look at the dirty world of the dope trade; "..most newspapers merely report an isolated incident. What is the overall picture like? Why do people become dope addicts? How does the dope trade operate? What are the international aspects of the narcotics racket? What is the cure? In this book, without sugar-coating, you will find many of the answers. This book names names -- tells you how and where the narcotics trade operates, who the big shots behind the racket are -- and how people's lives are debased when they fall under the influence of narcotic addiction."; cover photograph shows a frightened young woman recoiling in horror from a hand offering her one of those deadly reefer cigarettes ("reefers" that's right, isn't it?, isn't that what the kids call them?).

1953 THE LONG WINDOW By John Eshleman Washburn, New York, 1953 First edition of the author's first book. The plot involves an "educated houseman whose basement room smelled faintly of marijuana".

1954 MONKEY ON MY BACK by Wenzell Brown. "Teenagers caught in the dope racket". Claims to be true and terrifying experiences of "junkies" who started "blasting" for thrills and couldn't "kick" the habit, they then of course committed crimes to get the "Monkey off their backs."

1954 GANG GIRL By Wenzell Brown back cover reads: "Educated in the streets - Fifteen years old and she was learning fast. She knew how to fight with her knees, her elbows, her teeth, how to hold a blackjack, how to spot a cop, how to roll marijuana, how to lure a man into a dark hallway. etc.

1954 DEVIL'S DAUGHTER - By Floyed Shaw AKA Park Avenue Girl: "Her world was a tawdry place of phone calls in the night, rotting tenements with walls reeking of marijuana smoke, callous men whose ruthlessness had carved an empire in crime and vice-"

1954 RUSTY DESMOND By January Steve Cover depicts 2 Juvenile Delinquents fighting (teenage Girl and Boy) with 50's convertible in the background. Marijuana is mentioned on the first page in a paragraph about the story and the making of a juvenile delinquent; "secret dates, marijuana parties, and stick-ups for thrills"

1955 TRAP by George E. Jones, A Graphic Mystery #106, Full of marijuana and prostitution from the 50s.

1955 RUN, CHICO, RUN By Wenzell Brown A novel of Spanish Harlem in the '50s, where the kids were weaned on reefers, lead pipes and gang wars. Chico was one of those kids, one who found love in the squalid back alleys, who knew there was a better life beyond the block's squalor and struggled to find it-- until Spanish Harlem sucked him back to its depths.

1955 ANGELS IN THE GUTTER By Joseph Hilton Walk down all your side streets through the raucous stone jungle of the city's backwash and you'll meet her. The delinquent, and hundreds like her, roaming the pavements in aggressive knots, schooled on reefers, zip guns, gutter rumbles.

1956 - DREAM PEDDLERS - by Floyd Miller Love and temptation in Spanish Harlem. The story of a vicious narcotics ring in the barrio.

1956 MEAN STREETS By Thomas B Dewey Includes, among other things, rape and reefers (Marijuana). It is the story of a city terrorized by a juvenile gang.

1956 PARK AVENUE GIRL By Shaw Floyd Reprint Edition. Cover depicts a young woman smoking a cigarette and surrounded by three men. The blurb on the first pages states "she knew the degradation of strange apartments reeking of marijuana smoke"

1956 VIPER: THE CONFESSIONS OF A DRUG ADDICT - By Raymond Thorp For the first time in this country since de Quincey, a drug addict has written his astounding confessions; a documentary that horrifies yet compels the reader to walk with Thorp into the half-light of London's drug world. -- The author, a young clerk from suburbia, haunts the jazz clubs of Soho and finally begins to smoke Indian hemp or marijuana. It is the first step on the road to prison and to a living death. Soon he is a "pusher"

1956 HIGH SCHOOL CONFIDENTIAL By Morton Cooper Basis for jaw-dropping 1958 Mamie Van Doren "bad-film"--an amateurish, hilariously awful marijuana expose! "High School Confidential" a disturbing novel of today's teen-age delinquents, by Morton Cooper based on the MGM motion picture release, Loews Inc.

1956 REEFER GIRL By Jane manning AKA Young Sinners - This 1956 paperback "Young Sinners" was originally published under the Reefer Girl".

1955- REEFER BOY By Hal Ellson Reefer Boy is the story of drug addiction and its attraction for juveniles. It is based on fact - the shameful, inescapable fact that society takes no responsibility for these lost and bitter children. So long as we permit these sordid conditions to exist, stories like 'Reefer Boy' will be true. -- 100 per cent Reefer Madness.

1957 THE BABY DOLL MURDERS - (1957) By James O. Causey She could look like a wistful child and she loved to play games -- such as murder, men and marijuana.

1957 THE BIG BOXCAR By Alfred Maund Rape, Alcoholism, Marijuana and Prostitution in Alabama. Cover depicts a young woman and a boxcar full of hoboes, some are shooting craps, others sitting around. The blurb is on the back cover telling about the characters in the book, "The Spook - whose story of addiction to marijuana is both painful and hilarious"

1958 HELL TO PAY By Cox, William Kids with ducktail hairdos and tight pants who live on marijuana and the big H and glory in viciousness. Juvenile Delinquent novel

1958 VICE TRAP By Elliott Gilbert Nick, who found release in marijuana--while he yearned for another man's wife.

1959 BASEMENT GANG By Williams, David A bold novel of reefers and sex in the city. Photo cover shows man with women with thinly disguised erection. This is "a daring novel of reefer smoke, reckless thrills and the wild love of boys and girls of the city streets!" In short, this is a juvenile delinquent classic.

