Boston Blackie#Films
{{Short description|Fictional character created by author Jack Boyle}}
{{About|the fictional noir pulp hero|the Chicago bluesman|Boston Blackie (guitarist)}}
{{Use mdy dates|date=March 2025}}
{{Infobox character
| name = Boston Blackie
| series =
| image = 282px
| caption = "Unhurried and without excitement, but quickly,
Boston Blackie forced drawer after drawer"—
N. C. Wyeth illustrated "The Price of Principle" (1914) for The American Magazine
| first = "The Price of Principle" (1914)
| last =
| creator = Jack Boyle
| gender = Male
| occupation = Jewel thief, safecracker, detective
}}
Boston Blackie is a fictional character created by author Jack Boyle (1881–1928). Blackie was originally depicted as a jewel thief and safecracker in Boyle's stories, and became a private detective in adaptations for films, radio and television where he was described as an "enemy to those who make him an enemy, friend to those who have no friend."
Actor Chester Morris played the character in 14 Columbia Pictures films (1941–1949) and in a 1944 NBC radio series.
Jack Boyle
Writer Jack Boyle was born in Oakland, California, and grew up in the San Francisco Bay Area. While working as a newspaper editor in San Francisco, he became an opium addict and was drawn into crime to support his habit.{{cite magazine |last1=No. 6066 (pen name)|last2=Boyle|first2=Jack |date=April 1914 |title=A Modern Opium Eater |url=https://babel.hathitrust.org/cgi/pt?id=mdp.39015056072435&seq=557 |magazine=The American Magazine |access-date=28 Jan 2024}} He was sent to San Quentin for writing bad checks. Later convicted of robbery in Denver, Colorado, Boyle was serving time at the Colorado State Penitentiary when he created the character of Boston Blackie.{{cite web|title=IN SEARCH OF JACK BOYLE|url=https://jackboylefan.wordpress.com/|last=Ladnier|first=Curt|accessdate=28 Jan 2024}}{{cite news|date=26 Oct 1928|title=The Denver Post|page=1|last=Humphreys|first=Ray}}
Books
The first four stories appeared in The American Magazine in 1914, with Boyle writing under the pen name "No. 6066". From 1917 to 1919, Boston Blackie stories appeared in The Red Book magazine, and from 1918 they were adapted for motion pictures.{{cite book |last=Backer |first=Ron |date=2010 |title=Mystery Movie Series of 1940s Hollywood |location=Jefferson, North Carolina, and London |publisher=McFarland & Company|isbn=978-0-7864-4864-7}}{{Rp|149}}
When Boston Blackie began to find success on the screen, Boyle edited the Red Book magazine stories into a book, Boston Blackie (1919). He revised and rearranged the order of the stories to create a cohesive narrative—a common practice at the time known in publishing as a fixup. This was the only appearance of Boston Blackie in book form, but his adventures continued to appear in periodicals.{{Rp|149–150}}{{cite book |last=Boyle |first=Jack |date=1919 |title=Boston Blackie |url=https://catalog.hathitrust.org/Record/100338414 |location=New York |publisher=A. L. Burt |oclc=11311055 }}
=Short stories=
File:Boston-Blackie-1919-FE.jpg
| class="wikitable sortable" |
| Year
! Title ! Publisher ! class="unsortable" | Publication date ! class="unsortable" | Notes |
|---|
| 1914
| "{{sortname|The|Price of Principle|nolink=1}}" | {{sortname|The|American Magazine}} | July 1914 | As No. 6066{{cite magazine |last=Boyle |first=Jack |date=July 1914 |title=The Price of Principle |url=https://babel.hathitrust.org/cgi/pt?id=mdp.39015056072427;view=1up;seq=19 |magazine=The American Magazine |access-date=2016-08-27 }} |
| 1914
| "{{sortname|The|Story About Dad Morgan|nolink=1}}" | {{sortname|The|American Magazine|nolink=1}} | August 1914 |
| 1914
| "Death Cell Visions" | {{sortname|The|American Magazine|nolink=1}} | September 1914 |
| 1914
| "{{sortname|A|Thief's Daughter|nolink=1}}" | {{sortname|The|American Magazine|nolink=1}} | October 1914 |
| 1917
