Origin of Evil: Editorial - What new on this site

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The EQMM 75th Anniversary Exhibition was on view from Sep 26 to Dec 23 2016 in the Rare Book and Manuscript Library, Butler Library, 6th Floor East. Included were some of founding editor Frederic Dannay's cor- respondence with several of the most important writers of the 20th century, as well as some of his edited manuscripts (from the Frederic Dannay papers, which are housed at the library), as well as original drawings for some of the magazine’s early covers and selections from the correspon- dence of EQMM’s second editor, Eleanor Sullivan.(full report here)
Rose Koppel Dannay's re-published 2010 memoir of her years with Fred Dannay. "It is not too much to say that Rose saved Fred's life," as she enabled him to enjoy the status of mystery elder statesman earned by more than forty years of shaping stories that broadened the reach of mystery fiction."
Perfect Crime Books, Feb 7. 2016
Joseph Goodrich has edited and annotated a selection of Dannay and Lee's letters, and it's being published by Perfect Crime Books. It's called BLOOD RELATIONS: THE SELECTED LETTERS OF ELLERY QUEEN, 1947-1950, and covers the writing of Ten Day's Wonder, Cat of Many Tails and The Origin of Evil, as well as offering a vivid picture of the complex and often tortured psychological and artistic relationship existing between Frederic Dannay and Manfred B. Lee.
Perfect Crime Books also has, aFrancis M. Nevins' Ellery Queen biography available. The work entitled 'The Art of Detection' carries the byline "The story of how two fractious cousins reshaped the modern detective novel". Mike also became one of the West 87th Street Irregulars.
This month at Ellery Queen's Mystery Magazine's iPod page...

JABberwocky Literary Agency, Inc has for some years now the privilege of representing the complete works of Ellery Queen. As of this year they also publish nine eBook editions of the Ellery Queen novels. These downloads are available through the usual channels listed on their own page here.

If you think you can help us, or would like something to add. Don't be shy! Pick one of the following categories (by clicking on the icons): • • • •
Q.B.I.: Covers added since April 2017: 51 better and 106 new covers. The latter corresponding with the red numerals in the list. Latest additions made on March 24. 2018: April 2016 - April 2017: 131 better and 436 new covers April 2015 - April 2016: 10 better and 185 new covers April 2014 - April 2015: 18 better and 103 new covers



`April 1. 2018 - April 18. 1999` More news on Sergeant Velie, albeit of the sad kind, last month his longtime friend Charles Leinenweber announced that actor Tom Reese died December 12 at a hospice facility in Studio City after a brief illness. Tom played Sergeant Velie in the excellent Ellery Queen TV-series in 1975-76. Tom was a masterful villain, but he'll always be best remembered for his good guy role, Sgt. Velie, a cigar chomping, bull-in-a-china shop cop ... (click on picture for more)

March 24. 2018 The Zanzibar Shirt and others Stories. Since time began, authors have been told to write what they know. James Holding (1907-1997) took that advice to heart. After his retirement from advertising, Holding began writing full-time. One of his early ghostwriting gigs was continuing the Ellery Queen Jr novels, which had first appeared in the 1940s. Fred Dannay and Manfred Lee, hired Holding to jumpstart the series after a lengthy hiatus. At the same time, Holding decided to write a series of short stories about fictional sleuths King Danforth and Martin Leroy, two collaborative mystery writers (whose character was named Leroy King) on their own around-the-world cruise with their wives. The cases on the high seas are masterpieces of deductions and logic, following the smallest clues to their logical deductions. The stories even included the title structure “The Location Object Mystery” as used in the early Ellery Queen mysteries. Presumably the stories met with the approval of Dannay as the works appeared first in Ellery Queen’s Mystery Magazine. Holding would continue to write short stories, ultimately publishing over 100 stories in the mystery field. In addition to Leroy King, he wrote about series characters Manuel Andrada, also known as The Photographer, a hired killer and Hal Johnson, the Library Detective. This collection includes all ten stories in the series along with a brief biography of Holding and the most comprehensive bibliography of Holding’s short story works. Buy from Crippen and Landru

March 18. 2018 The new anthology The Misadventures of Ellery Queen by Josh Pachter and Dale C. Andrews got a very detailed and glowing review on Brad Friedman's blog. Incidentally this blog was only recently added to our Q.E.D. section, where you will find many interesting links to pages on Ellery Queen. If you're interested in buying this excellent anthology just click the banner above. Better still if you want a signed copy you can meet Dale and Josh on Thursday, April 12 7 P.M. at the Cascades Library in Sterling. You can learn about the vibrant subgenre of literary pastiche and parody, the work of legendary mystery author Ellery Queen, and the many times other writers have imitated, poked gently fun at, and otherwise paid tribute to the Ellery Queen characters. Sergeant Thomas Velie made his entrance in the Queen-saga with the words 'What's up, Doyle?' in The Roman Hat Mystery where he is introduced to us as a tall man in plain clothes. He is addressed by Inspector Queen in a rather fatherly way as 'Thomas'. Whilst the faithful sergeant addresses Ellery as 'maestro'. Velie aka " the tall one with the sledgehammer hands and the rumbling voice.." still has (largely through the Hutton TV-series) somewhat of a cult following.
The only missing profile of an actor who took on the role of Velie was the one for Bill Zuckert. It's now online and as the page attests he had a very successful career in both radio and theater. We were also thrilled to get the help for this from his daughter Kymm Zuckert. Bill played Velie in the easily forgettable murder mystery "Ellery Queen, Don't Look Behind You" (1971) ...(click on picture for more)

