Dr. John Dale was a two story ghostbreaker from Weird Tales. The author was the unlikely Edmond Hamilton, who had made his career on alien invasions and space opera. He wrote the two stories under the Hugh Davidson pseudonym, perhaps because he was worried about poaching on Seabury Quinn’s territory. E. Hoffman Price certainly found this with his Peter D’Artois tales earlier in 1926. The pseudonym didn’t fool long-time readers of the magazine. “Hugh” had appeared earlier with “Vampire Village” (November 1932) and the inclusion of another vampire in the first tale may be because of this. “The Vampire Master”, a short novel appeared a year later.
Enter Dr. Dale
From the opening of “The Vampire Master” we get a clear description of Dale:
Doctor Dale was a complete contrast, even to his tweed suit and soft silk shirt the antithesis of Henderson’s formal attire. Doctor John Dale is an attractive and to some people a handsome man. Though he is a few years over forty, his trim, compact figure is as muscular as a youth’s, and his brown hair and short vandyke beard are unmixed with gray. His features are strong but rather ordinary, except for his extraordinary hazel eyes, which can at some times be cold and bleak as brown ice but at others can seem hot as brown flame.
Doctor Dale seems to see everything at a glance with those quick hazel eyes. He seems also in some queer way to be able to hear not the only the thing are saying but the thing you are going to say. This is no doubt due to the quickness with which his minds works, for few men can think and act more quickly.
This description clearly places Dale in that category of ghostbreaker known as the Psychic Doctors, men (not very often women) of arcane learning and amazing cognitive abilities. Like any self-respecting Sherlockian, Dale has a sidekick, a Watson in Harley Owen, a younger man who narrates the Doctor’s adventure.
The Vampire Master
“The Vampire Master” appeared in four sections, Weird Tales, October November December 1933 and January 1934. Jayem Wilcox did three illustrations for Parts 1, 2, and 4.
Part 1
The story begins with Dr. Henderson coming to Dale’s office. He has come to Dale because he has heard he deals with “strange cases”. His town of Maysville, near the Catskills Mountains in upper New York state, has been threatened by vampirism. He expects Dale to scoff but he doesn’t. Instead he gives an entire page lecture on the history of vampirism. Henderson describes how his patient, Allene Ralton, died of anemia despite his using the Klein-Lorentz Solution. When Allene’s daughter, Olivia, catches the same “illness”, Henderson comes looking for Dale.
Henderson gives a little background on Maysville and the newcomers in the last month. Most are harmless but one sticks out, Gerritt Geisert, who has taken over a creepy mansion in the woods. He has the same name as an ancestor who had been a terrible wizard, driving out all the inhabitants of the mansions in that area long ago. He seems a pleasant guest, though he only comes out at night.
Dale, Owen and Henderson go to Maysville. Dale examines Olivia Ralton. She has bite marks in her neck. She tells the doctor of strange dreams of teeth and a mouth with foul breath and red glowing eyes. Dale drugs her. Ralton’s other daughter, Virginia, is kept in the dark. He and four others, Owen, Henderson, Ralton and Olivia’s fiance, Edward Harmon, hide in her room waiting to see who the vampire is. They hear the barking of dogs. In comes the girl’s dead mother, Allene Ralton. She has an evil expression and manner. Dale and Owen drive her away with crosses but she promises all of them will become servants of her master.
After the excitement, an unexpected guest arrives with more barking dogs. It is Gerritt Geisert. He saw a light and decided to knock. John Dale dislikes the pleasant guest immediately. He accuses Geisert of being the original wizard who was driven out of town two hundred years ago. The vampire admits he is the master of the undead, then attacks Dale. Owen pulls his gun and shoots the creature twice to no effect. Geisert attacks Owen but flees the house. (This is the scene Jayem Wilcox illustrated.) Harmon and Henderson want to pursue but Dale tells them they must first destroy Allene Ralton. Virginia wakes up, having heard the shots.
Part 2
The next morning Dale and his associates go to the graveyard to dispatch Allen Ralton. Only her coffin is missing from the family crypt. The men grill, Farley, the cemetery keeper. He admits he saw Gerritt Geisert carry her coffin out with Allene in tow. A little more pushing and they discover there was a second time this happened. A newly expired Arthur Newton also joined the vampire master.
