Born on this day – John Godey:

John Godey

Writer

July 20, 1912 – April 16, 2006

Credits:

Books:

Fatal Beauty (1984); Killer at His Back (1960); Nella (1981); Never Put Off Till Tomorrow What You Can Kill Today (1970); Sun and Mr. Smith (1976); The Blonde Betrayer (1951); The Blue Hour / aka Next to Die (1948); The Clay Assassin (1959); The Crime of the Century (1973); The Fifth House (1960); The Gun and Mr. Smith (1947); The Man in Question (1953); The Reluctant Assassin / aka A Thrill a Minute With Jack Albany (1966); The Snake (1978); The Taking of Pelham One Two Three (1973); The Talisman (1976); The Three Worlds of Johnny Handsome (1972); This Year's Death (1953).

Movies and television:

Johnny Handsome (1989); Never a Dull Moment (1968); The Magical World of Disney (1979); The Taking of Pelham 123 (2009); The Taking of Pelham One Two Three (1974 / 1998).

Recommended reading - The Best American Noir Of The Century (2011):

The Best American Noir Of The Century (2011).

Edited by James Ellroy and Otto Penzler.

Paperback.

ISBN-10: 0547577443

ISBN-13: 978-0547577449

Back cover description:

“Well worth its impressive weight in gold, it would be a crime not to have this seminal masterpiece in your collection.” – New York Journal of Books.

In his introduction to The Best American Noir of the Century, James Ellroy writes, “Noir is the most scrutinized offshoot of the hard-boiled school of fiction… It’s the nightmare of flawed souls with big dreams and the precise how and why of the all-time sure thing that goes bad.” Offering the best examples of literary sure things gone bad, this collection ensures that nowhere else can readers find a darker, more thorough distillation of American noir fiction.

James Ellroy and Otto Penzler mined the past century to find this treasure trove of thirty-nine stories, with selections from James M. Cain, Mickey Spillane, Elmore Leonard, Patricia Highsmith, Harlan Ellison, Jeffrey Deaver, Joyce Carol Oates, Dennis Lahane, and many more.

“Delightfully devilish . . . A strange trek through the years that includes stories from household names in the hard-boiled genre to lesser-known authors who nonetheless can hold their own with the legends.” – Associated Press.

James Ellroy is the author of the Underworld U.S.A. trilogy – American Tabloid, The Cold Six Thousand, and Blood’s a Rover – and the L.A. Quartet novels, The Black Dahlia, The Big Nowhere, L.A. Confidential, and White Jazz. His most recent book is The Hillicker Curse, a memoir.

Otto Penzler is the founder of the Mysterious Bookshop and Mysterious Press, has won two Edgar Allan Poe Awards (most recently for The Lineup), and is series editor of The Best American Mystery Stories.

Contents:

Foreword by Otto Penzler; Introduction by James Ellroy; Spurs, by Tod Robbins; Pastorale, by James M. Cain; You'll always remember me, by Steve Fisher; Gun crazy, by MacKinlay Kantor; Nothing to worry about, by Day Keene; The homecoming, by Dorothy B. Hughes; Man in the dark, by Howard Browne; The lady says die!, by Mickey Spillane; Professional man, by David Goodis; The hunger, by Charles Beaumont; The gesture, by Gil Brewer; The last spin, by Evan Hunter; Forever after, by Jim Thompson; For the rest of her life, by Cornell Woolrich; The dripping, by David Morrell; Slowly, slowly in the wind, by Patricia Highsmith; Iris, by Stephen Greenleaf; A ticket out, by Brendan DuBois; Since I don't have you, by James Ellroy; Texas city, by James Lee Burke; Mefisto in onyx, by Harlan Ellison; Out there in the darkness, by Ed Gorman; Hot spings, by James Crumley; The weekender, by Jeffery Deaver; Faithless, by Joyce Carol Oates; Poachers, by Tom Franklin; Like a bone in the throat, by Lawrence Block; Crack, by James W. Hall; Running out of dog, by Dennis Lehane; The paperhanger, by William Gay; Midnight emissions, by F.X. Toole; When the women come out to dance, by Elmore Leonard; Controlled burn, by Scott Wolven; All through the house, by Christopher Coake; What she offered, by Thomas H. Cook; Her lord and master, by Andrew Klavan; Stab, by Chris Adrian; The hoarder, by Bradford Morrow; Missing the morning bus, by Lorenzo Carcaterra.

Ann Patchett, on writing:

The idea I pursue is the one that keeps coming back to me.

The characters I think about as I'm falling asleep at night

or when I'm driving to the grocery store

are the ones I wind up writing about.

- Ann Patchett.

On this day in music history - A Journey for Mankind, by Tom Moore & Sherry Finzer (2019):

The album A Journey for Mankind,

by Tom Moore & Sherry Finzer,

was released on July 19, 2019.

On this day in movie history - The Frighteners (1996):

The Frighteners

directed by Peter Jackson,

written by Fran Walsh and Peter Jackson,

was released in the United States on July 19, 1996.
Music by Danny Elfman.