1959 ANYTHING FOR KICKS By Morton Cooper (author of High School Confidential) Some delinquent punks with switchblades. Some girls who couldn't wait to ply an ancient trade .. A few cats who puffed reefers.

1959 CRY KILL By Wenzell Brown A separate world with hell just a few feet away -Reefer smoke cast a thick blue haze over the purple warriors' club room. Etc… Kill the Killer (Front and Back Cover)

1959 SEE HOW THEY BURN: by Edwin Gilbert - (original Title: The HOT AND THE COOL). "A world clouded with lust and Marijuana smoke, but Gilbert has given it a feeling of authenticity." - Florida TIMES UNION.

1959----SIN STREET- By BRISTOW,BOB A story of teen-age prostitutes and marihuana DELL B SERIES B-139 (ORIGINAL 1959) PAPERBACK (HARDBOILED NOVEL) GOOD . Books Are Everything, Richmond, KY, U.S.A.

1959 THE COOL WORLD - by Warren Miller, pub. by Little, Brown. This is about a neighborhood with kids gone bad, reefers, junk and wayward people the way it was in the 1950's.

1960 VICE-COP - By DEMING,RICHARD (A story of thrill parties, marijuana and murder) Cover by Paul Rader shows a teenage semi-nude girl lying dead after a thrill party of spiked drinks, marijuana and orgies. The blurb on the first page is "he knew all about the special drinks and the special cigarettes" and the cops working the murder on the first page of Chapter 1 states "we were working the marijuana detail out of the Narcotics Squad" belmont book 221

1961 THE GOLDEN HOOLIGAN: - (1961 ) By Thomes B. Dewey Pete Schofield tangles with Marijuana and Murder in a sizzling case that's almost too hot to handle

1961 THE HOT AND THE COOL by Edwin Gilbert (already have under a different name)

I AM A TEEN-AGE DOPE ADDICT by VALERIE JORDAN. Monarch #MB526.The old Marijuana leads to Heroin story. "First Your Hooked and then Your CHAINED"!

RUSTY DESMOND - by STEVE JANUARY. Avon #T-359. A Rare Classic Juvenile Delinquent "Girl Gone Bad" & Crime novel. "SECRET DATES, MARIJUANA PARTIES & STICKUPS FOR THRILLS & EASY MONEY"! Beautiful GGA & J.D. Punk cover Art

I LIKE IT TOUGH by James Howard -- Dangerous marijuana dope ring, white slavery. Great cover art -- Popular Library

It Ain't hay

SAN FRANCISCO CHRONICLE
OF "HAYHEADS" AND "GREEN DRAGONS"
Recently we spent an afternoon with F. J. Ferrall, chief of the State division of Narcotics, and Lieutenant David Dodge, who was prying the chief loose from some background material for his new book which will be set in the Bay Area and based on the marijuana racket. It was an interesting afternoon. Nearly every time the chief opened his mouth, copy dropped out of it. Here are some of the facts he passed along---not that you will ever hit a "tea party," but Dick Tracy might drop in on you some evening, and this will give you something to talk about: …. Persons under the influence of marijuana are much more dangerous than persons under the influence of opium. Opium is a depressant (it makes you violently ill the first time you try it), while marijuana, which is the same thing as hashish, is an excitant. . .

Example: An automobile tore across the Bay Bridge one night at 85 miles an hour. The driver, a potential killer, refused to stop for pursuing State patrolmen. At great risk to themselves, they overtook him, cornered the car, forced him out. His first words to them were: "Boys, I feel like flying!" … But law enforcement officials are not always lucky enough to apprehend a person under the influence of the drug before he has committed a crime, and some of the most ghastly on record have been committed by persons who are "high on the hay." "Hey" or "tea" is what addicts call marijuana, and narcotics men call addicts "hayheads" or "teaheads." . . . . .An addict, issuing an invitation to a party, might say: Let's get together and blow some hay." . . . . Before the war, marijuana cigarettes were about as long as an ordinary cigarette, but slightly larger in circumference. They were then called "sticks," and sold for 25 cents each. Now, they are thinner, and are called "splinter is $1. . . . Chief O'Ferrall, commenting on the increased price, said this was a break for prosecuting authorities. . . . . Until there was a can shortage peddlers always carried their marijuana in the small, Prince Albert tobacco cans, never in Edgeworth, Half and Half, or another kind of can. Chief O'Ferrall said neither he nor his men had ever been able to figure out why. Now, with cans harder to get, they use small brown paper bags. . . . The marijuana plant can be grown legally in every State in the United States except in California. It is used in the making of hemp . . . . ---S. F. CHRONICLE - March 5, 1945 - page 11

Pulp novels that (while sounding right) are NOT Reefer Madness and the Museum is not interested in them:

1959 - The Girls in 3-B - by Valerie Taylor: -- Author of Whisper Their Love Stated First Crest Printing, April, 1959. From the back: "They came to the city fascinated, frightened - hungering after life with that desperate, headlong impatience of the very young...There was Annice...Bright, curious, full of untried passion, she let Alan drag her into his beat-generation world of parties, jazz, booze, marijuana, and sex. And Pat...She was big and blonde and built for love, but she was saving herself for marriage. Until she met her boss. Right from the beginning Pat knew she'd do anything for him - anything. And Barby...She was the most vulnerable. Men terrified her and for a good reason. When she finally fell in love it was with a woman. Book has reading wear with light creasing. Back cover has light smudging near the bottom.

Pulp Fiction Covers [in colour] on CD-ROM The museum has electronically scanned most of these dime store novels into CD-ROM format. However due to copyright laws, we can only make them available to museum society members.