Detective Comics #51

Issue Details

Synopsis

THE CASE OF THE MYSTERY CARNIVAL Bruce Wayne and Dick Grayson are going on a car ride, when they pull up to a Carnival and they decide to go inside. Bruce says he knows the owner, Colonel Dawes. After a fun afternoon, Bruce pays visit to Dawes, and realizes that he's an imposter. Bruce is even more surprised when he sees little kids being conned out of their money by slot machines in the park. The following night, Batman and Robin show up and follow the men into the House of Wax Figures, after hearing the men's cynical plan involving the new slot machines. The men find Batman and Robin and tie them up, where they find the real Colonel Dawes drugged and near death. When the night caretaker unties Batman and Robin, (thinking they are wax figures) Batman takes Colonel Dawes to the hospital, while Robin takes care of the goons, by leading them into the Funhouse, where he beats them all silly as Batman comes back. However, one of the thugs escapes and tries to outrun Batman by jumping on the Roller Coaster. Batman swings onto the car and throws the thug off the ride. By the end of the day, Bruce and Dick leave the carnival after solving the case. THIS IS SABOTAGE THE KIDNAPPING OF WILFRED VAN DORN THE ADVENTURE OF THE SWEET SCENT THE PHELPS TWINS RACING WITH DEATH OPENING NIGHT AT THE BROADVIEW BROADWAY OPENING NIGHT Famous private detective Slam Bradley and his aide Shorty Morgan are attending the Broadway opening of a musical comedy when the show's producer (Roberts) comes out into the house and asks him to come backstage; his star singer Marla Prescott has just been found in her dressing room, dead. Next to the body is an unopened bottle of poison. Shorty spots a guy hiding behind a curtain, it's Rastus, who works for Dean Dare (another star of the same show), who had sent him there to retrieve a note. Then Dare shows up in person, wanting the same note. Bradley accuses Dare of killing Prescott; Dare denies it, and leaves the room but not the theater, under orders from Slam. Shorty finds a dart, clearly the murder weapon, and the two find a few more clues, and question Miss Prescott's maid, Edna, before Slam goes to Marla's apartment, and is finding new clues there, when a pair of unlucky burglars break in from the terrace, looking for some jewels. They have inside info, because they already know where the wall safe is. Slam wallops both of them, and one of them turns out to be the boyfriend of Edna. He brings them both back to the theater, just in time for the show to be ending, and the producer assembles everybody backstage for Bradley's investigation. Slam also brings in a surprise informant, Lester Pry, the famous radio gossip columnist. Suddenly the lights go out; when they come back on, Lester Pry is splapped out on the stage with a heavy sand bag on top of him, unconscious, and lucky to be alive. Shorty spots a fleeing figure in the backstage rigging; Slam and Shorty give chase; they AND their quarry all tumble off the catwalk but luckily land on some gymnast mats. The guy they caught is Dean Dare, but one conversation later the guilty guy turns out to be Roberts the producer.