Aprender español XV: Carnada 014

La Marina encubrió la desaparición de las hermosas enfermeras.

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PAGE 14 (Four panels)

Panel 1: Hazel in interview pose, now slumped backwards.

Hazel (1): And she wasn’t the only one. Two more of us also disappeared in almost exactly the same way.

Translation (1): Y ella no fue la única. Dos más de nosotras también desaparecieron casi exactamente de la misma manera.

Panel 2: A fat folder containing official reports, sealed and with a large stenciled word CLASSIFIED stamped across it.

CAPTION – HAZEL NARRATING (2): The Navy ordered us not to talk about it. They said it would be bad for morale.

Translation (2): La Marina nos ordenó no hablar al respecto. Dijeron que sería malo para el estado de ánimo.

CAPTION – HAZEL NARRATING (3): People asked fewer questions about orders back then, you know.

Translation (3): La gente no cuestionaba las órdenes en aquel entonces, como podrá imaginarse.

Panel 3: A panel showing the Bride’s dive in the water, as if taken from the Scelleratini film of 1905, a split second after the scene on Page 5, Panel 4 above, such that the Bride has broken the surface of the water, and has submerged down to her waist.

CAPTION – HAZEL NARRATING (4): I tried not to think of it much myself, but in the late 1970s, I think, I saw a film clip of film made by some Italian people of the same place from long, long ago. I think it was on PBS late at night.

Comment (4): “PBS” stands for “Public Broadcasting System,” an American television network funded by a combination of government, corporate, and listener contributions. It has a focus on education and high-culture television and is not sponsored by advertisers like most of the rest of American broadcast television.

Translation (4): Traté de no pensar mucho en eso, pero a finales de la década de 1970, creo que vi el clip de una película realizada por unos italianos en el mismo lugar hace mucho, mucho tiempo. Creo que la pasaron en PBS tarde por la noche.

Panel 4: A panel showing a front page of the Dallas Morning News for Tuesday, October 6, 1981. A large part of the front page would be a posed formal picture of PHOEBE PETROBUX (a very pretty and probably blond teenager, who we’ll see more of below) under the headline TEXAS TEEN STILL MISSING IN SOUTH PACIFIC. (Possible filler headlines, taken from real world history for that day that could be included for verisimilitude, could be RAOUL WALLERBERG MADE HONORARY U.S. CITIZEN and REVEREND SUN MYUNG MOON INDICTED FOR TAX EVASION).

CAPTION – HAZEL NARRATING (5): And then we all read that terrible story about the poor girl from Texas.

Translation (5): Y después todos leímos esa terrible historia sobre la pobre chica de Texas.

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Allan Anderson illustrates questionable rescues

Allan Anderson (1908-1995) was another pulp great who did his share of Planet Stories covers. I sometimes wonder whether he was entirely happy with the commissions. Take this cover for the Fall 1947 issue, for example.

That’s a pretty classic damsel in a filmy, torn dress (but perfect hair) being carried out of danger by a manly ray-gun-wielding spaceman. The position of the lady’s right hand though, in its almost claw-like arrangement of fingers against the rescuer’s face, makes me wonder whether she really wants to be rescued. Maybe she was happier back with the creepy-crawlies? It takes all kinds to make a galaxy.

Then there’s this from May 1951.

A version at the Internet Speculative Fiction Database is less beaten-up and washed out but still small.

Why is space dude all blue? Has the hard work of damsel rescue done something to his oxygen supply?

Both the 1947 and 1951 issues are available to read and download at the Internet Archive.

Aprender español XIV: Carnada 013

La Marina organizó horarios de natación para las atractivas enfermeras.

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PAGE 13 (Four panels)

Panel 1: A pretty Navy nurse in the act of taking off her uniform shirt, exposing her brassiere. She is standing on the beach next to a sign which reads BEACH STRICTLY OFF LIMITS TO ALL MALE PERSONNEL.

CAPTION – HAZEL NARRATING (1): The Shore Patrol would close the beach off once a week just for us nurses.

Comment (1): The “Shore Patrol” (SP) are an internal police force for the United States Navy, roughly equivalent to the military policy in an army.

Translation (1): La patrulla costera cerraba la playa una vez a la semana sólo para nosotras, las enfermeras.

Panel 2: The shirt of the nurse in Panel 1 flying toward the viewer. The panel should imply that it is part of a movie being filmed and that Panel 1 was an earlier frame in the same, but the nurse has noticed that she was being filmed an, in chagrin, has tossed her shirt at the camera lens, which it is about to cover.

CAPTION – HAZEL NARRATING (2): Since it was only us girls, we didn’t bother putting on bathing suits. It was wonderful to be out in the water like that.

Translation (2): Como estábamos entre mujeres, no nos molestábamos en ponernos trajes de baño. Era maravilloso estar en el agua así.

Panel 3: Another interview shot of Hazel, whose expression has darkened a bit over that in Panel 1.

Hazel (3): But then the disappearances began. This was in 1943. One of them was my cabinmate, Willa Congerman.

