J. J. Allerton: Pulp Phantom

Our history of the Science Fiction Pulps is often as shaky as our knowledge of the dinosaurs. We know much more about the giants of the Jurassic where bones and fossils abound but the rest… SF Pulp history has the same patchy nature. There is plenty on Robert A. Heinlein or Isaac Asimov but for every Murray Leinster there are a dozen ghosts. What do we really know of Edwin K. Sloat, R. R. Winterbothm or Anthony Pelcher? This doesn’t even approach the wall of static that is the anonymous scribes who wrote under the house names Alexander Blade or S. M. Tenneshaw.

Take for example the anonymous J. J. Allerton. We know so little about him (or is it a her? I am going to assume for argument sake, him.) We don’t even know what the Js stand for. He came, he wrote, he left. No classics. No movies. Nobody remembers.

What we do know is J. J. wrote for Ray A. Palmer, which might mean he was situated near Chicago, not New York. J. J. wrote ten stories, nine for Palmer and one for his successor, Howard Browne. (The tenth may have been originally written for Palmer. Browne inherited $50,000 in unusable inventory when he took over. Perhaps “The Typewriter” was rescued from these?) Six are Science Fiction and four are Westerns. There are long gaps between the first and last, as much as five years, but the bulk are in a timespan of about two years so he may not have been a hobbyist. He never wrote any fan letters to Amazing Stories or Fantastic Adventures so he wasn’t a super-fan/writer like Malcolm M. Ferguson. The fact that he wrote four Westerns (but no frontier fiction for other publishers) shows he was a Palmer writer rather than a Western or SF writer. (It was not unusual for Palmer’s SF writers to pen Westerns and Mystery stories for Mammoth Western and Mammoth Detective. Financially, it made writing SF viable.)

Here are JJ’s stories, for better or worse. I hope you find something to relish in his short career.

“Dr. Zanger’s Cats” (Fantastic Adventures, July 1945) is a wartime story that borrows on The Island of Dr. Moreau. This version is set in the deep jungle rather on an island. The mad scientist formula is alive and well. The only thing he lacks is a beautiful daughter. They have to bring a love interest along instead.

“Nest of Thieves” (Mammoth Western, August 1948) has a lawman come to the ruthless town of Hardtack. Jenkins will either tame that town or die trying.

“Buster’s Last Stand” (Mammoth Western, September 1948) has a film unit in trouble while filming a recreation of Custer’s Last Stand. The native actors don’t agree with the way Sitting Bull is represented.

“Fast Gun, Slow Death” (Mammoth Western, November 1948) has a young rancher standing up to bullies.

“Once Upon a Planet” (Amazing Stories, December 1948) starts with Warlord Miotis suffering from boredom. He seeks the reason why battle fiery has left his world. He sends his spirit into another world and another person, Bly Stanton of Chicago in the year 2107. Stanton is facing a brutal future where war has reduced men to savages and the environment into a nightmare. Miotis leaves Bly’s body to return to his own world, where he outlaws war, for he has seen its effects. The body transfer stuff reminds me Edmond Hamiton’s “The Star Kings” (Amazing Stories, September 1947).

“L” Stands for Love—and Lead” (Mammoth Western, February 1949)

“Moon of Battle” (Amazing Stories, December 1949) is rather Burroughsian stuff with a rocket to the Moon finding a world in conflict. As with all ERB characters, Pratt gets involved after saving a woman from being sacrificed. To make it feel even more Edgar Rice, the illustration was done by J. Allen St. John. This was Allerton’s longest piece.

“Call of Duty” (Fantastic Adventures, April 1950) is about Ed “Bull” Weller, the captain of the Star Queen. His duty will either get him court martialed or promoted.

“The Trumpet” (Fantastic Adventures, May 1950) is a complete switch for Allerton. Instead of Burroughsian space fights, this story reminds me of a Twilight Zone episode. A magical trumpet changes the lives of two tramps named Willie the Weep and Harry the Hock. You can almost imagine Jack Klugman playing one of them.

“The Typewriter” (Fantastic, June 1955) is a story for a new era. Fantastic was a digest, coming out of the ashes of the dead Pulps. In spirit, this story continues Allerton’s new style. A haunted typewriter brings a theatrical assistant and a beautiful woman together.

Conclusion

It won’t surprise anyone that J. J. Allerton slipped away unnoticed. His work is spread over two genres, and is largely imitative. (But he chose good models in Wells, Burroughs and Hamilton). He never wrote that original classic tale that might have cemented him some fame at least among SF fans. He slipped from Western to Space Opera and then into earthbound fantasy, reacting to changes in the market. After 1955, he disappears, perhaps no richer but a little wiser? J. J. Allerton is another ghost in the story that is Pulp Science Fiction.