Just got an email from Steve Snow about the burst of Jim Thompson-related posts I did in October. Steve writes:
I enjoyed your Hammett site, and wanted to pass on a few notes about Jim Thompson.
He lived at 1922 North Whitley in the 1970’s, before, during, and after the filming of The Getaway. He and his wife, Alberta, and their adult son Mike were struggling at the time. None of Thompson’s books were in print in the U.S. while he lived on Whitley.
(He made the film deal for The Getaway while living in the tri-plex.)
Also, while living there, he made his appearance in the movie Farewell, My Lovely, with Robert Mitchum. Sal Mineo, Robert Redford and Tony Bill often visited him at 1922 North Whitley. He was not in the best of health in those days, and Tony Bill and others would drive him down to Musso and Frank in the late afternoon.
After his success with The Getaway, he and his wife moved south of Franklin to the Ardmore Apartments on Whitley. The complex still stands.
As I mentioned at the time, we were tossing our search for Thompson addresses together pretty fast — still, the only detail I see that doesn’t jibe with Steve’s notes is the Ardmore. I presume that would have to be the 1850 Whitley address we got from Thompson’s daughter, and the sprawling apartment complex we located didn’t match her thumbnail description of the place. When I get a chance, I’ll look into it some more — which means I’ve got another good excuse to hit Musso & Frank again.
