While The Clocked Ticked

' I still have the creepy feeling that somebody’s in there, watching everything that goes on.'

Frank Hardy

The Hardy Boys books were generally 'family friendly' with little to no sexual or erotic content.  Given they were mysteries, there was some mild violence, usually someone getting knocked out or kidnapped.  There weren't that I remember, many murders or overly violent descriptions of the acts of the bad guys.  This changes a bit however, once the TV show debuted in 1977.

In the books, Frank is eighteen (sixteen in earlier versions), and Joe is seventeen (fifteen in earlier versions).  When the TV show debuted however, actor Parker Stevenson, who played Frank was 25 and Shaun Cassidy, who played Joe was 19.  They also became instant sex symbols and the darlings of readers of Tiger Beat and other teen magazines.

I was a baby when the television aired on ABC, and didn't begin reading the books until I was a kid in the late 80's. Although I'd not seen the television show, my love of magazines and media had me keenly aware of Stephenson and Cassidy.  This made fantasy's about the brothers easy to manifest, something I think both the television show, and those teen magazines, knew very very well.

One of the iconic covers from the book series was from the 1932 book, When The Clock Ticked.  When the book was first published, the cover of the Franklin W. Dixon mystery was black.  It wasn't until the 1950's and 1960's that certain volumes from the series first got cover art. 

I'm pretty sure the publisher wasn't aware of how erotic the cover of While The Clock Ticked came across to deep in the closet gay little boys normally not interested in male driven mystery novels.  I remember staring at the cover for hours, not really realizing at the time why I was so drawn to it.  It wasn't until I was older that it all came together.

As a teenager, seeing a helpless Frank and Joe Hardy tied up, especially when imagining it was a bound Parker and Shaun, was cause for many erotic thoughts and emotions.  Seeing the older guy arrive only added to the fantasy.  What was he going to do, how were the brothers going to react.  

When you're a horny, closeted gay kid, anything and everything can cause these dreams and fantasy's, even a kidnapping...  Closeted kids in particular, skillfully learn how to hide their feelings and emotions, so it doesn't take much for them to erupt when alone with the right visual stimuli. 

I know I'm not the only one who always wonders during a kidnapping scene, how the person tied up goes to the bathroom.  Enquiring minds want to know!  Even more than the erotic elements we conjure up, it's the vulnerablity that is often the most intense element to think and wonder about.

I first put together this post last month, but there was an element missing that I really wanted to add.  Sometimes, things are best left to the imagination, but other times, it's helpful, to have a visual manifestation to illustrate a point and create a climatic ending.

I went to one of my favorite artists, badsign769 about taking the most well known version of the book cover, (below) and creating the vision so many of us had in our minds.  Thanks to bdsign769, it came out pretty even better than  I'd hoped, and pretty much exactly how I imagined.  For those wondering, it appears Frank is the Hardy brother most stimulated by his predicament, and the only  mystery left, is if, and how, he eventually gets relief....