Robert Arthur, Jr.

Robert Arthur ( born November 10, 1909 in Fort Mills on Corregidor Island (Philippines ); † May 2, 1969 in Philadelphia ) was an American author and journalist. He was known primarily as the creator of the youth detective series The Three Investigators, in the German-speaking area better known as The Three Investigators.

Life and work

Arthur's father, Robert, sen. was a lieutenant in the United States Army, his mother Sarah Fee came from New Orleans. He had a younger brother, John. He studied English at the University of Michigan ( Ann Arbor ), where he took off his final examinations in 1930 and 1932, a master's degree earned in journalism. He then moved to New York City.

Here he began to write for pulp magazines; 1935-1941 he invented the Pocket Detective Magazine. In his first marriage he was married from 1938 to 1940 with the radio play spokeswoman Susan Smith Cleveland. From 1944 to 1952 he produced The Mysterious Traveller and Adventure Into Fear, weekly radio broadcasts. In 1946 he married his second wife, Joan Vaczek; the couple moved to Sharon (Connecticut) and later Yorktown Heights (New York ), where the son of Robert Andrew ( b. 1948 ) and daughter Elizabeth Ann ( b. 1953 ) grew up. 1950 and 1953 Arthur was Best Radio Drama from the Association of American crime writers, the Mystery Writers of America awarded the Edgar in the category. In the McCarthy era, his literary activity came to a standstill for the radio, but he had continued to work as co-producer and wrote for pulp magazines.

After the divorce from his second wife in 1959, he moved to Hollywood and wrote screenplays for television series such as The Twilight Zone and worked as an editor and script writer for Alfred Hitchcock's TV series Alfred Hitchcock Presents. In 1962 he moved back to the East Coast to Cape May, where he lived until his death. From the Publisher Random House Arthur in 1961 as an editor for a Hitchcock mystery anthology inspired by the Alfred Hitchcock Presents TV series (for short: AHP) involved. Under his leadership, the short story volumes AHP appeared: Stories For Late At Night ( 1961), AHP: Stories My Mother Never Told Me ( 1963), AHP: Stories Not For The Nervous (1965 ), AHP: Stories That Scared Even Me ( 1967) and AHP: Stories They Would not Let Me Do On TV (1968). In each band at least one story of Arthur was included, as well as a preface which he wrote in the name of Hitchcock. In parallel, he published another short story volumes, which were aimed at children and teenagers.

Alfred Hitchcock and the Three Investigators

Due to his work as editor, script writer and his affiliation with Alfred Hitchcock came to him in 1963 the idea of ​​a separate crime series for children and young people. Under the title of Alfred Hitchcock and The Three Investigators was published by Random House in 1964, the first episode: The Secret of Terror Castle ( in German as the three ghosts and the castle known? ). To ensure long- term success of the series, Arthur campaigned with the name Hitchcock. Arthur wanted to do with his crime stories an alternative to the then popular youth series Hardy Boys. In German-speaking countries, the series is titled The Three? known. The series became known for their German radio play implementation cult status and is continued to this day by different German-speaking authors.

To the legacy of Arthur concretely the Kosmos Verlag ( book ) and the Label Europa was between 2005 and 2008 in Germany a legal battle against the children of Arthur and the German licensees of the series The Three Investigators discharged ( radio play ). In a judgment against an injunction of the label Europe in the publication of two novels of the three? from Kosmos, the Oberlandesgericht Dusseldorf saw it proven that the University of Michigan was the rightful heir to the works of Arthur. This was clear from his will. In principle, however, is to be clarified to what extent audio rights have been transferred. The parties agreed finally out of court on the continuation of the series in Germany (→ Further information on the litigation ).

Robert Arthur died on May 2, 1969 in Philadelphia.

Publications

By Robert Arthur written volumes of the series " Alfred Hitchcock and The Three Investigators":

  • Stories My Mother Never Told Me ( 1963)
  • Stories Not For The Nervous (1965 )
  • Stories That Scared Even Me ( 1967)
  • Stories They Would not Let Me Do On TV (1968 )
  • Alfred Hitchcock 's Haunted Houseful (1961 )
  • Alfred Hitchcock's Ghostly Gallery (1962 )
  • Alfred Hitchcock's Solve them yourself Mysteries ( 1963) [Editor 1]
  • Alfred Hitchcock 's Monster Museum ( 1965)
  • Alfred Hitchcock 's Sinister Spies ( 1966)
  • Alfred Hitchcock's Spellbinders in Suspense (1967 )
  • Davy Jones Haunted Locker ( 1965)
  • Spies and More Spies ( 1967)
  • Thrillers and More Thrillers ( 1968)
  • Ghosts and More Ghosts ( 1963)
  • Mystery and More Mystery ( 1966)
Cape May, New Jersey The Mystery of the Silver Spider Integrated Authority File
686624
de