GREAT DETECTIVES & PEOPLE OF MYSTERY #23

ELLERY QUEEN

Shortly after his debut Ellery Queen was dubbed "the logical successor to Sherlock Holmes" because of his mental agility and acute observation of detail.  He is a somewhat arrogant young man, born in 1905, and makes his first appearance in "The Roman Hat Mystery" (1929).  Although he is a writer he spends little time early in his career working at his profession.  He appears to have unlimited time to collect rare books and help his father, Inspector Richard Queen of the NYPD, solve difficult cases.  Ellery is very close to his father, whom he accompanies on a Canadian vacation in "The Siamese Twin Mystery" and to a Chicago police convention in "The Egyptian Cross Mystery".  However, he is often condescending toward the older man and, during his youth, inclined to show off his erudition.

Age smooths some of Ellery's rougher edges as the series progresses, and he works harder at his writing, often struggling to meet a publisher's deadline.  He is under contract in Hollywood in "The Devil to Pay" and "The Four of Hearts" and complains bitterly because he has never been given any film assignments.  He returns to New York and begins another career as a private detective - Ellery Queen, Inc. - in "The Dragon's Teeth", but goes back to Hollywood to write films for the Army during WWII.  His social conscience develops with the years, especially in connection with crimes and juvenile delinquency on the West Side of Manhattan where he and his father maintain an apartment on West 87th Street.  When all of NYC is terrorized by a killer in "Cat of Many Tails" he accepts the unpaid post of special investigator to the mayor until he solves the series of murders.

When Ellery leaves New York he most frequently goes to the fictional New England town of Wrightsville.  He finds that its rural setting revitalizes him as a writer, although the town's peaceful exterior is belied by the frequency with which he must solve murders there.  Women have always found Ellery attractive, noticing his "devastatingly" silver eyes and tall, slim figure usually dressed in elegant tweeds.  At first aloof, he increasingly seeks feminine company.  He has had romantic episodes with Hollywood columnist Paula Paris, with his secretary Nikki Porter, and with several other women, but none have been permanent.  His forte as a detective is his ability to juggle mentally all the clues, time tables, motives, and personalities in a complex murder case and arrive, with unassailable logic at the only possible solution.

The authors "Ellery Queen" is the pseudonym of cousins Frederic Dannay (1905-1982) and Manfred B. Lee (1905-1971).  Attracted by a $7500 first prize in a mystery novel contest sponsored by McClure's magazine they submitted "The Roman Hat Mystery" in 1928.  However, just before they were awarded first prize, the publisher went bankrupt and Smart Set, the magazine, took over McClure's assets and awarded the prize to a mystery that they thought would have a greater appeal to women readers.  The Frederick A. Stokes Company published the first Queen novel in book form, and this publication proved to be a major historical event in the genre of detective fiction.  The contest required that all entries be submitted under a pseudonym and the cousins chose Ellery Queen because it seemed unusual and memorable to them.  They also gave their main character the same name, hoping that readers would remember the author's name more easily if it appeared throughout the book.  Their books, and their detective, quickly became extremely popular.  Their success was reflected in the sales of their books, close to 150 million copies.

The early books established one of the characteristics of the Queen mystery - "playing fair" with the reader by providing them with all the clues with which the detective solves the murder.  In each of the first eleven books the action is stopped after all pertinent facts have been presented and a "challenge to the reader" is issued.  The books are also known for the many variations on the theme of "the dying message" whereby the victim, immediately before his death, provides the critical clue to his murderer, either in writing or through an object he holds in his hand.

