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Honey West

kevinburtonsmith

 

Created by G.G. Fickling
Pseudonym of Gloria and Forest Fickling

Move over, Kinsey.

Step aside, Sharon.

Someone get the smelling salts for V.I.

Here comes the shocking truth. The first really successful female private eye in her own series of novels was a bimbo! Or at least frequently clothing-challenged and none-too-swift.

Evidence? This exclamation from frequent rescuer and sometime boyfriend, Johnny Doom: “Honey! Where are your clothes?” That was an actual line from one of the books (I forget which one).

Still, considering the decidedly pre-feminist times, HONEY WEST was, according to co-creator Gloria Fickling, a “beautiful, brainy and very much determined, sensual female.” 

So there.

Okay, Honey, she of the 38-22-36 measurements, “taffy-colored hair, big blue eyes and baby bottom complexion,” was often more a male fantasy figure than an icon of female empowerment, and her ditzy charm and the risque humor of the books may have reached their expiration dates decades ago, but let’s not forget that in a time of insipid TV housewives obsessed with ring around the collar and brewing the perfect cup of coffee, Honey was a true breath of fresh air, an honest-to-goodness professional detective running her own business and the star of her own series of books (and later a TV show).

Honey was the creation of fashion writer Gloria and her husband, sportswriter Forest “Skip” Fickling, who were drinking buddies with Shell Scott‘s creator, Richard Prather.

She first appeared in the 1957 novel, This Girl for Hire, as a very Shell-like P.I., with the same often “zany” blend of humour and sex, although her creators did darken things up a bit by giving her a very personal reason for pursuing the P.I. profession–apparently Honey was searching for the murderer of her beloved father Hank West, also a private eye, who was killed in an alley behind the old Paramount Theatre in Hollywood.

But of course, Honey was a “girl,” so even if she did think of herself as something of a tough cookie (and she was), she was often in need of rescue (of either her life or her “honour”) by her ever-virtuous partner, Johnny. She went on to appear in ten more frothy, light-hearted, innuendo-laden books from 1958 to 1971, and even popped up in a short-lived but memorable television series produced by Aaron Spelling in the mid-sixties, certainly one of the first TV dramas (if you can call then dramas) to feature a female lead–and a rare case of a film or television adaptation bettering its source.

Television’s Honey was a different kind of character altogether. For starters, she was nobody’s bimbo– she kept her clothes on, and pretty much everything else was changed or tweaked when her character, after a successful appearance on an episode of Burke’s Law, was spun off into her own show. It was 1965, and the world was going spy crazy. There was James Bond, The Avengers and The Man (and soon, The “Girl”) From U.N.C.L.E. So now Honey and Sam Bolt (who was Johnny in the books, but could still be called upon, it seemed, to rescue Honey at least once in almost every episode) were high-tech private eyes, but the distinction between private investigators and intelligence agents got more than a little blurred at times. They tooled around in a specially-equipped mobile crime lab/spy van with “H.W. Bolt & Co., TV Service” on the side. Honey now carried a .38 in her purse, a derringer somewhere (wink, wink) else, and all sorts of gimmicks: an exploding compact, a garter belt gas mask, teargas earrings and a lipstick microphone. She was also pretty handy with the martial arts, delivering a karate chop here or a judo throw there (Francis took instructions in Okinawa Te under Sensei Gordon Doversola for a few months before shooting began).

But perhaps most memorably for many viewers was Honey’s other co-star. Although Sam constantly pressured Honey to marry him, the love of Honey’s life seemed to be Bruce, her pet ocelot–another contribution from the TV writers.

Gimmicks? What gimmicks?

All in all, though, it was—or could have been–a fun show. Honey was played by Anne Francis, drop dead gorgeous, and a dead ringer for Honor Blackman, the woman who had played Pussy Galore in the 1964 James Bond flick Goldfinger, and provided the much-needed smarts, class and ooomph to the role that the books too often lacked. Francis won a Golden Globe and was also nominated for an Emmy for her efforts, but the show only lasted a year—the actual plots ranged from the ridiculous to the sublimely dumb. (See Spelling’s later Charlie’s Angels to see how dreadful it could have become had it lasted a little longer).

But even after the buzz created by the show, Honey’s co-creators seemed to have missed the point. The last two novels (published several years after the show had ended) upped the sex and smirkiness, and tried to recast Honey as a spy. Here’s the blurb from Stiff as a Broad (1971), which had her teaming up with another smirky quasi-eye, high-priced P.I. Erik March, who was actually introduced in a bit part in Honey’s first adventure, This Girl For Hire, way back in 1957.

“Honey’s hard on her feet, soft on her back, a karate-chopping spy-queen who always gets her man — one way or another. This time Honey’s after a woman. Madame Fong, dragon-lady of the Chinese Commies, has plans to send all of Frisco on a no-return Trip via an annihilating dose of lethal nerve gas.

So Honey has to get Madame Fong. But first she has to sidetrack three watchdog studs, challenging their talents in bed and out. That’s how the Commies found out that when Honey West does a job, she gives it all she’s got….”

What the hell’s a spy-queen?

ABOUT THE AUTHORS

Forrest “Skip” Fickling had been a United States Army Air Forces Air Gunner during World War II; and enlisted in the U.S. Marine Corps Reserve after the war, which explains why he was called back to active duty during the Korean War. He created the G.G. Fickling pen name as a tribute to his wife, Gloria Gautraud, whom he had married in 1949, figuring the sex of the author would remain vague (although I don’t think they ever really made an effort to hide their identities.)

Gloria, however, always pointed out that Skip did most of the writing, although had been an assistant fashion editor at Look and a fashion writer for Women’s Wear Daily. According to the Los Angeles Times, she once claimed that “I first thought of Marilyn Monroe, and then I thought of Mike Hammer and decided to put the two together… We thought the most used name for someone you really like is Honey. And she lives in the West, so there was her name.”

TRIVIA

UNDER OATH

NOVELS

   

HONEY BY OTHER AUTHORS

SHORT STORIES

COLLECTIONS

TELEVISION

GET MORE HONEY IN YOUR LIFE

COMICS

GRAPHIC NOVELS & COLLECTIONS

SOUNDTRACKS

AUDIO

FURTHER INVESTIGATION

Respectfully filed by Kevin Burton Smith. Thanks to Peter for the scoop on the Honey West flick.

 

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