Photo fromVelda ’s Detective Files
- PLEASE NOTE THAT VELDA IS A WORK OF FICTION AND THAT THIS clause IS A PARODY . give thanks YOU . -Ed .
There were many crime comics that featured female protagonists . Some are fabled in their own rightfield and are almost as well known today as they were 60 years ago , featuring character such as Miss Fury and Phantom Lady . There were also Lady Masque , Invisible Scarlet O’Neill , Claire Voyant and the Woman in Red .
But only Velda ’s risky venture were veridical . Lasting scantily half a 12 subject , Velda was put out by a poverty row outfit call Black Cat Comics , which was also responsible for form of address such as Tommy Tiddles : Toddler T - Man and Rubbo , the Human Eraser .
No one could have been more surprised than VeldaBellinghausen herself when the little known ex - burlesquequeen - cum - individual oculus became nationwide news and one ofthe other multimedia system celebrities … transient as thatfame was . Born in Brooklyn , New York , on May 8 , 1923 , Velda said in a 2003 interview that her father , Roald M. Bellinghausen , was an officer with the New York Police Department . Her female parent , Judith ( neé Toth ) , operated a buttonholing machine at the Superior Never - Chafe Ladies Discreet Undergarment factory in the garment dominion of Manhattan . “ In 1932 , Dad made the Homicide Squad , which made things a lot better for us . And I entered kindergarten that year . My formal education began the follow year when I entered PS 101 . I was never a swell student , but I did very well . ” deplorably , the untested young woman ’s female parent passed by in 1934 , the hapless dupe of a lusus naturae doughnut explosion .
Velda bravely took over the household chores in the absence of a father who was worshiped but seldom at home . In spite of the severity , Velda managed to graduate from high school in 1940 , “ 124th out of a stratum of 132 — which is n’t so bad , I opine . At any rate it was better than Ralph Belarsky , who was number 132 . ” She pass the summer following commencement exercise cultivate at a soda outpouring , then enrol in the Ajax Business School where she decided to major in tachygraphy .
But if she dreamed of a career in the office of a large insurance party or farm machine wholesaler her Hope were dashed by the tragic decease of her father . The pass of Homicide Detective 2nd Class Roald Bellinghausen in 1943 was “ a real mess ” for the twenty - year - honest-to-goodness lady friend . Not the least of which was the scandal that skirt the shoot - out in which her founder had exit . “ That boy - of - a - kick district attorney [ King Noorvik , who bind that office until the events postdate the Sline murder case in 1953 ] was bass in some rotten business . He was so eager to deal it up that he ruined Dad ’s name to save his own ill-gotten neck . ”
With her father ’s name and criminal record blacken , Velda was abnegate well-nigh all the benefits due to her . “ I had no option but to drop out of schoolhouse and get a job . ”She rapidly found work as a typist at A. Saperstein ’s Music Publishing Co. and Nonpareil Talent Agency on Varick St. Meanwhile , she moved from the modest place in which she had grow up to a one elbow room apartment over a Formosan laundry in Greenwich Village . This saved her both rent and carfare , since Saperstein ’s was located only a few stop away . She had been sour for the euphony publishing company and endowment agent for a twelvemonth when she encounter Maxim Slotnik , the impressario behind Slotnik ’s Follies . Maxim had inherit the theater several years to begin with from his father , Rudolf Slotnik , and had promptly converted it from a seedy , failing , third - string music hall theater to a sickly , profitable , third - train burlesque theater .
He had come into Saperstein ’s calculate for a newfangled trombonist when his eye was struck by the Junoesque beauty busily tapping away on her Smith - Corona at a contract bridge for a comedy dance horse cavalry routine . At that time , the twenty - one - year - old Velda Bellinghausen had achieved her full grownup height of six feet . During her teenage years she had always been unsure about being so tall . “ Being a head over just about every guy in high school had never done much for my self - esteem , ” she said much later , “ let alone getting asked out on dates . Nor did being built along the same line as two yards of string . ” But nature had of late done some interesting things with those two yards and Slotnik immediately offered the amazed typist a place in his chorus ancestry . “ I did n’t experience from bean about dancing or anything . In fact , I can hardly take the air across a room without hurting myself . But it was for more money in a hebdomad than I made in whole month at Saperstein ’s , so what could I have say but yes ? Besides , I was always the tall , gawky , skinny girl who never get any dates in school , so I guess I was enough flattered , too . ”
It must have been a jolt to those old classmates who ’d laughed at the idea of asking the stratum strand bean out for a pop and a movie when they saw the headliner at Slotsky ’s Follies . In the half dozen year she was on Maxim ’s stage , Velda work out her way of life up from anonymous chorine to star with her name blazing across the marquee ( as “ Velda B ” , however , at Maxim ’s press , to save what would have been a not inconsiderable investment in 75 - watt bulbs ) .
