Volume I · Issue 5

The Stories from the Golden Age collection is a spellbinding library of tales that will take you across continents, into the skies and deep into new realms of imagination. This month's tale, The Iron Duke, is part of our far-flung adventure library—and what could be farther flung than the mythical kingdom of Aldoria where our brazen hero Blacky Lee had landed?

You see, Blacky is a man wanted by nearly every government in Europe, and he happens to be the spitting image of a leader in the Balkan kingdom of Aldoria. And with nowhere else to hide, the enterprising Lee flees there and attempts to make the most of his mistaken identity—something which goes surprisingly well...that is, until he finds himself caught in the middle of a Communist plot to rig elections and take over. To make matters even worse, he's started falling for the beautiful and dangerous Countess Zita, who thinks he is a prince!

Now if we roll back the clock and look back in time we find that The Iron Duke was originally published in the July 1940 issue of Five-Novels monthly. And although it features American adventurer Blacky Lee in the fictitious kingdom of Aldoria involving the ruling royalty and subversive Communists, interestingly, only the year before, the Italians had invaded Albania, ending the fourteen-year reign of King Sog I, and that country was by then, filled with Communist partisans.

While fact may indeed influence fiction, nevertheless, the story was written at breakneck speed by L. Ron Hubbard from his apartment at 243 Riverside Drive in New York, and his impetus for pounding out this and many other tales at the time was that they were providing the wherewithal he needed for an adventure that he was about to embark upon. And a clue to his impetus can be found in passages from a letter he sent on Saturday, March 23rd, 1940 when he was writing The Iron Duke. The letter mentions wind from the river howling past his window with true March fury and goes on to say:

"It' is cold and dull gray but I am all bottled up with the venetian blind cocked shut and the steam heat sizzling and I'm back in the corner with artificial light, and as I know that the wind is from the water, I don't care a whit about it for wind is power and I can hear in it the swish and simmer of a clean keel plowing the deep."

The keel he heard in the wind belonged to Maggie, a small thirty-two foot vessel he was planning to sail up the dangerous British Columbian and Alaskan coasts. Dubbed the Alaskan Radio Experimental Expedition, this voyage would verify charts, tide tables and piloting books for the region and contribute further to navigation by testing a new revolutionary radio direction finding device which he developed with the help of a mathematics professor. And—no small honor—he would carry the flag of the Explorer's Club for the first time.

TEST YOUR COWBOY LINGO
by Buzz Larsen

I've got a hefty quiz for all you word-wrangling cowboys out there and this one is guaranteed to stretch your wits! So see just how much of a sharpshooter you really are and answer the following:

Q.Who or what is Judge Colt?
a) The famous former renegade lawman and self-appointed judge and jury, Jefferson C. Colt, of Lincoln, Nebraska. He died in a duel in 1881 and was the founder of the Arizona Rangers.
b) A handgun designed by Samuel Colt with a revolving cylinder of chambers allowing six shots to be fired without reloading. One of it's given nicknames was "Judge Colt."
c) Judge Colt was the name of Virgil Morgan McLaurys Colt who in 1832 was the first judge elected to office in Houston, Texas by popular vote.

Think you know the answer? Here's a hint, Lee Weston of Branded Outlaw fame sure did. Send in your answer to editor@galaxypress.com with your mailing address and I'll send the first ten folks who get the answer right a pack of nifty new cowboy playing cards!

THE GOLDEN AGE THEATER
Schedule of Events

This coming Saturday, October 11th, is the last showing of The Iron Duke at the Golden Age Theater at Author Services in Hollywood, California. It has been running for the last two weeks and has been a very lively affair with a very talented cast including Phil Proctor, Tait Ruppert, Bob Caso, Cathy Schenkelberg, Rajia Baroudi, John Mariano and Michael Yurchak.

The following week brings the first showing of L. Ron Hubbard's gritty detective story set in the blistering cold of Ketchikan, Alaska: The Chee-Chalker.

For a schedule of events, and to order tickets, go to:
http://www.goldenagestories.com/html/theater.php

To watch a podcast of The Iron Duke at the Golden Age Theater go to:
http://www.goldenagestories.com/html/podcasts.php