I read many a Hardy Boys novel as a teen. Frank and Joe.... Had no idea they lasted into the new century.
I’ve got a raging clue…
In 1956, the Mickey Mouse Club did a serial version of the Hardy Boys “Tower Treasure” story. There are many differences from the book, the main one being that the boys are several years younger than in the book. But it captured my imagination as a young kid, and I have it on DVD.
I read most of the Hardy boys, and some of the Nancy Drew books.
I noticed that the Hardy boy books had multiple sub plots or diversions whereas the Nancy Drew had none.
kind of like taking the freeway instead of the backroads.
I personally preferred the Tom Swift books as did Elon obviously
I was lucky enough to find a full set of the Doc Savage paperbacks when I was 13. What amazing adventures I had!
Boy detectives and girl detective.
I read some of the Hardy Boys books. Also liked watching the 1970s Nancy Drew TV series with Pamela Sue Martin, lol.
Then there were two series of "Tom Swift" books, the first featuring what became the senior Swift, the second featuring his son. When I was in grade school, I found only one title in the first series, buried in the school library: "Tom Swift and his Submarine". The front plate describes additional titles, none of which I ever found, let alone read.
Who can forget the Boxcar Children? 160 titles!
If you can find them you want the older versions of the books before they were rewritten in the 1960s. The books were longer, the plots more complex, the vocabulary richer and they had not removed every non-WASP side characters.
And none of the MC's qualified for sainthood the way they did in the rewritten versions. They were petty, they made mistakes, they did things they probably shouldn't have. They were more like real teens in other words. Good hearted but not in any way perfect.
If you have a child that is learning late 19th and early 20th century American history the books are a great way to give your kids a feel of what life was like.
I liked hardy and ND but got turned onto another series of books called Alfred Hitchcock and the Three Investigators.
Very similar in concept
I’ve read most father’s Hardy Boys books. They have been rewritten with the same titles and different plots at least once. I prefer the first printings to the rewrites of the 1960s.
Anyone remember The Power Boys series?
I remember the Hardy Boys TV series that was on the air for a couple of seasons.
on a related note, I would encourage everyone to go to the site
and listen to what I think is the longest running radio mystery theater.
I still hear that creaking door in my nightmares, before the Shadow finds what evil lies in the hearts of men
Anybody remember Montgomery M. Atwater? Great books, but don’t make the mistake of getting the crappy rewrites that were published a few years ago.
Tom Swift.
And “Emil and the Detectives” by Erich Kaestner.
I was an avid Hardy Boys reader. I think at one time I had them all in hardcover as a kid.