An assassin uses a double-barreled elephant gun made by Webley Scott in an attempt to kill Doc Savage. The obvious firm is actually Webley & Scott. The gun is described as a .577 caliber Nitro-Express rifle.
Remarks indicate the Fortress of Solitude is on an island inside the Arctic.
Monk is called a “Houdini of the test tubes” referring to magician Harry Houdini’s amazing abilities.
Even though this is the first documented adventure, the narrator implies the multitude of scars on Monk’s skin come from the group’s past adventures. Given the degree of scaring, the author seems to be indicating that many more adventures occurred prior to this story.
Barney Oldfield, a famous racer, is mentioned in the story.
Hidalgo is a fictional country. In Spanish, the word refers to the nobility. Hidalgo is also the name of a state in Central Mexico.
Doc Savage lands on a small lake north of Blanco Grande, the capital of Hidalgo. A close examination of a map of Central America reveals that no place in that local exactly fits the story’s description. A small lake, Lake Ilapango, lies to the east of San Salvador, the capital of El Salvador. The only other capital city with a lake is Managua, Nicaragua. Here lies Lake Managua and while it is north of the city it is not small. It is 40 miles long and 15 miles wide. Neither lake is shallow. Lake Ilapango is 750 feet deep while Lake Managua has a maximum depth of 65 feet.
The United States Geological Survey lists gold mining operations in all seven Central American countries. Production data for the years 1996 -2000 shows that Belize has the lowest production average 6 kilograms (kg) per year. Nicaragua has the highest average production level coming in at 2,974 kg per year. Panama comes in second with a production of 1,400 kg per year.
While current production levels do not reflect those of the 1930s they do make a statement about the availability of gold in a particular country. The legacy in The Man of Bronze is a fabulous golden treasure. Nicaragua makes a good candidate for the basis of the fictional country of Hidalgo.
Locations mentioned in the story are Biscayne Bay in Florida, Havana, Cuba, Belize (British Honduras), and Ambergris Cay.
The “Red Death” may be based on The Masque of the Red Death by Edgar Allen Poe.
Spanish words and English meanings: Blanco Grande means “large white” while Rubio means “blond or fair-haired.” Avispa means “wasp.” Monja means nun.
The national flower of Guatemala is the White Nun Orchid which is called Monja Blanca in Spanish.
Monk refers to Don Rubio as a “gink.” This is an insulting term for a person.
The Mayans figure prominently in the legacy left to Doc Savage by his father.
The leader of the Mayans is King Chaac. In Mayan mythology Chaac is the rain god.
Ethnicity: Another fascinating item is Dent's description of King Chaac in The Man of Bronze. Kenneth Robeson describes King Chaac's features as being "nearly as perfect as Doc's own." The description sounds like that of Doc Savage. Elderly King Chaac is again described exactly the same in They Died Twice.
We must also consider why Dent phrased his description of King Chaac in this manner. Was he giving us a clue to a blood relationship between Doc and King Chaac? I would surmise that Doc's mother was King Chaac's sister, making the King Doc's uncle and making Doc a member of the Mayan royalty.
King Chaac tells Doc that his father taught him English. Clark Savage, Sr. and the ruler Chaac must have spent many months together in order for him to later speak the language so well.
We also find that Princess Monja speaks excellent English and we are left to wonder who taught her. Either her father had learned it well enough to teach it to her. This implies a lengthy stay by Doc's father or else Savage Sr. taught it on a subsequent return visit. Of particular interest is her name. Why is a Mayan princess named Monja which means ‘nun” in Spanish?
A lot of evidence points to the Empire State Building as the most likely model for Doc’s headquarters. But the Chrysler Building was also influential. The building is named after Walter Chrysler who began his astonishing career as a simple railroad mechanic in the early 1900s. Working a variety of jobs in the railroad industry endowed him with an encyclopedic knowledge of mechanical devices while enabling him to achieve the respected status of master mechanic. His vast knowledge of mechanics prepared him for a career in the new automotive industry. By 1929, when he was named Time Magazine’s man of the year, he was a tycoon in the automotive business and enormously rich.
Construction on the art deco style Chrysler building began in September 1928. The structure was completed on May 28, 1930 and was the tallest man-made structure in the world at the time. It had 77 floors plus an elaborate spire that pierced the sky 1,046 feet. Chrysler had planned to move his automotive corporate headquarters from Detroit and install then in the new structure. This move never materialized but Walter P. Chrysler did keep a private apartment on the top floor.
In the end, Doc’s skyscraper headquarters is a hybrid on the two different buildings. Doc Savage maintains officers on the 86th floor but that is not the top floor. There are other offices above his. Readers are also told that Doc’s offices are in one of the tallest buildings in the city - not the tallest. The 86th floor on the Empire State Building is an observation deck. Another observation deck is on the 102nd floor but there are no offices above the 86th floor. The 102nd level was originally intended to be the landing platform for mooring dirigibles.
Doc’s famous supermachine pistols make their first appearance although they are not named as such.
Notorious
bank robber John Dillinger may have provided some
inspiration for Doc Savage’s supermachine pistol. There are
several popular photographs of John Dillinger holding a Thompson
sub-machine gun. But Dillinger also had a special
machine pistol
that was a modified version of the .38 Super automatic.
The stock automatic pistol was modified into a machine pistol using a kit
made by the Monarch Gun Company of Hollywood, California. The machine
pistol featured a longer barrel with an attached Thompson submachine handgrip.
A 22-round magazine provided extra ammunition for the gun which now had a fully
automatic rate of fire exceeding 700 rounds per minute.
Use of this weapon was not limited to John Dillinger as it was a popular
underworld weapon. Conversion kits were also available for the .45 auto.