| "Boston Blackie's Mary" | {{sortname|The|Red Book Magazine|Redbook}} | November 1917 |
| 1917
| "{{sortname|The|Woman Called Rita|nolink=1}}" | {{sortname|The|Red Book Magazine|nolink=1}} | December 1917 |
| 1918
| "Fred the Count" | {{sortname|The|Red Book Magazine|nolink=1}} | January 1918 |
| 1918
| "Miss Doris, Safe-Cracker" | {{sortname|The|Red Book Magazine|nolink=1}} | May 1918 |
| 1918
| "Boston Blackie's Little Pal" | {{sortname|The|Red Book Magazine|nolink=1}} | June 1918 |
| 1918
| "Alibi Ann" | {{sortname|The|Red Book Magazine|nolink=1}} | July 1918 |
| 1918
| "Miss Doris's 'Raffles'" | {{sortname|The|Strand Magazine}} | August 1918 | {{cite magazine |last=Boyle |first=Jack |date=August 1918 |title=Miss Doris's "Raffles" |url=https://babel.hathitrust.org/cgi/pt?id=mdp.39015056050035;view=1up;seq=93 |magazine=The Strand Magazine |access-date=2016-08-27 }} |
| 1918
| "{{sortname|The|Poppy Girl's Husband|nolink=1}}" | {{sortname|The|Red Book Magazine|nolink=1}} | October 1918 |
| 1918
| "{{sortname|A|Problem in Grand Larceny|nolink=1}}" | {{sortname|The|Red Book Magazine|nolink=1}} | December 1918 |
| 1919
| "{{sortname|An|Answer in Grand Larceny|nolink=1}}" | {{sortname|The|Red Book Magazine|nolink=1}} | January 1919 |
| 1919
| "{{sortname|The|Third Degree|nolink=1}}" | {{sortname|The|Strand Magazine|nolink=1}} | April 1919 | {{cite magazine |last=Boyle |first=Jack |date=April 1919 |title=The Third Degree |url=https://babel.hathitrust.org/cgi/pt?id=mdp.39015056050027;view=1up;seq=352 |magazine=The Strand Magazine |access-date=2016-08-27 }} |
| 1919
| "{{sortname|The|Daughter of Mother McGinn|nolink=1}}" | June 1919 | {{cite magazine |last=Boyle |first=Jack |date=June 1919 |title=The Daughter of Mother McGinn |url=https://babel.hathitrust.org/cgi/pt?id=mdp.39015082474985;view=1up;seq=31 |magazine=Cosmopolitan |access-date=2016-08-27 }} |
| 1919
| "Alias Prince Charming" | Cosmopolitan | July 1919 |
| 1919
| "Black Dan" | Cosmopolitan | October 1919 |
| 1919
| "{{sortname|The|Water-Cross|nolink=1}}" | Cosmopolitan | November 1919 | {{cite magazine |last=Boyle |first=Jack |date=November 1919 |title=The Water-Cross |url=https://babel.hathitrust.org/cgi/pt?id=mdp.39015082474985;view=1up;seq=781 |magazine=Cosmopolitan |access-date=2016-08-27 }} |
| 1920
| "Grandad's Girl" | Cosmopolitan | March 1920 |
| 1920
| "{{sortname|The|Face in the Fog|nolink=1}}" | Cosmopolitan | May 1920 | {{cite magazine |last=Boyle |first=Jack |date=May 1920 |title=The Face in the Fog |url=https://babel.hathitrust.org/cgi/pt?id=mdp.39015030763745;view=1up;seq=765 |magazine=Cosmopolitan |access-date=2016-08-27 }} |
| 1920
| "{{sortname|The|Painted Child|nolink=1}}" | Cosmopolitan | October 1920 | {{cite magazine |last=Boyle |first=Jack |date=October 1920 |title=The Painted Child |url=https://babel.hathitrust.org/cgi/pt?id=mdp.39015030763026;view=1up;seq=615 |magazine=Cosmopolitan |access-date=2016-08-27 }} |
| 1920
| "Boomerang Bill" | Cosmopolitan | December 1920 | {{cite magazine |last=Boyle |first=Jack |date=December 1920 |title=Boomerang Bill |url=https://babel.hathitrust.org/cgi/pt?id=mdp.39015030763026;view=1up;seq=985 |magazine=Cosmopolitan |access-date=2016-08-27 }} |
Films
File:Boston Blackie's Little Pal (1918) - 2.jpg (Mary) and Bert Lytell (Boston Blackie) in Boston Blackie's Little Pal (1918), a lost film{{cite web |url=http://www.silentera.com/PSFL/data/B/BostonBlackiesLittlePa1918.html |title=Boston Blackie's Little Pal |website=Progressive Silent Film List |publisher=Silent Era |access-date=2016-08-26}}]]
The earliest Boston Blackie film adaptations were silent, dating from 1918 to 1927. Columbia Pictures revived the property in 1941 with Meet Boston Blackie, a fast, 58-minute B movie starring Chester Morris. Although the running time was brief, Columbia gave the picture good production values and an imaginative director, Robert Florey. The film was successful, and a series followed.
