DAN TURNER, HOLLYWOOD DETECTIVE in "Alibi Policy" by Bellem & Barreaux

DAN TURNER, HOLLYWOOD DETECTIVE in "Careless Corpse" by Robert Leslie Bellem

                                                                                                

                                                                                                   

Forgotten Books: HALF-PAST MORTEM by John A. Saxon (Robert Leslie Bellem?)

I hunted this book down sometime back in the '80s, because it was said to be written by Hollywood Detective author Robert Leslie Bellem. Googling the title now, I see it's available in POD, and still credited to Bellem.

Chances are that's true, but I'd like to see the evidence. Was there a clue found in his papers? Did his wife or agent or writer friend say so in an interview? Bill Pronzini listed the book as ghost-written by Bellem in Gun in Cheek back in 1982, but cites no source. I ain't disbelieving, just wondering out loud.

Half-Past Mortem, published in 1947, was the second book in a series (of two) featuring insurance investigator Sam Whelpton. Several online sources also list Bellem as the author of the first Whelpton book, Liability Limited, too, but I discount that as mere assumption. On the Mystery File, Steve Lewis makes the educated guess that Bellem may have been a friend of Saxon's, and stepped in after the guy the wrote the first book and died. But he admits it's only a guess.

"John, a Saxon" is a mystery, too. It's about as subtle a pen name as "Pierre A. Frank" or "Giuseppe A. Paisono." So who was he really?

I have not read (or even seen) Liability Limited, so I'm no help on that end. As for Half-Past Mortem, all I can deduce for sure is that the author was at least an acquaintance of Bellem. That evidence appears on page 163 (of 250), when Whelpton impersonates a phone company employee to find out who a number belongs to. He tells us this:

     I manufactured a name and address out of thin air. "Is this Mrs. Belle M. Leslie of four-fifty-five North Raymond Street?"

Sure, that could have been Bellem playing games, but it could just as easily have been W.T. Ballard or another friend giving him a shout out. And why "Raymond Street" instead of "Robert Street"? Who's Raymond?  And speaking of Ballard, it seems possible he could have been a co-author, as he was on Shady Lady and several of the Jim Anthony pulp novels in Super-Detective.
  

The book offers no other solid clues. The first person narration is nothing like that of Dan Turner, but that doesn't disqualify it, because Bellem wrote in many different styles. The only Turnerish word in the whole book is "yapped," and that's used only once. There are several lines reminiscent of Dan Turner's interest in women, but that sort of thing was common in detective fiction of the time:

     A few minutes later Natalie came out, clad in white slacks and a rose-colored sweater. I noticed she was wearing slacks a long time after I noticed that she wore a sweater.

     I glanced at Burdick, but he wasn't looking at me. His eyes were on Gloria's well-filled nylons. I had noticed her legs myself and at another time I would have been more appreciative. Right now I wasn't. 

     I walked out into the reception room. As I did, Dupont's buzzer rang and Doris picked up some papers, started toward his office.
     She sure looked good from the rear.

As a novel, Half-Past Mortem is nothing special, but there's nothing wrong with it, either. I enjoyed reading it, and probably would have even without the Bellem connection. I give it one thumb up.

Dan Turner, HOLLYWOOD DETECTIVE in "The Big Shiv" (1947)

Here's Dan in a genuine pulp adventure from the June 1947 ish of Hollywood Detective. You're welcome, Mojo Man.

Dan Turner, HOLLYWOOD DETECTIVE in Color! "The Poisoned Puppet" (1953)

Sadly, this is likely the last in our Dan Turner in Color series. This one appeared in Crime Smashers #15, from March 1953, which was the final issue of that mag (uploaded to comicbookplus, I should add, by "narfstar"), with the art attributed to Tony Tallarico.  One more story appeared, we are told, in Crime Mysteries #8, but that one does not appear on the site, and it ain't likely I'll be able to find (or afford) a copy of my own.  If anyone out there has that one, and would care to scan it for us, legions of Turner fans would be mighty thankful!

Meanwhile, I still have many more issues of Hollywood Detective, and will be posting more of Dan's black & white adventures as time rambles on.

Forgotten Stories: Dan Turner in BULLET FROM NOWHERE by Robert Leslie Bellem (1935)

A few days back I found a great surprise in my mailbox (and by this I mean the old-fashioned, nearly-defunct kind that hangs on the front of my house): This premier issue of Dan Turner, Hollywood Detective, published way back in January 1942. It was sent, I learned, by a generous gent named Dale Goble, a frequent peruser of this humble blog. Thanks, Gobe!

In honor of the occassion, I'm posting the cover attraction here for all the world to enjoy. "Bullet from Nowhere," like five of other stories in this mag, was reprinted from Spicy Detective (in this case from April 1935). The remaining story, also a Dan Turner yarn, appeared in a 1937 issue of Private Detective Stories.

Our Man Dan, I may have mentioned in past posts, was a very busy fellow. Debuting in February 1934, in the second issue of Spicy Detective, he appeared in the next 102 issues of that mag. In 1943 the title was changed to Speed Detective, where he starred in 28 more issues. 

Dan Turner, Hollywood Detective ran ten issues, each of which contained between six and eight Dan stories. Some of those were reprints from Spicy, but most were new. That title changed to just plain Hollywood Detective, running another 49 issues and finally bowing out as a digest in 1950. Most of those 49 contained between two and five Dan stories, and most also sported an eight-page comic book adventure of Dan. 

How many stories does that make? I don't know. It almost broke my brain figuring how many mags he appeared in. I don't know if anyone's ever come up with a definitve number, but it's a big one.

And Dan refuses to die. Since 1981, his tales have been reprinted in hardcover, trade paperback, oversized trade paperback, tiny paperback, chapbook, pulp facsimile and ebook formats. Some of the comic book adventures were reprinted in regular comic books in the '50s, and later in other editions. Eternity comics issued a run of new black and white mags in the '90s. A crummy movie called "Blackmail" was released in 1947, and another film, "The Raven Red Kiss-Off"(which I've yet to see) in 1990.

Shockingly, Dan never had a radio show, and he's yet to have his own TV series. But give him time.

Further reading:

Another Dan Turner story, "Shakedown Sham," is HERE.

I posted a few black and white comic stories HERE.

I've been posting the color comic book stories HERE.

I'll now shut my yap and let you read your Forgotten Story: