Ed Gorman's Blog, page 174

Interesting material about Dashiell Hammet

From Fred Blosser--thanks Fred:


Ed, I came across this document on the web, a Maryland state historic trust form
and supporting documentation describing Hopewell and Aim, the one-time Hammett
family property in St. Mary's County, MD, where Dashiell Hammett was born in
1894. Very interesting stuff for a Hammett fan; I pass it along for posting on
the blog if you'd like:
http://www.msa.md.gov/megafile/msa/st...
.


There's also a highway marker for Hammett on Great Mills road, near the
property. I don't see a photo on any of the Maryland state sites offhand, but
there's one (with a funny accompanying writeup) on the "Big Read Blog" from
7/14/2008 at http://www.arts.gov/bigreadblog/?cat=... .

Now if only someone could find the files of Hammett's service with the
Pinkertons, so we would know for sure whether Hammett was offered money to
murder labor organizer Frank Little, as the story goes . . . and whether the
reference to the wide-open 1915 boom town of Hopewell, VA, in "Nightmare Town"
reflected Hammett's first-hand experience . . . and the name of the young woman
who didn't tell young Sam in Washington, DC, in 1917 that his work as a private
investigator must be very interesting. From all accounts, sadly, the Pinkerton
records no longer exist.

Fred

Jack Kerouac's Letter To Marlon Brando: 'On The Road' Movie Plea

Jack Kerouac's Letter To Marlon Brando: 'On The Road' Movie Plea
First Posted: 1/6/12 02:22 PM ET Updated: 1/6/12 04:09 PM ET
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Two legendary rebels of the 1950s, one legendary opportunity missed.

Jack Kerouac famously became a recluse, but it turns out he had movie star ambitions. In this 1957 letter, found by a memorabilia expert in 2005 and recently sold at auction by Christie's, the famed beat author asked Marlon Brando to buy the rights to "On the Road" and turn it into a movie -- in which they would both star.

The letter begins:

I'm praying that you'll buy ON THE ROAD and make a movie of it. Don't worry about the structure, I know to compress and re-arrange the plot a bit to give a perfectly acceptable movie-type structure: making it into one all-inclusive trip instead of the several voyages coast-to-coast in the book, one vast round trip from New York to Denver to Frisco to Mexico to New Orleans to New York again. I visualize the beautiful shots could be made with the camera on the front seat of the car showing the road (day and night) unwinding into the windshield, as Sal and Dean yak. I wanted you to play the part because Dean (as you know) is no dopey hotrodder but a real intelligent (in fact Jesuit) Irishman. You play Dean and I'll play Sal (Warner Bros. mentioned I play Sal) and I'll show you how Dean acts in real life.
Sal is the narrator of "On the Road" and a thinly veiled version of Kerouac himself, while Dean represents Neil Cassady. The book sees them travel across the nation a number of times, stopping in Mexico along the way, getting drunk and high experiencing the glories of freedom and the existential terrors of 1950s America.

Kerouac writes that he wants to make the film so that he can establish a healthy bank account for himself and his mother, with whom he was very close. In fact, the letter is addressed from Orlando, where he would spend time living with his mother. But he

So many terrible vampire novels--here's a GREAT one

Maybe I hate so many vampire novels because I know how good the great ones are. I've practically memorized I Am Legend and the same for Salem's Lot. And the same for the-too-seldom mentioned Live Girls by Ray Garton.

I don't know how many times I've reviewed LIVE GIRLS by Ray Garton but I'm going to keep pushing it until every lawn in America has a big sign stating: WE OWN A COPY OF LIVE GIRLS! There'll come a day when you'll be put under house arrest and forced to listen to Rick Santorum discuss his sex tips ten hours a day if you don't have that sign.

What Garton has done is take the tropes of the vampire novel and sexualize them in a way that would have been impossible a quarter century ago. This is a raunchy, gritty, sometimes hilarious and always spellbinding novel set in the universe most of us inhabit. At least most of the time – bosses, lovers, budgets, relatives, etc. Where we depart company with the protagonist is when he starts going to live porn shows and, baby, that's when he starts the long, dark slide into several kinds of death.

