"The Living Manikins" is a chaptered Short Story by David Wright O'Brien that was originally published in the February 1942 issue of Fantastic Adventures. It dabbles in Magic Realism pulled towards absurdity, while also serving as a lighthearted allegory for class struggles. The protagonist, Hugo Hempsted, is an unappreciated salesclerk who finds himself trying to pull rank on the department store's manikins when they come to life and trying to protect the very order he decried just an hour earlier during a demeaning meeting. The purpose of the allegory is to highlight, not to provide answers, as the Happy Ending relies on the manikins' life becoming undone.
In the wee hours of the morning, the salesclerk Hugo Hempsted is in a meeting about disappointing sales with the department store's owner, Napoleon B. Dribble. Dribble, in an act of showing off his authority, sends Hugo to the store to fetch some papers for him. Hugo startles Judy Carmody, the daughter of the night watchman. Because her father's sick, Judy's secretly taken his place for the night, but being untrained her first instinct upon noticing an intruder is to turn on the lights. This has the peculiar and singular effect of bringing all of the department store's manikins to life. Said manikins have bigger ambitions than standing still, leading to utter chaos a mere two hours before opening. At first Judy and Hugo try to compromise with the manikins, but this doesn't work out. Then Judy proposes they turn off the lights, since the manikins came to life when the lights came on. Hugo takes the risk of fiddling with controls neither understand and the plan works out just as they hoped: the manikins go back to being manikins. Although there's no time to place them back, this is for the better because Dribble loves the new, daring displays and commends Hugo for his initiative.
Tropes found in The Living Manikins include:
- Conditioned to Accept Horror: Judy is surprised by the manikins being alive, but doesn't let it get to her like Hugo does. The reasoning behind her ready acceptance of living manikins is that her grandfather was a smart man and he believed in leprechauns.
- Doomy Dooms of Doom: The sixth chapter is "The Switch of Doom". Like the rest of the story, it's meant humoristically. The switch itself is not one, but a collection, and its relation to "doom" is more about that it is the last solution the protagonists have to deal with the manikins than that they're afraid they get killed by the charge it might release.
- Hates Baths: The police officer manikin hates baths and requests to have less than one a month. His request isn't granted, nor are any of his others, which provokes him to lash the crowd apart with his nightstick.
- Lightning Can Do Anything: Played with. The manikins are brought to life by the lights being turned on, which generates a momentary electrical explosion. The manikins cease living when the lights are turned off. It's not clarified what exact circumstances gave the manikins life — electricity is certainly invoked, but the presence of artificial light is more direcly tied to the manikins' lifespan. Whatever role timing might play is up to the reader's interpretation.
- The Mall: With the exception of the first half of the first chapter, the entire story takes place in Dribble's Department Store during the final hours before opening.
- Mean Boss: Napoleon B. Dribble gives praise where it's due, but if there's nothing to praise, he's not going to be more than explicitly superficially polite. At the beginning of the story, ten employees have been chosen by him to attend an important meeting as representatives of the workforce. All ten of them know that they're only at the meeting to watch and that they're not supposed to participate. They also know they specifically have been picked because they wouldn't dare protest this setup.
- Murderous Mannequin: The manikins in Dribble's Department Store come to life due to an unexplained combination of electricity, light, and timing. They immediately set out to do whatever they want, disregarding the fact none of them is supposed to be alive and that things will get awkward when the store opens. The huntress enacts her display's scenario by hunting a stuffed fox on horseback throughout the store. The copper finally gets to be authoritative and use his nightstick. The drinking gentleman sets out to get something to drink instead of being stuck pretending to pour himself one. And so on. Hugo and Judy can't wrangle them despite their best attempts, so they resort to flipping the switch that seemingly brought the manikins to life in hopes it de-lives them. It works, and the manikins are left standing in whatever poses were their last.
- Non-Action Guy: Hugo Hempsted would have not been able to do a single thing without Judy. She's the one who observes and acts and comes up with the plans, yet all the same Hugo is the main character whose perspective is interwoven with the story. He does get to be the hero in the end by flipping the right switch and being credited as the creative genius behind the manikins' new poses.
- Not What It Looks Like: Judy opts to take shelter from whatever may happen when the switch is flipped inside a folding bed. Hugo finds her there, disheveled because she got stuck, and enthusiastically introduces her to Dribble as his wife-to-be. Dribble's polite but stuttered reaction betrays he thinks they've gotten raunchy in his store.
- One Crazy Night: The story takes place from an hour tops before 06:30 until shortly after 8:30. In that timespan, the manikins are brought to life, they go on strike, and they are brought back to their normal, non-living form just minutes before the department store opens. Simultaneously, Hugo and Judy meet, fall in love, and resolve to get married.
- Sex Sells: Outright said in regards to a female manikin and implied with a male manikin. One female manikin in underwear had made her home in the Men's Apparel section when the whole lot returned to stillness. Dribble is convinced her presence will increase hourly sales by a hundred dollars. Before that, a male manikin, Mr. Preshrunk Snuggies, complains that he has been placed in revealing men's underwear in full view of the passers-by. He's not put there to be sexy, but to show men what they could look like. However, if Judy's reaction to him is indicative of the kind of audience the male manikin gathers, he will have attracted a few customers by being sexy.
- Soul-Sucking Retail Job: Hugo is painfully aware he's a nobody in the eyes of Dribble and predominantly appreciated as an employee for being spineless. Things are looking up for him at the end of the story when Dribble credits him with taking initiative and repositioning the manikins in creative and daring scenarios.
- Walking Shirtless Scene: An in-universe example is Mr. Preshrunk Snuggies, a male manikin, who is positioned in a prominent display window in tight underwear. This is much to his displeasure, but much to Judy's selfish pleasure. She's vocal about how good-looking he is and that it's a shame it's agreed that he'll get to model overcoats.
- Weird Trade Union: The manikins more or less form one shortly after they come to life because they don't like how they are treated even though they work or could work as hard as any of the human employees. And so they go on a very chaotic strike to improve their work situation. Some get what they want, others not.