`March 4.2018 Eight actors in total have played Sergeant Velie. Of those Ed Latimer and Bill Zuckert are the last two actors for whom the profile pages were missing on this site. Bill's profile page is coming soon. Ed Latimer's page is now published online.`
Very few sources on the net bring us information for this actor born in 1897. Not that Ed didn't perform regularly: he played over 300 roles on radio! In 1947 he played Sergeant Velie on The Adventures of Ellery Queen ...(click on picture for more)

TIP: Interested readers should know most of the pictures used on the website have long descriptions with background information sometimes not included in the text on the same page. Microsoft's Internet Explorer used to have this feature activated as a standard. Firefox users wanting this can install an add-on called '`Popup ALT Attribute`'. Makes a big difference, believe us. When installed pointing at a picture results in details or additional information. The above example shows the additional information provided when you move the cursor over a picture.

`February 17. 2018` The Misadventures of Ellery Queen edited by Josh Pachter &‎ Dale C. Andrews features stories classic pastiches, parodies and homages. This volume assembles 16 stories by a wide variety of authors, all written (sometimes tongue-in-cheek) as homages to, and parodies and pastiches of, the character -- and writing team -- known as "Ellery Queen". INTRODUCTION: Elementary Questions, by Josh Pachter and Dale C. Andrews INTRODUCTION: Sorely Missed Adventures, by Richard Dannay INTRODUCTION: The Sincerest Form of Flattery, by Rand Lee THE MYSTERY OF THE RED BALLOONS, by Thomas Narcejac, translated by the RK Jones DYING MESSAGE, by Leyne Requel THE GILBERT AND SULLIVAN CLUE, by Jon L. Breen OPEN LETTER TO SURVIVORS, by Francis M. Nevins THE REINDEER CLUE, by Edward D. Hoch THE BOOK CASE, by Dale C. Andrews and Kurt Sercu TEN MONTHS' BLUNDER, by J.N. Williamson THE ENGLISH VILLAGE MYSTERY, by Arthur Porges ELROY QUINN’S LAST CASE, by Dennis M. Dubin THE NORWEGIAN APPLE MYSTERY, by James Holding THE MAN WHO READ ELLERY QUEEN, by William Brittain E.Q. GRIFFEN EARNS HIS NAME, by Josh Pachter THE LAST CHECK, by Patricia McGerr THE DEATH OF THE MALLORY QUEEN, by Lawrence Block THE RANSOM OF EQMM #1, by Arthur Vidro THE TEN-CENT MURDER, by Joseph Goodrich You can also order your copy by clicking the banner below...


`February 4. 2018` Only in one movie series did Doc Prouty make it to the screen. Charles Lane was the actor who took on the role. Charles had both a long life and career. He was born in the 'magnificent' year of 1905. The same year when Manfred B. Lee and Frederick Dannay were born. Charles passed away in 2007 at 102 years.
The three first Ellery Queen movies (1940-1941) produced by Larry Darmour for Columbia featured Doc Prouty played by Charles. After which the Doc Prouty part was left out of the movies. Charles did another Ellery Queen stint this time as the coroner in A Close Call for Ellery Queen (1942)... (click on picture for more)

`January 15. 2018` Another year and "Ellery Queen wise" no stopping when it comes to things to look forward to. Not only will 2018 hopefully bring us Jeffrey Marks' Ellery Queen book, we will also see the anthology of Ellery Queen pastiches an parodies edited by Josh Pachter and Dale Andrews, "The Misadventures of Ellery Queen." The collection, containing stories never collected together before, is scheduled to be published by Wildside Press on March 8... Watch this space for more news.
We also bring you a biography of an excellent actor who played Richard Queen: Herb Butterfield emoted opposite Lawrence Dobkin on ABC’s Ellery Queen in the 1947-48 season, playing Inspector Queen to Larry’s sleuth. Herb quickly replaced Bill Smith and thus became the last actor in the role of Inspector Queen in the popular radio series... (click on picture for more)

