And now, another exciting episode in the
Adventures of Superman...

September 17, 1951 – Monday

Players:
Henry Cordon - Johnson
Milton Wood -- Bergere
Mabel Albertson -- Kate White
George Hamilton -- Dr. Girarde
Natives

This entire week is devoted to "Drums of Death" and "Ghost Wolf," with "Drums of Death" (working title "Black Magic") taking the lead.

1. This was the only day for George Hamilton who played Dr. Simon Girarde, the government chemist, so we can say with more than a fair amount of certainty that his scenes were filmed on this Monday.

2. Mabel Albertson worked Monday and Wednesday with Wednesday being the day for the "wine press." I suspect her earlier scenes were filmed on this Monday.

3. Everything else is more problematic as players worked multiple days. It's interesting to note that Kent's pocket handkerchief changes during the opening scenes in White's office. Was this done on two different days, or did he simply decide he needed a new "hanky" mid-scene? I don't know, but on Wednesday, when Kent meets Bergere, he's got the more flamboyant hanky again.

Notes:
From Mike Goldman…
In “Drums Of Death,” the Chief and Clark Kent flew to Haiti to investigate the disappearances of the Chief’s sister Kate and young Jimmy Olsen, both on assignment there for The Daily Planet.

During the investigation, Dr. Bergere offered to take Kent to the government laboratory at Port Au Prince so Dr. Simon Girarde, a government chemist, could analyze a substance on the handkerchief left behind by William Johnson. Dr. Girarde’s analysis revealed three substances on the handkerchief: cocoa butter, burnt sienna, and something that sounds like “bolomania.”

But I’ve always wondered… just what on Earth is Bolomania?

Over the years I used Google and a number of other search engines, to seek out an answer to that question. But nothing ever came up. And not only has it been a mystery to me, but it’s been one to Jim and many other “Superman” fans as well.

I tried a couple different spellings… nothing. The word always seemed to have a foreign flavor to it, and so I tried using variations that other languages typically use. Again… nothing.

Recently I tried searching yet again. But this time I spelled it “bolemania” (using an “e” instead of an “o”). A number of pages of hits appeared on my computer screen… and there there was one on the second page that caught my attention. It referenced a book entitled The A To Z Of American Theater: Modernism, published in 2009:

https://www.barnesandnoble.com/w/the-a-to-z-of-american-theater-james-fisher/1124085935

There was an interesting passage on page 298 of the book, the last sentence in particular: “…bolemania, a dark powder for making you look dirty or very foreign and dark.”

Voila! A seventy-year-old mystery solved. This has to be the substance Monsieur Le Docteur found in his laboratory analysis of Johnson’s handkerchief! What a relief.

Next:
Tuesday, September 18, 1951

Posted: September 17, 2021
Jim