#steve allison

[jerrylevitch]

Jerry Lewis at WWDC radio with host Steve Allison, late 1950′s.

[sylvianlibrary]

"Drag"

by Robert E. Howard unfinished fragment (published posthumously, 2010) (from The Early Adventures of El Borak)

This single page fragment is from Buckner's POV. It references the "Khyber" story's eventual outcome. Whether Howard finished the narrative or not, it seems to be a full thing in the lore of the Sonora Kid. We have zero idea about what was going to happen in this except it drew together Steve, Buckner, El Borak, and Lal Singh.

[sylvianlibrary]

"The West Tower"

by Robert E. Howard unfinished fragment (published posthumously, June 1988) (from The Early Adventures of El Borak)

Another aborted Allison adventure, but this one gets some good distance before it wraps up. There is a Helen who appeared in an earlier fragment, formerly Channon but now Tranton, who they have some history with, and they get invited to a German castle party, with something weird inhabiting the west tower.

Howard's caricature of Germans radiates from his impression of World War I. The host of the party is a sexual predator who frequently talks about old times where women's consent didn't matter and who tells a lot of sexually charged stories where the powerful exert their will over the powerless. Howard's ethos, played out through his idealized barbarians, is that those with power need the consent of the powerless and must look out for them. I'm broadly generalizing here, though. Like, powerless is a sort of relative concept, but as long as you have the ability to exploit the powerless, you are at the mercy of anyone more powerful than you.

This story also has a story within it that we haven't seen before: Allison working as a private detective, winding up at a house party where his sister Marion was at, and finding a man murdered in his own room, with Steve finding out that it was a snake! This is probably a setup to whatever the final twist in this story is, where it seems like the German host is keeping some sort of primate in the west tower.

[sylvianlibrary]

"Desert Rendezvous"

by Robert E. Howard unfinished fragment (published posthumously, June 1988) (from The Early Adventures of El Borak)

This fragment has Steve rescuing his older sister Helen from what she thinks is eloping with an Arabian gentleman. This story has ugly racial overtones. Helen, being a southern girl, feels that the match is racially okay because she doesn't feel any racial ickiness, and Steve will be damned if he will let his sister marry an Arab (let alone the scoundrel he knows him to be).

[sylvianlibrary]

"Brotherly Advice"

by Robert E. Howard unfinished fragment (published posthumously, June 1988) (from The Early Adventures of El Borak)

Steve is out gambling and watching over his sister, Mildred, who starts getting loose with her bets. Steve is fine until she goes to bet a kiss with a known scoundrel and he ends the night, starting a sibling row. Allison's hardest advice here: "You don't know anything about the men you make these bets with and the best men are not to be trusted with an innocent young girl."

[sylvianlibrary]

"Steve Allison"

by Robert E. Howard unfinished fragment (published posthumously, June 1988) (from The Early Adventures of El Borak)

A four-page fragment where Steve is again really familiar with his sister Mildred, who relates a chance encounter with one of Steve's adventurous acquaintances. She (the acquaintance) is a beautiful, exotic, but hard woman who we presume Steve did not part with on great terms as someone attempts to assassinate him only minutes after he shoos his sister out of the room.

[sylvianlibrary]

"The Hot Arizona Sun"

by Robert E. Howard unfinished fragment (published posthumously, June 1988) (from The Early Adventures of El Borak)

In this three-page fragment, Steve is taking his sister Helen out to see a view of the countryside. The description that Howard writes of the landscape is pretty good. This story only goes so far as to throw out some romantic intrigue where Helen stares at a handsome stranger--to her, at least--before Steve needles her over it.

[sylvianlibrary]

"The Way it Came About"

by Robert E. Howard unfinished fragment (published posthumously, June 1988) (from The Early Adventures of El Borak)

Billy tells a ridiculous story fragment about what he is doing with Steve in Tibet with a bumbling botanist. They're looking for a Yeti, I guess, "the missing link", but their botanist friend stumbles upon some gold and the fragment ends on a cliffhanger with Steve and Billy being held up by Tibetans with rifles. I wish these ridiculous stories had played out to their ends!