William Cole’s “Waiting for Rusty” was the only story by Cole to appear in the magazine. Some credit for the success of the story must be given to Fanny Ellsworth, perhaps the greatest woman editor of pulp fiction. Ms. Ellsworth famously edited Ranch Romances from 1929 to 1953, certainly some kind of record. She is less well known as the editor who took over Black Mask Magazine from Joseph Shaw in 1936. Even less well known is the fact that Fanny Ellsworth revolutionized Black Mask Magazine’s writing style as she ushered in the noir psychological thriller.
Ellsworth favored emotional tales over hard-boiled narration. The noir thrillers of Cornell Woolrich, Steve Fisher, and others emerged under her tenure at the magazine. “Waiting for Rusty,” at about 1,400 words, is one of the shortest stories ever to appear in Black Mask Magazine.
A masterpiece of concise but dramatic and detailed story-telling, this surprising tale of crime, loyalty, and betrayal contains enough plots for a full-length novel. And, a rarity for hard-boiled fiction, it stars a strong and fully realized woman protagonist who dominates the proceedings.
As soon as Dot enters the scene, on the run with Rusty’s nerve-wracked gang of bank robbers, it is inevitable that they are all heading toward a major catastrophe. In the brief telling of this tale, our gun moll is transformed into a tragic heroine almost in the classic tradition, something rarely achieved in American crime fiction of any length.
A stop-motion animated film, funded in part with national grants from Australia, is in production by Nick Donkin of Flying Gherkin Productions of Australia in association with Black Mask Productions of Los Angeles.
Of all the thousands of tales published between 1920 and 1951 in Black Mask, “Waiting for Rusty” (October 1939) remains the story that has generated the most reader letters over the years.
Keith Alan Deutsch