The Clue In The Old Album

 

Hi, ya'll!  Waves at readers As I'm sure you recall, in my welcome post, I mentioned that these stories had extremely outdated views on minorities and other cultures.  The Clue In The Old Album, being the 24th volume, is one such story, being penned by Mildred Wirt Benson in 1947.

Characters: Nancy and Carson Drew, Bess Marvin, George Fayne (with guest appearances by Ned Nickerson and Hannah Gruen)

Okay, so, Nancy and her father are enjoying a concert when she notices someone taking a patron's purse and gives chase, though she's unable to get the contents back, she retrieves the purse, which is how she meets Mrs. Struthers and her high-strung granddaughter, Rose, who seriously needed a spanking if you ask me, but I'm just the reader.  Mrs. Struthers shows Nancy a photo album that had belonged to her late daughter, Enid, revealing that the girl had indicated that there was a clue in it for her mother, who is unable to figure it out and ends up asking Nancy to take over the case which leads her into the Romany (also referred to as "gypsy" in the text but this term has long since fallen out of favor and therefore I will not be using it) culture as Mrs. Struthers asks Nancy to find a doll that is reputed to have strange healing properties, not realizing that other people are searching for the same doll and Rose is hurt when two people steal one of the woman's dolls---a doll holding a fan----when the girl goes to show it to them.

Along with this search, Nancy is trying to find Rose's father, Romano Pepito, who was said to have walked out on Enid and Rose and during her search, Nancy is poisoned by a doll when its mechanism is triggered and she's pricked by a sword.  Fortunately, the poison's quickly identified and the antidote administered, which, okay, yeah, I'll admit, stretches suspension of disbelief just a tad, but as a kid, one doesn't really think about that kind of thing, it's just a relief when Nancy's saved. As it turns out that there's another similarly equipped doll, only this one is a poisonous gas that's emitted when a lever is pressed, which, I mean, is actually kind of clever and if such a doll as these really was in a museum, I would love to hear the history on them, cause I can see how they would be useful against enemies.  No one would suspect a child's toy.  

As she continues her investigation, Nancy receives two friendly warnings, cautioning her to be careful as she searches for the truth and learns about the leader of the Romany clan's tribe, Zorus, who is treating the Romany culture much like a cult with the help of two other Romany----Anton and Nitaka, though they seem to just be used to track down the same doll Nancy is and are later identified as the couple who stole Mrs. Struthers' fan doll----by insisting that the clan gives all their earnings to him as he prepares to grow in power, wanting to become king of the United States, meaning this dude is a few fries short of a Happy Meal, geez Louise.

In the course of her sleuthing, Nancy and Ned go to a carnival where they're able to witness a Romany wedding between two minors----remember, this was originally written in 1947 and laws aren't what they are today---where as part of the ceremony, the bride is given a doll that looks exactly like them.  The reasoning for this was never explained in the book, just mentioned as a tradition among the culture.  What the significance of this is---if it's even an actual tradition---I have no clue.

However, Nancy and her friends aren't busy with just with the mystery, As part of the River Heights Yacht Club, Nancy, Bess, and George go to purchase a boat known as Lass but end up buying one called Whip The Wind when a rival named Phyliss, buys the former boat.  They then spend some time practicing for an upcoming regatta until it's sabotaged and they're forced to take it in for repairs.  After it's fixed, Bess and George resume their practice, taking the boat for a trial run and end up becoming overwhelmed during a storm until Nancy is able to come back from a sleuthing trip to help them control the boat, which, expecting a reader to buy that Nancy just happened to be able to rescue her friends may be a bit hard to swallow, but at least it was kind of interesting.

But anyways, just as Nancy gets a lead on Romano, Rose is kidnapped and taken to a Romany camp Nancy goes after her, discovering that Romano is also at the camp.  Unfortunately, Nancy's rescue doesn't go as planned and she ends up as a prisoner herself until she's rescued by her father and some state troopers.  She eventually finds the doll that she's been searching for---which does seem to have something inside of it that gives people strength---and Zorus and is crew is arrested, and Nancy, Bess, and George ended up winning the race at the regatta.

This was revised by Priscilla-Baker Carr in 1974 (with the latest copyright being 1977) and it was exactly the same as its original story except that Carr removed the regatta subplot while keeping in the Romany wedding.  To be honest, while the story is an enjoyable one, I wasn't really thrilled with that wedding inclusion (I don't remember if this actually really registered with me when I first read the story), and I don't know what kind of laws they had for this sort of thing in the forties and seventies (this is something I would have to research), but by modern standards, it's gross to see kids being married, even with parental consent, especially with the context we're given.    

As a whole, I found the story enjoyable, however, I get the feeling that the Romany culture is grievously misrepresented in both editions, which the authors "tried" to soften (for lack of a better term) by having a character state that most of the Romany people are good, but that Zorus, Anton, and Nitaka were the bad ones.  And I get that the particular tribe was frightened of the three, but I would've liked to see a more accurate representation of another culture.

And there you have my review.  While it's an enjoyable story, I will readily admit that this one is way more problematic than a lot of the others.  However, that doesn't mean that I think it needs to be banned or canceled.  Instead, we should learn from the mistakes of the authors and do better.  Good night and do the Drew.