Garton nails every character. For all the cult praise laid upon the novel, I've never seen anybody talk about its people. They're great. A few of them I've never seen before anywhere and I don't mean just the vampires. Even the walk-ons have the stink and sass of real people – not necessarily people I'd like to have lunch with, you understand, but real nonetheless. And the writing is sleek and efficient and vivid enough to rattle your dentures in places.

The other thing Garton does is make the sex here both truly seductive and truly scary. You think AIDS is scary? Wait 'til you meet this crew. This is one of the novels I give mystery readers who are leery of horror. It usually meets with effusive approval.
This is one you've got to pick up.

So how soon will YOUR yard sign be going up?

The great fantasy writer Charles Beaumont on pulp fiction

The great fantasy writer Charles Beaumont on pulp fiction

One of the best pieces ever written on the real pulp fiction of the last century was done by Charles Beaumont for Playboy back in 1962. Thanks to Adventurehouse.com the article is available once again in full. I was struck by the opening paragraphs and wonder if kids today are still drawn to books and magazines the way we were or if it's video games and special effects movies that will shape their memories and creative pursuits.

Beaumont:

THERE WAS A RITUAL.

It was dark and mysterious, as rituals ought to be, and—for those who enacted it—a holy and enchanted thing. If you were a prepubescent American male in the Twenties, the Thirties or the Forties, chances are you performed the ritual. If you were a little too tall, a little too short, a little too fat, skinny, pimply, an only child, painfully shy, awkward, scared of girls, terrified of bullies, poor at your schoolwork (not because you weren't bright but because you wouldn't apply yourself), uncomfortable in large crowds, given to brooding, and totally and overwhelmingly convinced of your personal inadequacy in any situation, then you certainly performed it. Which is to say, you worshiped at the shrine of the pulps.

What were the pulps? Cheaply printed, luridly illustrated, sensationally written magazines of fiction aimed at the lower and lower-middle classes. Were they any good? No. They were great.potent literary drug known to boy, and all of us suffer withdrawal symptoms to this day.

No one ever kicked the pulps cold turkey. They were too powerful an influence. Instead, most of us tried to ease off. Having dreamed of owning complete sets, in mint condition, of all the pulp titles ever published, and having realized perhaps a tenth part of the dream—say, 1500 magazines, or a bedroomful—we suffered that vague disenchantment that is the first sign of approaching maturity (16, going on 17, was usually when it happened) and decided to be sensible.

Accordingly, we stopped buying all the new mags as fast as they could appear, and concentrated instead upon a few indispensable items. Gradually we cut down until we were keeping up the files on only three or four, or possibly five or six, publications. After a few years, when we had left high school, we got the number down to two. Which is where most of us stand today. We don't read the magazines, of course. But we go on buying them. Not regularly, and not in any sense because we want to, but

Forgotten Books: Down There by David Goodis

Forgotten Books: Down There by David Goodis from 2010

"Love between the ugly/is the most beautiful love of all."
--Todd Rundgren

I haven't kept up with all the Goodis mania of the past five years or so so forgive me if what I'm about to say has been said not only better but quite often as well.

To me Down There is one of Goodis' finest novels filled with all his strengths and none of his weaknesses. The world here is his natural milieu, the world of America's underclass. Yes, there are working class men and women in Harriet's Hut, the tavern in which a good share of the action happens, but most of the book centers on two people, Eddie Lynn, the strange protagonist and piano player and Lena, the strange somewhat masochistic waitress. They live on pennies.

The story is this: Eddie's brother Turley is a criminal and a criminal being sought by two killers. In defending Turley, allowing him to escape, Eddie himself becomes a target. Not until well into the novel do we learn why the killers want to "talk" to Turley. It takes almost as long to learn Eddie's personal secret, that he was once a Carnegie Hall attraction with a golden future of him. What happened?

Triffault filmed this in the sixties. Much as I like Triffault's films I was disappointed by this one. There is a purity of composition here that Triffault missed entirely. Few crime writers have the skill to vary melodrama and comedy as well as Goodis did. Even fewer have the nerve to extend set pieces the way he does.

