RARA-AVIS: Re: Recent readings & what to read next

From: Jim Stephenson ( jestephenson@ix.netcom.com)
Date: 28 May 2002


Rene mused:

> For me an amusing
> coincidence is that a character in THE DEADLY PERCHERON whistles "Pistol
> Packin' Mama" which, IIRC, was a hit for Spade Cooley, western swing
> bandleader & erstwhile minor Elroy character.

Spade may have done it (as did everyone from Bing Crosby to Glen Miller's AAF band--complete with strings and a harp), but the massive hit was by Al Dexter and his Troopers.

BTW, the earliest literary reference to Spade I've come across is a mention in a short story in John O'Hara's collection *Hellbox*. Just bit of trivia to clutter your brain.

> (Spade had a bass player
> who was a dog lover, in as literal a sense as Elroy could make it. Just
> thought I'd throw that in, re: hardboiled cats'n'dogs threads of the
> past).

Poor ol' Deuce Spriggens--a perfectly normal, decent guy who's legacy is as an unsavory character in a James Ellroy novel ... it ain't fair, I tells ya!

Jim Stephenson, western swing cono-seur

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