Before the Slasher Movies, Friday the 13th Was a Wall Street Thriller

When I hear “Friday the 13th,” I picture Camp Crystal Lake. The detail that drew me into Thomas W. Lawson’s 1907 novel Friday, the Thirteenth was a strip of paper sliding through a banker’s fingers. Jim Randolph is watching stock prices come through on the ticker when a call comes from the exchange floor. His old friend Bob Brownley wants him on the phone, fast. Jim hears the name and immediately thinks of the date.

That scene appeared in book form 73 years before the 1980 horror movie. Lawson’s novel even had a film adaptation of its own, a silent melodrama released in 1916. The two movies share a title, and the earlier one takes place in the world of New York stockbrokers.

What is the 1907 Friday the 13th novel about?

Jim tells the story of Bob Brownley, his friend from their Harvard days and a gifted broker who takes real pleasure in a risky trade. Then Beulah Sands comes to New York. A collapsing investment has swallowed her father’s fortune and money entrusted to him. She brings Bob $60,000 to invest, hoping to recover enough to keep the disaster from reaching the families who depended on her father.

Beulah is the character I’d watch most closely. She studies financial statements, makes trading decisions of her own and insists that Jim take her out of an underwriting deal he put her into without asking. She needs the money, and the profit looks easy. Her refusal puts an uncomfortable question to the two men trying to help her. How much of their success depends on opportunities other people never get?

How a stock ticker becomes a source of dread

The ticker tells Jim what has happened to the price. He still has to work out who moved it, what they know and how much of what he’s hearing is rumor. Lawson opens with the panic already underway and then lets Jim look back at the decisions that led to the call. Jim knows Bob well enough to recognize what he’s capable of. His affection for his friend gives him plenty of reasons to hope he’s wrong.

Some of the trading talk takes patience. A scene about shares of a sugar company can send you back a paragraph to check who’s buying. I’d keep an eye on what each character stands to lose. The most unsettling thing about Bob’s plan is how sympathetic his reasons are, even as the risks spread to people he barely knows.

The book appeared in February 1907. That October, a run on New York’s Knickerbocker Trust helped set off the real Panic of 1907. The publication date gives the novel an eerie historical backdrop. Lawson had imagined how quickly confidence could disappear on Wall Street months before depositors lined up to withdraw their money.

Which Friday the 13th movie was based on the book?

The 1916 silent film Friday the Thirteenth adapted Lawson’s novel. Émile Chautard directed, Frances Marion wrote the screenplay and Robert Warwick played Bob Brownley. According to the American Film Institute, the film opened with views of lower Manhattan. The AFI also records that the National Film Preservation Board listed the film as lost.

The 1980 Friday the 13th is a separate story. Sean S. Cunningham directed Victor Miller’s script about the reopening of Camp Crystal Lake, the setting that launched the slasher franchise.

Where to read Friday, the Thirteenth today

You can read Lawson’s novel for free at Project Gutenberg in your browser or download an EPUB. Start with the opening phone call. Jim has a room full of information at his fingertips, and he’s still waiting for one man to tell him how bad things are. That’s the Friday the 13th scene I’ll think of the next time the date comes around.

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