`December 18. 2017` Actor Harry Morgan (1915-2011) we'll remember for all the right reasons. He had earlier television runs in Pete and Gladys and as Officer Joe Gannon in Dragnet, but first and foremost we'll think of him as tough-talking, commanding, fun-loving, but also serious Army Officer, Col. Sherman T. Potter on the beloved MASH* series. Morgan, however, was also cast as Inspector Queen in an Ellery Queen TV pilot... No claim to fame there. Not Morgan's fault who was well suited as the long suffering Inspector Queen. In *Ellery Queen* Don't Look Behind You (1971) Morgan was rewritten as uncle to Peter Lawford’s Ellery. This resolved the problem presented by the fact that Lawford had a British accent and was, in fact, only 12 years younger than Morgan. NBC had high hopes for the pilot, intending it as a contender for its planned wheel series NBC Mystery Movie. But things just didn’t work out. Richard Levinson and William Link were charged with developing the series, and were so unhappy with the changes made to their script for the pilot that they refused to have their name on the project, instead ascribing authorship to “Ted Leighton.” Predictably, the pilot didn't score with the public and the series was never to be … . But, of course, Levinson and Link did not give up -- they went on to create the 1975 NBC series *Ellery Queen*. ...(click on picture for more)

A challenge to the reader: if you think you could add additional information (even corrections) please do so... You can reach us by clicking on "Uncle Sam". We've always appreciate corrections and additional information, however small the detail may be.

`December 2. 2017` Last May we brought you a profile page for Howard Culver. In April-May 1948 Howard became the last actor to play Ellery Queen in the US radio series. Jokingly he later his told his daughters he 'killed" Ellery Queen. When making this page we got help from Patti & Kathi Culver, they were so generous enough to provide some additional pictures of their father. Now once again they did just that, with the "new" clickable picture (R) and a new picture showing Howard in front of an AFRS mike. ...(click on picture for more)

`November 18. 2017` There are two actors who are not really mentioned much on this site who nonetheless played important roles in NBC's 1975 landmark series Ellery Queen. One was Ken Swofford, who frequently appeared as pugnacious journalist Frank Flannagan. The other was John Hillerman, who imperiously nailed the role of radio detective Simon Brimmer. Neither the Frank Flannagan character nor Simon Brimmer ever appeared as a character in the Ellery Queen books. Brimmer, Like Flannagan, was the creation of producers Levinson and Link, and very much became an integral part in success of the series. In all of his episodes Brimmer was the foil for Ellery. He was aloof, disdaining and in some respects evocative of the Ellery that we encounter in the early novels. Brimmer was the wise-guy who was always intent on out smarting each and everyone, and most particularly . . . Ellery. Every one of these episodes amounted to a mental duel between the two. And Brimmer always lost. In the NBC series Brimmer was played to a tee by John Hillerman. Hillerman was later cast, with even greater success, as former British Army Sergeant Major Jonathan Higgins in Magnum, P.I. After Hillerman retired from acting in 1999, he returned to his home state of Texas. On November 9, he died at his Houston home at the age of 84.
We also offer yet another biography of an actor who played Sergeant Velie. Alan Reed, the actor who will forever be the voice of "Fred Flinstone" took on the part of Sergeant Velie on radio in 1947. ... (click on picture for more)

`November 1. 2017` It was a 'trouvaille' to introduce inspector Richard Queen in his books, the father of the brilliant Ellery, was himself an amateur sleuth. Father Queen is an inspector with the "New York Homicide Bureau". This combination allowed official police-activities to merge with the unofficial investigations of Ellery Queen, and the possibilities this offered were exhaustively explored by the writers. In my opinion the addition of Inspector Queen as Ellery's dad not only affords him the opportunity to participate in official police business but tremendously adds to the nostalgic feel to the stories. Intended or not, the NYPD corps fighting crime with deductive powers and lots of hard work is omnipresent. A double bill this time:
Guy Usher was the first actor to appear, very briefly, as Inspector Queen in the first Ellery Queen movie The Spanish Cape Mystery (1935). At one time the opening sequence (the only part of the film in which the Inspector appears) was thought to be irretrievably lost, it has Usher as Inspector Queen calling in his son to help him out with a jewel robbery. ... (click on picture for more)
Affecting an Irish brogue, Wade Boteler was also in demand for policeman roles or a gruff authority figure. So no surprise when he played Inspector Queen in the, easily forgettable, Ellery Queen movie The Mandarin Mystery (1937). ... (click on picture for more)

`October 15. 2017` Doctor Samuel Prouty, assistant to the Chief Medical Examiner of New York County resembled the popular conception of Mephistopheles smoked his dark, dangerous-looking cigars with furious puffs.¹ The authority when it comes down to pinpointing the cause and time of death! On radio he was played by only two actors. Arthur B. Allen replaced Robert W. Strauss during the first radio season of Ellery Queen.
Even more than Robert W. Strauss had done, Arthur B. Allen made playing stereotypical dry New Englanders into a career. The second part of the 1st radio series was also the last in which Doc Prouty appeared. ... (click on picture for more)