For just one example there's a scene where the two killers have captured Eddie and Lena and are taking them to find Turley. The two men, Morris and Feather, begin to argue about Feather's driving. This becomes a mean, bitchy Laurel and Hardy sequence with the heavy threat of violence. This is a kidnapping scene. The comedy isn't foreshadowed. A high risk break in mood. And it works perfectly. And it is three or four times longer than most scenes found in the paperback originals of the time.

The Todd Rundgren quote applies to many of Goodis' lovers and never more so than here. Even by Goodis standards these two people are ugly with failure, with distrust of the world, with contempt for the values most people hold dear and most of all with loathing for what they've become. Goodis breaks your heart with them, especially in the surreal scene in which they are forced to hide out. Lena touches Eddie's arm--one of the first time they have any physical contact of any kind--and it's powerfully erotic because it is charged with desperation and an inkling of trust and forgiveness.

No matter where you look you won't find a novel as unique, and as shrewdly observed (there's a long bar scene that would fit perfectly into The Iceman Cometh) as Down There. I guess it's time I need to get all caught up in this Goodis mania after all.Forgotten Books: Down There by David Goodis
From 2010

"Love between the ugly/is the most beautiful love of all."
--Todd Rundgren

I haven't kept up with all the Goodis mania of the past five years or so so forgive me if what I'm about to say has been said not only better but quite often as well.

To me Down There is one of Goodis' finest novels filled with all his strengths and none of his weaknesses. The world here is his natural milieu, the world of America's underclass. Yes, there are working class men and women in Harriet's Hut, the tavern in which a good share of the action happens, but most of the book centers on two people, Eddie Lynn, the strange protagonist and piano player and Lena, the strange somewhat masochistic waitress. They live on pennies.

The story is this: Eddie's brother Turley is a criminal and a criminal being sought by two killers. In defending Turley, allowing him to escape, Eddie himself becomes a target. Not until well into the novel do we learn why the killers want to "talk" to Turley. It takes almost as long to learn Eddie's personal secret, that he was once a Carnegie Hall attraction with a golden future of him. What happened?

Triffault filmed this in the sixties. Much as I like Triffault's films I was disappointed by this one. There is a purity of composition here that Triffault missed entirely. Few crime writers have the skill to vary melodrama and comedy as well as Goodis did. Even fewer have the nerve to extend set pieces the way he do

For just one example there's a scene where the two killers have captured Eddie and Lena and are taking them to find Turley. The two men, Morris and Feather, begin to argue about Feather's driving. This becomes a mean, bitchy Laurel and Hardy sequence with the heavy threat of violence. This is a kidnapping scene. The comedy isn't foreshadowed. A high risk break in mood. And it works perfectly. And it is three or four times longer than most scenes found in the paperback originals of the time.

The Todd Rundgren quote applies to many of Goodis' lovers and never more so than here. Even by Goodis standards these two people are ugly with failure, with distrust of the world, with contempt for the values most people hold dear and most of all with loathing for what they've become. Goodis breaks your heart with them, especially in the surreal scene in which they are forced to hide out. Lena touches Eddie's arm--one of the first time they have any physical contact of any kind--and it's powerfully erotic because it is charged with desperation and an inkling of trust and forgiveness.

No matter where you look you won't find a novel as unique, and as shrewdly observed (there's a long bar scene that would fit perfectly into The Iceman Cometh) as Down There. I guess it's time I need to get all caught up in this Goodis mania after all.

From Cinema Retro: The Movies Nov 4, 1968

The following news items were in The Hollywood Reporter on November 4, 1968:


Cloris Leachman and Henry Jones have been cast in 20th Century Fox's Butch Cassidy and the Sundance Kid

Neal Hefti has been signed by Howard W. Koch to to arrange and conduct Paramount's On a Clear Day You Can See Forever

You can call Elizabeth Taylor "Myra" for sure unless an unexpected snag develops in the current agreeable negotiations we're not supposed to know anything about...Elizabeth is now Dick Zanuck's number one choice to prove she can play both sexes as his Myra Breckenridge and she is in verbal agreement- no doubt for her usual million bucks plus a piece of the action. (Cinema Retro notes that Raquel Welch ended up playing Myra in the distastrous screen version of the bestseller. Film critic Rex Reed played Myra in her male persona)

In order to allow Burt Lancaster to star in Ross Hunter's Airport at Universal, producer Ira Steiner postoned start of United Artists' Valdez is Coming. Lancaster checks in with writer-director George Seaton on Airport as soon as he winds MGM's The Gypsy Moths.