Translation (3): Pero entonces empezaron las desapariciones. Esto fue en 1943. Una de las desaparecidas fue mi compañera de cabina, Willa Congerman.

Panel 4: Head-and-shoulders shot of WILLA CONGERMAN (“Willa”) in the dress uniform of a Navy nurse (shoulder epaulets indicating that she has has the rank of Ensign). If possible it should be taken as a detail from Page 10, Panel 1 above.

CAPTION – HAZEL NARRATING (4): She just went swimming one day and…disappeared. She was a really strong swimmer, and it was a perfectly calm day with no tides. No one heard her call in distress.

Translation (4): Simplemente se fue a nadar un día y… desapareció. Era muy buena nadadora y el día estaba perfectamente tranquilo, sin mareas. Nadie escuchó ninguna llamada de socorro.

CAPTION – HAZEL NARRATING (5): Some said it might have been a cramp, but no one ever found a body. And there weren’t any sharks in the area.

Translation (5): Algunos dijeron que quizás se acalambró, pero nunca encontraron su cuerpo. Y no había tiburones en la zona.

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Rejected why?

Planet Stories, which had a run from 1939 to 1955 usually didn’t skimp on the sexy for its covers either, and this one painted by pulp great Frank Kelly Freas (1922-2005) is no exception, what with its flaming redhead in her skin-tight cleavage-revealing armor being menaced by…something.

A piece of interior artwork, illustrating Gordon R. Dickson’s story “The Man the Worlds Rejected,” neatly seems to marry the space babe with the hot librarian.

Print that out on cardstock and you’d have a very nifty bookmark. The illustration is, sadly, uncredited.

This issue is available to be read and downloaded from the Internet Archive.

Aprender español XIII: Carnada 012

Una base de la Marina de los EE. UU. implica la presencia de enfermeras atractivas de la Marina de los EE. UU.

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PAGE 12 (Two panels)

Note: This page will probably work best is laid out in landscape format, with the second panel an inset in the lower right.

Panel 1: A “group photograph” panel of about a dozen U.S. Navy nurses in dress uniform, smiling and facing the camera. The hair, makeup, and uniforms should be in a style appropriate for 1943. Of them is a 20 year-old Hazel Gluck (see panel below). Her smiling face is surrounded by a circle to distinguish her from the rest of the nurses.

CAPTION – PSEUDO-NARRATION (1): And the presence of a U.S. Navy hospital meant the presence of U.S. Navy nurses. We were able to interview one of the survivors.

Translation (1): Y la presencia de un hospital de la Marina de los Estados Unidos significó la presencia de enfermeras de la Marina de los Estados Unidos. Logramos entrevistar a una de las sobrevivientes.

Panel 2: An “interview pose” panel, showing HAZEL GLUCK (“Hazel”). In this panel she is a very aged, frail old lady with thick eyeglasses.

Hazel (2): I remember how when we were first posted to Motofupo, there was this lovely beach with beautiful water to go swimming in.

Translation (2): Recuerdo que al principio, cuando nos enviaron a Motofupo, había una playa preciosa con hermosas aguas para nadar.

SUBTITLE – IDENTIFYING TAG (3): Lt. Hazel Gluck, USN, Ret.

Comment (3): “Lt.” is an abbreviation for “Lieutenant,” the third-from-lowest commissioned officer rank in the United States Navy. “USN” is an abbreviation for “United States Navy” and “Ret.” means “retired,” no longer on active service.

Translation (3): Tte. Hazel Gluck, Marina de los Estados Unidos, retirada.

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Imaginative Tales achieves tube girls

Of course you can’t be a really first rate sci-fi pulp unless you have tube girls. I’m pleased to note that while the interior art got thinner over time, Imaginative Tales did go there on two of its covers. Here’s May 1957, done by Lloyd Rognan (1923-2005).

And exactly one year later, D. Bruce Berry (1924-1996).

Both the 1957 and the 1958 issues are available to read or download from the Internet Archive.

Aprender español XII: Carnada 011

El imperialismo militar de los Estados Unidos desarraiga a la gente de Motofupo de su isla.

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PAGE 11 (Two panels)

Panel 1: A group of Motofupo people, looking grim, are walking up a gangway onto a ship, guarded by some U.S. Marines.

CAPTION – PSEUDO-NARRATION (1): No historical record discloses what happened nineteen years after the Scelleratini brothers made their movie.

Translation (1): Ningún registro histórico revela lo que sucedió diecinueve años después de que los hermanos Scelleratini hicieran su película.

CAPTION – PSEUDO-NARRATION (2): During World War II, the Motofupo people were compelled to leave their island.

Translation (2): Durante la Segunda Guerra Mundial, el pueblo de Motofupo se vio obligado a abandonar su isla.

Panel 2: A helicopter shot showing a space with quonset huts and the tiny figures of busy Navy personnel scurrying around doing important wartime tasks.

CAPTION – PSUEDO-NARRATION (3): The United States Navy established a base and a field hospital there.

Translation (3): La Marina de los Estados Unidos estableció una base y un hospital de campaña allí.

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