WOLD NEWTON DAY - A LOOK AT BULLDOG DRUMMOND

Happy Wold Newton Day!

[You should click on that link above to learn more about this special occasion in the world of crossover research.  This link also provided a few more Toobish links about the residents of the WNU.]

This year I'm turning my attentions to another member of the central Wold Newton Family, Bulldog Drummond......

From the Wold Newton Resources Wiki:
  
Hugh "Bulldog" Drummond was a wealthy British Army Officer who became a private detective following the First World War. His exploits were chronicled initially by H. C McNeil "Sapper") . Drummond's arch-nemesis was the criminal mastermind Carl Peterson.

Philip José Farmer made Drummond one of the central characters of hisWold Newton Family in Tarzan Alive (his father is given as one Roger Drummond). Notably, Drummond is listed as the biological brother ofKorak.

The Bulldog Drummond novels are often accused of racist content. It is interesting to note that the later novels, written by Gerard Fairlie after Sapper's death, feature a much more liberal Drummond congnisant of his earlier distasteful behaviour - Fairlie, although he himself always denied it, was the man whom Sapper stated was the 'real' Bulldog Drummond.

In Tarzan Alive, Farmer indicated that only the first of Fairlie's run of novels was acceptable as part of Sapper's original canon, although byDoc Savage: His Apocalyptic Life he appears to have relented and accepted the validity of further books in the series.

Wold Newton scholar Brad Mengel, in his article The Daring Drummonds, argues that Drummond and his wife Phyllis were likely the parents of the version of the rather different Bulldog Drummond who featured in the 1960s movies Deadlier than the Male and Some Girls Do, and of Roger Drummond whose son also features in the film series.

As mentioned above, Wold Newton scholar Brad Mengel has written a great paper on the Drummond Family as seen in the Wold Newton Universe.  Most of it doesn't apply to Earth Prime-Time, as some of those characters have no counterpart in the main Toobworld.  But that's okay since the Toobworld Dynamic should never be confused with the work of my good counterparts in Wold Newton academia.

But Bulldog Drummond does have a televersion in the main Toobworld:

A 30-minute episode of Douglas Fairbanks, Jr., Presents featured Drummond in "The Ludlow Affair", first broadcast on UK television on 16 December 1956. Drummond was played by Robert Beatty; he was aided by Kelly, played by Michael Ripper. 

(I've written about Beatty's portrayal of Bulldog Drummond before.)

And he may have a Skitlandian version as well:


A 1973 BBC documentary Omnibus, "The British Hero", featured Christopher Cazenove playing Drummond, as well as a number of other such heroic characters, including Richard Hannay, Beau Geste and James Bond.
Although i don't have the details for this theory of "relateeveety", TV's Bulldog Drummond was probably the uncle of Philip Drummond from 'Diff'rent Strokes'.  

The thought amuses me......

Since Wold Newton Day falls on Video Sunday, here is the televersion of Bulldog Drummond in action:

BCnU!