The Hardy Boys: The Mystery of the Applegate Treasure

My first exposure to the Hardy Boys came courtesy of this serial from the Mickey Mouse Club. It was after seeing this that I bought a load of the Hardy Boys kids novels to read. Those two certainly did have some adventuresome lives.

No doubt that later incarnations of the boys with Parker Stevenson and Shaun Cassidy in the Seventies and later for Canadian television Paul Popowich and Colin K. Gray in the Nineties were good in their day, but Tommy Kirk and Tim Considine will be the quintessential Hardy Boys for this former devoted Mouskaviewer.

The film is based on the very first of the Franklin K. Dixon novels which came out in the Roaring Twenties, The Tower Treasure. The Disney Studio nicely updated the story to fit into the Fifties. The boys get wind of a secret treasure hidden in the dark secluded mansion of miser Applegate. Somebody's taking very seriously the legend that pirate gold is hidden there. And miser Applegate, played by Florenz Ames isn't a guy to ask for help.

In the books the Hardy Boys did have a living mother who was not a really memorable character, just your average good mom. Their father is Fenton Hardy, formerly of the NYPD and now a famous private detective. In this serial, he's played by Russ Conway.

But the show made Fenton a widower and had Sarah Selby as their constantly interfering Aunt Gertrude. She was in the books as well, but here she was the female of the house. Half the time Kirk and Considine were trying to outfox her to get to their sleuthing business. Selby was memorable I have to say.

However what you will remember best is that Treasure Island pirate theme song of the serial about 'gold doubloons and pieces of eight' that is guaranteed to rattle around in your brain for weeks upon hearing it.

The Disney channel used to run all these old shows, but around 2000 just surrendered and now run their new shows on the cable network. Hopefully stuff like this will see the light of day again.

Disney's 16-episode serial "The Hardy Boys": "The Mystery of the Applegate Treasure" (1956) is based on Franklin W. Dixon's (aka Edward Stratemeyer) "The Tower Treasure"- the first of many "Hardy Boys" books. It was the first of two "Hardy Boy" serials produced by Disney (originally broadcast during October 1956) for its "Mickey Mouse Club" show; which was broadcast from 5PM-6PM each weekday. The one-hour show was broken into four segments with this sort of serial taking up one of these 15-minute segments The "Spin and Marty" serials were also used for this purpose.

As in the books, Frank (Tim Considine) and Joe (Tommy Kirk) are the teenage sons of Fenton Hardy (Russ Conway), a private detective. Following in their father's footsteps the two boys are looking for a pirate's treasure supposedly hidden in the Applegate Mansion in their neighborhood. The series has a cool theme song (see below). Despite the song there are no pieces of eight. They were one ounce Spanish silver coins, worth 8 reales, or half of a gold dubloon.

Frank and Joe are assisted by Joe's girlfriend Iola (Carole Ann Campbell) and hindered by their Aunt Gertrude who is looking after them while their father is out of town.

The Applegate mansion is a spooky looking house and when the boys finally meet the owner he confirms that there really is a treasure, given to his grandfather by LaFitte the pirate as repayment for when he burned the Applegate plantation. His grandfather hid the treasure and no one has been able to find it since.

The story has gold doubloons and crooks, and Iola gets a lot of scream queen moments. "Applegate's Treasure" was my personal favorite of all the MMC serials. The only drawback is that it was a rather complex mystery with a lot of misdirection, and having to watch it in a cliffhanger serial format was extremely frustrating. No sooner had they cleared up the suspense from the last episode than something would happen and they would break off- telling you tune in for the next episode. But we were hooked and faithfully tuned in day after day. A lot of family plans were altered during this time so as to not interfere with daily viewing.

Watching it now I was pleasantly surprised by the high quality of the performances by the child actors; especially Campbell and Kirk. The serial is definitely several notches above "Spin & Marty" in what was demanded of the cast, and for the most part they come through.

The DVD has some nice special features including a 2006 interview with Considine and Kirk in the Disney Studio where the serial was filmed. Also included is the entire (hour-long) MMC episode in which it premiered. It was a Monday, which was "Fun With Music Day", and Darlene does a lengthy song and dance number with Bobby.

Then again, what do I know? I'm only a child.

"Gold dubloons and pieces of eight, handed down to Applegate? From buccaneers who fought for years for gold dubloons and pieces of eight. Handed down in a pirate chest, the gold they sailed for east and west. The treasure bright that made men fight, till none were left to bury the chest. So now the gold and pieces of eight all belong to Applegate. The chest is here but wait...now where are those gold dubloons and pieces of eight?"

I never heard of these two individuals, till now and so to me they are still kids. I binge watched Annette and the Hardy Boys. Tim is a beautiful boy - incredibly poised as an actor and I am sure he went on to do great things with his career. I would have guessed he would be leading man in many movies. I was totally wowed by Tommy Kirks ability to hit the role on target , ever time , with flare and precision. His mannerisms in the Hardy Boys were just incredible .That kid is 100% boy. Watching him run around over joyed to see his dad- so excited about the mystery case.. and then being let down was the most amazing acting. The other kids I fell in love with in Annette were that little boy steady and that little girl fawning all over him. What a total ham bone! I would have guessed these 2 got married in real life. I love the entire case of both series and Annette was just darling. The talent, singing and comedy are stunning. They dont make kids like that today. Well, got to go now. Tim and Tommy, just found something in someone's shoe - lets see what they will do next, they seem very excited about this.

Tommy Kirk and Tim Considine were wonderful as "The Hardy Boys," but Disney has holding on to this like a mean dog with a good bone. "Spin and Marty" re-runs are fun, but woefully repetitive. Give us some original "Hardy Boys!" . .

I remember in the mid 1970's in Northern Ohio they showed reruns of the 1950's 'Mickey Mouse Club' tv show. There was a 1950's nostalgia/revival following 'American Grafiti' (1973) and 'Happy Days' (1974) and Disney shrewdly cashed in by presenting this great show to a whole new audience. I remember this particular series from watching those very reruns of MMC. I didn't see all of the serial at the time but I saw enough episodes to appreciate the Hardy Boys and I actually started reading and collecting the series of fine Hardy Boys books by 'Franklin W Dixon'. Re-watching it today,from start to finish (in one sitting to boot!) may not be for everyone but I enjoyed it quite a bit! I read that this was made with a very low budget-but they got a lot for their money,and it is not bad in any major way at all. The two main actors that play the Hardy Boys are Tommy Kirk and Tim Considine. Kirk went on to a long and solid career in other Disney projects,beach movies,and many other lighthearted and fun movies. Mr Tim Considine had a busy career also as an actor in early seasons of 'My 3 sons' and went on to a long successful tv career. The lucky guy Considine was married to the lovely and beautiful 'Meredith MacRae',who played the blonde sweetie on the 'Petticoat Junction' tv show. Both of the 'Hardy Boys' in this series do a good job with their parts I say. Sure,there are always things to pick at in any show but as this show was shown originally,in 15-minute increments,there is not a lot to complain about. If you watch it like I did,all at once,all the overlap between episodes can be a bit much but I must keep in mind that this was not made or intended to be watched all at once. The overlap was necessary to keep long-time viewers focused and also so that people that tuned in to the series in the middle of it could get some idea of at least what happened in the preceding episode. This is a fine serial and well worth seeing.