BIBLIOGRAPHY

The first nine novels all deal with murder in bizarre situations.  A Broadway theater during the performance of a play is the setting for murder in "The Roman Hat Mystery".  A department store window and hospital operating room are the locales for "The French Powder Mystery" and "The Dutch Shoe Mystery".  The victims in "The Egyptian Cross Mystery" are all crucified, the first on Christmas Eve.  The first corpse in "The Chinese Orange Mystery" is found with all of his clothes on backwards and everything on the scene reversed (the rug upside down, pictures facing the wall, etc.).  The first victim in "The Spanish Cape Mystery" is found nude except for an opera cape on a deserted beach.  "Halfway House" tells of the murder of a man who maintained separate residences and identities in NYC and Philadelphia.  Relying more heavily on psychology than previous Queen books, this proves to be a transitional novel that probes the mind of Ellery the detective.  "Calamity Town" is generally regarded as the best Queen novel.  It places Ellery in Wrightsville, a small New England town where he can write a book in peace and quiet.  While there he explores in depth the town's attitudes and mores and the relationships among the members of the town's oldest families.  "Cat of Many Tails" concerns a series of apparently unconnected crimes in NYC during a summer heat wave.  The novel provides a very effective portrait of a city undergoing mass hysteria as the population wonders where "the Cat" will strike next.  In "And on the Eighth Day" Ellery has wandered into Quenan, an isolated religious community in the California desert where the people lead a simple life.  Murder in this apparently crime-free "Eden" is the catalyst for a tricky puzzle and provides the use of religious symbolism which provoked considerable debate.

1929 "The Roman Hat Mystery"/  1930 "The French Powder Mystery"/  1931 "The Dutch Shoe Mystery"/  1932 "The Greek Coffin Mystery"/  1932 "The Egyptian Cross Mystery"/  1933 "The American Gun Mystery"/  1933 "The Siamese Twin Mystery"/  1934 "The Adventures of Ellery Queen" (s.s.)/  1934 "The Chinese Orange Mystery" (Redbook June 1934)/  1935 "The Spanish Cape Mystery" (Redbook April 1935)/  1936 "Halfway House"/  1937 "The Door Between" (Cosmopolitan Dec 1936)/  1938 "The Devil to Pay" (Cosmopolitan Dec 1937)/  1938 "The Four of Hearts" (Cosmopolitan Oct 1938)/  1939 "The Dragon's Teeth"/  1940 "The New Adventures of Ellery Queen" (s.s.)/  1942 "Calamity Town"/  1943 "There Was an Old Woman" (Nikki Porter, created for radio, makes her first appearance in the novels)/  1945 "The Case Book of Ellery Queen" (s.s.)/  1945 "The Murderer is a Fox"/  1948 "Ten Day's Wonder"/  1949 "Cat of Many Tails"/  1950 "Double, Double"/  1951 "The Origin of Evil"/  1952 "Calendar of Crime" (s.s.)/  1952 "The King is Dead"/  1953 "The Scarlet Letters"/  1955 "Q.B.I.: Queen's Bureau of Investigation" (s.s.)/  1956 "Inspector Queen's Own Case"/  1958 "The Finishing Stroke"/  1963 "The Players on the Other Side"/  1964 "And on the Eighth Day"/  1965 "The Fourth Side of the Triangle"/  1965 "Queen's Full" (s.s.)/  1966 "A Study in Terror"/  1967 "Face to Face"/  1968 "The House of Brass"/  1968 "Q.E.D. : Queen's Experiments in Detection" (s.s.)/  1970 "The Last Woman in His Life"/  1971 "A Fine and Private Place".

The cousins had long been interested in detective fiction as literature and had wanted to edit a magazine of quality mystery stories, not restricted to any particular subgenre.  Mystery League which they founded and edited in 1933 had the requisite quality but failed after four issues when the publisher went bankrupt.  A 1940 automobile accident resulted in a long convalescence for Dannay (it nearly killed him) and during this time off they interested publisher Lawrence E. Spivak of Mercury Press in Ellery Queen's Mystery Magazine (EQMM).  It debuted in the fall of 1941 as a digest-sized periodical.  Through it they reprinted stories not otherwise easily available to American readers and adopted a policy of encouraging new authors who had their first stories published in EQMM.  Established writers also contributed stories, annual contests were conducted, and every important crime and mystery writer who ever wrote a short story eventually appeared in EQMM.  Still published today by Dell, EQMM is recognized for its high standards and ability to bring the best short stories by the best writers to the magazine.

FILMS

"The Spanish Cape Mystery" Republic, 1935.  Donald Cook (Queen), Helen Twelvetrees, Berton Churchill, Frank Sheridan.  Director: Lewis D. Collins.  A corpse is found on a beach wearing a cape and little else.  The setting is the lonely Spanish Cape.  Ellery is erudite.

"The Mandarin Mystery" Republic, 1937.  Eddie Quillan (Queen), Charlotte Henry, Rita LeRoy, Wade Boteler, Franklin Pangborn.  Director: Ralph Staub.  Based on "The Chinese Orange Mystery".  A young, cocky Ellery tackles a case of a missing valuable stamp and finds murder.

The distinguished American detective had not always been accurately portrayed on the screen, and after a hiatus returned to the screen with the recent success of the weekly radio series which made him more familiar to millions.  Ralph Bellamy's touches of urbanity and scholarship made him a very acceptable Ellery and Charley Grapewin was an inspired Inspector Queen.  James Burke was Sgt. Velie throughout the series, and Nikki Porter, Ellery's secretary who was created for the radio show, was portrayed well by Margaret Lindsay.

"Ellery Queen, Master Detective" Columbia, 1940.  Bellamy, Lindsay, Grapewin, Burke, Michael Whalen, Marsha Hunt.  Director: Kurt Neumann.  An account (one of three versions ultimately chronicled) is given of the first meeting between Ellery and Nikki, a determined girl who wants to become a mystery writer.  She finds herself in danger when she becomes involved in a weird case of suicide and murder that begins with the discovery of the body of the patriarch of a health-faddist empire.  No weapon is found nearby.  At the end of the film, girl-shy Ellery offers her a job typing his manuscripts.

"Ellery Queen's Penthouse Mystery" Columbia, 1941.  Bellamy, Lindsay, Anna May Wong, Eduardo Ciannelli, Frank Albertson.  Director: James Hogan.  Soon after a ventriloquist returns from China with a fortune in jewels to sell to raise money for the war there, he disappears from his penthouse apartment.  Ellery finds his body in a trunk, but the gems are gone,

"Ellery Queen and the Perfect Crime" Columbia, 1941.  Bellamy, Lindsay, Spring Byington, H. B. Warner, Douglas Dumbrille.  Director: Hogan.  Ellery investigates the death of a tyrannical father whose stock manipulations had ruined even his friends and servants and alienated his own son.

"Ellery Queen and the Murder Ring" Columbia, 1941.  Bellamy, Lindsay, Mona Barrie, Paul Hurst, George Zucco, Blanche Yurka.  Director: Hogan.  Based on "The Dutch Shoe Mystery".  Ellery poses as a patient when the elderly woman owner of Stack Memorial Hospital is strangled on the operating table.

"A Close Call for Ellery Queen" Columbia, 1942.  William Gargan (Queen), Lindsay, Ralph Morgan, Kay Linaker, Edward Norris, Micheline Cheirel.  Director: Hogan.  Ellery (gruffer and less intellectual as played by Gargan) investigates the case of two murdered blackmailers whose target was a retired businessman.  The man's two grown daughters are missing.  Nikki takes an active solo hand in the case.

"A Desperate Chance for Ellery Queen" Columbia, 1942.  Gargan, Lindsay, John Litel, Lillian Bond, Jack LaRue.  Director: Hogan.  Ellery and Nikki head for San Francisco to seek out a banker, missing for more than a year and thought dead, who had disappeared just when a large sum of money was embezzled from his bank.

"Enemy Agents Meet Ellery Queen" Columbia, 1942.  Gargan, Lindsay, Gale Sondergaard, Gilbert Roland, Sig Rumann.  Director: Hogan.  Ellery and his friends are aboard a New York bound train carrying an Egyptian mummy case and trailed by Nazi spies.  The case contains diamonds smuggled out of occupied Holland.

