Max Thursday

Max Thursday
Created by Wade Miller (Bob Wade [1920- ] and Bill Miller [1920-1961])

San Diego private eye MAX THURSDAY is a decent man, almost gentle, working an indecent, harsh job, continually trying to come to terms with the contradictions of his life, in one of the best PI series to crawl out of the fifties. He's tall, thin, usually in need of a shave. And he's been around a bit, so don't cross him. But he's also one guilt-prone dude, obsessed with doing the right thing. When the series starts with Guilty Bystander (1947), he's an alcoholic ex-cop working as a house dick in a fleabag hotel, trying to work off his guilt, when in walks his ex-wife, asking him to find their kidnapped son. After having killed four men, he even turns in his gun permit; afraid that if he doesn't he will kill again. Not Mike Hammer by a long shot. But he's still plenty tough. By the end of the series, he's become an almost-respected member of the community, living in a nice duplex, even claiming membership in the Better Business Bureau. Assisting him in the series are his friend, lieutenant Austin Clapp of the Homicide Bureau and his best gal Merle Osborn, crime reporter for The San Diego Sentinel, a trashy tabloid big on crime coverage. One of the great eyes.

There was even a film version of Guilty Bystander (1950, Film Classics) produced. By all accounts it was a solid little effort, despite the low budget, the San Diego setting replaced by New York, and (from the stills I've seen) a particularly dippy mustache on Max Thursday (played by Zachary Scott.)

Wade Miller was actually two men, Bob Wade and Bill Miller, who together wrote 33 novels, including the Max Thursday series and Deadly Weapon, featuring Atlanta P.I. Walter James, and a whole bunch of non-series novels under a variety of pseudonyms, including Whit Masterson, Will Daemer and Dale Wilmer. Wade, an Edgar winner, wrote another 13 novels alone. Eight of their novels were made into movies, among them the Orson Welles noir (neo-noir? post-noir? last noir?) classic Touch of Evil, adapted Badge of Evil. In 1988, they received the Private Eye Writers of America Lifetime Achievement Award. One could say Bob and Bill certainly made a name (or several, in fact) for themselves in the genre.

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