Huey P. Long: Arriving in the Bayou State, Doc Savage directs Renny to visit the governor in Baton Rouge. Doc informs Renny that the governor will give him a special commission as a forest ranger. The question here is just exactly who is the governor? Without doubt the name on the mind of most individuals would have been Huey Pierce Long. This flamboyant individual had achieved national prominence and notoriety as a formidable player in popular politics.
Long was a revolutionary politician. As governor, he advocated public education, providing free textbooks to local schools. Under his administration, the charity hospital system expanded. Over thirteen thousand miles of new roads were constructed. If a single expression ever existed that described Huey Long it has to be "Every Man a King." This aptly describes Long's social and economic policies.
He was a
strong proponent of limiting personal wealth.
Under his plan individual incomes would be limited to one million
dollars per year. Personal fortunes
could not exceed fifty million dollars nor could inheritances be more than five
million. He advocated a national annual
income of five thousand dollars for every family so that they could have a
decent living. Coming during an era when
many families lived in abject poverty, millions looked upon Long's policies
favorably. It was a widely held belief
that Long would be a candidate for President of the
In 1932, Long
was elected to the
Long's
political career ended in September 1935 when he was shot in the state capitol
building in
Timber was big business in Louisiana during the Great Depression. Huge forests of old growth cypress still existed. The firm of Danielsen & Haas of New Orleans could easily have been modeled after existing lumber companies such as the Lutcher and Moore Lumber Company or the Great Southern Lumber Company.
A large portion of this story takes place in Louisiana and references voodoo and cult. One of the more famous stories dealing with the occult and New Orleans would be The Call of Cthulhu by H. P. Lovecraft. Dent reference to “sinister and oftentimes bloodcurdling rites of voodooism” and “awful things” in the remote swamps including human sacrifice. Lovecraft and Dent both describe the swamp dwellers as low, mentally aberrant types of mixed blood.
Dent is obviously making reference to Creole peoples when he says the swamp dwellers speak a patois of “French, English, bush African, and Spanish.”
The story makes no mention about crossing the Mississippi River. The Huey P. Long Bridge was still under construction and not finished until December 1935 so it was impossible to cross the river except by way of ferry boat.
Locales in the story include Lake Pontchartrain, Bayou St. John, and City Park.
Spanish moss is drying in a shed. It was mostly used for mattress stuffing.
The Texas brown tarantula is found in western Louisiana.
The swamp men use blowguns with tranquilizing darts.
Doc calls the leading newspaper in town which would be the New Orleans Times-Picayune.
Gadgets: Doc uses a mind
control drug that turns his captives into automatons incapable of doing
anything except following simple orders.
Poisoned insects are used as weapons.
Supermachine Pistols: Quest of the Spider reveals that these armaments are made in secret
for Doc Savage. They are described as
being "the smallest and most efficient killing mechanism in
existence". Later it is explained
that Doc makes them himself.
The
May 2, 1933 - The Loch Ness Monster is sighted in Scotland.
May 1, 1933 – Time Magazine reviews Air Adventure by William B. Seabrook. The story details a round-trip flight from Paris, France across the Mediterranean Sea and Sahara Desert to Timbuktu in what was then French Sudan in Africa.
May 6, 1933 - President Franklin Roosevelt creates the W.P.A. (Works Progress Administration).
May 6, 1933 – Brokers Tip wins the Kentucky Derby.
May 6, 1933 - Collier’s magazine, The Bride of Fu Manchu by Sax Rohmer begins. The story ran in ten installments, concluding with the July 8, 1933 issue.
May 7, 1933 – President Roosevelt conducts a Fireside Chat, Outlining the New Deal Program.
May 8, 1933 - The first police radio system becomes operational in Eastchester Township, New York.
May 8, 1933 – Mohandas Gandhi, spiritual leader of India, begins a hunger strike.
May 10, 1933 – Paraguay declares war against Bolivia in the start of the Chaco War.
May 18, 1933 – The Tennessee Valley Authority (TVA) is signed into law.
May 27, 1933 - The Chicago World’s Fair (Century of Progress) opens.
