| Notes | Concerning the Du Bois writer credit. Page 137, Gaylord Du Bois's Account Books Sorted by Title compiled from the original account books by Randall W. Scott (Michigan State University Libraries 1985) 203 leaves ; 28 cm. -- Photocopy of computer printout. -- Call no.: PN6727.D77 A2S35 1985, contains this entry:
"The Three Heads of Caruso. text for Super Comics, April 1946. Submitted November 26, 1945."
In the non-credited text story, "Napoleon's Heads," which appears in Super Comics #95 (April 1946), the siblings rescue three baby owls from their cat, Napoleon, "a large, tiger-striped tom-cat with yellow eyes." While Mom and Dad head west for Dad's job, the kids are sent over to stay with their Aunt Agatha who hates Napoleon. At night in the dim light of the house, she sees one of the escaped baby owls and mistakes it for Napoleon's head, but when she shoos the "cat" away, it appears to have no body, and she faints. Later, she sees the other two baby owls and mistakes them for two cat heads.
If this story, "Napoleon's Heads," is actually "The Three Heads of Caruso," then editorial changed the cat's name, and modified the story title. Certainly the story contains "The Three Heads of" the cat.
"Caruso is an Italian surname derived from the Sicilian word for boy." - Wikipedia. Du Bois, ever engaging in wordplay and foreign languages, would likely have given a tom-cat the name Caruso (boy). And a story editor, either ignorant of the word's origin, or pandering to readers of whom he had low expectations, would understandably have changed the tom-cat's name to something he considered more suitable.
Previous indexer credited R. S. Callender. R. S. Callender was not a writer. He was a Western employee who registered copyrights for their original material (their non-licensed material). |
