Edward Stratemeyer's car is a 1921
Bugatti Type
22 Brescia. Of course, this episode takes place in 1916, so this
particular car shouldn't exist yet!
Edward Stratemeyer, the father of Indy's
girlfriend Nancy, is an actual historical figure who wrote over
a thousand books for juveniles under various pen names. He is
best known as the author of the original Tom Swift,
Hardy Boys, and Nancy Drew novels.
Although Stratemeyer had two daughters,
neither were named Nancy. Presumably, the character was added
here to suggest that this daughter was Stratemeyer's inspiration
for the later Nancy Drew character and "isn't it cool" that Indy
dated Nancy Drew!
The home of Indy and his father seen here in Princeton is the
same location seen at the beginning of
"My First Adventure",
117 South 4th Street, Wilmington, NC.
The car that drives by at 9:53 on the DVD as Indy and his father
are walking along the sidewalk is a 1922
Ford
Model T.
The car seen parked on the street at 1:08 on the DVD is a 1913
Ford Model T Tourer.
Indy's high school exterior was shot at Tileston School at
412 Ann Street in Wilmington, NC.
At 1:30 on the DVD, Indy's place of work as a soda jerk is
Harper's Pharmacy in
Princeton.
This appears to be a fictitious establishment. The car that
drives past in this shot is a 1923 Ford Model T.
Indy and Nancy are looking forward to attending their high
school junior prom. It's unusual for a prom to be held in
February, but not completely out of possibility. Proms are
usually held close to the end of the school year, in May or
June, typically.
In this episode, Indy reads the 1910 juvenile
novel Tom Swift and His Electric Runabout. The text
pages from the book seen as Indy is reading are actual pages
from the novel.
A couple of the cars seen as Indy imagines the race he's
reading about are a 1920 Miller (designed and built by race car
designer Harry Miller) and a 1931 Brisko-Atkinson Special (see
the
Internet Movie Cars Database).
Butch's car is a 1912 Ford Model T.
Rosie gives Indy looks as if she has a crush on him.
At 3:46 on the DVD, an advertising poster for Sozodont is seen
hanging behind the soda bar. Sozodont was an oral hygiene
product from 1859 through the early 20th Century.
Nancy reluctantly tells Indy that her father's Bugatti wouldn't
start that morning and it's going to have to be taken to
New York a
week later to be fixed.
At 5:10 on the DVD, a couple of Stratemeyer's books are seen at
his writing desk as he types. One is 1911's Tom Swift and
His Sky Racer and the other is 1913's The Bobbsey Twins
at School. At 6:42, a cover sheet of 1912's Tom Swift
in the City of Gold is seen.
When Indy and Nancy go to talk her father about the
malfunctioning Bugatti, Mr. Stratemeyer is working on his latest
novel in which Tom Swift is stuck in an Incan tomb, surrounded
by rocket rangers, and his stun gun doesn't work. This is a
description of events in Tom Swift and His Big Tunnel, which was
actually published in the year our story takes place, 1916.
Here, Indy gives Stratemeyer an assist with the plot by his
description of Hiram Bingham's account of the discovery of ruins
in Machu Picchu that he read about in
National Geographic. Hiram Bingham III (1875-1956) was
an explorer and politician who discovered the Incan ruins of
Machu
Picchu in 1911. He made return trips to the site for further
research through 1915, supported by the
National Geographic Society. I'm not sure if Indy's
statement that Bingham believed there might be tunnels under the
ruins is true; I've found no real indication of that while
researching it, but engineers do suspect the visible ruins sit
upon an underground drainage and foundation system to support
it.
Indy tells Mr. Stratemeyer that the Williams Brothers Garage at
the edge of town may be able to fix the Bugatti if anybody can.
Williams Brothers Garage appears to be a fictitious business in
Princeton. The novelization of this episode states that the
garage had been opened by Jack Williams, a friend Indy's father.
Jack had died a few years back, but his brother Bert kept the
business running, with Jack's daughter Jewel becoming a
crackerjack mechanic there as well. The 16-year old Jewell is
the friend Indy mentions to Stratemeyer who he thinks can fix
the car.
