INTRODUCTION TO DAVID GOODIS
BLACK FRIDAY & SHORT STORY COLLECTION
GOODISCON CATALOGUE EDIT
Not so much ‘a life less ordinary’ as ‘a life less known’, David Goodis, apart from a few years, led a sedentary and quite anonymous existence. Personal information on him is very limited and most comes from a few sources. A large proportion of what there is to know about David Goodis was printed in
There is only a very small amount of surviving correspondence (most of his personal papers were either deliberately destroyed or are lost) and a couple of interviews he gave to newspapers, together with quite a long legal testament, related to a court case that he gave in the year before he died.
My own modest recent researches have filled a few gaps in and so, as that work continues, this is a précis of the salient facts about the private life of David Goodis.
Born in 1917, in the suburban Jewish area of
David also had a brother, Herbert, who came along five years later and, as far as one can tell, theirs was an uneventful, pleasant family life. David was close to his family on his mother’s side and saw a lot of his cousins who lived nearby.
David was a slight but intelligent boy with a ready wit and showed, from quite early school days, an aptitude for writing, authoring and editing the school and then university magazines. Even before he graduated from
In his late teens and early twenties, David was a popular young man, who joined a large circle of mainly Jewish friends, attending big band dances and jazz concerts. Indeed, David was something of a jazz aficionado and was even known to have ‘jammed’ with famous outfits like the Duke Ellington Orchestra, playing along with a comb and paper or kazoo. It was also at this time that he developed a reputation as a renowned practical joker, who would do outrageous things to amuse his friends.
As a first novel, Retreat from Oblivion was an earnest, not at all embarrassing first novel, which depicted, through its representation of the Spanish Civil War, its young author’s strong, liberal sentiment. Unfortunately, the book was a flop but Goodis was already generating large numbers of stories which were being published successfully in pulp magazines of every conceivable genre. Somewhere during this time, he moved to New York and whilst still writing pulp fiction, also got a job cranking out radio scripts for various radio serials, including most notably, a children’s series called Hop Harrigan of the Airways, in the early 1940’s.
Of course, by now the war in Europe was raging and although Goodis tried to enlist, he was rejected on medical grounds by the
Also during this major development phase of Goodis’s burgeoning career, he had his first taste of Tinseltown and spent some fruitless time in LA, writing a script for Universal Studios, which was dutifully rejected. Perhaps the most telling occurrence of this time in Goodis’s life was his meeting and marrying his first and only wife, the attractive and very assertive Elaine Astor. He had apparently known Elaine from his salad days in Philly but, for whatever reason, they both found themselves in
The marriage, despite Goodis’s ardent attraction to Elaine, was not a success and, notwithstanding his desperate at
Goodis was deeply affected by the breakdown of his marriage and it is no coincidence that there is a recurring female character (vivacious, sexually domineering, aggressive) in numerous Goodis novels that bears more than a passing resemblance to the appearance and alleged character of Elaine.
David Goodis’s emotional turmoil did nothing to stop the upward trajectory of his writing career and in the immediate post war period, he wrote his first full length crime novel, which was snapped up pre-publication, by Warner Brothers. The title of the novel became The Dark Passage which, when bought for serialisation by the prestigious magazine Saturday Evening Post, became a big, popular and critical success. Warner Brothers put the film adaptation into production as the next vehicle for the golden screen coupling of Humphrey Bogart and Lauren Bacall and Goodis got his dream ticket to
This, for David Goodis, was to be the peak of his career and he would never, ever have it so good again.
Unfortunately, despite his own dedication, Goodis’s screen-writing gig was largely a bust. He toiled over projects that were never produced and after three years he still had only one screen credit to his name, on an OK’ish 1947 melodrama, The Unfaithful, directed by Vincent Sherman.
