Max Thursday
San Diego’s first fictional private eye.
Last month I wrote about San Diego’s First TV Private Eye. But what about books? What was the first private eye book series set in San Diego? That honor goes to the Max Thursday series by Wade Miller.
Wade Miller was the combined last names of two authors who wrote the series together—Robert Wade and H. Billy Miller. Wade and Miller were lifelong friends who grew up in San Diego. They attended college together at San Diego State, quitting their senior year to enlist in the US Army. Other pen names they used in their career included Walter James, Whit Masterson and Will Daemer. They wrote and published 33 crime novels together between 1947 and 1961. Quite a team!
Today, they are best known for Badge of Evil (1956), which they published under the pen name Whit Masterson. Badge of Evil was the basis for the noir movie classic Touch of Evil (1958), directed by Orson Welles and co-starring Charlton Heston and Janet Leigh.
The six Max Thursday novels are top notch examples of mid-century American hard-boiled detective stories. The first, Guilty Bystander, was nominated for an Edgar Award. Writing in the San Francisco Chronicle, Anthony Boucher admired the novel for its “Machine gun tempo, tight writing, unexaggerated hardness and unorthodox and overwhelming ending.”
“The room wouldn’t stay still. It kept swinging in slow, creaking circles like a carousel running down. He was lost in a fog – a hot, sticky fog. A voice echoed down an empty street toward him, calling his name. Georgia’s voice. He waited for it to fade away as it always did.”
“Outside the sky was the same monotonous gray. The rain was drying into large puddles on Fifth Avenue. Max Thursday watched the early morning traffic and wished for the clean needles of a cold shower and something scalding to change the taste in his mouth.”
So not only were Wade and Miller authors of the first private eye series set in San Diego, they were two of the best! No less an authority than Dorothy B. Hughes said of them at the time, “Nobody writes the hardboiled mystery better.”
Eight of their books were made into movies, including what may be their best title ever, Kitten with a Whip (1959). The movie version (1964) starred Ann-Margret and John Forsythe.
The partnership was cut short when Miller died of a heart attack in 1961. Robert Wade forged on, writing another 13 novels under his own name and as Whit Masterson. He penned a regular crime fiction review column for the San Diego Union-Tribune until he died in 2012, at the age of 92.
Hollywood’s version of the first Max Thursday novel, Guilty Bystander, is available on YouTube. Don’t expect any San Diego locations, though. It was set and filmed in New York.
The famous 4 minute tracking shot that opens Orson Welles’ Touch of Evil, based on Badge of Evil.
More:
Max Thursday series (Guilty Bystander, Fatal Step, Calamity Fair, Uneasy Street, Murder Charge, Shoot To Kill) on Amazon.
San Diego Eyes at the Thrilling Detective website lists more fictional San Diego private eyes, including the Rolly Waters series by yours truly.
San Diego’s First TV Private Eye
Harry O premiered on ABC in the fall of 1975. It was the first, but not quite the last, private eye TV series filmed in San Diego. At the time, we were all very excited to have a big-time TV show being filmed here. I watched it with my Mom every week (I think she was a secret David Janssen fan).
The show was one of the more creatively (if not commercially) successful versions of private eye shows made for TV. Harry came with the usual baggage—a former cop with a bullet lodged near his spine who picks up the occasional private eye case to help pay the rent. In short, he was down on his luck, living on the beach, with an old sports car that was always in the shop.
But what made the series interesting was its variations on the usual TV crime tropes. There were no car chases (not at first, anyway). Harry didn’t carry a gun. He relied on city bus services to get him where he wanted to go (a notable accomplishment in San Diego). Harry’s interior voiceovers captured the bruised romanticism of SoCal noirists such as Raymond Chandler and Ross MacDonald and Janssen delivered them in his best world-weary manner. The first episode, Gertrude, won The 1975 Edgar Allan Poe Mystery Writers Award (“the Edgar”) for “best episode in a television series.”
Sadly, the series only lasted two years and even more sadly, it left San Diego behind after only thirteen episodes. For financial reasons, the show was moved to Los Angeles and put Harry in a trailer at Malibu Beach. Not unlike another show which had premiered the same week—The Rockford Files. Apparently there wasn’t enough room for two private eye shows on TV.
The first Rolly Waters mystery was called Black’s Beach Shuffle. Coincidence or subconscious inspiration?
Harry makes a call from Coronado Island, with Downtown San Diego, circa 1975, across the bay.
More reading about Harry O:
The Thrilling Detective – Harry “O” Orwell
Crime Reads – REMEMBERING HARRY O, THE SEVENTIES’ SECOND BEST, MOSTLY FORGOTTEN PRIVATE EYE SERIES
Ray Bradbury Returns
My wife and I moved recently, on Christmas Eve of all things. In geographical distance, the move was less than a mile. But it was still a lot of work and there’s always more stuff to pack than you realize and more challenges setting up a new home than you remember.
But we’re pretty well settled in now. We’ve thrown away some old things, purchased a few new ones, and have finally managed to find a place for everything else. One thing I’m excited about is my new work studio, where I’ve been able to combine all of my creative doings in one place.
