Created by Norbert Davis
(1909-1949)
“Shaley was bonily tall. He had a thin, tanned face with bitterly heavy lines in it. He looked calm; but he looked like he was being calm on purpose–as though he was consciously holding himself in. He had an air of hard-boiled confidence.”
“Red Goose,” one of Norbert Davis‘ very earliest stories, appeared in the February 1934 issue of Black Mask, and introduced private eye BEN SHALEY.
Ben Shaley is tough enough, as far as private eyes go, working out of Los Angeles, a tall, skinny smart-ass not afraid to use a little muscle to get what he needs. Or the .45 automatic he carries in a shoulder rig if he has to. He’s hired by the curator of a museum to retrieve a valuable painting, The Red Goose, painted by Guiterrez from about 1523, that was stolen.
It’s everything a 1934 Black Mask yarn should be. A tough eye, a slew of liars, a missing painting and enough double-crosses to keep things hopping, topped off with an all-hands-on-deck, rock ’em, sock ’em conclusion (Shaley gets the snot beaten out of him). It also features some nice back-and-forth between Shaley and the various characters (pugs, thugs, a sweet looking dame who’s not as sweet as she looks and his secretary, who knows a blonde when she hears one). Still, compared to Davis’ later work, it’s relatively dry, lacking the heady blend of hard-boiled action and screwball humour that would become his trademark.
Still, it was good enough for then aspiring pulp writer Raymond Chandler, who cited “Red Goose” as one of his inspirations, studying it and attempting to replicate its tone. Years later, he re-read it and decided it wasn’t quite as good as he’d thought, but it was still pretty damn good.
A second Shaley story appeared in Black Mask a few months later, “The Price of a Dime,” that one featured a shoot-out on a Hollywood film set and a few revelations about Shaley (he was a racetrack driver whose “nerves went haywire”) to recommend it. Mystery critic Mike Grost credited it with “some pleasant comedy, especially with Shaley’s tart secretary” Sadie and concluded that, although it didn’t make much sense, “the characters, clothes and settings make this tale fun.”
Me? I loved it.
Unfortunately, Davis never wrote another Shaley story for Black Mask or any other pulp, although many of his future private eye characters bore more than a passing resemblance to this early hapless gumshoe. Another Guiterrez was even a major supporting character in his Max Latin stories.
And then, in 1952, three years after Davis passed away, Suspense, CBS’ live mystery anthology series, broadcast an episode entitled “The Blue Panther” based on “a story by Norbert Davis.” Although it also deals with a stolen painting and boasts a museum setting, it’s more like a re-imaging of “Red Goose,” as though they smashed it apart, and reassembled the pieces. It also manages a predictable poke at modern art–or at least what “modern art” was in 1952.
SHORT STORIES
- “Red Goose” (February 1934, Black Mask) Kindle it!
- “The Price of a Dime” (April 1934, Black Mask)
COLLECTIONS
- The Price of a Dime: The Complete Black Mask Cases of Ben Shaley (2021) | Buy this book
Collects both stories, plus three other early Davis stories from Black Mask” “Reform Racket,” “Kansas City Flash,” and “Hit and Run,” and a new introduction by Norbert Davis aficionado Bob Byrne.
TELEVISION
- SUSPENSE
(1949-54, CBS)
260 25-minute episodes
Black and white
Broadcast live- “The Blue Panther” (October 14, 1952) | Watch it now!
Based on a character created by Norbert Davis
Teleplay by Max Ehrlich
Directed by Robert Mulligan
Starring Michael Strong as BEN SHALEY
Also starring Phyllis Brooks, Bruce Gordon, Erik Rhodes, Gina Petrushka, Michael Garrett, Tom Avera, Michael Gazzo, Gene Anton Jr.
Not exactly essential viewing, but still sort of fun. A nice peek at the early days of P.I. television.
- “The Blue Panther” (October 14, 1952) | Watch it now!
Respectfully submitted by Kevin Burton Smith. Picture is of Michael Strong as Shaley in “The Blue Panther.”
