7. He Was a Character in a Series of Children's Mystery Novels
In the late 60s and early seventies, Hitchcock allowed his name and character to be used in a series of children's books, originally called
The Alfred Hitchcock Mystery Series. The name recognition helped boost sales for
the series, which was created by Robert Arthur, who wanted to create a series similar to
The Hardy Boys. The main characters of the books are Jupiter Jones, Peter Crenshaw and Bob Andrews, the three investigators who use their spare time to solve mysteries. In the first thirty titles of the series, Hitchcock was called upon for help by the investigators and also gave an introduction and epilogue. Hitchcock had nothing to do with his character's dialogue in the book. After Hitchcock's death in 1980, his image was taken off the spines of the book. Also, supposedly Hitchcock's approval was needed for covers that included his likeness, and even covers that didn't.