Now that Dean Martin and Burt Lancaster have been signed for Airport, scribbled on Ross Hunter's memo pad are Natalie Wood, Patricia Neal and Helen Hayes. (Cinema Retro notes that only Hayes was in the film.)

Sammy Davis and Peter Lawford won't be going back to London for their Salt and Pepper sequel. Las Vegas will be the place. (Cinema Retro notes that the sequel, One More Time, directed by Jerry Lewis, was indeed filmed in England.)

Carlo Ponti's Zabriskie Point issued a call for 3000 extras in Las Vegas last week and you should have seen the line that formed! Hear they'll be shooting in Death Valley.[image error]

A new direction for mob series? From The Wrap

Netflix Locks Release Date for Mobster Series 'Lilyhammer'
Published: January 03, 2012 @ 9:59 am

By Kurt Orzeck
Netflix is no longer hunting down a release date for "Lilyhammer," its new original series starring Steven Van Zandt as a mobster in witness protection. The first eight episodes of the comedy-drama's first season will be available for online streaming in the U.S., Canada and Latin America starting Feb. 6.


Netflix had said it was planning a first-quarter rollout for the show, in which the E Street Band guitarist plays a mobster reminiscent of his "Sopranos" character, Silvio Dante.

Also read: Netflix Stock Plunge: Will Reed Hastings' Hubris Bring Down an Internet Meteor?

The one-hour show -- which is set in Lillehammer, Norway, where New York transplant Frank "The Fixer" Tagliano tries to make a new life for himself -- was developed by and is a production of Norway's Rubicon TV AS. "Lilyhammer" will also air on Norwegian TV, Netflix Chief Content Officer Ted Sarandos recently told TheWrap.

"It's a very quirky, funny, serious show that I think people are really going to love," he said. "It's a really fun thing to watch, because it is a really familiar character in a totally unfamiliar place. It's [like] 'Northern Exposure' meets 'Sopranos.' "

"I am very careful with my choices and this project was so exciting to me because of the wonderful writing, the rich characters and the fascinating culture of Norway," Van Zandt, who is also executive producing the show, said in a statement. "Netflix is the perfect home for such a unique show."

Among the other original series Netflix has planned is David Fincher's "House of Cards," due in the fourth quarter or early 2013. The company is also planning to relaunch "Arrested Development" next year.

Also read: Ted Sarandos: 'Negative Momentum' at Netflix Will Turn Around in December

"Lilyhammer" was created by Anne Bjornstad and Eilif Skodvin and developed by Rubicon TV AS. It was written by Bjornstad, Skodvin and Van Zandt. Trond Berg Nilsen and Agnete Thuland are producing, while Lasse Hallberg and Van Zandt are executive producing.

Here's the trailer for "Lilyhammer": http://www.thewrap.com/tv/article/net...

Carol Gorman is one lucky lady

Carol and I celebrated our Thirtieth wedding anniversary today. We kept to our long held tradition of sharing a Spam loaf and listening to me sing "You're Once, Twice, Three Times A lady." My version isn't like Lionel Richie's at all. It's more like Newman's on Seinfeld when his mail truck was on fire. My beautiful Carol rescued and redeemed me and gave me the kind of life I'd always wanted but never had. I sure do love you, honey.

Strange maybe cool film news

Helen Mirren To Play Alfred Hitchcock's Wife In 'The Making Of Psycho'?

First Posted: 8/12/11 12:33 GMT Updated: 8/12/11 12:37 GMT
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Dame Helen Mirren is apparently in talks to play Alfred Hitchcock's wife in a forthcoming biopic.

The Oscar-winning star could be portraying Alma Reville opposite Sir Anthony Hopkins as the legendary filmmaker in Sacha Gervasi's Alfred Hitchcock And The Making Of Psycho, according to The Hollywood Reporter.

The film would focus on the director's passion for Psycho - despite Paramount's reported disapproval - and how he backed the movie through his own production company, built his own sets and used crew members from his TV show, Alfred Hitchcock Presents.

