GREAT DETECTIVES & PEOPLE OF MYSTERY #33

FLASHGUN CASEY

Jack Casey, tough news photographer for the Boston Express, made his fictional debut in the March 1934 issue of Black Mask.  It was the first of dozens of Casey stories in that magazine.  Casey was a hard drinking Irishman who enjoyed a "Front Page" type of camaraderie with his cronies on the Boston newspapers.  He had a gift for gab and a nose for trouble, who kept a bottle of hooch and a .38 in his desk drawer.  He was extremely fit, 6 foot 1 inch and 215 pounds - "all bone and muscle".  He was a sergeant with the AEF in France during WWI, but his advancing age and a trick knee made him 4F during WWII.  His resentment at this rejection coupled with his hair-trigger temper, causes a violent reaction to criminals who betray their country in the 1943 novel "Murder for Two".

Casey, a bachelor, lives on the second floor of an old brownstone on Marlborough Street.  His editors and the Boston Police Department are easily annoyed by the frequency with which he becomes involved in murder cases.  Ultimately they are pacified by his ability to combine photographic scoops with the correct solution to the crime.  He began his career with the Boston Globe but was fired when he opposed the paper's attempt to suppress one of his photos.  He later joined The Express.

BIBLIOGRAPHY

The character of Flashgun Casey was created by George Harmon Coxe (1901-1984).  Coxe was born in Olean, New York, spent a year each at Purdue and Cornell, then found his way into newspaper work.  In 1932 he decided to return to writing - ten years earlier he had sold a couple of stories to Detective Story magazine.  He wrote detective stories because "as a kid I used to read mysteries...It was easier for me to think up something that had a gimmick and crime is a universal subject".  Eventually he had a highly successful career writing for the pulps.  The first of his more than 60 hardcover books was published in 1935.  From 1936 - 1938 he worked at MGM as a screenwriter.  He wrote for radio series and television, and during the 1940s many of his stories appeared in the "slicks" like Colliers, American and The Saturday Evening Post.

All of his Casey short stories appeared in Black Mask so here I'm listing the titles and date of publication:  "Return Engagement" Mar 1934/  "Special Assignment" Apr 1934/  "Two-Man Job" May 1934/  "Pushover" June 1934/  "Hot Delivery" July 1934/  "Mixed Drinks" Aug 1934/  "Pinch Hitters" Sept 1934/  "Murder Picture" Jan 1935/  "Casey - Detective" Feb 1935/  "Earned Reward" Mar 1935/  "Women Are Trouble" Apr 1935/  "Thirty Tickets to Win" June 1935/  "Buried Evidence" July 1935/  "Flashgun Casey's Murder" Oct 1935/  "Portrait of Murder" Feb 1936/  "Murder Mix-up" May 1936/  "Fall Guy" June 1936/  "Too Many Women" Sept 1936/  "Casey and the Blonde Wren" Aug 1940/  "Once Around the Clock" May 1941/  "Killers Are Camera Shy" Sept 1941/  "Murder in the Red" June 1942/  "Blood on the Lens" Jan-Feb 1943

Novels:  1942 "Silent Are the Dead"/  1943 "Murder for Two" (printed in Black Mask as "Blood on the Lens")/  1946 "Flash Casey, Detective" (s.s.)/  1961 "Error of Judgment"/  1962 "The Man Who Died Too Soon"/  1964 "Deadly Image".   Another Casey novel was published in 1950 titled "Dead Heat" but it wasn't written by George Harmon Coxe, but Paul Ayres, the pseudonym of Edward S. Aarons.  Why did Aarons write a Casey novel?  I have no idea, and have been unable to find any information concerning this novel.

FILMS

"Women Are Trouble" MGM, 1936.  Stuart Erwin (Casey), Paul Kelly, Florence Rice, Cy Kendall, Harold Huber.  Director: Errol Taggart.  Casey comes to the rescue when his city editor and a girl reporter whom he likes - but who is scooping him - are kidnapped from a fancy dress ball by criminals who think they know too much.

"Here's Flash Casey" Grand National, 1937.  Eric Linden (Casey), Boots Mallory, Howard Lang, Cully Richards, Holmes Herbert, Joseph Crehan.  Director: Lynn Shores.  Casey, the young assistant to the chief photographer on a newspaper, is innocently involved with a gang of blackmailers who are using his society pictures.  Later, Casey snaps a picture of the gang leader firing a gun and rescues the society editor (a young lady) from his clutches.

RADIO

Flashgun Casey went through several name changes over the years on radio, but it always aired on CBS with Staats Cotsworth as Casey.  The program ran for nearly a decade.  The show opened with the sound of a double-click from a camera shutter followed by Casey saying, "Got it!  Look for it in The Morning Express!"  Casey was most often found at the Blue Note Cafe discussing a case with girl, Anne Williams, or with Ethelbert, a sympathetic bartender.  Piano music played in the background provided by the great Herman Chittison or the Teddy Wilson Trio.  Over the years the radio drama was sponsored by Anchor Hocking, Toni shampoo, and Philip Morris cigarettes.

"Flashgun Casey" aired July 7, 1943 - April 1, 1944.  "Casey, Press Photographer" ran April 8, 1944 - June 26, 1945.  The title was shortened to "Crime Photographer" July 11, 1945 - March 13, 1947.  It then became "Casey, Crime Photographer" March 20, 1947 - November 16, 1950.  The radio drama went on hiatus while it moved to television, but returned to radio as "Crime Photographer" January 13, 1954 - April 22, 1955.

COMICS

Timely Publications (which later became Marvel Comics) issued "Casey - Crime Photographer" as a radio-tie-in for four issues from August 1949 until February 1950.  Photos of radio star Staats Cotsworth as Casey appeared on the covers with interior art by Vern Henkel.

TELEVISION

"Casey, Crime Photographer" was a half-hour series on CBS from April 19, 1951 until June 5, 1952.  The show was telecast live from New York City on Thursday nights.  Richard Carlyle was Casey for the first two months, but he was replaced by Darren McGavin.  Jan Miner was girlfriend Anne Williams.  Over the two seasons 57 episodes were produced.