On Sunday August 10 and again on Sunday August 31, anyone who wants to show up with $20 and four hours to invest can hike the Hammett trails that thread through the jungle of mean streets that is San Francisco.
Show up by noon — yes, high noon, not noon-thirty, not 1p.m. — near the landmark revolving “L” sculpture.
No reservations. Sure, you can promise on your complete collection of the pulp Black Mask that you’ll be there, but if in fact you aren’t there, what can I do about it?
A few weeks back someone popped me an email solicitation to get The Dashiell Hammett Tour signed on for Groupon, so that I could “fill up” the walks. Please. This walk is for Hammett and pulp and noir fans — and more casual folk who sense that even without extensive background knowledge, it’s simply a great tour. If only one or two people show up, then I take only one or two people. If no one shows, I return to my lair and go back to sleep. No hard feelings.
(Photo at top — tour halfway back Burritt alley, where Miles Archer got the lead pill drilled through his pump.)