In the Columbia features, Boston Blackie is a reformed jewel thief who is always suspected when a daring crime is committed. In order to clear himself, he investigates personally and brings the actual culprit to justice, sometimes using disguises. An undercurrent of comedy runs throughout the action/detective series.
In one of these films, After Midnight with Boston Blackie, the character's real name was revealed to be Horatio Black.
Morris gave the Blackie character his own personal charm: he could be light and flippant or stern and dangerous, as the situation demanded. His sidekick, the Runt, was always on hand to help his old friend. George E. Stone played Runt in all but the first and last films. Charles Wagenheim and Sid Tomack, respectively, substituted for Stone when he was not available.
Blackie's friendly adversaries were Inspector Farraday{{efn|The surname of Boston Blackie's police adversary was spelled Faraday in only the first film, Meet Boston Blackie. In all subsequent films it was spelled Farraday.}} of the police (played in all the films and the radio series by Richard Lane) and his assistant, Sergeant Matthews. Matthews was originally played as a hapless victim of circumstance by Walter Sande; he was replaced by Lyle Latell, who played it dumber, and then by comedian Frank Sully, who played it even dumber.
Blackie and Runt were often assisted in their endeavors by their friends: the cheerful but easily flustered millionaire Arthur Manleder (almost always played by Lloyd Corrigan; Harry Hayden and Harrison Greene each played the role once), and the streetwise pawnbroker Jumbo Madigan (played by Cy Kendall or Joseph Crehan). A variety of actresses including Rochelle Hudson, Harriet Hilliard, Adele Mara and Ann Savage took turns playing various gal Friday characters.
The films are highly typical of Columbia's B movies of the 1940s, with an assortment of veteran character actors (including Clarence Muse, Marvin Miller, George Lloyd, Byron Foulger), new faces on the way up (Larry Parks, Dorothy Malone, Nina Foch, Forrest Tucker, Lloyd Bridges) and stock-company players familiar from Columbia's features, serials, and short subjects (Kenneth MacDonald, George McKay, Eddie Laughton, John Tyrrell). The series was also a useful training ground for promising directors, including Edward Dmytryk, Oscar Boetticher, William Castle, and finally Seymour Friedman, who went on to work prolifically in Columbia's television department. The Boston Blackie series ran until 1949.
