In 1932, the Norris–LaGuardia Act made yellow-dog contracts which forbade workers from
joining unions as a condition of employment unenforceable. Prior to this measure employers used this
hiring clause to stifle worker unionization.
Dent may have been thinking
about the striking workers at the Amoskeag
Manufacturing Company
in Manchester, New Hampshire when he started writing this story. Trouble started there in May of 1933 when the
company announced it would cut wages and increase the required working hours
effective July 1, 1933. Workers rejected
these measures and elected to go on strike.
This
was not the first time such an incident had occurred at the Amoskeag
plant. Back in 1922, the company
attempted a similar tactic when it announced that wages were being cut twenty
percent and the work week increased from 48 to 54 hours per week. The ensuing strike was a disaster for both
the workers and the mill operator.
The
insanity machine used by the Green Bell is perhaps an early example of transcranial
magnetic stimulation. Weak magnetic fields are used in a manner to
stimulate brain activity. One risk associated with this procedure is the risk
of a seizure.
This story features the first mention of the Hidalgo Trading Company which is actually Doc’s waterfront aircraft hanger on the Hudson River. Prior adventures make no mention of the facility so it may be newly built. It is also possible that the structure was damaged in an earlier unknown story or was simply undergoing renovations.
At one point in the story, a
car is described as being a “phaeton.” This term is derived
from a particular body style that originated with horse drawn carriages.
Lester Dent mentions lynching in this story. Kindly Aunt Nora explains the reason the Green Bells have not harmed her is because the citizenry would become so outraged and lynch them.
Many modern readers may wonder at this statement and assume that lynching was something limited to the south and applied only to blacks. That would not be a correct assumption. In fact, in the same month that this story appears, a mob in San Jose, California broke into the local jail and lynched two suspected kidnappers. The two men had been arrested in connection with the kidnapping and murder of a local man, Brooke Hart. Upon questioning, they confessed and implicated one another in an attempt to shift blame.
The recovery of Hart's body inflamed the local populace to a murderous degree. Thousands of local citizens storm the jail and summarily hanged the two men. California governor James Rolf gave tacit approval of the actions.
The idea of lynching may seem antiquated to modern readers but it was a real and tangible threat of the time these stories were written.
Freemasonry: Reference is made to a lodge emblem on a watch chain.
Doc travels through the tree
tops like Tarzan.
Doc
uses sign language. He is probably using
American Sign Language (ASL).
The
wrist watch television is the same as that seen in Pirate of the Pacific.
November 1, 1933 – The first installment of After Worlds Collide by Wylie and Balmer begins in Blue Book.
November 8, 1933 – The Civil Works Administration is created by President Roosevelt.
November 8, 1933 – King Nadir Shah of Afghanistan is assassinated.
November 11, 1933 - The first installment of a nine-part serialization of Tarzan and the Lion Man by Edgar Rice Burroughs begins in Liberty.
November 13, 1933 – Movies: The Invisible Man is released.
November 13, 1933 – Employees at the Hormel meat plant in Austin, Minnesota begin a sit-down strike.
November 16, 1933 – The United States and the USSR begin diplomatic relations.
