Naked Ebony

Naked Ebony by Dan Cushman. Jim Crawford and his African assistant, the giant Botamba, are in a bar to meet Ed Foley. It seems Foley has a scheme to make some money, but wants Crawford’s strong arm to pull it off. He’s to meet a girl in the hotel and take a package to be delivered. However, another man, the Hammer is also after the package. The Hammer, Runkhammer, is a huge, muscular man of great strength, and Foley is afraid of him. Crawford receives the package, and then everything goes wrong. They lose the package, and the girl and her scientist husband disappear again with the package after Crawford removes it from the Hammer’s clutches. Cushman uses the same formula for all his stories, though this one is set in Africa, not Asia. The beautiful girl is Eurasian, a mix of French and Asian. She falls in love with Crawford, naturally. Still, the story could be set in any locale, and it would have worked. The author makes every story an adventure, and the characters are classics. The title may be a little misleading, but a fun read.

The Teahouse of The August Moon

The Teahouse of The August Moon by Vern Sneider is set in 1945, and the Occupation of Okinawa. Colonel Wainright Purdy is the commanding officer at headquarters section of Military Government Camp Team C-147 Okinawa, bivouacked in the emerald-green hills between native villages Goya and ancient castle Nakagusuka. He has officers assigned to all the small villages on Okinawa under his command, and they are given orders to supervise the villages. But one of those officers doesn’t seem to be pulling his load. Captain Jeff Fisby oversees Tobiki village, but it appears he has lost control. An elderly gentleman gives him the gift of two Geishas, and they turn the village upside down as they talk the commander into letting them build a teahouse to entertain the village. Colonel Purdy sends a doctor to Tobiki to evaluate Captain Fisby, but the doctor also falls under the spell of the village. There are lots of pulp magazines and comic books around for the men to read, and the colonel especially like ADVENTURE; this will have a bearing on the story. This is a hilarious novel of what can go wrong when America attempts to change the ways of native people in foreign lands. The author was actually the commander of Tobaru village, the model for Tobiki village in the story in 1945, so had first hand experience in the Occupation of Okinawa.

Port Orient

Port Orient by Dan Cushman.  Mr. Leeper from San Francisco loves tea. One day his purchase of tea turns out to contain a bag full of diamonds, which is good because the tea taste awful. A hidden message also mentions millions of dollars in gold, but it’s hidden somewhere in Thailand or China. Quitting his job, and leaving his unloving family, Mr. Leeper heads for Bangkok to pursue the gold, but he has to make contact with someone mentioned in the message. This leads to problems, as it seems others want the gold. Teaming up with two men and a woman, the plans are to reestablish an air route to and from China, hauling equipment and merchandise to and fro from Red China. For the air routs is where the hidden gold is located. A little shorter than usual, but still a lot of fun.

Golden Temptress

Golden Temptress (original title The Broken Gate, 1948) by Charles Grayson (Charles Wright Gray). Jack Shepherd, a grade-A heel, is a freelance writer and an adventurer in foreign lands where he hopes to make some money, legal or otherwise. He travels with two companions: Frenchman Jean-Louis Lemar, his personal valet, etc., and a beautiful Canadian singer, Peggy George. They are in Saigon on what he believes is to assure a liquor smuggler that a buyer has the money for the product. It’s all a scam, and the shipment is weapons for rebels. However, now he’s not so sure of the deal. But when Shepherd meets the buyer, the beautiful Bijou, a Eurasian, whose father was French and her mother Vietnamese, he learns she doesn’t have the money. Vietnam is under French colonialism at present, but war is threatened, and Inspector Duphaine has an idea Shepherd is up to no good. He senses what it is all about. Different angles, different sides, each ready to double-cross the others. They travel to Pnom-Penh, Cambodia in search of a treasure temple in the jungle near Angkor, the fabled Emerald Buddha of Yacodharapura. And Shepherd is as bad as the rest. In the story, Sheppard meets the King of Cambodia; in truth, the author actually hung out with the King of Cambodia when he was in that part of the world. He was well traveled, and was a Hollywood screenwriter with numerous credits, including “Battle Hymn” and “Barbarian And The Geisha”. This is a great story, though it’s hard to like any of the characters (except Peggy George). Shepherd is a heel to the very end, and then comes the final, unexpected double-cross.

Tongking!

Tongking! By Dan Cushman. Rocky Forbes, a soldier of fortune in the East receives an unsigned message to come to Bangkok for a job. When he arrives he finds his old nemesis, Fatto Kolski, who left him without pay once before. But Fatto promises to make it up to Rocky this time, with a big gun shipment to Chinese rebels. An American woman named Lena Halthuss worked up the deal, but it looks like she and Rocky may end up dead at the end of the journey. Cushman’s Eastern tales are all very similar. The lone hero, a ne’er do well himself, ends up saving the girl at the end, and she falling in love with him. The main villain is another white man, who is even a worse character than our hero. But in all, the tales are always fun, with fast action, and lots of dead Chinese. Dan Cushman got his start in pulp magazines, writing for JUNGLE STORIES and ADVENTURE, most featuring a tough character named Armless O’Neil.