"Ten Day's Wonder" (1972) based on the novel, with Orson Welles and Anthony Perkins, eliminates the Ellery Queen character from the film, so I don't consider it to be a true Ellery Queen movie.

RADIO

Authors Dannay and Lee claimed to have pioneered the radio detective program format with their "Ellery Queen" show.  They approached the networks with the idea of a weekly detective series and volunteered to write the first sponsorless shows without a fee.  "The Adventures of Ellery Queen" debuted on CBS on June 18, 1939.  In an innovative approach, the dramatization would be interrupted before the climax so that Ellery could ask a celebrity guest to solve the case: their efforts were nearly always in vain.  Then the program would proceed and the correct solution would be given.  For nine years all the radio scripts were written by Dannay and Lee.  Over the years Ellery was portrayed by Hugh Marlowe, Larry Dobkin, Carlton Young, and Sidney Smith.

"The Adventures of Ellery Queen" ran on CBS June 18, 1939 - September 22, 1940 and was sponsored by Gulf Oil.  It moved to NBC January 10, 1942 - December 30, 1944 and was sponsored by Bromo Seltzer.  It went back to CBS January 24, 1945 - April 16, 1947 and was sponsored by Anacin.  It went back to NBC as a summer replacement for "The Bob Burns Show", June 1, 1947 - September 21, 1947.  Then it went to ABC November 27, 1947 - May 27, 1948.

COMICS

The first appearance of Ellery Queen was as two Big Little Books published by Whitman.  The first, "Ellery Queen and the Adventure of the Last Man Club", Whitman #1406, was published 1940 with artwork by Erwin L. Hess.  "Ellery Queen the Master Detective" Whitman #1472 was published 1942 with art again by Hess.

In May 1940 Ellery began appearing in Crackajack Funnies by Western Publishing, beginning with issue #23 and running until #42 in December 1941.  Ellery next became a four issue series by Superior Comics with art by L. B. Cole and Jack Kamen.  Ziff - Davis published two comic books in 1952 with covers by pulp artist Norman Saunders and interior art by Edd Ashe.  Ellery's final appearance was in a limited three issue run by Dell from 1961-1962.

TELEVISION

"The Adventures of Ellery Queen" ran on the DuMont network October 14, 1950 - December 6, 1951 as a half hour show.  50 episodes were produced then it moved over to ABC for 43 additional episodes, December 16, 1951 - November 26, 1952.  Richard Hart initially played Ellery but he died of a heart attack in January 1951 and was replaced by Lee Bowman.  Florenz Ames was Inspector Queen and guest stars included Anne Bancroft, John Carradine, and Eva Gabor.

"Mystery is My Business" was a syndicated half-hour series starring Hugh Marlowe as Ellery Queen.  32 episodes were produced 1954-1956.

"The Further Adventures of Ellery Queen" debuted on NBC September 26, 1958 with George Nader as Ellery.  The one-hour show ran until 1959 producing 33 episodes.

"Ellery Queen - Don't Look Behind You" was a TV-movie adaptation of "Cat of Many Tails".  It aired on NBC November 17, 1971 with the intention of becoming a series.  It did not.  Peter Lawford was Ellery, Harry Morgan played Inspector Queen, and E. G. Marshall and Stefanie Powers co-starred.

"Ellery Queen", the last series to date, appeared March 23, 1975 on NBC and ran for 23 episodes until 1976.  Jim Hutton was Ellery with David Wayne as his father.  The chemistry between the two actors was excellent, but it was cancelled after only one season.  Set in 1947 the series guest starred Don Ameche, Eve Arden, Joan Collins, Howard Duff, Ida Lupino, Vincent Price, and Betty White.  Hutton, the father of Academy-award winner Timothy Hutton, died in 1979 at the age of 45.