Dick Tracy Trivia

1. In Chester Gould's "Dick Tracy", we follow the villain Flattop from his leaving a train to his hotel where he meets his contact. What is Flattop's profession?

From Quiz "Dick Tracy": Flattop

Answer: hired killer

Gould was second to none as a storyteller in the comic medium. In just a week we know enough about Flattop to get a good idea of his personality. One of Gould's greatest grotesques, Flattop had a flat head, small round mouth, hooded eyes and eyebrows which nearly met. His name was taken from the code name of an aircraft carrier. He was immediately popular with Tracy readers, inspiring many to write letters of approval. These letters likely saved Flattop's 'life', at least for several weeks.

From Quiz Dick Tracy: Late 1939

Answer: Baseball player

Chester Gould is in the midst of his reverse spelling period. (Nuremoh was a pitcher...maybe strikeout spelled in reverse would have been better for his career.) Dick Tracy is very polite and humbled by the situation, calling on Tess and suggesting he must have waited too long. Tess soon finds out that the Nuremoh family is a little odd. A wealthy family, they reside at Sandstone Heights on the edge of town. Edward's Aunt Margot is the bed ridden owner of the family's wealth. His mother lives in the mansion as well as his cousin Karl. Karl is socially retarded and the family spends a lot of time trying to keep him out of the way. Edward can only inherit Aunt Margot's money if he gets married before she dies, but she must approve of his girl. Tracy followed Edward to get a look at his rival, and saw him embracing another girl. "Well. He's versatile, too."

From Quiz "Dick Tracy": The First Story

Answer: Chester Gould

Chester Gould was born in Pawnee, Oklahoma in 1900. Moving to the Chicago area, he wrote a few unsucessful humorous comic strips in the late 20's before conceiving the idea of "Plainclothes Tracy" from the rampant crime and the depression of the early thirties. The strip was renamed "Dick Tracy" and made its debut on October 12, 1931, gaining an instant audience. He retired from the strip in 1977.

From Quiz "Dick Tracy": Flattop

Answer: argung over a cab

Tracy tries to help sort things out when he is pushed into the cab from behind. In no time at all, Tracy is helplessly held at gunpoint by Flattop, who instructs the cab driver to find a secluded spot.

From Quiz Dick Tracy: B-B Eyes

Answer: he falls and breaks his leg

Actually he slid into the path of a truck and broke his leg so bad he had to remain in the Thorndike home five weeks. This brings about a funny sequence where Debby and her partying friends are always bothering him, once very early in the morning when he has finally drifted off to sleep. Intertwined with this is the occasional panel of a very small eyed man and his henchman spying on Debby. B-B Eyes is plotting revenge.

From Quiz Dick Tracy: The Mole

Answer: Cotton Candy

Though it seems unlikely, Duke used the cotton candy for eyebrows and whiskers and it stayed on long enough for him to get away. Tracy (and Junior) are very forgiving of ex-con Steve, and Tracy even loans him money to buy a fruit stand.

From Quiz Dick Tracy: 1940-1941

Answer: backs over the bikes

Johnny Naem now introduces Junior to Deafy, who offers cheap parts and even new bikes for Junior to sell the kids who had their bikes ruined. One of the parents gets wise when he finds his kid's (repainted) stolen bike sold to another boy. Junior realizes what has been taking place under his nose and sets out to find the thieves.

From Quiz "Dick Tracy": The First Story

Answer: Delicatessen

Emil Trueheart didn't trust banks due to previous losses, and kept his money in a safe under the bed, but lurking in the shadows across the street were crooks, who somehow knew where the money was kept.

From Quiz Dick Tracy: B-B Eyes

Answer: a horse drawn milk wagon

Watching the whole scene, B-B Eyes and his cohort commandeer the milk wagon and use it to kidnap Debby, tossing the unconscious driver and her boyfriend out.

From Quiz Dick Tracy: The Mole

Answer: chewing gum sample girl

The idea is for Duke to rob a store and run around a corner where Sugar is giving out gum samples. He drops the money into her sample bag and she falls to the ground acting hurt. When Duke is apprehended, he has no money and police have no proof. Unfortunately they pull off two robberies near the fruit stand where Steve and Junior are, and Junior follows her and discovers where she lives. Tracy and Junior arrive to question Sugar about the robberies.

