PULP/NOIR: DAN TURNER HOLLYWOOD DETECTIVE AND AUDIO TREATS

You tend to find some gems while poking around the web in the wee small hours. While hunting on YouTube for a NOIR documentary, all sorts of goodies come up -- namely some full-length gems like "Detour," "Borderline" " Cape Fear" and "While the City Sleeps." I've created a Noir playlist (a work in progress) so enthusiasts can enjoy. These are perfectly watchable on a smartphone or tab. Enjoy.

One YouTube discovery simply that simply blew me away was an audio reading of a. short story that centers on Hollywood detective Dan Turner written by prolific scribe Robert Leslie Bellem. I looked Bellem up and to say he was prolific is an understatement. He penned over 3000 pulps with Turner starring in at least 300 during the heyday of men's magazines.

When most of the pulps folded, Bellem went on to an equally prolific TV writing career for such shows as "The Lone Ranger," "The Adventures of Superman (1950s version)," "Perry Mason" and "77 Sunset Strip."

But his first person prose as Turner virtually sings on the page and this audio reading (by the gravel-voiced Steve Black) is a stupendous example. Personally, I wish Black made more of these.

Here are links to Part Two and Part Three. Certainly worth a listen. For more on Bellem click HERE and HERE.

Finally, if you like your pulp and noir in audio form, I've also stumbled across a wonderful streaming radio station called AUDIO NOIR that plays hundreds of pulps and detective stories that were heard on the radio back in the day. It supports most audio platforms. Here's the link.

Tweet