Welcome to a hard-boiled and not without noir blog with news and reviews, occasional outbursts of maniacal Autograph Hound activity, plus archival records from the forty-five year run of The Dashiell Hammett Tour. 
The Dashiell Hammett Tour
1977-2022
Arkham House Ephemera
The Classic Years 1937–1973
Death Lit
Essays and Reviews Selected from Fifty Years of Writing 1974–2024
Willeford
The Book
Category Archives: Frisco
Rediscovered: Solar Pons
Dove back into one of my favorite hobbies recently, when I landed a ten item trove of Arkham House ephemera. Ordered them mostly blind, though I had the sense that an item I needed might possibly be in the lot. … Continue reading
Tour: Sunday February 28
Shot above — I assemble the tour group for a gander at the Geary Theatre, where Joel Cairo had tix to see a play in The Maltese Falcon. With the brutal rains of winter pounding down, I’ve been doing only select … Continue reading
Rediscovered: The Life of Donald Sidney-Fryer
Mere months after putting the wraps to Hobgoblin Apollo, Donald Sidney-Fryer has placed his autobio with Hippocampus Press and they’re offering it at half-off — I think that is the presale price. The sample cover is an early draft version, … Continue reading
Posted in Frisco, Lit, News
Tagged August Derleth, Clark Ashton Smith, Donald Sidney-Fryer, Fritz Leiber, Hippocampus Press
Rediscovered: Xmas Noir
Got a note from the Jersey Noir photog Mark Krajnak — he appreciated my comparison of his cover for the new Race Williams omnibus to Alan Ladd, somehow summoning that sort of evocative iconography. That’s what happens with art, if you … Continue reading
Posted in Frisco, SFSC, Tour
Tagged Alan Ladd, Cacophony Society, Fritz Leiber, Fritz Leiber Tour, Jersey Noir, John Law, Kepler space telescope, Mark Krajnak, Race Williams, SantaCon, Xmas
Sinister Cinema: Voice of Noir
How about a few more pics from the gig in the Tenderloin Museum? I was supposed to talk for 30 or 40 minutes about Hammett living in the TL, the 1941 film of The Maltese Falcon and so forth — … Continue reading
Frisco Beat: Reeling in the History
Did a couple of groups by appointment yesterday, got lucky with the brutal winter rains holding off. . . . On one of them the mysterious CitySleuth came along and tossed in some tidbits of film/Frisco history — one was … Continue reading
Posted in Dash, Film, Frisco, Tour
Tagged 891 Post, Bill Arney, CitySleuth, Heisenberg, Jimmy Stewart, Kim Novak, Lon Chaney Sr., Mark Murphy, ReelSF, Ruby Skye, Tenderloin Museum, The Big Knockover, The Penalty, Vertigo
Hammett: That White-Hot Burst in 1925
Image at top: holding down a table at the Mechanics’ Library talk while Nathan Ward merrily signs a copy of his new bio of Hammett. Image at bottom: before we start the proceedings (clew: my wine glass is loaded) we gear … Continue reading
Posted in Dash, Frisco, REH
Tagged "Dead Yellow Women", Black Mask, Conan, David Fechheimer, Mechanics' Library, Nathan Ward, Pulps
Tombstone: Phil Geauque
Image above: another shot from the Mechanics’ signing, Nathan Ward inscribing a copy of his Hammett bio while I look on; standing to left, Vince Emery in blue, John Law — of The Suicide Club, Cacophony Society, primal Burning Man, … Continue reading
Posted in Dash, Frisco, SFSC
Tagged Blackjack Jerome, Burning Man, Cacophony Society, Colma, John Law, Kendallville Indiana, Leo Grin, Mechanics' Library, Nathan Ward, Phil Geauque, Vince Emery
Sinister Cinema: The Black Bird Flaps Back to the Old Hood
Tuesday October 27 The Maltese Falcon returns to the hood where it was imagined, plotted and pounded into life on the typewriter keys by none other than longtime Tenderloin resident Dashiell Hammett — the 1941 film version with Bogie, of … Continue reading
Posted in Dash, Film, Frisco, News
Tagged Bogie, Cadillac Hotel, Jack Dempsey, Tenderloin, Tenderloin Museum
