Question about Stuff, the Chinatown Kid (Golden Age)

[Lorendiac]

Greg Sanders (later retconned as "Saunders") was the Golden Age Vigilante; a regular feature in the pages of "Action Comics" from 1941 to 1954. A few months after he debuted, he acquired a faithful sidekick, a Chinese-American boy whose heroic alias or nickname was "Stuff, the Chinatown Kid." That sidekick then stuck with him until the feature was finally cancelled in 1954.

I was trying to do a little research into Stuff's background, and I ran across an inconsistency. His Wikipedia entry says Stuff's real name was "Jimmy Leong."

His dc.wikia.com entry says Stuff's real name was "Daniel Leong."

His dcuwiki.net entry says it was "Jimmy Leong."

His Comic Vine entry takes an interesting approach. A sidebar asserts that his "aliases" included being known as as "James," "Jimmy," "Daniel," and "Danny" (always with the surname of "Leong"), although the main text of that entry consistently calls him "Jimmy."

Toonopedia doesn't give Stuff his own entry at all, and the mention of him in the original Vigilante's entry does not address the subject of his real name. (The same statement is true for the HeroGoggles webpage listing all the Golden Age DC heroes -- "Stuff" is barely mentioned in passing as the sidekick of "Vigilante.")

But it seems to be an accepted fact that Stuff debuted in "Action Comics #45" in 1942. So I thought it would be nice to nail down the point of just what the heck his name was supposed to be in the very beginning! Does anyone happen to have a reprint of that story handy? If so, could you please check and tell me which name the boy was actually going by when he first encountered Greg Sanders? I think I'll run with that one as "his real name" or his "preferred name" until further notice.

[Lorendiac]

I've gotten responses from various people on a couple of different forums. I'm posting this summary in three places at once, to bring any interested observers up to speed.

Here's how it now stands:

Ancient One (on comicboards.com) assures me that in his first appearance (in "Action Comics #45"), the kid was only referred to as "Stuff." Apparently that was the nickname which he was already using all the time before he ever met Greg Sanders.

73042helloworld and narfstar (on comicbookplus.com) assure me that between the two of them, they've managed to check Stuff's first 16 appearances in "Action Comics," and they have not yet found him being called anything other than "Stuff, "the Chinatown Kid," and "Stuff the Chinatown Kid."

So here's my current theory: All through the Golden Age Vigilante's run, his Chinese-American sidekick was always called "Stuff."

Decades later, someone felt it necessary to retcon in a "real name" for the kid, and used either "Jimmy Leong" or "Danny Leong."

Years later, someone else was dealing with the character, and probably tried to "wing it from memory" regarding what his real name was, and got it wrong, accidentally giving him a new first name. Hence the contradictions I found in various online resources. (Similar to what I've heard about how The Elongated Man's surname has been rendered, in various stories, as Dibny, Dibney, Digby, and probably other variations, when one writer or another thought he could remember it perfectly without looking it up!)

Incidentally, here's something I didn't mention a few days ago when I launched the thread, although I had already learned it from my research:

Greg Sanders, The Vigilante, was featured in a 15-part movie serial in 1947. (He was played by Ralph Byrd, whom I've seen in some old Dick Tracy movies from that era.) In the movie, he had a sidekick called "Stuff." I looked up the details online because I thought the movie credits might include some mention of what Stuff's real name was in those days.

Nope. It turns out that this attempt on my part failed for the following reasons:

1. I gather no other name was mentioned in the movie; just "Stuff."

2. The "Stuff" in question was not Chinese-American; he was just a white boy who looked several years older than the kid in the comics; old enough to be drafted. (He was played by an actor named "George Offerman Jr.", whose name rings no bells in my memory.)

So even if the name on his birth certificate had been mentioned in the film, it probably would have been something Anglo-Saxon sounding, instead of faithfully adapting anything that had been mentioned in the comic books.

And as it now stands, it probably wouldn't have mattered anyway, since my current impression is that in the old days Stuff didn't have any name other than "Stuff," so the movie probably would have just stuck with that even if they had him played by a Chinese-American actor!

P.S. Ancient One was also kind enough to offer a scanned image of one page from the story in which Stuff first made his appearance. The kid ends a speech on that page with the words "or my name ain't Stuff!" This could be taken as evidence that "Stuff" was, in fact, part of the real name listed on his birth certificate . . . but I doubt it.

On the other hand, I was quite amused by a bit on that page where Greg Sanders, as his unmasked self, is assuring Stuff that there's a serious chance he can get "The Vigilante" to drop in for a chat about some terrible problem confronting Stuff's grandfather, later that night, and a redheaded woman overhears this and thinks critically: "The big phoney! Giving the poor child false hopes!"

I can see the concerned lady's point, I suppose. The Vigilante was a superhero who wore a bright blue shirt, light blue trousers (denim jeans, I'm guessing), brown leather cowboy boots, a brown Stetson, crossed gunbelts, and a bright red bandanna pulled up to cover most of his face. On the other hand, this country-western musician called "Greg Sanders" was a civilian of similar height and build who wore a bright blue shirt, light blue trousers (denim jeans, I'm guessing), brown leather cowboy boots, a brown Stetson, crossed gunbelts, and a bright red bandanna loose around his neck. Obviously the two men had nothing in common and couldn't possibly be on close terms!

I wonder how long it took Stuff to catch on? Or did Greg finally have to spell it out for him?

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