It would be the second film about the famed filmmaker, following The Girl starring Toby Jones and Sienna Miller.

The BBC Two drama, to be screened next year, centres on the director's obsessive relationship with leading lady Tippi Hedren.

Alfred Hitchcock And The Making Of Psycho is expected to start shooting next April.

Religious Sex-Toy Sites Vow to Save Marriages

Ed here: I thought I'd start the New Year on a positive, helpful note. I have to say I find this a much more dignified and honest pitch (seriously) than the scurrilous Christian MIngle with "Find God's match for you" or whatever. If I were a devout Christian I would find the notion of God as a pimp blasphemous.

Huffington Post:

Religious Sex-Toy Sites Vow to Save Marriages
Christian, Jewish, and Muslim entrepreneurs have launched 'religious' sex-toy shops online in an effort to improve pious couples' sex lives—and strengthen the marital bond. Allison Yarrow investigates: what makes a vibrator holy?

by Allison Yarrow | December 30, 2011 4:45 AM EST
Joyce's sex life can be divided into two acts: before and after the Turbo 8 Accelerator. 



The evangelical Christian from California's central valley had never had an orgasm alone nor with her husband of 25 years. "I didn't know I wasn't having one," the 59-year-old mother of two told The Daily Beast. Yet after chatting with some church girlfriends, she learned what she was missing. "'All that happens to you?'" she asked. "They looked at me like I was crazy."
Joyce, who requested that we use only her first name, and her equally devout spouse never would have found the bullet-shaped vibrator or the array of "marital aids" they've ordered since, if it wasn't for the Christian sex toy website Book 22—introduced to her by a friend after their chat. "I'm a Christian, but this is awesome," she said. "It was like being newlyweds again."
Photos: 'Holy' Sex Toys


Christian, Jewish and Muslim entrepreneurs have launched 'religious' sex toy shops online, in an effort to improve pious couples' sex lives—and strengthen the marital bond. , Charles Benavidez / Getty Images

Sex and religion have long been perceived to be at odds, with carnal pleasures representing sin more than saintliness. Yet in recent years, a handful of savvy Christian, Jewish and Muslim entrepreneurs have embraced the notion that the two can coexist in a way that jibes with doctrine—and even glorifies traditional values by strengthening marriages.
Enter the religious sex-toy industry, which carefully markets and sells a range of sexual-pleasure products to the faithful. With the voice and disposition of a summer-camp director, Joy Wilson founded Book 22 a decade ago, when she had trouble "getting her body to respond" to her husband after their second child, and her online search for remedies yielded scandalous imagery that offended more than it helped. The pioneering site, named after the Biblical book also known as the Song of Solomon, now faces growing competition from rival vendors including Hooking Up Holy, Intimacy of Eden, and Covenant Spice.

And the industry grew exponentially this fall with the launch of the Orthodox Jewish shop Kosher Sex Toys, and last year with the Muslim vendor El Asira. The sites even enjoy the support of many community leaders. "Religious people do it like everybody else," said David Ribner, a rabbi and sex therapist based in Israel, who works as a consultant for Kosher Sex Toys. "Why shouldn't they have access to toys that make their lives more satisfying?"

To be clear, the "religious people" targeted are married, heterosexual religious people; pious sex-toy vendors market their products exclusively to these couples. Unlucky in love and looking for some solitary fun after morning prayers? Look elsewhere.

What happens in the heterosexual marital bed, however, should be nothing short of transcendent, say the site owners, who happily report that their holy books not only permit sexual fulfillment between partners, but require it. "If a man is unable to please a woman in bed, she can divorce him," said Abdelaziz Aouragh, a 30-year-old Dutch Muslim businessman who founded El Asira—stressing the Islamic belief that "man and woman must reach their peak" during intercourse, and that only then is the "deed complete."

The burgeoning niche, part of the roughly $15 billion sex-toy industry, reports that business has been steadily growing, with most sites shipping a few hundred orders per month. Clients usually find them through Google, say the owners, or a thoughtful religious leader or astute sex therapist. The vendors use many of the same distributors as secular shops, with most products made in China. Gavriel, a 25-year-old furniture salesman who owns Kosher Sex Toys (and asked that we use only his middle name) stressed in an interview, "There's nothing wrong with having all the sex you want." 