By 1949 , Velda had get “ sick and tired ” of burlesque , “ which I could really see had no future as a career . ” She was weary of “ shedding plume ” , as he put it , twice nightly and four times on weekend matinee . Too , wondering what her beginner would think about what she had been reduced to doing bothered her to a considerable degree . “ plausibly rolling over in his tomb , ” she said , “ though I think he might have liked Olivia Duvall and her Peeping Pigeons . ”
Not many cases amount Velda ’s way in the first several month of her practice . “ Money was n’t exactly roll in like I ’d thought it would . Maybe , ” she admits , “ it was because I hold on taking on too many jobs that did n’t ante up . ” She was forced to close her office and move her clientele to her flat in the Zenobia Arms on Pith Street in the Village .
Her big break come with crack the infamous Sline Murder Case — a effort that did not land her much in the way of life of remuneration , but did have two payoffs : it eventually put the skids under the vocation of her curse , New York City DA King Noorvik , and it made Velda news coast - to - seashore — to say nothing of the satisfaction of having save a teenage girl from the galvanic death chair . After all , when was the last time the newspapers , tabloids and newsreels had a beautiful ex - stripper detective to mystify for their cameras ? All the top true detective cartridge cover her story and she even appear on the cover of Life .
finally , the story of the Sline Case became the subject of a Word of God ( Velda ) and , in turn , a question picture . This was G - Girl , featuring Lizbeth Scott as Velda .
The latter inspired a short - lived television serial publication — Girl Detective ( with Maxine Cooper in the title role ) . Although it only last a single time of year it was one of the first telecasting crime drama to feature a female supporter . Spin - off followed spin - off , with , among other thing , Velda paper doll , cocktail glass , reciprocating saw puzzles , clothes patterns , a Big Little Book , calendars and even a short - livedradio series . But most importantly to this history , there was a series of comic books .
When newspaper publisher Felix Undershot began looking for a title tobolster the sagging Black Cat line of comics , he thoughthe’d find the answer to his prayer in VeldaBellinghausen . To his amazement and delight , hediscovered that no one had yet approached her about obtaining her endorsement for a new amusing book title that would comport her name . Even though public stake in her may have been on the decline , Undershot was sure that she was still a workable commodity in the comic book market . Velda ’s only caution was that each take boast at least one story based on one of her real - biography showcase . Art and writing chores were assigned to veteran laughable book of account creator Raoul Molnar , whose premature work for Black Cat included Amoeba Man , Tapir Boy and many other championship beloved to the heart and soul of Golden Age collector . At the time he had been adjoin by Undershot , Molnar had his own art store — the “ mill ” he call in it — where a team of creative person / writers produced comic book for a number of publishers , including Black Cat .
Undershot , a veteran of World War II , understood two matter immediately : the love GIs had for pinups and the sexual love artists had for draw pinups . He had already made several attempts at exploiting this knowledge with titles such as Woolah , Queen of the Tundra and Neolithica — female child of the Pleistocene ( who lived on as a filler in the Velda comics ) . Although these had not done as well as he ’d hoped , Undershot still had faith in his mind and had been appear for a Modern leggy , sonsie heroine who wore form - fitting dress with a lot of décolletage . When he saw the coverage Velda Bellinghausen had been getting on the cover of detective and adventure magazines , he saw straightaway where his fortune lay . Or at least so he think . Unlike many laughable record heroes and heroine who start out their career as sideline in other claim , Velda from the very beginning had her own Christian Bible . Every issue was write and drawn by Molnar ( with Hawkshaw Hawk , Neolithica and others put up by Farnsworth Standpipe and other veteran soldier of Molnar ’s “ factory ” ) .
Although Undershot tried to revive the lineament a couple of years later as a school teacher who secretly double as bother - seeking guild page news reporter , it was clear that the franchise had run its course . ( There was apparently an stillborn endeavor to syndicate a daily newsprint strip . Girl Detective , which ran for a few months in half a dozen papers , and which was intelligibly based on the comic book character . )
Black Cat Comics did not long make it the dying of its star title — a death hastened by Undershot ’s bill of indictment for smuggling pornographic pachenko motorcar from Uruguay — and for more than half a hundred his great accomplishment , Velda : Girl Detective , exist only in the memory of those age sports fan who lovingly think gazing lovingly at their favorite heroine as she combat law-breaking in her trademark capri pant and pageboy haircut .
Some of this clause is excerpted with permission from the forthcoming record book , The Complete Velda .
ComicsCrimeHistory
Daily Newsletter
Get the best tech , scientific discipline , and culture intelligence in your inbox daily .
News from the future , deliver to your nowadays .
Please choose your desired newssheet and submit your email to upgrade your inbox .
You May Also Like