The Williams Brothers Garage was shot at
134 Main Street in Wallace, NC.
At the Williams Brothers Garage, advertising signs for Polarine
oils and greases, Buzzell, and Autoline Oil are seen. Polarine was
an actual company at the time and Buzzell was a carburetor and
auto electric manufacturer founded in 1920.
Indy refers to Butch's Model T as a tin lizzy. "Tin lizzy" was a
common nickname for the Model T automobile...but not until 1922!
Professor Jones' friend Dr. John Thompson has
left his research position at
Princeton University
to work for
Thomas Edison's company, designing inventions. At the end of the
episode, Thompson turns out to be the guilty party who stole
Edison's plans for an automobile electric battery in order to
sell it to an oil company. Thompson appears to be a fictitious
figure. Thomas Edison (1847-1931), on the other hand, was a
world-renown inventor and businessman, producing many electric
products, including a low-cost, long-lasting electric light
bulb; he also owned a battery manufacturing company.
It's possible that Professor Jones' comment that a
long-lasting automobile battery like the one Edison wants to
invent would put the oil companies out of business is what prompted Thompson to pull of his heist of
the plans.
Thompson remarks that Henry Ford believes in the Edison battery
enough to pay for the research. Henry Ford (1863-1947) was the
founder of Ford Motor Company, who helped perfect the assembly
line manufacturing process of automobiles. Although Ford and
Edison had various business cooperations over the decades, I'm
not aware of Ford financing battery research through Edison.
The novelization reveals that the woman who says, "John's a
genius," at the dinner party is Thompson's wife.
Dr. Thompson agrees to have one of his assistants fix the
Bugatti generator for Indy at Edison's
West Orange
laboratory. Edison actually did have a laboratory there, now
Thomas Edison
National Historical Park.
Van Hoecht's Poultry Farms seen through the cabin window on Indy
and Nancy's train ride to West Orange appears to be a fictitious
business. It plays a role later in the episode as well.
At 12:35 on the DVD, a 1920 Ford Model T is seen on the Edison
Laboratories lot.
The racecar Indy sees being tested on the Edison lot is a
modified Model T.
The van Dr. Thompson is "kidnapped" in is another Model T.
The novelization reveals that Dr. Thompson's assistant is a Mr.
Dickinson.
Dickinson says he heard German being spoken during the
kidnapping of Dr. Thompson and one phrase used was something
like "Schnell die huhnchen" or "Schnell die
bauerchen." If it was
"Schnell die bauerchen", the translation is "Quick the
babies." If it was "Schnell die huhnchen", it is "Quick
the chickens." Despite the translations of given to us by Captain Brady and
Indy in the episode, "burping" doesn't seem to have anything to do with the
phrase.
Edison remarks that the president will need to be told about the
theft (see the notes for the novelization below about the Naval
Consulting Board). The president of the U.S. at the time was Woodrow
Wilson.
Flut and ebbe are German for high and low
tide, as Indy states after Dr. Thompson tells Captain Brady he
heard the kidnappers say those words.
During dinner at the Stratemeyer house, Mr. Stratemeyer
expresses admiration for Edison, pointing out some more of his
inventions, such as the dictation machine (actually the
phonograph) and the kinetoscope.
Indy and Nancy go to
Bayonne, New
Jersey to track down the kidnappers at the coast.
Captain Brady is armed with a
Smith & Wesson Model M1917
revolver
and his fellow officer at the beach with an unidentified rifle.
The novelization reveals that the book Professor Jones has
propped open in front of him at the dinner table at 27:24 on the
DVD is The Canterbury Tales.
The Canterbury Tales
is a 14th Century collection of stories compiled by Geoffrey
Chaucer.
At 29:09 on the DVD, the train Indy and Nancy debark from back
in Bayonne for the night is engine 250. This engine is on
display at the
Wilmington Railroad Museum.
The New Jersey Fuel & Oil Company seen in this episode appears
to be fictitious.
