H&FC Magazine's Fiction Writer

Hunting & Fishing Collectibles Magazine's Second Best Fiction Writer, Francis D. Murphy



     Over the years, Frank Murphy has written  so called "articles" for Decoy Magazine and now for H&FC Magazine.  His articles are absolutely worthless to the novice or serious decoy collector.
The only facts that can be found in his writings are facts that have no bearing on the decoys in his stories.


It is quite evident that Stanley Van Etten's magazine has no standards and does no fact checking, which is why Frank Murphy is a perfect fit for H&F Collectibles Magazine.  Frank has been a decoy collector for years and is a charter member of L.I.D.C.A., and he is another self-proclaimed decoy expert who has never done any firsthand research on Long Island decoys.  He was always a low-end collector and a protégé for Bob Gerard and George Combs Jr.


When I joined the L.I.D.C.A., most of the early members had left the club.  Frank Murphy, Bob Gerard, Bud Ward and others no longer came to meetings.  The Combs, George Sr., "Pop" Sr. and George Jr. had moved to Maryland's Eastern Shore.  But many of those old members did come to the June Homecoming meeting dinner, which the club no longer does.


The club had blown it's self apart in the late 1980's and early1990's.  The two main antagonist were Bud Ward vs. Bob Gerard who were at odds over many issues.  The annual decoy show was held at the Ward Melville High School and they were great shows.  I think the last show held there was somewhere between 1990-1992.  The rumor was that Bob Gerard had convinced the high school not to rent the space to the club anymore. 


A club member suggested we do the annual show in East Hampton L.I. in partnership with the Rotary Club, of which he was also a member.  We held two shows in East Hampton that were disastrous, and we had a dwindling bank account and membership.  It did not look good for the future of the club.  We were also mailing out newsletters to over 100 people, but we only had around 35 paying members.  We had around $1,200.00 in the bank.


I was asked to run for the president position. I agreed that if I won, I would hold the position for only one year, but in that year, I would try to breath some life back into the association.  I ended up staying in that position for three years, and when I stepped down, the club had over $13,000.00 in the bank because of 3 straight years of profitable well-attended shows.  We also had signed up many new (paying) members during that time.


The success of the club during my tenure as president brought back some of the old members who had left. That is when Bob Gerard and Frank Murphy came back.  All the fresh new members were like blood in the water to the sharks, especially Bob Gerard.  All these new members, many neophytes, represented fresh, gullible collectors to pawn off unwanted, fake or worthless decoys on to.  Some of the older members who had never left the club wanted me to prevent Gerard and Murphy from returning to the club. I said that I would not attempt to ban anyone, not even Gerard and Murphy.


Frank Murphy and Bob Gerard were always the proverbial turds in the punch bowl.  At meetings they objected to any new ideas members might have to try to improve the club.  After Gerard died, Frank assumed the position as head curmudgeon.  The only ideas that Frank usually came up with were ridiculous.  Like deputizing club members as a security force for the annual decoy show who would watch for thieves stealing decoys and people slipping in for free.  The attendance for the shows had fallen off and Frank thought that the drop in the gate was due to people slipping in.  His security force would put an end to the huge number people slipping in for free, which of course was just as fictional as his writings.  The only good idea Frank ever had was to raise the entry fee to the annual decoy show.


However any time Frank Murphy decides to write what he calls an "article", well that's never a good idea.  For example, his two so-called articles on Long Island shorebird decoys (Part One& Part Two) found in Hunting&Fishing Collectibles Magazine, July /August 2015 issue, "Long Island Shorebird Decoys Early Long Island Decoys" and July/August 2016 issue "Long Island Shorebird Decoys The Golden Age."

                                                                Part One


On page 46, it begins with a fictional story which is totally devoid of any facts pertaining to the decoys pictured in his fable, and nothing on early L.I. shorebird decoys.  The facts that are presented in Frank's fable have nothing to do with the decoys in the accompanying photos in Frank's story, and once again, have on bearing on early L.I. decoys.  Frank also writes with the simplicity and imagination of an 8th grade English student who envisions his future to be a great America writer.  His writings are painful to get through; chalk on the blackboard screech painful.  Some of Frank writings are reminiscent of a Joel Barber scenario from his book Wildfowl Decoys.  Frank Murphy's so-called "article" is pure fiction!


And once again, we find editor Stanley Van Etten does not understand that there is a difference between fiction and fact.


Fictional: Imaginary, made-up, unfitted, fabricated, myth.


Fact: Anything true, Anything actually existent.  Any statement strictly true.


I would advise, no make that urge, Editor/ Publisher Van Etten to have theses two definitions placed on a large sign and install it in his office where it will be readily accessible to his view at all times.