Still, while the work wasn’t great, Goodis himself seemed to enjoy the experience of being in
He himself said “I certainly wasted an awful lot of time in
In fact, Goodis didn’t waste as much time in
It may also be that Goodis wanted to go home because, apart from financially supporting his parents, he needed to lend more practical help. Some years previously, David’s younger brother, Herbert, had been diagnosed with schizophrenia and as his parents got older it seems that they may have found it increasingly difficult to cope on their own. Whatever the reason, Goodis resettled into their family home where he was to spend, apart from brief business trips or holidays, the remainder of his life. His routine was fairly straightforward, he would write in the small room upstairs all day, then visit friends or family in the evenings.
He was an attentive and loyal family member and always was present at the big family social gatherings at weekends. Indeed, according to his cousins, David was often the life and soul of the party, telling jokes and stories and even making up little theatre pieces for the family to act out. He even helped to write part of a family history of the Halperns that they published privately.
As with his LA life, Goodis’s family commitments contrast wildly with the stories and rumours recounted in
The early 1950’s, in
At the end of the 1950’s, there was a new flurry of interest in Goodis’s work for the movies, mainly through Columbia Pictures acquiring the rights to some of his novels. Acclaimed B movie director, Jacques Tourneur made a decent job of adapting Nightfall and then an old friend of David Goodis’s, from college days, Paul Wendkos set about making a film version of The Burglar to actually be shot in Philadelphia. Goodis became attached as the screenwriter and the film was made in 1957. The Burglar was to be David Goodis’s last direct involvement in film-making and by far and away his most satisfying experience, probably because it was an enjoyable experience working with his old friend, Wendkos and it was shot on home turf, where he felt most comfortable.
The Burglar wasn’t any sort of commercial success but it remains one of the most convincing adaptations of a David Goodis novel, faithful in spirit and tone, to the author’s style and vision. Sadly, this period was to be the last real flowering of David Goodis’s talent. He did have the pleasure of seeing, just a few years later, Tirez sur le Pianiste, the stunning Francois Truffaut version of his masterpiece Down There in 1960 and was persuaded to attend the
No real concrete evidence has been unearthed to explain this steep creative decline and drought but the last ten years of Goodis’s life were ones of little writing and a catalogue of worsening personal circumstances.
His friends and family confirmed that he was not a man who talked ever about himself and did not confide his personal problems in anyone. As his old friend, Paul Wendkos confirmed, “he didn’t talk much, never revealed much of himself, despite a very open, jovial exterior”. The only thing that was widely known was his decision to sue the television station, ABC, for allegedly plagiarising Dark Passage for the substance of the hit TV series, The Fugitive. The law suit was protracted and took an increasing toll on David, physically and mentally. On top of this, the passing away of his father in 1963, then of his mother in 1966 and the responsibility of looking after his brother had a deep effect on David.
In mid-1966, he suffered a bout of mental illness which saw him institutionalised for a few months. It was also there that they detected problems with his heart (he drank and especially smoked very heavily) and, after being taken ill, he died in hospital on January 17th, 1967. David’s last thoughts and concerns, as outlined in a letter he wrote to his lawyer, from hospital, were the future welfare of his brother. Herbert lived on in an institution, paid for by David Goodis’s estate, until he passed away in 1971.
David Goodis is buried in a plot with his brother, father and mother in the Jewish
US Lion 1954
France 1955
France 1968
US Black Lizard 1987
US Vintage 1990
France 1990
Subsequent to his appointment to the BFI, he was founding Director of Broadway Media Centre in
He is Director of the National
Further details on the work of Film London are available on the website.
copyright © Adrian Wootton, 2006-10-31
We would like to acknowledge the kindness of Serpent’s Tail Publishers for allowing us to print this introduction.
Very nice write-up.
ReplyDeleteOne correction. The Tenderloin was in Philadelphia. It doesn't exist anymore but it was centered around Franklin Square. At least one of Goodis's books (I forget the title) was set there, the one with the insurance actuary who leaves his wife for the cocaine addict.
Hey Scoats,
ReplyDeleteThe book you are referring to is OF TENDER SIN.
Alvin Darby leaves his wife, Vivan, for Geraldine
Barrett.
“Cocaine,” she said. “In the trade they call it Charlie.” Chapter 17