Spotlight on Lee Falk - The Summer House

History

In 1944 mrs. Edmund "Ed" Duffy became the new owner of Wells cottage near Ballstone Beach at South Pamet Road in Truro. Next year they moved the cottage about 100 yards further westerly and made plans for extensive alterations. New alterations was made in the mid 50s.

Falk rented Duffy's summer place atop Baldy Hill in the late 50s, and purchased it in 1961. He remodeled the cottage and had a tennis court built on the property.

In the beginning it was probably meant as a joke that someone started to refer to the summer house as "Xanadu". (It is uncertain whether Mandrake's home, Xanadu, was named first or if it was the summer house.) Then Lee Falk's family members took up the theme and embellished on it. Approaching the house there are (was?) a series of signs quoting from the opening lines of "Kubla Khan", in honor of Coleridge's pleasure dome.

Behind the scenes

Several times Lee Falk used names for places from around his summer house as names and addresses in Mandrake stories. In some stories it almost looks like Mandrake's Xanadu are localized at South Pamet Road.

Appearances of Pamet and other Truro names in Mandrake stories

Title	Writer	Artist	Comments
"The Bribe"	Falk	Fredericks	Pamet Street
"The 3D Monster"	Falk	Fredericks	Pamet and Castlehill Roads
"Magic Man"	Falk	Fredericks	A road sign; South Pamet - Depot Rd
"The Mission"	Falk	Fredericks	Pamet Park
"The Clay Camel (plus Women's Lib!)"	Falk	Fredericks	Pamet Warehouse and Depot Road
"The Rogues"	Falk	Fredericks	Collins Rd at Pamet
"Trail of the Pusher"	Falk	Fredericks	12-A Pamet Street and 10 Dopott Road five minutes north at Collins
"Dr Xoz Prof. of Smells"	Falk	Fredericks	27 North Pamet
"The Thieves"	Falk	Fredericks	SS Royal Pamet
"The Executioner from 8"	Falk	Fredericks	Bradford and Pamet, hide-out for the 6th arm of 8.
"The Gift from 8"	Falk	Fredericks	Pamet Street, hide-out of the 7th arm of 8
"Dr Ffark's Cosmic Circus"	Falk	Fredericks	On the road to Truro