Frank Murphy begins his story with a fictional, nameless old man who has no bearing on the decoy photographs used in his story.  "The old man was just leaving the haberdashery shop.  He was sporting a brand new hat and why not? For tomorrow was Easter Sunday."  There are nearly two pages of fiction on "the old man".


Frank then tries his hand at anthropology when he writes of Long Islands (mythical) 13 Indian Sub- tribes.  At one time all Long Island school children learned that there were 13 original Indian tribes on Long Island when the Europeans arrived.  This Eurocentric absurdity has not been taught in public or private schools, or accepted by historians, anthropologists, colleges and universities for over 30 years.  Today it is accepted that two Algonquian speaking nations lived on Long Island when the Dutch began their invasion of what would become New York.  Some of what is today western Long Island, including Brooklyn, Queens and Nassau County where part of the larger territory of the Lenape Nation (also known as the Delaware Indians).  The Eastern End of Long Island (Suffolk County) was the territory of what today is referred to as the Montauk or Montaukett Confederacy, which is wrong as Montauk was actually a place name or village site, not a tribal name.


It is interesting that Frank claims Indians on Long Island used decoys very sparingly. What would this be based on?  Indians all across the North America used decoys to attract all types of game.  Frank also credits "the white man"with creating the decoys we know today. Really?  I think Charles Bunn made decoys like we know today.


Frank, like most Americans, has no idea what great art was produced by the indigenous people of the Americas for thousands of years prior to metal tools, prior to the arrival of as Frank writes, "the white man", and Europe's iron and steal tools.  Frank most likely gets all his Indian information from old Bonanza episodes.


Frank goes on to describe roothead decoys.  He doesn't know that the majority are not rootheads.  Most are limb heads.  But then, Frank is fiction writer.


Frank also describes a snipe shooting Currier & Ives print without any shorebird decoys in the print.  He tells of the artist who did the painting for the print, and her alcoholic husband who died when he fell down his stairs.  Nothing about early L.I. shorebirds.


Frank also writes of Henry Hudson seeing shorebirds on his way up the Hudson, which adds absolutely nothing to the knowledge of who made the decoys in the photos in Frank's little story.  And once again, nothing about "early Long Island shorebird decoys".


On page 47, he has 3 decoys he lists as by John Henry Verity (1788-1866).  There has never been any proof for this attribution and Frank presents no proof for his claim for J.H.Verity as the maker.  Frank also shows two shorebird decoys; he attributes one to George Verity and the other to Theodore Rogers rig, and once again, there has never been any documentation for both attributions, and again, Frank presents on documentation for the two attributions.


On page 49, there are three East End plover decoys.  No one knows who the maker of these decoys was, however, Frank refers to them as the work of Lafayette Seabury (see Long Island Decoy Forum: The Seabury Fabrication).  The synopsis of the Seabury fabrication was that it was perpetrated by Timmy Sieger, the present president of L.I.D.C.A (see the September/October 2001 issue of H&FC Magazine in the section called "My Favorite 5").


But where else would you go for decoy fiction than H&F Collectibles Magazine?  This is where Tim establishes Seabury as the maker of the plovers, without presenting any evidence at all for his claim, and he hasn't any.


Frank has photos of other shorebirds listed George Verity and Theodore Rogers, once again, presenting no evidence for the claim for the maker as none has been offered in the past.


To finish up, Frank continues his fictitious story of the nameless old man going to bed (as visions of shore birds danced in his head). This is so embarrassingly sophomoric, that you would assume  it was written by a child.  When I have ask non decoy collectors to read this short story, none can believe that anyone would print Frank's fable. Many wondered why the editor hadn't rejected it.


In the future, when Stanley publishes fiction it should be labeled as such, and not referred to as an article.  I do realize it would be harder to fill his pages, and it calls into question everything printed in his magazine.


I do have an idea for an article For H&F Collectibles Magazine.  Stanley shpuld ask Ronnie McGrath to write the story he told me about years ago.  Ron had said Bill Mackey sold him some roothead shorebirds. Ronnie later found out that they were fakes. He was hopping mad and called Mackey threatening to expose him. Mackey claimed they were real. Then Mackey sent early collector/dealer King Hemming to try to get back the rootheads.  After lots of negotiating, in the end Mackey, through King Hemming,  had to give Ronnie a bunch of decoys to get back his fake rootheads.  Now that would be a good story for Ronnie to write.  That would be something Ronnie actually knows about.


Next will be my review of Part II of Frank Murphy's second "article" on L.I. shorebird decoys, "The Golden Age".