=Filmography=
{{multiple image
| align = right
| direction = vertical
| width = 220
| image1 =Boston Blackie's Little Pal (1918) 1.jpg
| alt1 =
| caption1 =Joey Jacobs and Bert Lytell in Boston Blackie's Little Pal (1918)
| image2 =The Face in the Fog (1922) film poster.jpg
| alt2 =
| caption2 =Poster for The Face in the Fog (1922), starring Lionel Barrymore
| image3 =Boston-Blackie-1923-Poster.jpg
| alt3 =
| caption3 =Poster for Boston Blackie (1923), starring William Russell
}}
Radio
{{Main|Boston Blackie (radio series)}}
{{blockquote|Boston Blackie—enemy to those who make him an enemy, friend to those who have no friend.|Boston Blackie radio series{{cite book |last=Dunning |first=John |title=On the Air: The Encyclopedia of Old-Time Radio |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=Fi5wPDBiGfMC&dq=%22Boston+Blackie,+Detective+Drama%22&pg=PA110 |year=1998 |publisher=Oxford University Press |location=New York, NY |isbn=978-0-19-507678-3 |page=110 |edition=Revised |access-date=2019-08-08}}}}
Concurrent with the Columbia Pictures films, a Boston Blackie radio series—also starring Chester Morris—aired on NBC June 23 – September 15, 1944, as a summer replacement for Amos 'n' Andy. Lesley Woods played Blackie's girlfriend Mary Wesley; Richard Lane played Inspector Farraday. Harlow Wilcox was the announcer for the 30-minute program.{{cite web|url=http://radiogoldindex.com/cgi-local/p2.cgi?ProgramName=Boston+Blackie |title=Boston Blackie |publisher=RadioGOLDINdex |access-date=2016-08-28}}{{cite web|url=http://www.digitaldeliftp.com/DigitalDeliToo/dd2jb-Boston-Blackie.html |title=Boston Blackie |publisher=Digital Deli Too |access-date=2016-08-28}}
A new incarnation of the Boston Blackie radio series aired April 11, 1945 – October 25, 1950, starring Richard Kollmar. Maurice Tarplin played Inspector Farraday; Jan Miner was Mary. More than 200 half-hour episodes were transcribed and syndicated by Frederick Ziv to Mutual and other network outlets.
Television
{{Main|Boston Blackie (TV series)}}
File:Promotional photograph of cast of 1950's television show "Boston Blackie.".jpg (Boston Blackie), Lois Collier (Mary Wesley) and Frank Orth (Inspector Farraday) pose with Whitie in TV's Boston Blackie (1951–53)]]
Kent Taylor starred in the Ziv-produced half-hour TV series Boston Blackie. Syndicated in September 1951, it ran for 58 episodes, lasting until 1953,{{Citation needed |date=November 2021}} continuing in repeats over the following decade. Lois Collier appeared as Mary Wesley and Frank Orth was Inspector Farraday.{{cite magazine|last1=Dinan|first1=John|title=Boston Illegal|magazine=Nostalgia Digest|date=Spring 2015|volume=41|issue=2|pages=50–52}} The series was set in Los Angeles; Mary and Blackie had a dog named Whitie, and comedy sometimes took precedence over crime.
Television historian Tim Brooks in The Complete Directory to Prime Time Network and Cable TV Shows 1946–Present described Boston Blackie as "a memorable B-grade television series … The term 'B' is used in all the best senses: a certain vitality and sense of humor substituted more than adequately for the normal criteria of expensive production and famous stars."{{cite book |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=w8KztFy6QYwC&dq=%22Boston+Blackie+(Detective+Drama)%22&pg=PA169 |author-link1=Tim Brooks (television historian) |first1=Tim |last1=Brooks |first2=Earle |last2=Marsh |title=The Complete Directory to Prime Time Network and Cable TV Shows 1946–Present |edition=9 |date=2007 |page=169 |location=New York |publisher=Ballantine Books |isbn=978-0-345-49773-4 |access-date=2019-08-07 }}
Graphic novels
Scripter Stefan Petrucha and artist Kirk Van Wormer created the graphic novel Boston Blackie (Moonstone Books, 2002) with a cover by Tim Seelig. A jewel heist at a costume ball goes horribly wrong, and the five-year-old son of the wealthy Greene family disappears and is presumed dead; the body is never found. The main suspect is Boston Blackie, who is still haunted seven years later by what happened that night. Drawn back into the case, he finds that the truth of what happened that night is awash in a watery grave. A sequel to the graphic novel was published years later.{{cite book |last1=Petrucha |first1=Stefan |last2=Van Wormer |first2=Kirk |title=Boston Blackie |date=2002 |publisher=Moonstone |location=Calumet City |isbn=978-0972166805}}
In popular culture
{{more citations needed section|date=August 2016}}
- In the 1955 film Tight Spot, Ginger Rogers exclaims "Well, aren't we the real life-size Boston Blackies."
