GREAT DETECTIVES & PEOPLE OF MYSTERY #51

MR. & MRS. NORTH


 This famous husband and wife team made its detective debut in 1940 in the novel "The Norths Meet Murder", the first of 26 mystery books and many radio and television episodes.  The book series was written by husband-and-wife team Frances and Richard Lockridge.  In their first case, Pamela North, accompanied by her husband Jerry, finds a corpse in the vacant Greenwich Village studio she plans to use for a party.  Throughout the series, Mr. North, a publisher, is usually busy with prospective manuscripts.  His wife Pam has little to do (except care for their cats) and seems to fill her days with finding bodies and looking for murderers.  This happens whether their in New York or on vacation - in an upstate New York cabin in "Murder Out of Turn"; or the Florida Keys in "Murder by the Book";  or on a Caribbean bound cruise ship in "Voyage into Violence".  When not directly involved in a murder case, Pam and Jerry relax by playing tennis and devoting attention to their beloved cat, Martini, and her daughters Gin and Sherry.  Their adventures are usually shared by Lieutenant (later Captain) Bill Wiegand, a Homicide Squad detective with considerable social charm.  Wiegand and his wife Dorian are close personal friends of the Norths.  Wiegand's loyal assistant is detective sergeant Aloysius Clarence Mullins.

BIBLIOGRAPHY

Richard Lockridge (1898-1982) was born in St. Joseph, Missouri.  He attended Kansas City Junior College and the University of Missouri, but his studies were interrupted by service in the Navy in 1918.  He became a reporter for  the Kansas City Kansan and Kansas City Star.  In 1922, the year he married Frances Louise Davis, he went to work for the New York Sun, becoming its drama critic in 1928.  During the 1930s he frequently wrote for The New Yorker and returned to active duty in the Navy during WWII.  Lockridge wrote a series of non-mystery stories about a publisher and his wife that appeared in The New Yorker and collected in a 1936 book "Mr. and Mrs. North".  A year later, Frances Lockridge, a frequent reader of mysteries, decided to write one herself but became bogged down.  Richard, also an avid mystery reader, suggested that she use his creations The Norths as the main characters.  She provided the plot and he did the actual writing.  The result, "The Norths Meet Murder" was to become one of the most famous husband and wife detective teams in fiction, after Nick and Nora Charles.

The books were praised for capturing the atmosphere of Greenwich Village.  Other books in the series dealt with other aspects of New York life.  In "Death on the Aisle" a Broadway "angel" is found in a theater stabbed to death with an ice pick.  "Murder Within Murder" is about a murder committed at the 42nd Street branch of the New York Public Library.  A natural history museum is the setting for "Dead as a Dinosaur" in which a famous mammologist is murdered and the apparent weapon is a several thousand-years old battle-ax.  There was considerable critical praise for the North series.  "Civilized" was the word most often applied and many credited the Lockridge's with having popularized the use of humor in the mystery, though they were not the first to do so.  The books continued to sell but became formulaic.  The last, "Murder by the Book", was published in 1963, the year that Frances died.

1940 "The Norths Meet Murder" (Two Complete Detective Books #9, Spring 1941)/  1941 "Murder Out of Turn"/  1941 "A Pinch of Poison" (Two Complete Detective Books #14, Summer 1942)/  1942 "Death on the Aisle" (Two Complete Detective Books #32, May 1945)/  1942 "Hanged for a Sheep" (Detective Novel June 1945)/  1943 "Death Takes a Bow" (Detective Novel December 1945)/  1944 "Killing the Goose" (Two Complete Detective Books #30, January 1945)/  1945 "Payoff for the Banker" (Thrilling Mystery Novel May 1946)/  1946 "Murder Within Murder" (Detective Novel March 1947)/  1946 "Death of a Tall Man" (Two Complete Detective Books #49, March 1948)/  1947 "Untidy Murder"/  1948 "Murder is Served"/  1949 "The Dishonest Murderer"/  1950 "Murder in a Hurry"/  1951 "Murder Comes First"/  1952 "Dead as a Dinosaur"/  1953 "Death Has a Small Voice"/  1953 "Courtroom for a Jester"/  1954 "A Key to Death"/  1955 "Death of an Angel"/  1956 "Voyage into Violence"/  1958 "The Long Skeleton"/  1959 "Murder is Suggested"/  1960 "The Judge is Reversed"/  1961 "Murder Has Its Points"/  1963 "Murder by the Book".

SHORT STORY

"There's Death for Remembrance" (aka "Pattern for Murder" This Week Nov. 6, 1955)

STAGE

The sleuthing team was brought to the Broadway stage by Owen Davis in 1941 in a competent, humorous whodunit with Peggy Conklin and Albert Hackett as Pam and Jerry.  "Mr. and Mrs. North" ran for 163 performances at the Belasco Theater from January 12 to May 31, 1941, and has been a stock favorite ever since.

FILM

"Mr. and Mrs. North" MGM, 1941.  Gracie Allen (Pam), William Post, Jr. (Jerry), Paul Kelly (Lt. Wiegand), Rose Hobart, Virginia Grey, Tom Conway.  Director: Robert B. Sinclair.  Based on the stage play by Owen Davis.  Scatterbrained Pam North, welcoming her publisher husband home with a drink, discovers a corpse in the liquor cabinet.

RADIO

"Mr. & Mrs. North" began a successful 12 year run on radio on December 30, 1942 on NBC.  The half-hour comedy drama featured Alice Frost and Joseph Curtin as Pam and Jerry North who resided in Greenwich Village at 24 St. Anne's Flat.  They weren't professional detectives, they just stumbled across a murder every week for 12 years.  At its peak the show was heard by 20 million listeners.  The show's theme song was "The Way You Look Tonight" and many of the 621 episodes featured Pam shouting, "Look out, Jerry!  He's got a gun!"  Sponsored by Woodbury Soap the show aired on NBC from December 30, 1942 to December 18, 1946.  It then moved to CBS where it was sponsored by Colgate, Halo shampoo, and Palmolive, running from July 1, 1947 to April 18, 1955.

TELEVISION

Mr. and Mrs. North first came to TV on May 19, 1946 when New York City station WNBT aired a live telecast of the Owen Davis play with John McQuade and Maxine Stewart in the lead roles.

The first series, consisting of 21 episodes, appeared on "NBC Presents" from January 3 - October 10, 1949, with Joseph Allen and Mary Lou Taylor.

The best remembered series was with Richard Denning and Barbara Britton as "Mr. and Mrs. North".  It appeared on CBS October 3, 1952 - June 26, 1953.  It moved to NBC for a second season January 26 - May 25, 1954, for a total of 57 episodes.  Guest stars on the show included Raymond Burr, Mara Corday, Carolyn Jones, Gloria Talbott, Jeanne Cagney, and Alan Mowbray.

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