From Quiz Dick Tracy: 1940-1941

Answer: in the back of a truck

Junior attaches a can full of paint to a bike and pokes a hole in it. At night one of the bicycle thieves pedals it to the truck and Junior follows the trail. As they open the back doors of the truck, realizing they have been discovered, the driver backs the truck over Junior. Gould's vivid panels of a crushed boy and his bicycle with exhaust fumes drifting overhead likely had many readers in tears. He was found by a milkman and taken to the hospital, barely alive. While bicycle theft is hardly a crime for Dick Tracy to take seriously, running over his protégé certainly is.

From Quiz "Dick Tracy": 1936

Answer: Al Capone

The first criminal, Big Boy, was patterned after Capone as well, but he was now behind bars. Chester Gould took a lot of his early stories directly from the newspapers, because he saw himself competing with the headlines. It would be a decade before Gould completely got away from the gangland era which made his comic strip so famous.

From Quiz "Dick Tracy": The First Story

Answer: Crutch

Crutch was just one of many small time crooks working under Big Boy's orders. When Emil Trueheart tried to stop Crutch and his accomplice from robbing him, Crutch shot him. Dick Tracy was knocked unconscious twice during the robbery and kidnapping. He vowed to avenge the death of Tess' father and to get her back, thus beginning his fight against crime.

From Quiz "Dick Tracy": 88 Keyes

Answer: steak knife

Tracy suggested it might be a steak knife so he and Pat Patton get down to police work, one of the staples of the "Dick Tracy" comic strip. Using an acid test, Pat finds the name 'Dove' on the handle of the knife while Tracy interrogates Helmut's widow. On going to the Dove Club to check on the knife, they recognize the piano tuner (whose name apparently is Piano Tuner) who was at the Club Joy when they investigated the body. Tracy swipes his grinding wheel and further tests confirm the metal bits in it are the same as the murder weapon. In the meantime we see 88 talking with Helmut's widow on the telephone about her husband's $200,000 life insurance money.

From Quiz "Dick Tracy": Tiger Lilly

Answer: golf course

The Tigerrest golf course now needs a few more employees. Frizzletop is hired as receptionist, as well as a disguised Tracy and Junior as groundskeeper and caddie. But while Tracy snoops around he is struck on the head with a golf ball. In falling he grabs an oak limb, which opens a door to a stairwell in the side of a hill, revealing a hidden room.

From Quiz Dick Tracy: 1940-1941

Answer: a taillight wire is torn off the truck

A policeman stops the truck for driving with no taillights, and is shot by the gang. They then abandon the truck and head for Johnny Naem's mother's café. Tracy has found a wire in Junior's clothes, stuck on a shirt button. The connection is made to the truck, and now the bicycle thieves are wanted for the murder of the policeman. Junior has a picture of Johnny Naem, whom Chief Brandon recognizes. They go to his mother's café and become suspicious. With Pat Patton at the back door, Deafy decides to make a run for it knowing Tracy is coming in the front. Bursting the door open, Deafy cracks heads with Pat, knocking both half goofy.

From Quiz Dick Tracy: Early 1940

Answer: Binnie Viller

Binnie and her girl scout troop are camping in the woods, led by Tess Trueheart. As unlikely as this seems, it works well in the story. Coincidence is a necessity in a comic strip to keep it interesting. Tracy soon figures out who Binnie is, though she is reluctant to tell him. Stooge reads about Tracy's escape and discovery by Binnie and is furious. The rest of Viller's gang, realizing he has put the heat on them, stick him up and demand an equal share of the money. Usually in "Dick Tracy", this results in a shootout, but Stooge just tosses them his roll and decides to leave town. But he's not planning to leave alone.

From Quiz "Dick Tracy: 1939

Answer: In the culvert

Mickey Gainer is now having second thoughts. Back in town, he is met by his father Pop Gainer, who forces him to take him to where they put the jeweler. Wolley's gang has been watching, and follow. Just as he and his men are about to gun down the trio, Dick Tracy and crew arrive, having been tailing Wolley. (Doesn't anybody watch their backs?) Wolley does not turn out to be 'yellow' after all, and his gang is gunned down in the ensuing battle. Mickey Gainer crawls through the culvert to the other side of the road and escapes while the battle is going on.