Cast:

Michael J. Fox, Trini Alvarado, Peter Dobson, John Astin, Jeffrey Combs, Dee Wallace Stone, Jake Busey, Chi McBride, Jim Fyfe, Troy Evans, Julianna McCarthy, R. Lee Ermey, Elizabeth Hawthorne, Angela Bloomfield, Desmond Kelly, Jonathan Blick, Todd Rippon, John Sumner, Michael Robinson, Jim McLarty, Anthony Ray Parker, Paul Yates, Melanie Lynskey, John Leigh, Nicola Cliff, Ken Blackburn, Stuart Devenie, Genevieve Westcott, K.C. Kelly, Leslie Wing, Leslie Klein, Frank Edwards, Alan O’Leary, Danny Lineham, Charlie McClellan, William Pomeroy, George Port, Billy Jackson, Sophie Watkins, Taea Hartwell, Max Grover, George Grover, Tony Hopkins, Lewis Martin, Clay Nelson, Matthew Chamberlain, Vivienne Kaplan, Liz Mullane, Matt Aitken, Grae Burton, Michael Elsworth, Nic Farra, Peter Jackson, Rhys Jordan, Paul Kingdom, Isaac Lucas, Michael Maxwell, Bryce McCawe, Nicolas Pegg, April Phillips, Tracey Savage, Jeff Slaven, Clinton Ulyatt, Fran Walsh.

Born on this day – Buster Benton:

Buster Benton

Blues singer

Guitarist

July 19, 1932 – January 20, 1996

Credits:

Albums:

Blues and Trouble (2002); Blues at the Top (1993); Blues Buster (1979); Buster Benton Is the Feeling (1980); First Time in Europe (1983); I Like to Hear My Guitar Sing (1991); Money's the Name of the Game (1989); Spider in My Stew (1978); That's the Reason (1997); Why Me (1988).

Television:

Àngel Casas Show (1985).

Born on this day – Patricia Medina:

Patricia Medina

Actress

July 19, 1919 – April 28, 2012

Credits:

Abbott and Costello in the Foreign Legion (1950); Adventures in Paradise (1959); AFI Life Achievement Award (1975); Aladdin and His Lamp (1952); Assignment: Underwater (1960); Black Saddle (1959); Bonanza (1960); Botany Bay (1952); Branded (1966); Burke's Law (1964); Cain's Hundred (1961); Captain Pirate (1952); Children of Chance (1949); Climax! (1954–1958); Compression (2024); Confidential Report (1955); Coronado 9 (1960–1961); Count Your Blessings (1959); Crook's Tour (1940); Dante (1960); Desperate Search (1952); Dinner at the Ritz (1937); Don't Take It to Heart! (1944); Double or Quits (1938); Drums of Tahiti (1953); Duel on the Mississippi (1955); E! Mysteries & Scandals (1998); Food, Wine & Friends (1980); Fortunes of Captain Blood (1950); Francis (1950); General Electric Theater (1959); Girl Talk (1963); Grindl (1963); Have Gun - Will Travel (1958–1963); High Low Quiz (1957); Hotel de Paree (1960); Hotel Reserve (1944); Il mantello rosso (1955); It's Your Bet (1972); Keene (1969); Kiss the Bride Goodbye (1945); Kraft Mystery Theater (1963); Lady in the Iron Mask (1952); Latitude Zero (1969); Lock Up (1960); Looks Familiar (1978); Lux Video Theatre (1954); Magician: The Astonishing Life and Work of Orson Welles (2014); Manhunt (1960); Mannix (1971); Miami Exposé (1956); Missiles from Hell (1958); Moss Rose (1947); Mr. Satan (1938); My Brother the Angel (1966); Over Easy (1978); Perry Mason (1958); Phantom of the Rue Morgue (1954); Pirates of Tripoli (1955); Plunder of the Sun (1953); Rawhide (1959–1961); Rheingold Theatre (1954); Riverboat (1960); Sangaree (1953); Schlitz Playhouse (1953); Screen Snapshots: Hula from Hollywood (1954); Simply Terrific (1938); Siren of Bagdad (1953); Snow White and the Three Stooges (1961); Spitfire (1942); Startime (1960); Stranger at My Door (1956); Stump the Stars (1963); Tales of the 77th Bengal Lancers (1956); The 2th Annual American Cinema Awards (1985); The 37th Annual Thalians Ball (1992); The 4th Annual American Cinema Awards (1987); The 9th Annual American Cinema Awards (1992); The Alfred Hitchcock Hour (1964); The Avengers (1942); The Beast of Hollow Mountain (1956); The Beginning or the End (1947); The Black Knight (1954); The Bob Braun Show (1975); The Buckskin Lady (1957); The Californians (1958); The Eamonn Andrews Show (1966); The EE British Academy Film Awards (2013); The Fighting O'Flynn (1949); The Ford Television Theatre (1953–1956); The Foxes of Harrow (1947); The Hollywood Collection: Alan Ladd: The True Quiet Man (1999); The Jackpot (1950); The Juke Box Jury (1958); The Killing of Sister George (1968); The Lady and the Bandit (1951); The Lee Phillip Show (1971); The Magic Carpet (1951); The Man from U.N.C.L.E. (1965); The Movie Game (1970); The Name of the Game (1970); The Rebel (1960); The Republic Pictures Story (1991); The Rogues (1964); The Secret Heart (1946); The Third Man (1959); The Three Musketeers (1948); The Timber Tramps (1973); They Met in the Dark (1943); This Is Your Life (1978); This Man Is News (1938); Thriller (1961); Tightrope (1959); To Rome with Love (1970); Uranium Boom (1956); Valentino (1951); Waltz Time (1945); Whispering Smith (1961); Zorro (1959).