As a nine-year old child, one of my favorite Saturday radio program was The Adventures of Frank Merriwell, a student at Yale University in the horse-drawn days of the last century, who excelled at everything ... sports, debates, student theater, science and math classes, etc. . . . and was caught up in some dastardly plot or other in every episode.
A couple of the actors who made brief appearances in the series were Tony Randall and the early talkies film star Sir C. Aubrey Smith. From the time I heard that program I wanted to be just like Frank, and I was determined to go to Yale for college; the best I could manage was getting a music scholarship.
And there was not one student on that campus who resembled the Frank Merriwell of my imagination. What a disappointment! Gil Patton admitted that his original stories -- far removed from those written for the radio series --were absurdities, but among the more than 50,000 letters he received, many were from young boys that hoped to go to Yale. So I was not alone.
Additionally here are some links to some great Merriwell 1890's scans.
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