- In a 1957 song Searchin by The Coasters, there is a reference to "Sergeant Friday, Charlie Chan and Boston Blackie."
- A 1957 Daffy Duck cartoon, Boston Quackie, is a direct parody of the television serial, with Daffy as the detective – who needs everyone else's help to solve his case.
- Jimmy Buffett's song "Pencil Thin Mustache" references Boston Blackie, as do some versions of "The Wabash Cannonball".
- Boston Blackie's Restaurant{{cite web|url=http://www.bostonblackies.com/|title=Boston Blackie's Restaurant}} was a bar and grill with locations in Chicago and Deerfield, Illinois.
- In a 1967 episode of Bewitched ("Samantha's Thanksgiving to Remember", Season 4, Episode 12), "Boston Blackie" is mentioned in fond remembrance by Aunt Clara (Marion Lorne), who confuses him as attending the First Thanksgiving with famous Pilgrims.
- In Errol Morris' 1988 documentary The Thin Blue Line, interviewee Emily Miller cites Boston Blackie as an inspiration for wanting to become a "detective, or the wife of a detective." The film's score by Philip Glass also has a cue titled "Boston Blackie."
- In Chuck E. Weiss's 2014 release, Red Beans and Weiss, track 3 is entitled "Boston Blackie" and comprises four verses, sandwiching three repetitions of the chorus; the chorus lyrics include "I'm just like Boston Blackie, yes I am", and, derived from the original stories, "Friends to those who have no friends".{{cite web |url=http://www.anti.com/releases/red-beans-and-weiss/tracks/boston-blackie/ |website=Anti- |title=Boston Blackie}}
- In a 2007 television episode of Mad Men, when talking about John F. Kennedy as a potential opponent for 1960 presidential candidate Richard M. Nixon, character Bert Cooper says, "It's going to be Kennedy. 'Boston Blackie' won West Virginia."
- In chapter 7 of the 2007 novel Now and Then by Robert B. Parker, Hawk refers to Spenser as 'Boston Blackie' after Spenser directs him to "Follow that car."
See also
References
Informational notes
{{notelist}}
Citations
{{reflist}}
Bibliography
- Pitts, Michael R. Famous Movie Detectives. Scarecrow Press, 1979. {{ISBN|0-8108-1236-3}}.
- [http://www.old-time.com/otrlogs2/bosblack_dj.log.txt Judge, Dick. "Chronological listing": Boston Blackie]
External links
{{Commons category|Boston Blackie}}
- {{IMDb title|id=0043182|title=Boston Blackie}}
- [http://www.bostonblackie.org "Boston Blackie"]
- [http://otrsite.com/logs/logb1010.htm Jerry Haendiges Vintage Radio Logs: Boston Blackie]
- {{epguides|BostonBlackie}}
- [http://www.thrillingdetective.com/boston.html Thrilling Detective]
- {{librivox book | title=Boston Blackie | author=Jack Boyle}}
Radio shows
- {{InternetArchiveOTR|id=BostonBlackie|title=Boston Blackie collection 1 (June 1944 through April 1947)}}
- {{InternetArchiveOTR|id=BostonBlackie2|title=Boston Blackie collection 2 (April 1947 through June 1949)}}
- {{InternetArchiveOTR|id=otr_bostonblackie|title=Higher-quality copies of some Boston Blackie shows (June 1944 through July 1945)}}
- [http://zootradio.com/Boston_Blackie.php Zoot Radio, free 'Boston Blackie' old time radio show downloads, over 390 episodes.]
Category:Literary characters introduced in 1914
Category:Male characters in literature
Category:Male characters in radio
Category:Male characters in television
Category:Film series introduced in 1918
Category:Columbia Pictures franchises
Category:American radio dramas
Category:1944 radio programme debuts
Category:1944 radio programme endings
Category:1940s American radio programs
Category:Detective radio shows
Category:Radio programmes based on novels
Category:Television series by MGM Television