Posted in: Comics, Vintage Paper | Tagged: spicy history stories

Turn of the century Chicago saloon owner Patrick H. Grimes was reportedly a notorious figure in the city’s gambling scene, and also an owner of 10 Story Book.

Recently, in our series on pulp publishing history, we’ve discussed the origins of the Daily Story Publishing Company, their launch of 10 Story Book, and the backing of Chicago business partnership Stumer, Rosenthal & Eckstein during the title’s early months.  We’ve also detailed how the partnership split from Daily Story Publishing Company to start their own fiction magazine, leading to Red Book and, ultimately, Blue Book. But 10 Story Book survived this transition by entering into a rather startling new partnership and eventually went off in a surprising direction that ultimately lasted for an impressive 40-year run for the title.  Speculating on the future of 10 Story Book in 1906, magazine industry observer Herbert Fleming accurately observed that “Its permanence is assured as long as large parts of city populations retain a taste for incidents drawn from spiced imagination.”

Welcome back, and it’s time for Spicy History Stories #8, the eighth installment of a regular column about pulp magazine history that we’ve launched to coincide with Heritage Auction’s weekly pulp magazine auctions.  Unlike other auction-centric posts we’ve done here, this column is not necessarily designed to be closely tied to any particular items up for auction.  Mostly, it’s this: if you enjoy the nerdy details of comic book history, you’re going to love the astounding (and yes, sometimes weird) history of the people and companies that made the pulps.

Absent further evidence, it’s unclear why Daily Story Publishing Company founder Dwight Allyn parted ways with Stumer, Rosenthal & Eckstein at the end of 1902 when their agreement allowed Allyn to buy out the partnership’s stock investment in the company. Whatever the case, it appears he had to take on a new investor to buy them out, provide operating capital, and facilitate business connections for the company because Patrick H. Grimes is listed as president of the corporation beginning in 1903.

Patrick H. “Paddy” Grimes (1857-1920) opened a saloon at 63rd Street and Cottage Grove Avenue in Chicago in 1891 and subsequently rode the waves of massive crowds attracted by the Columbian Exposition of 1893 to huge success.  By 1901, the Chicago Inter Ocean was calling him “one of the wealthiest saloon keepers on the South Side.”  That wealth came with the type of notoriety of the type that would make Chicago infamous in subsequent decades. That same year, Grimes hired a force of 200 men to defend his establishment during a dispute with his landlord, who was also a rival.  In 1893, the Chicago Daily Tribune accused Grimes of paying off police to use as enforcers as part of a voting fraud scandal. Throughout his career, Chicago newspapers often alleged he was a prominent gambling figure in the city, accusing him of running games of roulette, craps, and faro in his saloon as well as keeping a book.  Grimes was also prominently mentioned during Chicago’s “gambling war” of 1907-1910, which saw a number of nitroglycerin-based bombs used against gambling establishments by rival factions.  Around this same time, as the Chicago district attorney attempted to crack down on illegal gambling, Grimes was named as one of the few who seemed to be “unmolested by police” from which papers drew obvious conclusions.

Grimes used his booming wealth to branch out into real estate, racehorses, and boxing promotion, among other endeavors. While there are any number of ways that Allyn could have become acquainted with Grimes, how or why their business partnership came about is an interesting historical mystery. On the face of it, Allyn partnering with Grimes feels like a rather startling turn of events after Allyn cut off his arrangement with a group of the most respected businessmen in Chicago.  Allyn’s break with Stumer, Rosenthal & Eckstein also seems particularly disruptive to Daily Story given that editor James S. Evans departed Daily Story for a job with the New Orleans Times-Democrat at the same time. Of the transition, Fleming notes that “When the State Street merchants withdrew their investment and influence from the 10 Story Book, it lost the advertising they could command. But Mr. P. H. Grimes, the proprietor of a Chicago saloon, invested capital in it, becoming president of the Daily Story Publishing Co., and the magazine has gradually secured a fair amount of advertising patronage, although the manager has considered moving to New York for position in the competition for advertising.”

It appears that Allyn edited on his own for a period beginning in 1903, while newspaperman Henry L. Blaisdell became the listed editor of 10 Story Book by 1905.  Like Allyn, Blaisdell had roots in the Rockford, IL newspaper scene.  Blaisdell didn’t last long as editor, as Allyn was again listed in that position by 1906.  Daily Story Publishing Company ceased its newspaper syndication business in 1908, leaving only the ongoing publication of 10 Story Book itself.  According to Illinois corporation records, Patrick H. Grimes sold his shares in the company to other investors that same year. Allyn would continue to edit until shortly before his death in 1910.

The departure of Grimes from Daily Story coincides with the Chicago “Gambling War” era, which seems to have taken a toll on him. He had sold his primary 63rd Street and Cottage Grove Avenue saloon location in 1908, the same year he sold his Daily Story shares. He is said to have retired entirely shortly after that, keeping a relatively low profile until his death in 1920.  Although it’s unclear how hands-on Grimes was as president of Daily Story, Fleming’s observation about 10 Story Book‘s ongoing success, “as long as large parts of city populations retain a taste for incidents drawn from spiced imagination” would seem to apply particularly well to all of Grimes’ endeavors.  Next time, we’ll get into how Daily Story’s 1913 acquisition by Arthur J. Gontier would take that concept and run with it for decades to come.

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