David Goodis, wrote pulp fiction novels, radio programs and screenplays from the late 1930s through the mid 1960s. He was the author of titles like Night Squad and Of Tender Sin, but is perhaps best known for the films based on his work, like the Humphrey Bogart and Lauren Bacall classic Dark Passage, (based on his novel of the same name), Moon in the Gutter, and François Truffaut’s, Shoot The Piano Player, (based on the Goodis novel Down There). You could, (he did), even say that the television program The Fugitive, was partially his creation. He died in 1967 during the court battle over The Fugitive, having claimed that it was based upon his novel Dark Passage which first appeared serialized in The Saturday Evening Post, and never got the satisfaction of the 1972 verdict in his favor.
After a few ultimately frustrating years in Hollywood, Goodis returned to Philadelphia, the city of his birth. His legacy is especially vibrant in that city, and this week, in his hometown, is NoirCon where George Pelecanos will be presented with an award named after Goodis. Philadelphia royalty like Duane Swierczynski, Dennis Tafoya, Lou Boxer, Peter Rozovsky and Ed Pettit will be on hand as will many from the crime community’s dark end of the street.
As I’m writing this, it’s Wednesday evening and I’m preparing to get up for a ridiculously early flight to the city of Brotherly love, but as you’re reading this, it’s Friday morning, and I’m already hip deep in NoirCon. Where are you? For two years I’ve been putting the pennies aside to pay for this trip and now is my time to capitalize. This means I’ll be doing a year’s worth of talking, drinking, dodging Johnny-Law, promoting, absorbing, wheeling, dealing, schmoozing, even more boozing and about zero sleeping.
If you’re a fan of the dark stuff, of which Goodis is considered a forefather and you’re in the Philadelphia area, by all means, come on down, there’s a really good chance you’ll run into some of your favorite writers at the bar. Or me. You might run into me.
See you on the other side.
Jedidiah Ayres writes fiction and keeps the blog Hardboiled Wonderland.