Knowing they must find the coffins of the vampires, the men go off into the thick forest to the ancient home of the Geiserts. With only a few hours to search they do not find any coffins. They decide to stay through the night to see if the vampires appear. They do, from the cellar. Dale, Owen and Harmon must sit quietly all night, waiting for the sun to rise.
While they do this, they watch Geisert send his two acolytes out for blood. He glories in his empire to come, when thouands of vampires will service him. Allene returns without any blood, since Dr. Henderson stayed with Olivia Ralton. Newton has more luck. Full of blood, Gerritt Geisert bites him and takes his due as master. (This is the scene Jayem Wilcox drew for this chapter.)
Morning comes. The vampires retreat to their secret chamber in the cellar. Dale and his two helpers search for an emptiness behind the walls. They find it on the south side but can’t break in despite heavy labor. They leave, with the plan to return the next morning, and smash their way in.
The tired men return home for some sleep. Dr. Henderson has been busy doing a search for Dale. He has found another who has the symptoms of Olivia Ralston. Arthur Newton’s fiancee, Miss Alice Wilsey. Dale tries to examine Alice but she fights him, saying their is nothing wrong with her. Despite the interference, Dale sees two bite marks in her neck.
Part 3
This segment has no Wilcox illustration. As the third part, it received little attention in that issue. This was the nature of the serial.
Dr. Dale makes an ally of Mrs. Wilsey, telling her of the vampire threat. She agrees to allow Dale, Owen and Henderson hide in Alice’s closet for the night. Arthur Newton comes to her window. The two lovers reveal that Alice has been giving her blood willingly, wanting to join Arthur in death. The men jump from the closet to drive him off. Arthur thinks Alice was part of the set-up.
The vampire-hunters are called away from the Wilsey house because Olivia Ralton is dying. They race over to the Ralton house to find Allene Ralton and Gerritt Geisert had come. They put the guard, Edward Harmon, to sleep with mind-control. Olivia, who was also mind-controlled by the master, removed the garlic branches, allowing the two in. Geisert drinks most of her blood. Allene finishes off her daughter, causing the inevitable death.
Dale wants to stake Olivia and cut off her head but the family insist he not do it yet. Her body is placed in a coffin and put in the library. Edward Harmon guards the corpse against the return of the vampires. Dale, Owen and Henderson go off to search the other ancient mansions for the coffins of the master and his followers. They don’t have any luck.
When they return they find Edward Harmon dying and Olivia gone. Harmon explains. Olivia woke inside her coffin, calling out to Edward. She tells him she is actually alive. He opened the coffin. She let her mother and Geisert in again. Harmon tried to save her but is lethally injured. He dies.
The bad news isn’t over yet. Dale remembers Alice Wilsey. The vampire hunters rush back to her house to find her dying as well. This time Dale insists on stake and steel. He and Owen drive a four foot long stake into her heart, causing her to awaken in vampire form. Then they cut off her head. They also cut the stake off at chest level. (This is one of Hamilton’s few innovations.) They return home to sleep, leaving Henderson to make the funeral arrangements for Alice, Harmon and make excuses for Olivia Ralton’s missing corpse.
Part 4
Owen wakes up to find Dale already up and working on his mold for cross-bearing bullets. Dale hopes they will be effective against the vampires. The men stop working on the bullets when James Ralton calls. He and Virginia are under attack!
The men race over to the Ralton house to find James dead. Virigina has had some of her blood drunk by the vampires. She tells Dr. Dale how her father died. When the vampires appeared, one his dead wife and one his dead daughter, his heart gave out. They put his body in a coffin in the library. Virginia’s beau, Hugh Rillard shows up, having been called by Mr. Ralton, too.
Dale changes his plan of attack. He won’t go looking for coffins anymore. Instead, the men take up residence in the Ralton house, now armed with the new bullets. Virginia is placed in the living room as bait, while each man takes a side of the house. When the vampires attack, the other three will follow the sound of gunfire quickly. Only the vampires don’t come. Instead, Dale learns after the fact, Virginia got up and left the house. Rillard foolishly let her leave. They find her wandering the road, returning from the vampires’ lair and another blood-letting.
Dale sets another trap. The next night he ties Virginia up, knowing Geisert will call her out again. He wants to hold her close to the end of the night, so when they follow her to the vampires’ hideout, there will be little time left for them to do ill. Armed with bullets, stake and steel, Dale will end the master and his brood.
