The Drums of Jeopardy

Harold MacGrath wrote the 1920 American book The Drums of Jeopardy. The Saturday Evening Post began publishing the story in serial form in January 1920. The book was adapted into a Broadway play in 1922 and a movie the following year. In 1931 a second film adaptation was released. It is reported that a young Boris Karloff who had previously played a few uncredited cinema roles got his stage name from a Russian mad scientist character named Boris Karlov in this book for his first screen credit in 1920. The character played by Wallace Beery in the film adaptation was originally called Boris Karlov from MacGraths book but by 1923 actor Boris Karloff had adopted the variation with a similar pronunciation. Less than a year before Frankenstein would make Boris Karloff a household name for generations the name of the mad scientist was restored to Boris Karloff in the 1931 film adaptation with Warner Oland portraying the role. Ironically Boris Karloff appeared in cinema as numerous insane scientists but never as Boris Karlov.