The Hardy Boys

Was that a real cover?

The Disney serials on the original Mickey Mouse Club with Tim Considine and Tommy Kirk were best.

Tommy Kirk needed better PR people - after the pot bust he should have been able to to keep his career from going in the toilet. He was likable and had a lot of fans. Lots of Hollywood people got busted for marijuana.

As a gayling, I had such a crush on Parker Stevenson.

Oh boy, here the Hardy Boys...

Kirk also realized as a teenager that he was gay and refused to be in the closet. Walt personally fired him over it, although he used him once or twice more because his films were so profitable. In the sixties, you played the game or you suffered the consequences.

“Joe, his impetuous younger brother...”

I don't remember this one either!

Shaun Cassidy as Joe Hardy was my first celebrity crush.

While The Clocked Ticked aka When The DL Creature Crept In From Behind the Clock.

I had crushes on both Parker & Shaun, but they never showed up in person for a lunch date.

The book covers are creepy!

A friend, who handles an annual used book sale for a local library, gave me a collection of HB books a number of years ago. these were the re-worked plots from the 1950s.

I sat down to read some, out of nostalgia and to see if they held up. I don't think they do and will add that I think their friend Tony was gay. I know, how very DL of me, but the descriptions of Tony just made me think, "he's gay." Chet's not gay. Frank and Joe are not gay. Their Aunt Gertrude could be played as a lesbian today, but I think she was just a spinster as depicted in the books. Fenton and Laura (F & J parents) have really good sex... I think they're hot for each other... he's fit, hairy, with a nice sized, stiff dick.

I was an avid reader of the books in the 1960s. I used to scour library book sales for the ones from the 1940s because I loved the musty smell of old books. I'll admit I got a hard-on whenever the boys stripped off their clothes to go swimming or cross a river, or whatever.

Good clean fun, those boys had

R14, did they skinnydip in the books?

I have about dozens of the books from nearly 50 years ago; I recently in a fit of nostalgia started reading them. I never realized how often they and their friends would strip naked to go swimming, shower, etc. They were quite uninhibited.

In The Clue of the Screeching Owl, Joe falls into a frigid stream and is knocked unconscious. Chet Morton, the lucky stiff, proceeds to strip the helpless lad stark naked! Then he removes his shirt and begins to dry off the nude young man! The book does not indicate whether Chet got to dry Joe's genitals or not.

R17, if the stream was frigid Joe probably had the tiniest of tinymeat.

There’s one scene (don’t remember which book) where the boys are in their speedboat, and the villains somehow attack, throwing the fully clothed boys into the lake or ocean. The boys manage to get back to their boat, where they strip off their wet clothes, and speed away. Though it’s not spelled out, it’s clear they’re naked as they make their escape.

I just hope they stayed clear of the propellers.

Who was the bottom?

I would think Chet Morton. He was fat like a pig, so he squealed like a pig.

I bought all the Applewood facsimiles of the first editions in order to get the real text as written by the author. The revisions are crap.

So they shared the same room.

What kind of plot is that ?

The story of the Hardly Boys is a good read.

R5, what is that? Why are there 4 Hardy boys and one of them is black? Why are they in a band?

I've got a raging clue!

The old editions of the books (pre-revision) used "ejaculated" a lot to describe an exclamation, and I found that terribly funny.

If you want to read a Stratemeyer series that is rife with gay subtext, look no further than Ken Holt!

Of all the variations on the cover art, I like the 1950s-60s picture cover art much better than the heavily stylized art that preceded it or the Rudy Nappi collage style cover paintings that came after.

Christopher Durang has a one-act play called "The Hardy Boys and the Mystery of Where Babies Come From". I saw it over 20 years ago, an can't remember if Frank or Joe "ejaculates".

I used to read The Hardy Boys books when I was a kid growing up as well as Trixie Belden.

Trixie Belden.

Looking back on it I think Trixie Belden had lesbian overtones.

The Hardy Boys. More men tied up.

Another man tied up.

Gotcha from behind!!

I can only imagine...

You've got to admit, so many of the Stratemeyer series have evocative attention-getting titles. Even lesser series like the Dana Girls or the aforementioned Ken Holt.

My favorite, of course, was The Secret of the 10 Inch Dildo.

I'm a millennial but raised by boomers and with libraries available of uh, pre-Boomer and Boomer books. So I read Hardy Boys. And they helped in realizing my gayness. Oh those other cute boys but in compromising positions! Oh no!

This was one of my favorites

This was good too.

Well of course R32!

Just look at her............short hair, no nonsense clothes.

I blame this cover for at least some of my kinks.

A favorite from the 1930s

Do these boys not have parents? How is it that they're out there with murderers, kidnap pets, robbers, rapists every night?

R44 It looks like someone is taking a golden piss out of an upper window.

R26, the animated series ran one season in 69', with repeats continuing till 71'. Pretty much every cartoon at the time featuring teenagers had them in a band, and so with The Hardy Boys. The Chubby Morgan character is a representation of Chet Morgan from the books. Pete Jones was a new creation and was the first african american animated character on Saturday Mornings. He may have been createde to help counter memories of lingering black stereotypes from the original versions of the books. The live action version of the characters, seen in the credits, actually toured across the country and produced two albums.

The animated series was also created in part to drive merchandise for the Hardy Boys title. I'm sad the this Aurora model kit was never produced...

Always loved Parker Stevenson. He was plucked from Andover prep school to become a Tiger Beat (off) cover boy when the Hardon Boys debuted on TV. Parker always pinged to me. Perhaps it was the east cost preppy vibe or his soft voice with just a trace of Boston Brahman accent or that massive hair helmet. Those swimming pool blue eyes. I thought he was a fox. My sis thought his eyes were too close together. Wasn't he married to that Scientology cow Kristie Allie. Was Parker a Scientologist or just closeted?Anyway all a memory. Here's Joe Hardy today.

R49, Parker played Frank.

But Corgi of britain did make this awesome diecast version...

Remember him as he was.

Excellent article on the Hardy Boys band.

Sizemeat verificatia: Parker is horse hung. I had a close friend in the early oughts... he was hired to attend to guests at a family reunion. Someone asked him to check on Parker...he opened he bedroom door and walked in...Parker was asleep, naked on the bed in all his glory...friend quietly left, weak-kneed and salivating.

Ya know they fucked each other like rabbits.

It is nice..

Yes please.

I inherited my mother's Nancy Drew books from the 1930s. I got them because I used to read them growing up. I wonder if they're worth anything.

If they have the dustjackets and they're in very good to excellent condition R58, the answer is yes. If no dustjackets, maybe a little but not a lot. If they're in terrible shape, no.