From Quiz "Dick Tracy" 1932

Answer: The Lindbergh baby

The Buddy Waldorf story had a much happier ending than the Lindbergh kidnapping, where his baby was found dead.

From Quiz "Dick Tracy": The First Story

Answer: Ribs Mocco

Tracy takes a room in a dirty motel, and soon is befriended by Ribs and another unnamed crook. Soon, they reveal to him a payroll robbery and offer to cut him in. Ribs is one of the very few criminals in "Dick Tracy" who, although shot up and jailed for a short time, is never brought to justice.

From Quiz Dick Tracy: Laffy

Answer: diner

Gould had a vivid imagination and used it in the many devices the underworld needed to keep out of the eye of police. Laffy politely returned his dinner claiming he had ordered boiled potatoes, not mashed. The cook washed the mashed potatoes off the jewels, calculated their value and slipped a $500 bill under the crust of a piece of mince pie Laffy had for desert. Very ingenious.

From Quiz Dick Tracy: B-B Eyes

Answer: the furnace

Tracy frequently found himself next to a furnace during the forties. B-B Eyes had sawed the floor joists of the house half way off-just to make sure it collapsed when the furnace blew. They stoked the furnace to full force and tied down the relief valve. Then they left and waited for the blast. But Bea Thorndike had followed and her husband had made his fortune as a heating contractor so she knew what to do-break the glass water gauge. With the pressure relieved, she untied the ropes and they left the basement. This scene was used in the 1990 movie "Dick Tracy" as well, with Junior breaking the window with a baseball and untying Tracy in the nick of time.

From Quiz Dick Tracy: Selbert Depool and Trigger Doom

Answer: she had triplets

Constable Ferret is also a midget. Their 16 year old daughter, Ginger, comes to the hospital to see her new brothers, having ridden with a know gangster called Trigger Doom. On their way back, Trigger knocks off a gas station and then loses control of his car on a curve during a police chase. Trigger is thrown free but Ginger burns to death in his car.

From Quiz "Dick Tracy" 1932-1933

Answer: Plants it on Dick Tracy

Tracy and Junior buy a few things, and Viller tips off the store owners. Investigation of Tracy's clothes and room reveal much more fake money. A deal is struck in which Tracy can go free if he resigns from the force.

From Quiz "Dick Tracy": The First Story

Answer: Al Capone

Chester Gould used present day news stories to make his strip more realistic. In this story, Al Capone and his machine became Big Boy and his thugs.

From Quiz "Dick Tracy": Flattop

Answer: pick his pocket

You have to enjoy the boy's reasoning: 'Yowee! What a screwy looking pan on this mug. I think I'll pick his pocket!' Flattop catches the boy in the act and buys him coffee, asking if he knew of a place he could hide out. The boy lived with his mom who worked nights in a war plant. Gould introduced this version of 'Rosie the Riveter' but this lady's husband was dead, not overseas at war. It turned out they did have a spare room and would be glad to rent it to him.

From Quiz "Dick Tracy": 88 Keyes

Answer: train

He left the exhausted widow sleeping in her car parked on the railroad tracks. During the investigation he calmly boards the train which is headed back to the city. But police are suspicious and Tracy and company are waiting at the station. After a shootout on the rooftops which entraps Tracy in some reinforced glass, 88 Keyes runs downstairs and into a door, finding himself in an employment agency. He is soon headed out of town on a bus headed for a farm job before police get Tracy off the roof.

From Quiz Dick Tracy: Littleface Finny

Answer: bicycle

He stole the bike from a boy and pedaled away, leaving a blood trail in the road from his ankle which was cut when he kicked the glass partition in the cab. The painful ankle caused him to abandon the bike and jump on the back of a truck. Tracy and Patton followed the blood to the abandoned bike where the trail ended.

From Quiz Dick Tracy: Selbert Depool and Trigger Doom

Answer: slot machines

Trigger has the perfect hideaway on the dairy farm, which is modeled on Chester Gould's own farm near Woodstock, Illinois. His mistake is to send one of his henchmen to the Ferret's to retrieve Ginger's diary. The man gets caught and Tracy and Constable Ferret go to the farm looking for Trigger.

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