The Prairie Prattler (1939, 1943-1947)
NOTE: For a more detailed explanation of the evolution of the two different versions of “The Prairie Prattler” and “Tumbleweed Topics,” see “Overview of the Publications” on the Newsletters and Fanzines page.
The original Sons of the Pioneers newsletter was called The Prairie Prattler and was a one- or two-page mimeographed sheet published by the group in 1939 and mailed once a week. After a year it was replaced by Tumbleweed Topics, which continued until 1942. In 1943, after Tumbleweed Topics was discontinued, Martha Retsch, president of the first Sons of the Pioneers fan club in Pittsburg, began producing a new newsletter under the original name The Prairie Prattler.
For the new newsletter, Sam Allen put Retsch in touch with Charles Reed Jones, who was with Republic’s New York office, and Jones sent her photos for her covers. The first volume of four issues was hand-typed, mimeographed, and stapled by hand. By Volume 2 No. 1 1944 (the first anniversary issue), The Prairie Prattler had become a professionally printed four-page newspaper. Only one paper, the November-January 1945 issue, was missed before Retsch and her co-editor, Virginia Gallick, passed on the presidency to Julia Tiedemann of New York City. Tiedemann published at least one further issue before she, too, gave it up and The Prairie Prattler followed the Tumbleweed Topics into history, leaving unhappy subscribers behind.
Retsch remarked, "After three years of having the club, and after all the mail we received, I think the question that was asked the most, over and over, was—’Is Bob Nolan married?’ “ (p. 4, Prairie Prattler, Vol. 4 No. 1, 1946)
We are grateful to John Fullerton for the images of these issues from Martha Retsch and to Josh Heston for scanning them. (Most of the pages have been scanned in black and white.)
