Melvin Purvis is probably most widely known today as the character played by Christian Bale in the 2009 movie Public Enemies. But the character was based on the real FBI agent who famously tracked down Baby Face Nelson, Pretty Boy Floyd, and John Dillinger. Purvis left the FBI in 1935, but showed up in a more public venue the following year: he became the host of a radio program called Junior G-Men. Because of his prior popularity from capturing such well-known criminals, he was seen as a real-life Dick Tracy and the show became quite popular.

To capitalize on that popularity, Purvis soon became the spokesman for Post Toasties cereal and kids could order special Junior G-Men badges and other fan club offerings by collecting an assortment of box tops. The fandom continued throughout the decade, and two 12-chapter serials were made in the early 1940s.

Local fan club chapters sprouted up across the United States, and frequently found the support of elected officials and law enforcement. The clubs were seen as similar to the Boy Scouts, but more specifically focused on law and order. It was this focus, encourged of course by Purvis as well as FBI director J. Edgar Hoover, which authority figures liked. The clubs were seen as a way to curb juvenile delinquincy, which was a growing concern.

What I find interesting in this is that Purvis was first able to capitalize on his notoriety from actual crime fighting, and parlay that into an entertainment career. But even more interesting is that a variety of unaffiliated organizations were able to capitalize on Purvis’ entertainment popularity, and parlay that into a wide-spread message of propaganda to promote trust in existing authority and the status quo. The FBI, police, and other organizations seeking to make the broad population as conformist (and therefore controllable) as possible were able to help steer the conversation and make it unpopular to be anything other than law-abiding citizens. While this makes sense superficially, this conformity and law-abiding nature are frequently not applied to those in power seeking to enforce the status quo.

On one hand, the promotional message behind many of the Junior G-Men ads and stories is ham-fisted. There are only good guys and bad guys, with no shades of grey. If you don’t act like a hero, you must be a villain and deserve to rot in jail. But the appropriation of that message by the police and FBI is astoundingly canny and subtle. There really aren’t any real instances of the law and order message of the Junior G-Men coming directly from law enforcement; they only lend support to the groups already promoting the message.

I think it’s a case study that bears closer scrutiny; it certainly has my interest piqued enough to dig deeper. Because I can’t help but wonder what other messages are being backed to encourage an agenda I don’t completely agree with. As The Atomic Cafe cleverly demonstrated in 1982, the U.S. government is not always subtle, or even remotely accurate, in what it tells its citizens. And the more examples people are shown of this, the more likely they are to recognize it in the future.