To an outsider, visiting the religious sites feels a bit like listening to the bleeped-out version of an explicit hip-hop song: the substance is the same, it's just missing the X-rated details. None of the sites feature any nudity, instead relying on mannequins to display lingerie. Nor do they feature any sexy language. Kosher Sex Toys, for example, rewrites product descriptions that risk shocking its audience. (The "Butterfly Clitoris Stimulator" becomes, simply, the "Vibrating Stimulator.") And while they don't flaunt their holiness, they'll occasionally rely on religious messaging to sell themselves, or perhaps put potential customers at ease. Book 22, for example, promises to "enhance the intimate life of all God's children."

The "piousness" of the products themselves comes down to packaging and presentation. Book 22's Wilson, who is 22 and lives in central Oregon, repackages plastics in plain boxes and includes additional care instructions. Kosher Sex Toys's Gavriel also removes items from offensive packaging before shipping. Meanwhile, El Asira's Aouragh only stocks brands that arrive in tasteful and inoffensive wrappings.

Despite consistencies across the religious sites, the vendors do vary based on doctrine, audience, and each owner's preferences. Wilson refuses to sell anal devices and condoms, not because she objects, but because her customers do. "The Catholics protested the condoms, and the evangelical Christian community is sensitive about anal sex and play," she said. "But I'll special order anything if people ask."

Aouragh, who rejects the term "sex shop," preferring to say that he's in the business of "sexual well-being," sells only Sharia-compliant items. Meaning: no vibrators, dildos, or drugs that claim to enhance size or use, because these items misinterpret the male form. The homepage for El Asira, which means "The Society" in Arabic, is partitioned by gender, with two ornate mosque doors—and while it carries women's lingerie and a range of massage products, oils and lubricants sell best.

Meanwhile, Kosher Sex Toys' Gavriel won't stock male masturbatory aids because, he says, God frowns on wasted potential, according to the Torah. However, since Judaism doesn't prohibit female self-pleasure, he carries myriad trinkets that buzz. He also proudly sells whips and drip candles; performance-enhancing pills and sprays; clear-heeled shoes and thigh-high boots; and a variety of handcuffs, restraints, and tools for cutting them off.

"You can't buy love and respect between a man and a woman," said Aouragh. "But we're trying to be creative and clever in selling it."

And at least one customer is grateful for this inventory. Yaakov, a 25-year-old ultra-Orthodox Jewish salesman from New Jersey who preferred not to use his last name, views the site as a godsend. Shortly into his marriage, he discovered that he suffered from premature ejaculation, and his therapist, who works with many Orthodox couples, prescribed him "marital aids," and directed him to Kosher Sex Toys. Without getting into detail, Yaakov told The Daily Beast simply, "It should be considered a mitzvah to use these things."

 Of course, many religious leaders and worshipers disagree. Rabbi Avi Shafran, who works in communications at an Orthodox communal organization in New York City, said in an email that Kosher Sex Toys is "about as immodest—in the definition of the Jewish religious tradition—as one can get." He describes Judaism's stance on sexual intimacy as "sublime" and "holy," but believes toys taint this intention.

Indeed, navigating ingrained religious beliefs, and misconceptions, about sex and pleasure poses a continuous challenge for site owners, who have either taken it upon themselves to advise clients or enlisted the help of experts. Wilson pursued a master's degree in counseling to better help her customers. And Kosher Sex Toys keeps the rabbi and sex therapist Ribner on call as a licensed authority on both sex and scripture. Because of a lack of proper sex education, Ribner said, religious couples often suffer from misguided advice. "One couple was told that if the woman does not like sex, she should take two Tylenol and finish as quickly as possible," he said. In his work with Kosher Sex Toys, he has advised on topics ranging from the science of erectile dysfunction to the morality of spanking a partner.

Ultimately, across religions, owners share the same lofty goal: to help fellow (married) worshipers find happiness and peace behind closed doors. "You can't buy love and respect between a man and a woman," said Aouragh. "But we're trying to be creative and clever in selling it."

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