Around midnight Virginia begins to resist the bonds that hold her down. She wants to go to her new master. Dale holds her back. They must wait until later in the night. Only he gets a surprise when Arthur Newton comes crashing through a window, taking the bound Virginia. (Wilcox’s final illustration.) They shoot and miss but finally Owen hits him. The reaction is immediate. Newton falls down as if dead. Dale wastes no time and stakes and cuts off his head. During this procedure, Virginia gets lose and heads for the hills.
The men have to run to catch up to her. She leads them to the old Salton place, one of the abandoned old mansions. She enters and Rillard wants to follow. Dale stops him. He has the men place garlic branches all around the house, so no one can escape. Peeking though a window, they see Geisert about to drain Virginia. He has stopped to argue with his acolytes. The sister, Olivia, says she should get the last blood. Allene also argues. They attack Geisert, who quickly puts them in their place with a wave of his hand. He is master here. He will drink Virginia’s blood!
Dr. Dale disagrees, as the men enter the house. Bullets start flying but nobody can hit anything. Eventually, the men plug Olivia. Allene flees into the basement. Geisert ducks into a cellar and comes out with his coffin. He plans to flee with it but can’t because of the garlic branches and the rising sun. Owen and Dale shoot him too. All the bodies are taken down into the cellar. They find Allene sleeping in her coffin. All the vampires get staked and have their heads cut off. When Geisert is staked his body crumbles into ash and bones, since he is over two hundred years old.
Virginia, in the arms of her man, Hugh Rillard, asks if it is finally over. Dr. Dale replies, “No, for you, everything is beginning.” A sentimental ending worthy of Seabury Quinn.
Looking over this short novel, I notice several things about Hamilton’s writing. First off, he embraces the popular vampire ideas of cinema. Bela Lugosi’s Dracula (1931) was only three years old but it had set the scene for all that followed. His one innovation is the cross-shaped bullets, which he saves for the final installment. This was his sixty-second sale to the Pulps. I am not surprised his pacing was well-done and that his characters were pretty much flat versions of Sherlock and Watson. (I jest about Seabury Quinn, but I am sure Ed was familiar with his work, being the other most popular writer at Weird Tales. This tale could easily have been a Jules de Grandin novel.)
The House of the Evil Eye
Dr. John Dale’s second tale is the much shorter “The House of the Evil Eye” (Weird Tales, June 1936), a tale appearing almost two years later. Owen and Dale go to the town of Tauriston when Henry Carlin comes to the office. His son, Donald, has been struck down twice by the evil eye. Donald has fallen for a Rose Mione, an Italian-American girl. She, her father and grandfather, all have the evil eye. When the grandfather, Peter Mione gave his pledge to evil, he gained the power to strike down others with his eye. All his descendants automatically get it too. He enjoys holding the other Italians in town under threat.
Dale and Owen wear silver pins with arcane symbols. Protected from the evil eye, they speak with the father, Joseph. He agrees to help them tie up Peter, so Dale can work a kind of exorcism on him, force him to give up his evil masters. If he dies before revoking them, Joseph and Rose and all their descendants will be cursed with the evil eye forever.
Owen and Dale jump the grandfather and tie him up. Using symbols of good, Dale engages in a staring contest with Peter. To make matters worse, Peter has killed a local girl with his curse. Millera and a woman named Safetta, whose son Peter also killed, lead a mob against the Mione house. Owen and Joseph are hard pressed to keep the crowd out as Dale cries “Revoke!” at Peter. Finally, the grandfather relents. He dies seconds after. The mob is placated and disperses. Donald Carlin and Rose Mione are now free to marry.
This final tale is overly long and suffers for not having any real action or monsters. Immigrant culture is portrayed in an unkind light, typical of the Pulps. If this is what future Dr. Dale tales would be, I can’t say I’m sorry the series ended.
Conclusion
Dr. John Dale belongs to Weird Tales‘ collection of ghostbreakers who appear a few times then disappear. Either because the readers don’t show any interest or because the writers tire of the character and move on to other ideas. Other short series occult detectives from the Pulps include Robert W. Sneddon’s Mark Shadow, Conrad Richter’s Matson Bell, Gordon MacCreagh’s Dr. Muncing, and Otis Adelbert Kline’s Dr. Dorp. Weird Tales and its competitors were filled with ghost busters but few could compete with Jules De Grandin except perhaps Manly Wade Wellman’s John Thunstone. De Grandin and his sidekick Dr. Trowbridge had ninety-three cases, all in Weird Tales.
