Brandon Fleming (1889-1970)

Charles Brandon Raincock Fleming

Journalist, Author, Playwright, Screenwriter, Producer
Born April 27, 1889, Streatham, Surrey, England
Died October 1970, Kensington, Greater London, England

Charles Brandon Raincock Fleming, known as Brandon Fleming, was born on April 27, 1889, in Streatham, Surrey, England. In the census of 1911 he was head of his household, which included his widowed mother, and employed as a freelance journalist. He had already begun by then signing his name as Brandon Fleming.

Fleming wrote dozens of short stories published from 1910 to 1941 in The Blue Magazine, The Corner Magazine, Detective Fiction Weekly, The Novel Magazine, Pearson's Magazine, The Red Magazine, The Story-Teller, The Strand Magazine, and other titles. He had just one story in Weird Tales, "The Ruby," from January 1933. That story had previously been printed in The Grand Magazine #332, dated October 1932. "The Ruby" is the only story by Brandon Fleming listed in the Internet Speculative Fiction Database. He may have written others, but it would take a reading of many British pulp magazines and story magazines to find out. This might be a job for someone located closer to the source.

Brandon Fleming was also a playwright, screenwriter, and film producer. He wrote the source material and/or screenplays for thirteen movies, from The Eleventh Commandment (1924) to Music and Millions (1936). The Internet Movie Database has more than one Brandon Fleming in its lists of credits. A second of these Brandons wrote and produced movies that were released between 1954 and 1963, including a horror movie called The Woman Eater (1958), which might be added to the Botanical Fiction Database. I'm pretty sure these were the same Brandon because Brandon Fleming the magazine writer had a story called "The Flaw" in Detective Fiction Weekly (Mar. 19, 1932), and Brandon Fleming the screenwriter wrote the scenario for a crime film called The Flaw, released in 1955.

The fact that Brandon Fleming's credits ended in 1941 and didn't pick up again until 1954 makes me think he was engaged in the war effort, possibly afterwards in government service or journalism. In any case, Brandon Fleming lived a long life and died fifty-one years ago this month, in October 1970, in Kensington, Greater London, England. He was eighty-one years old.

Brandon Fleming's Story in Weird Tales
"The Ruby" (Jan. 1933; originally in The Grand Magazine #332, Oct. 1932)

Further Reading
None that I can find, although a search for back issues posted to the Internet might yield some of his stories. Also, Fleming's stories are listed on The FictionMags Index, an invaluable source for fans of pulp fiction.

The Story-Teller, a British magazine, with Brandon Fleming's name on the cover, September 1927.

A poster or lobby card for The Woman Eater, released in 1958 with a screenplay by Brandon Fleming. The coconut-half claws of the tree-monster remind me of the claws of the creatures created by H.P. Lovecraft for "The Shadow Out of Time," the cover story of Astounding Stories, June 1936. You can see similar images in my blog entry called "Trees and Other Plants on the Cover of Weird Tales," dated February 11, 2014, by clicking here.

Text copyright 2021, 2023 Terence E. Hanley