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Gravedigger Jones
The ''Harlem Detective'' series of novels by Chester Himes comprises nine hardboiled novels set in the 1950s and early 1960s: List of novels * ''For Love of Imabelle'', a.k.a. ''A Rage in Harlem'' * ''The Real Cool Killers'' * ''The Crazy Kill'' * ''The Big Gold Dream'' * ''All Shot Up'' * ''Cotton Comes to Harlem (novel), Cotton Comes to Harlem'' * ''The Heat's On'' * ''Blind Man With a Pistol'' * ''Plan B (novel), Plan B'' (unfinished) Background By 1954, Chester Himes was living in Paris, France, where he enjoyed the intellectual milieu and lack of racism. His writings and novels were well-respected, but they did not provide enough income on which to live. He met Marcel Duhamel, the editor of ''Série noire'' (The Black Series), which had popularized American hardboiled detective writing in France. The name of the series referred to the color of the books' covers, which was solid black (the association of that word with both the covers and the dark content therein would be a f ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Harlem Detective (TV Series)
''Harlem Detective'' is a short-lived TV series that aired on WWOR-TV, WOR in 1953 and 1954. It is the first television crime program with an interracial pair of detectives, and the first program with an interracial cast. The show was created by Lawrence Menkin and starred William Hairston and William Marshall (actor), William Marshall, among others. Although debuting to high ratings despite a low budget, the show was quickly cancelled. The producers stated the cancellation was because Marshall was being released to "fulfill movie commitments," however Marshall claimed it was actually because of his political beliefs — he was accused of being a communist and placed on the Hollywood Blacklist. Several episodes were written by African American script editor William Attaway References {{reflist 1950s American drama television series ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Numbers Game
The numbers game, also known as the numbers racket, the Italian lottery, Mafia lottery, or the daily number, is a form of illegal gambling or illegal lottery played mostly in poor and working-class neighborhoods in the United States, wherein a bettor attempts to pick three digits to match those that will be randomly drawn the following day. For many years the "number" has been the last three digits of "the handle", the amount race track bettors placed on race day at a major racetrack, published in racing journals and major newspapers in New York. In the loosest sense of the word “ racket”, the numbers game is a common racket or ongoing criminal scheme among organized crime groups, especially in the United States. Gamblers place bets with a bookmaker ("bookie") at a tavern, bar, barber shop, social club, or any other semi-private place that acts as an illegal betting parlor. Runners carry the money and betting slips between the betting parlors and the headquarters, ca ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Novels Set In Harlem
A novel is an extended work of narrative fiction usually written in prose and published as a book. The word derives from the for 'new', 'news', or 'short story (of something new)', itself from the , a singular noun use of the neuter plural of ''novellus'', diminutive of ''novus'', meaning 'new'. According to Margaret Doody, the novel has "a continuous and comprehensive history of about two thousand years", with its origins in the Ancient Greek and Roman novel, Medieval Chivalric romance, and the tradition of the Italian Renaissance novella.Margaret Anne Doody''The True Story of the Novel'' New Brunswick, NJ: Rutgers University Press, 1996, rept. 1997, p. 1. Retrieved 25 April 2014. The ancient romance form was revived by Romanticism, in the historical romances of Walter Scott and the Gothic novel. Some novelists, including Nathaniel Hawthorne, Herman Melville, Ann Radcliffe, and John Cowper Powys, preferred the term ''romance''. Such romances should not be confused with the ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Fictional New York City Police Department Detectives
Fiction is any creative work, chiefly any narrative work, portraying individuals, events, or places that are imaginary or in ways that are imaginary. Fictional portrayals are thus inconsistent with fact, history, or plausibility. In a traditional narrow sense, fiction refers to written narratives in prose often specifically novels, novellas, and short stories. More broadly, however, fiction encompasses imaginary narratives expressed in any medium, including not just writings but also live theatrical performances, films, television programs, radio dramas, comics, role-playing games, and video games. Definition and theory Typically, the fictionality of a work is publicly expressed, so the audience expects a work of fiction to deviate to a greater or lesser degree from the real world, rather than presenting for instance only factually accurate portrayals or characters who are actual people. Because fiction is generally understood as not adhering to the real world, the ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Fictional American Detectives
Fiction is any creative work, chiefly any narrative work, portraying character (arts), individuals, events, or setting (narrative), places that are imagination, imaginary or in ways that are imaginary. Fictional portrayals are thus inconsistent with fact, history, or plausibility. In a traditional narrow sense, fiction refers to literature, written narratives in prose often specifically novels, novellas, and short story, short stories. More broadly, however, fiction encompasses imaginary narratives expressed in any Media (communication), medium, including not just writings but also drama, live theatrical performances, films, television programs, radio dramas, comics, role-playing games, and video games. Definition and theory Typically, the fictionality of a work is publicly expressed, so the audience expects a work of fiction to deviate to a greater or lesser degree from the real world, rather than presenting for instance only factually accurate portrayals or character (arts ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Crime Novel Series
In ordinary language, a crime is an unlawful act punishable by a state or other authority. The term ''crime'' does not, in modern criminal law, have any simple and universally accepted definition,Farmer, Lindsay: "Crime, definitions of", in Cane and Conoghan (editors), '' The New Oxford Companion to Law'', Oxford University Press, 2008 (), p. 263Google Books). though statutory definitions have been provided for certain purposes. The most popular view is that crime is a category created by law; in other words, something is a crime if declared as such by the relevant and applicable law. One proposed definition is that a crime or offence (or criminal offence) is an act harmful not only to some individual but also to a community, society, or the state ("a public wrong"). Such acts are forbidden and punishable by law. The notion that acts such as murder, rape, and theft are to be prohibited exists worldwide. What precisely is a criminal offence is defined by the criminal law of each r ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
