Storytellers are everywhere! They have existed since the beginning of civilization. Without storytellers, the World would be a really dull place and humans would still be living in caves. But that isn’t the case, because when people learned to speak, they told others of their life experiences and helped spur the development of the world. One good storyteller can inspire others to tell their own story. These stories and accounts document the way life was lived on a daily basis, which eventually became the heritage of the present. A shining example of the power of storytelling can be found right here In Chillicothe.

A young boy who grew up in Chillicothe, Illinois in the late 1880s found he liked to read the exciting stories published and sold at several drug store confection stands and became inspired to be a storyteller himself. There were no radio or television stations like today, so stories were either told face-to-face or in weekly magazines filled with fictional tales. The Ten Cent magazine was a weekly source of stories during the “pulp fiction” era. Little did anyone know that William John McCulley would become one of the most famous storytellers of fictional action stories in the World. The impact of McCulley, writing under the pen name of “Johnston McCulley” and at least seven other pseudo names, on the pulp fiction industry, spread into the motion picture arena with equally dominating results. 

So, who was Johnston McCulley? He was a 1901 graduate of Chillicothe Township High School who had begun writing and submitting stories to pulp fiction publishers like Frank Munsey while attending school. The writers were paid “cents per word” if their story was accepted. The first published story by McCulley didn’t appear until several years after graduating high school, but the next five decades would see hundreds of McCulley’s stories and dozens of those stories acted out on the silver screens across the globe. A thorough presentation of McCulley’s impressive career featuring his most famous superhero character, Zorro, is on display at the Chillicothe Historical Society Museum.

The Chillicothe Historical Society is seeking storytellers who would like to share a short story with us. We are asking anyone who has a short story to tell and would like to possibly have it published, to send it to Home Grown Tales, Chillicothe Historical Society P.O.Box 181, Chillicothe, Illinois 61523 or drop it off at Chillicothe City Hall.