At 29:59 on the DVD, the night watchman at the
New Jersey Fuel & Oil refinery says goodnight to a late-working
employee who is finally leaving. The guard calls him John. In
the novelization, the guard calls him Mr. Henderson, so the man
was presumably John Henderson. The truck this man drives is a
1925 Gotfredson. Gotfredson was a truck manufacturer from
1920-1948.
At 32:26 on the DVD, the cover of the Edison automobile battery
appears to indicate it would be a nickel-alkaline type battery.
The first car to drive through the refinery grounds at 33:16 on
the DVD remains unidentified. The second car appears to be a
1926 Dodge
Brothers four-door sedan.
At 34:28 on the DVD, the German agent wields what appears to be
a Luger pistol.
The car Indy and Nancy take from the Edison grounds to chase
after Dr. Thompson is a 1925 Ford Model T Runabout with New
Jersey license plate 25890. Somehow, Indy starts the car with no
one turning the hand crank!
During the car chase, Indy sees the direction
in which Dr. Thompson is driving and tells Nancy he knows a shortcut, at
which point he drives their borrowed Model T over a rickety
bridge and down a short embankment to cut off the doctor. But
how would Indy know about a shortcut in West Orange when he
lives in Princeton, about 50 miles away??
In the novelization, Indy just sees a fork in the road
and takes the one Dr. Thompson didn't take, hoping it might be
a shortcut! Neither version is very logical story-telling!
Although Rosie had said near the beginning of the episode that
she wouldn't go out with Butch if he were the last man on Earth,
she is seen as his date to the junior prom at the end.
 |
Notes from the junior
novelization of this episode,
Race to Danger by
Stephanie Calmenson
(The page numbers come from the
1st printing, 1993)
|
Characters appearing or mentioned in this novel, not in
the episode
Mr. Harper
Coach Patterson (mentioned only)
Butch's father
(mentioned only)
Ricky
Kathy
Karen
Jack Williams
(mentioned only, deceased)
Bert Williams
(mentioned only)
Jewel Williams' mother
(mentioned only, deceased)
Anna Jones
(mentioned only, deceased)
Dr. Shaw
Miss Seymour
(mentioned only)
Officer Ryan
Kurt (alleged German agent)
Herman
(alleged German agent)
math teacher
Didja Notice?
Page 3 states that the Princeton Press
had been running front page stories about the heat wave for the
past three days. While there was a local newspaper by that name
at the time (1873-1916), it was a weekly, so it could not have
run those stories three days in a row!
I have not been able to find any evidence of a heat wave
in Princeton in 1916 historically. A heat wave is not mentioned
in the televised episode, though the scenes look reasonably warm. It may
be that author Stephanie Calmenson added the heat wave element
to explain why the soda fountain/ice cream bar Indy works at
should be so busy in February!
In the book, Indy works at Harper's Ice Cream Parlor instead of
Harper's Pharmacy as in the televised episode.
On page 4, Mr. Harper hums his favorite song "In the Good Old
Summertime". This is a real world song first published in 1902.
Instead of
Tom Swift and His Electric Runabout as in the
televised episode, Indy is reading
Tom Swift and His Amazing Electric Car. There has never
been a Tom Swift novel by this title. It seems the
author or publisher decided to simplify the title here to make
it more understandable to young readers, as the plot described
seems to be the same as Tom Swift and His Electric Runabout
(though the excerpted dialog from the novel on pages 5 and 6
does not match that from any existing Tom Swift
book).
As stated on page 5, Mary Nestor was the girlfriend of Tom Swift
in Stratemeyer's novels.
In the book, the dance Indy is planning to take Nancy to is
referred to variously as Valentine Dance and the prom. It is
simply the junior prom in the televised episode.
Page 8 states that Henry Jones, Sr. is back to being a professor
of medieval literature at
Princeton
University.
Pages 8-9 remark that Indy had been to the ancient pyramids of
Egypt and the teeming cities of China and India thanks to his
father's lecture tours. Indy saw the pyramids in
"My First Adventure" and
Tomb of Terror.