A Rage In Harlem (film)
''A Rage in Harlem'' is a 1991 American crime film directed by Bill Duke and loosely based on Chester Himes' novel '' A Rage in Harlem''. The film stars Forest Whitaker, Danny Glover, Badja Djola, Robin Givens and Gregory Hines. Producer Stephen Woolley intended it to be a comedy film, and several reviewers have described it as such, but this categorization has been disputed by director Bill Duke. The film premiered in competition at the 44th Cannes Film Festival in its Grand Palais, receiving a "five-minute standing ovation." It was also shown at the 2nd Stockholm International Film Festival. Plot It is 1956, in Natchez, Mississippi. Slim and his crew, Hank and Jodie, are negotiating with Lester, a fence; they are trying to sell the gold they stole in a mining robbery. The deal goes south, and under duress Lester discloses that the only other person capable of fencing the gold is Easy Money in Harlem, New York. The Sheriff shows up, and in the confusion Imabelle, Slim's gun m ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Come Back, Charleston Blue
''Come Back, Charleston Blue'' is a 1972 American crime comedy film starring Godfrey Cambridge and Raymond St. Jacques, loosely based on Chester Himes' novel ''The Heat's On''. It is a sequel to the 1970 film ''Cotton Comes to Harlem''. Plot Detectives Ed "Coffin Ed" Johnson and "Grave Digger" Jones are confounded by a string of strange murders in the neighborhood of Harlem, New York. The murders themselves are not nearly as bizarre as the calling card left by the murderer: a blue steel straight razor. Legend has it that this was the calling card of Charleston Blue, a vigilante who tried to rid the neighborhood of all criminal elements using a straight razor. Blue, having disappeared years ago after he went after Dutch Schultz (with his trusty straight razor), was considered dead by all except his girlfriend, who kept his razors locked away until his "comeback." Soon after the murders start, it is discovered that the razors were missing, and all evidence points to Joe Paint ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Cotton Comes To Harlem (film)
''Cotton Comes to Harlem'' is a 1970 American neo-noir action comedy film co-written and directed by Ossie Davis and starring Godfrey Cambridge, Raymond St. Jacques, and Redd Foxx. The film, later cited as an early example of the blaxploitation genre, is based on Chester Himes' novel of the same name. The opening theme, "Ain't Now But It's Gonna Be", was written by Ossie Davis and performed by Melba Moore. The film was one of the many black films that appeared in the 1970s and became overnight hits. It was followed two years later by the sequel ''Come Back, Charleston Blue'' (1972). Plot Deke "Reverend" O'Malley, a con man, is selling shares at a Harlem rally, for the purchase of a Back-to-Africa movement ship to be called ''The Black Beauty''. During the rally, several masked gunmen jump out of a meat truck and steal $87,000 in donated cash from the back of an armored car. Two Harlem detectives, "Gravedigger" Jones and "Coffin Ed" Johnson, chase the car, and a bale of cotton ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Down-low (sexual Slang)
Down-low, sometimes shortened to DL, is an African-American slang term generally used within the African-American community that typically refers to a sexual subculture of Men who usually identify as heterosexual but actively seek sexual encounters and relations with other men, practice gay cruising, and frequently don a specific hip-hop attire during these activities. They generally avoid disclosing their same-sex sexual activities, even if they have female sexual partner(s), they are married to a woman, or they are single. The term is also used to refer to a related sexual identity. ''Down-low'' has been viewed as "a type of impression management that some of the informants use to present themselves in a manner that is consistent with perceived norms about masculine attribute, attitudes, and behavior". Origins The term ''down-low'' originated within the African-American community, and was originally used to describe "any kind of slick, secretive behavior, including infi ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Soul Food
Soul food is the ethnic cuisine of African Americans. Originating in the Southern United States, American South from the cuisines of Slavery in the United States, enslaved Africans transported from Africa through the Atlantic slave trade, soul food is closely associated with the cuisine of the Southern United States. The expression "soul food" originated in the mid-1960s when "soul" was a common word used to describe African-American culture. Soul food uses cooking techniques and ingredients from West African cuisine, West African, Cuisine of the Central African Republic, Central African, European cuisine, Western European, and Indigenous cuisine of the Americas. The cuisine was initially denigrated as low quality and belittled because of its origin. It was seen as low-class food, and African Americans in the Northern United States, North looked down on their Black Southerners, Black Southern compatriots who preferred soul food (see the Great Migration (African American), Grea ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Jazz
Jazz is a music genre that originated in the African-American communities of New Orleans, Louisiana, in the late 19th and early 20th centuries. Its roots are in blues, ragtime, European harmony, African rhythmic rituals, spirituals, hymns, marches, vaudeville song, and dance music. Since the 1920s Jazz Age, it has been recognized as a major form of musical expression in traditional and popular music. Jazz is characterized by swing and blue notes, complex chords, call and response vocals, polyrhythms and improvisation. As jazz spread around the world, it drew on national, regional, and local musical cultures, which gave rise to different styles. New Orleans jazz began in the early 1910s, combining earlier brass band marches, French quadrilles, biguine, ragtime and blues with collective polyphonic improvisation. However, jazz did not begin as a single musical tradition in New Orleans or elsewhere. In the 1930s, arranged dance-oriented swing big bands, ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