You may have noticed some of the art on the walls, which I’ve finally been able to hang in one place. I’ll talk about the photos on the right in a future post, but I wanted to give you a better look at the broadside now hanging over my desk. It’s a poem by Ray Bradbury, entitled THE POET CONSIDERS HIS RESOURCES. I purchased this particular piece just before I graduated from UCLA back in 1982.
My last year in college, I worked at Houle Rare Books & Autographs, a bookshop on the west side of Los Angeles (somewhere near Westwood Blvd and West Pico for you Angelenos). True to its name, the owner specialized in first editions, signed editions, monographs and other collectible volumes of literature. The Ray Bradbury piece was one of the items he had in the shop. I was a Bradbury fan, so when I knew I’d be graduating and moving back to San Diego I offered to buy it. The owner gave me a special deal on the piece. If memory serves, the store’s price was $125 and I got it for $75, but that was a long time ago.
Once I’d settled back in my hometown, I gave the piece to my Mom, as a thank you for helping me get through college (I paid my living expenses; she helped with tuition). I was a big Bradbury fan and he’d actually visited my Mom’s house once for some kind of book club event (sadly I wasn’t there, but I’ve seen the photos).
When Mom passed a few years ago, I took possession of the piece again. And now I’ve found a perfect place for it. I can review it every day when I sit down to write in my new studio. As you’ll see if you read below, it’s a perfect bit of inspiration for us scribblers. Did I mention I got my B.A. in Creative Writing/Poetry?
Corey is (was) a Punk Rocker
A friend recently sent me a link to this auction item at Wright Auctions. It’s a flyer from 1979, designed for the hardcore LA punk band Black Flag. And what band is listed in the third spot for Thurs Oct. 25?
It’s The P-15s. My band at the time. Well gosh, that brings back a lot of memories. Unfortunately none of them involve this particular gig as I don’t remember playing on the same bill as Black Flag and Red Cross (who changed the spelling to Red Kross in 1984). Of course neither of them were influential rock acts at the time. We were all just having a good time—kids rocking out, writing and performing our songs at dozens of Los Angeles clubs.
There was no social media in 1979. One way bands could promote themselves was to make a bunch of cheap flyers announcing their gigs and distributing them wherever they could—record stores, coffee shops and the like. I’ll never forget on first arriving in LA, seeing flyers for The Knack stapled on every telephone pole along West Olympic Boulevard (or maybe it was West Pico). Shortly afterwards, “My Sharona” went to #1 on the pop charts. Every band in town started putting up flyers.
And this Black Flag flyer? It just sold at auction for $1,134. Wait. What? Do I have any old fliers in storage? Are they worth a thousand bucks?
Probably not. Most band’s flyers just listed the name of the band, with a crappy two-tone photo and some performance dates. Black Flag had Raymond Pettibon, guitarist Greg Ginn’s younger brother. He did the art for their flyers, as well as most of the art for SST Records. And now, forty-five years later, his flyers are collectible, punk rock artifacts. As Pettibon himself noted in a 1984 Los Angeles Times article:
“It’ll happen like it did in the ‘60s with the psychedelic posters. Once these kids start growing up and making money, it’ll be a way of recapturing their past. But at that point the art becomes dead. It’s just artifacts.”
I’m not paying a thousand bucks for one of these things but it’s cool to be a small part of a valued artifact. Historical proof of my punk rock credentials (although The P-15s were more power pop) and a reminder of a great adventure.
And what of Pippin’s, the dank little club where we played (they were all dank little clubs). Today it’s a yuppie wine bar called Bodega. The revolution moves on. As do we.
The President’s Visit
I’m reading a manuscript which came my way rather mysteriously a few years ago. It’s a fascinating first-person account of events which took place in San Diego in April of 1891. I can’t discuss the details yet but I am in discussion with interested parties about publishing an annotated edition of the story.
There are some historical events mentioned in the book that I can tell you about, such as the first visit to San Diego by a sitting President of the United States, which occurred on April 23, 1891. That president was Benjamin Harrison.
Harrison was not the most notable of presidents, serving only one term from 1899 to 1893. But for San Diegans of the time, it was a memorable visit. As the San Diego Union reported:
Since the news first came that the nation’s chief executive would confer upon this people the unusual honor of a visit, the leading men and women of San Diego have wasted no time in getting ready to receive their expected guest in fitting style. As a result the city today is decked out in a holiday attire of the national colors; the wall of her principal buildings are hidden behind masses of gay-hued bunting, and every flag is flying triumphantly from the very top of its staff.
The president’s visit was part of a cross-country railroad tour sponsored by railroad magnate Leland Stanford.
The Presidential train will arrive at the depot at 6:30 in the morning. President Harrison will not alight from his special train on his arrival in the city this morning but will be carried on through National City, around the peninsula and directly to the Coronado hotel, where he will have breakfast.*
After breakfasting at the Hotel Del Coronado with guests that included California Governor Henry H. Markham and Baja California Governor Luis E. Torres, Harrison returned by boat across the bay and spoke to a large crowd gathered at Horton Plaza. Then it was back on the train to continue his tour.
The president’s short time in San Diego left a lasting impression. He is reported to have told future President William Taft, “One who has ever breathed this atmosphere would want to live here always.” San Diegans today can still relate.
*Irene Phillips, “Diaries of Frank A. Kimball, California Pioneer, Excerpts and Comments.”