Hi Sid. I recently read a non fiction book about the first Sandman and learned from there that Wesley Dodds had a habit of leaving poems behind after solving a crime, usually connected to the crime in question. The poems themselves... well I'm no literary critic but I think Mr. Dodds' talents laid elsewhere. Still I find it endearing that a man so committed to justice was dedicating some of his surely little free time to writing poetry. Do we know if any other JSA members dabbled in the arts? Apart from modern examples like Black Canary or the previous Starman who is now a painter.
It would be...kind to say that while Wesley Dodds spent most of his adult life ATTACHED to a writer with a generational talent. HE wasn't born with one. I've gotten to look through a good amount of the writing the man did during his lifetime (which was a lot, considering a series of escalating nightmares were what inspired him to become the Sandman in the first place AND he continued to use his dream journals to track crimes before they happened for the rest of his career) and while they're FASCINATING stuff they're not exactly pot boilers. His writing tends toward the dry, observational and technical.
His mixed Jewish-Christian heritage and his own flirting with Buddhist philosophy during his life means he KNEW a lot of pretty words and excerpts but his chemist's mind and somewhat shy persuasion meant he didn't have the right eye for putting them in a better order.
And with a single exception most of his compatriots were the same. And the exception is obvious, because the exception had a talent for everything.
(a poster I found showing the VERY multi-faceted Mr Terrific)
The majority of prominent Golden Age mystery men came from one of two persuasions.
A lot of them were scientists or engineers. Jay Garrick, Alan Scott, Ted Knight, etc. Men of science and technology who were either empowered by their work with the sciences or who used it in their anti-criminal work as a major boon to their abilities. Jay Garrick is a chemist, Alan Scott is a radio engineer with background in railroad engineering, Ted Knight was a genius comparable to J Robert Oppenheimer and Albert Einstein in his understanding of high level physics and mathematics. They're not truly artistic souls. Despite Alan Scott working at a radio station for most of his adult career his taste in music was rather contemporary and his ability to PLAY music was nil.
The other biggest chunk were...roughnecks, broadly. Ted Grant, Al Pratt, Jim Corrigan. People without overtly technical educations if they HAD any higher education at all. People who did most of their talking with their fists and their wits and while they might have appreciated art in the mass appeal it was beginning to have with the dawning of nationwide radio and movies and the like they didn't PERFORM. Look, seeing Ted Grant in his prime practicing the sweet science is just about as close to art as boxing can ever get. Al Pratt could take down ten men with 10x his weight between them and make it look like poetry in motion. But they weren't artists in the direct sense.
Doctors, archeologists, whatever the FUCK Johnny Thunder did for a living. These were the ultimate days of the scientist-engineer and the blue collar.
Terrance "Terry" Sloane. Olympic wunderkind, business titan, scientific savant. The True Blue Champion, the Man of 10,000 talents. Hell the REASON he became a superhero is because everything he ever tried came so effortlessly to him that getting shot at on a nightly basis was the only way he could find any worthwhile challenge in life. And music was no exception. And art was no exception. And performance was no exception.
In his life, Terry Sloane played upwards of two dozen instruments. Just naming a few of the ones I can both identify and spell: Grand piano, pipe organ, trombone, tuba, saxophone, guitar, sitar, oboe, clarinet, cello, violin, fiddle, harmonica and the accordion. During the JSA's many travels on both eastern and western fronts he would often take the time to learn whatever exotic foreign instruments they came across.
He was an accomplished painter, sculptor and illustrator in dozens of styles, forms and mediums. His pieces have been sold at auction for six figures and his publically available pieces are in museums on 4 continents.
His voice was noted by contemporary reporters AND colleagues as being particularly rich and melodious. He could sing most forms of both classical and popular music. He performed on stage in every act from vaudevillian comedy to Shakespeare. He was a known writer of both fiction and non-fiction, as well as a syndicated columnist in national newspapers for upwards of 3 years.
He had photographs published in National Geographic.
Whenever you think to ask the question "could a member of the JSA *BLANK*". The answer is yes, and then the follow up to that answer is Terry Sloane.
Look into this man's life and you will find the most heartwarming, uplifting and deeply ABSURDIST autobiography on the planet.
And yes I did say *auto*biography BECAUSE HE DID THAT ONE TOO.