Related Links:
Another famous
hero had his own private source of gold bullion. Author Edgar Rice Burroughs
started Tarzan of the Apes on a new adventure with the June 1913 issue of New
Story Magazine. The story was titled The Return of Tarzan
and introduced the lost city of Opar
to the enthralled readers. Late in the story, Tarzan discovers a golden
treasure within the secret treasure vaults of the city. Aided by his
faithful Waziri, he removes one hundred ingots from the city for his own
use. Tarzan returns again for more gold in Tarzan and
the Jewels of Opar which was published in 1916.
Before The Man of Bronze there was Doc Savage, Supreme Adventurer written by Henry Ralston and John Nanovic. This is essentially a short version of The Man of Bronze written in late 1932 by John Nanovic and Henry Ralston. There are a couple of interesting tidbits here.
Doc has bronze skin from spending time in both the tropical and northern regions. He has the familiar gold-flaked eyes.
Renny comes from a wealthy family as he grew up on his father's estate. The estate's manager taught him boxing. He is described as a superb civil engineer who provided valuable service to the government during the war.
Ham had the rank of Brigadier General during the war. His nickname is explained as coming from the disappearance of some hams from his kitchen unit.
Monk is also credited with the rank of Lieutenant Colonel in the US Army. It is explained that he realized this measure in large part due to his prodigious strength. Monk's ability to "pull up twenty feet of barbwire entanglements with a single heave" is specifically mentioned as contributing to his rank. This is mighty interesting in light of Phylip Wylie's novel, Gladiator (1930). In that story, the protagonist, Hugo Danner, achieves the rank of lieutenant due in large part to his amazing strength and physical ability.
The capital of Hildalgo is named Mangato.
The idea of a "fortress of solitude" is mentioned although it is not named as such.
The letter from the elder Savage to his son is complete. The existence of the gold is revealed along with the location.
The letter explains that Hubert Robertson's medical knowledge put them in good with the natives. The implication is that Doc's father was not a medical doctor. In The Man of Bronze, President Avispa explains that is was the elder Savage's medical knowledge that saved his life years earlier.
Doc has five friends who share his adventures. Each one is a world-calls expert in his own field. Monk Mayfair is a chemist, Ham Brooks an attorney, Renny Renwick is an engineer, Long Tom Roberts is an electrical genius, and Johnny Littlejohn is an expert in geology and archeology. Doc’s cousin, Pat Savage, first appeared in The Brand of the Werewolf and was a character in several subsequent novels of the series.
Richard Henry Savage was a dashing figure in the latter part of the eighteenth century and an acquaintance of Street & Smith executive Henry Ralston. Richard Savage is reputed to be a factor in the inspiration for the Doc Savage character.
The Man of Bronze is a “lost race” novel. This particular type story mechanism is attributed to H. Rider Haggard who was an author from the time of his published work, King Solomon’s Mines until his death in 1925.
Another historic figure of extraordinary athletic prowess was Olympic champion Jim Thorpe. In the 1912 Summer Olympics, Thorpe won the gold medal for the pentathlon and decathlon. King Gustav V of Sweden awarded Thorpe his medals and told him, “You, sir, are the greatest athlete in the world.” Indeed, Thorpe is considered to be the greatest athlete of the twentieth century by many authorities.
Western Historical Manuscript
Collection: Lester Dent’s papers and his manuscripts are on file at
the University of Missouri in Columbia. Doc Savage, Supreme Adventurer
is the first folder in the section dealing with Doc Savage. It is
attributed to Henry Ralston and John Nanovic.
When Lester Dent initially went to work for Street & Smith he
was asked to submit a story on The
Shadow. It was eventually published under the title of The Golden
Vulture.
March 1, 1933 – The Tower of the
Elephant by Robert
E. Howard is published in Weird Tales.
March 1, 1933 – The Shadow Magazine
publishes Fingers of Death.
March 2, 1933 – Movies: King Kong
premiers at Radio
City Music Hall.
March 2, 1933 – The Sanriku earthquake
and tsunami kill over 3,000 people in Japan.
March 4, 1933 - President
Franklin Roosevelt,
in his first
inaugural address, declares, "The
only thing we have to fear is fear itself."
March 4, 1933 – Austrian Chancellor Dolfuss suspends the parliament
and establishes a de facto dictatorship.
March 4, 1933 – Lost on Venus by Edgar Rice Burroughs
begins a seven-part serialization in Argosy All-Story Weekly. Lost on
Venus is the second book in the Venus series.
March 5, 1933 – President Roosevelt orders a four-day closure
of all banks.
March 8, 1933 – Movies: The Warner Brothers musical 42nd Street
opens.
March 10, 1933 – Over 100 people are killed by an earthquake in
Long Beach, California.
March 12, 1933 – President Roosevelt conducts his first Fireside Chat, On the Bank Crisis.
March 15, 1933 – The Shadow Magazine
publishes Murder Trail.
March 20, 1933 - Giuseppe Zangara is
executed for the assassination of Chicago Mayor Anton Cermak. It is widely believed that President Franklin
Roosevelt was Zangara’s real target.
March 20, 1933 – The Nazis establish a concentration camp at Dachau for
political prisoners.
March 20, 1933 - Mildred ("Babe")
Didrikson pitches for the Philadelphia Athletics during an exhibition game
against the Brooklyn Dodgers.
March 23, 1933 – President Roosevelt signs the Cullen-Harrison Act
which allowed the manufacture and selling of beer.
March 23, 1933 – The German parliament makes Adolph Hitler dictator of
Nazi Germany.
March 25, 1933 – The USS Sequoia (AG-23) becomes the official
presidential yacht.
March 27, 1933 – The Empire of Japan
withdraws from the League
of Nations.
March 31, 1933 – The Civilian
Conservation Corps is created.
