James R. Langham (1912-1999) was an American crime writer of the early 20th century. He was primarily known for a pair of darkly humorous novels published by Simon & Schuster [1] -- Sing a Song of Homicide (1940) and A Pocketful of Clues (1941) -- written in rapid succession in Langham's late twenties, after which Langham stopped writing and disappeared entirely from the public eye for almost sixty years until his death in 1999.
Both novels featured the crime-solving duo of Ethel and Sammy Abbott, a couple some found reminiscent of Nick and Nora Charles from Dashiell Hammett's The Thin Man series. [2] Sammy was a special agent working for the district attorney of Santa Monica, California, where the series was set. Ethel was his wife. [3] Sing a Song of Homicide was (very loosely) adapted for the screen by Jonathan Latimer as the 1942 feature film Night in New Orleans . [4]
Even as his books were being published, Langham always said that he did not think of himself as a writer. At the time of his first book's publication, he'd been working as a professional singer. And he claimed that throughout his twenties he'd worked as a civil engineer, carpenter, salesman, gunsmith, and census taker, in addition to singing. [5] After A Pocketful of Clues, Langham quit writing altogether. [6]
Detective fiction is a subgenre of crime fiction and mystery fiction in which an investigator or a detective—either professional, amateur or retired—investigates a crime, often murder. The detective genre began around the same time as speculative fiction and other genre fiction in the mid-nineteenth century and has remained extremely popular, particularly in novels. Some of the most famous heroes of detective fiction include C. Auguste Dupin, Sherlock Holmes, and Hercule Poirot. Juvenile stories featuring The Hardy Boys, Nancy Drew, and The Boxcar Children have also remained in print for several decades.
A whodunit or whodunnit is a complex, plot-driven variety of a detective story in which the puzzle regarding who committed the crime is the main focus. The reader or viewer is provided with the clues from which the identity of the perpetrator may be deduced before the story provides the revelation itself at its climax. The investigation is usually conducted by an eccentric, amateur, or semi-professional detective. This narrative development has been seen as a form of comedy in which order is restored to a threatened social calm.
Phyllis Dorothy James, Baroness James of Holland Park,, known professionally as P. D. James, was an English novelist and life peer. Her rise to fame came with her series of detective novels featuring Adam Dalgliesh, the police commander and poet.
James Mallahan Cain was an American author and journalist. Cain vehemently opposed labeling, but he is usually associated with the hardboiled school of American crime fiction and is seen as one of the creators of the roman noir. His crime novels The Postman Always Rings Twice (1934), Serenade (1937), Mildred Pierce (1941) and Double Indemnity (1944) became well known movies.
William Clement Frawley was an American stage entertainer and screen and television actor best known for playing landlord Fred Mertz in the American television sitcom I Love Lucy and "Bub" O'Casey in the television comedy series My Three Sons.
Samuel Cohen, known professionally as Sammy Cahn, was an American lyricist, songwriter, and musician. He is best known for his romantic lyrics to films and Broadway songs, as well as stand-alone songs premiered by recording companies in the Greater Los Angeles Area. He and his collaborators had a series of hit recordings with Frank Sinatra during the singer's tenure at Capitol Records, but also enjoyed hits with Dean Martin, Doris Day and many others. He played the piano and violin, and won an Oscar four times for his songs, including the popular hit "Three Coins in the Fountain".
Melvin Howard Tormé, nicknamed "The Velvet Fog", was an American musician, singer, composer, arranger, drummer, actor, and author. He composed the music for "The Christmas Song" and co-wrote the lyrics with Bob Wells.
James Van Heusen was an American composer. He wrote songs for films, television and theater, and won an Emmy and four Academy Awards for Best Original Song.
David Goldstein, better known as Rupert Holmes, is a British-American composer, singer-songwriter, musician, dramatist and author. He is widely known for the hit singles "Escape " (1979) and "Him" (1980). He is also known for his musicals The Mystery of Edwin Drood, which earned him two Tony Awards, and Curtains, and for his television series Remember WENN.
David Judah Simon is an American author, journalist, and television writer and producer best known for his work on The Wire (2002–08). He worked for The Baltimore Sun City Desk for twelve years (1982–95), wrote Homicide: A Year on the Killing Streets (1991), and co-wrote The Corner: A Year in the Life of an Inner-City Neighborhood (1997) with Ed Burns. The former book was the basis for the NBC series Homicide: Life on the Street (1993–99), on which Simon served as a writer and producer. Simon adapted the latter book into the HBO mini-series The Corner (2000).
Ethel Edith Mannin was a popular British novelist and travel writer, political activist and socialist. She was born in London.
Jonathan Wyatt Latimer was an American crime writer known his novels and screenplays. Before becoming an author, Latimer was a journalist in Chicago.
"At Last" is a song written by Mack Gordon and Harry Warren for the musical film Sun Valley Serenade (1941). Glenn Miller and his orchestra recorded the tune several times, with a 1942 version reaching number two on the US Billboard pop music chart.
The Golden Age of Detective Fiction was an era of classic murder mystery novels of similar patterns and styles, predominantly in the 1920s and 1930s.
Sing You Sinners is a 1938 American musical comedy film directed by Wesley Ruggles and starring Bing Crosby, Fred MacMurray, Ellen Drew, and Donald O'Connor. Written by Claude Binyon, the film is about three singing brothers who go to California to find their fortune. Initially the film was to be titled "The Unholy Beebes" and then "Harmony for Three" before finishing with "Sing You Sinners". Filming took place in April/May 1938 in Hollywood. Race track scenes were filmed at the Pomona Fairgrounds and at Santa Anita using two dozen of Crosby's horses. Sing You Sinners was premiered on August 5, 1938 at the Del Mar racetrack with the New York premiere taking place on August 16.
"Pocketful of Sunshine" is a song recorded by English singer-songwriter Natasha Bedingfield. It was released on 15 January 2008 as the second single from her second North American studio album of the same title (2008). Bedingfield co-wrote the song together with American songwriter Danielle Brisebois and American musician and songwriter John Shanks; Shanks also produced the track as well as performing on most of the instruments present. Epic Records serviced the song to contemporary hit radios in the United States on 11 February 2008. It was not released in Europe until April 2011, when it was released as the lead single from her third European studio album Strip Me Away (2011).
I Wanta Sing is an album by country singer George Jones. It was released in 1977 on the Epic record label.
Stephen Gould Fisher was an American author best known for his pulp stories, novels and screenplays. He is one of the few pulp authors to go on to enjoy success as both an author in "slick" magazines, such as the Saturday Evening Post, and as an in-demand writer in Hollywood.
Night in New Orleans is a 1942 American crime film directed by William Clemens and loosely adapted by Jonathan Latimer from the 1940 novel Sing a Song of Homicide by James R. Langham. The film stars Preston Foster, Patricia Morison, Albert Dekker, Charles Butterworth, Dooley Wilson and Paul Hurst. The film was released on July 1, 1942, by Paramount Pictures.
Jane Ludlow Drake Abbott was an American writer who published more than 35 books. She started writing children's books when her own children were small and later went on to write adult novels. Many of her books were written primarily for girls, but had broad appeal for the whole family.
I may become a writer some day. But I have made my living singing for the past six or seven years and so I say I'm a singer. Writing is just fun. When it's no longer fun and becomes work, then I'll be a writer.