He was in China for "The
Yin-Yang Principle",
"The Runaway Adventure", and
Face of the Dragon,
and in India for
"Journey of Radiance" and
part of The Child Lama.
Page 9 states that Indy's father's ideas about money were that
no one had given the Knights of the Round Table an allowance, so
Indy had to earn his own spending money.
Nancy is described as having dark hair, but she was a redhead in
the televised episode.
Page 15 states that Jewel Williams' mother died when the girl
was 10.
As stated on page 16, Roy Rockwood, Jack Lancer, and Margaret
Penrose were other pen names (among many others) used by
Stratemeyer and his writing syndicate. The final pen name,
Captain Quincey Adams, is one I am not able to confirm. It may
be a confusion between the authentic pen names of Captain Quincy
Allen and Harrison Adams.
The details on pages 17-18 of how Stratemeyer became a writer
are essentially accurate.
In the novel, the horse that tows the Bugatti to the garage
seems to be Indy's and he drops Nancy off at her home. In the
televised episode, the horse seems to be Nancy's and it is her
dropping him off. Here in the novel, Indy even stables the horse
and gives it its feed behind the house before he goes inside for
his father's dinner party. In the episode, the Jones house does
not appear to be in a neighborhood that would be zoned for
horse keeping. Page 81 reveals that the house's old carriage
house served as the garage and stable.
Page 26 states that Princeton University, with its medieval
style buildings draped with ivy and a dining hall with stained
glass windows that told the story of the search for the Holy
Grail was the perfect place for Professor Jones. The description
of the university is accurate.
On page 31, Professor Jones is said to have gotten into a
disagreement with one of his guests about a detail on the left
portal of Chartres Cathedral in France.
Chartres Cathedral is a real world Catholic cathedral in
Chartres,
France built in the late 12th and early 13th centuries. It
is famed for housing the Sancta Camisa (the alleged tunic of
Virgin Mary worn during Christ's birth) and its Black Madonna
statue.
On page 32, Indy reflects on the time when he was in Paris and
had planned to meet up with a friend to explore Paris, but Miss
Seymour made him read up on Thomas Edison instead. This
presumably was during the events of
"Passion for Life" in 1908
and the friend he had made there was a young Norman Rockwell.
The mini-biography of Thomas Edison on pages 32-33 is roughly
accurate.
The description of how an internal combustion engine works on
page 37 is simple, but accurate.
On page 45, Dickinson says that the kidnappers also stole the
Naval Consulting Board research files. The
Naval Consulting Board was formed by the U.S. Secretary of the
Navy in 1915 at the suggestion of Edison to research new weapons
for the U.S. and for the Allies in Europe fighting the war
(WWI). Edison was the first chairman of the board. Among the
technology the board worked on was submarine and torpedo
detection, as stated on page 46.
On page 61, Indy states that President Wilson wants to keep the
U.S. out of the war in Europe, but Teddy Roosevelt was pushing
for the country to enter it. This was true.
Teddy Roosevelt (1858-1919) was the 26th president of the United
States, from 1901-1909.
On page 67, Nancy tells Indy that she was up all night thinking
about things, like winding up a Victrola and playing the same
song over and over again.
Victrola was a model of phonograph manufactured by the Victor
Talking Machine Company from 1906 into the 1960s.
On page 81, Indy rides his bike down his street, then turns on
Nassau Street and later onto Railroad Avenue. The book left out
a few streets and a bridge to trek between these two real world
roads in Princeton.
In the novelization, Dr. Thompson's shoes that give his identity
away to Nancy and Indy are tan and black. In the televised
episode, they are brown and white.
On page 107, in a scene that does not occur in the televised
episode,
Indy and Nancy's car just barely dodges an Acme Dynamite truck
while they are chasing Dr. Thompson.
Acme is the name of a fictitious company that has been used in a
number of movies, cartoons, comic strips, etc. It is most
well-known for its use in Warner Brothers' Road Runner cartoons.
