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About DonHerron.com
In 1977 Don Herron began leading The Dashiell Hammett Tour, now the longest-running literary tour in the nation. On this site you’ll find information on current walks — dates, where to meet, arranging tours by appointment — plus a hard-boiled blog with news, reviews of books and film, and a dash of noir.
The latest and greatest edition to self-guide you up and down the mean streets.
Willeford: The Book
Includes the first “Mr. Hunt” story, “Knives in the Dark.”
Tag Archives: Lon Chaney Sr.
Frisco Beat: Lon Chaney Hits the Old Mint Again!
If you’ve ever caught the 1920 Lon Chaney silent flick The Penalty, you no doubt remember the sequence where Lon and his mob are looting the Old Mint on the corner of Fifth and Mission. On Thursday March 29 — and, … Continue reading
Posted in Dash, Film, Frisco, News
Tagged CitySleuth, Lon Chaney Sr., Old Mint, Tenderloin Museum, The Big Knockover, The Penalty
Frisco Beat: Back to the TL Museum for The Penalty
At top and bottom, a couple of shots from my July 13 appearance in the Tenderloin Museum, talking up The Thin Man and with some snippets of the 1931 Falcon — high point being when we spotted the heart of the … Continue reading
Posted in Dash, Film, Frisco, News
Tagged CitySleuth, Lon Chaney Sr., Tenderloin, Tenderloin Museum, The Big Knockover, The Penalty
Sinister Cinema: Lon Chaney’s The Penalty
When I met the mysterious CitySleuth he mentioned that he was working on finding San Francisco location shooting for the Lon Chaney flick The Penalty from 1920 — one of my favorites, with Chaney in one of his greatest roles as the legless … Continue reading
Posted in Dash, Film, Frisco, News
Tagged CitySleuth, Lon Chaney Sr., ReelSF, The Big Knockover, The Penalty
Frisco Beat: Reeling in the History
Did a couple of groups by appointment yesterday, got lucky with the brutal winter rains holding off. . . . On one of them the mysterious CitySleuth came along and tossed in some tidbits of film/Frisco history — one was … Continue reading
Posted in Dash, Film, Frisco, Tour
Tagged 891 Post, Bill Arney, CitySleuth, Heisenberg, Jimmy Stewart, Kim Novak, Lon Chaney Sr., Mark Murphy, ReelSF, Ruby Skye, Tenderloin Museum, The Big Knockover, The Penalty, Vertigo
Hollywood Beat: The Tully Talk
On Sunday the 14th I got up in Denver at the crack-of-dawn (and anyone who knows me can tell you I hate the crack-of-dawn) and began punching the machine toward LA for the talk about Jim Tully in Musso & Frank, … Continue reading
Posted in DMac, Film, Lit, News, Willeford
Tagged Book Collecting, Boris Karloff, Charlie Chaplin, Circus Parade, Erich von Stroheim, Frankenstein, Howard Prouty, James Whale, Jim Tully, Larry Edmunds Bookshop, Leo Grin, Lon Chaney Sr., Mark Dawidziak, Musso & Frank, Paul J. Bauer, The Bruiser, The Maltese Falcon Society, The Mummy, UCLA
Rediscovered: Tully and Hammett and Chaney (Oh My!)
Finally got back from PulpFest, finished shaking the flakes of rotting wood-pulp dust off my traveling gear, and guess it’s time to jump back into the blogosphere. To reboot the action, how about some comments from Mark Dawidziak, the Jim Tully biographer, … Continue reading
Posted in Dash, Film, Lit, Willeford
Tagged Charmian London, Eugene O'Neill, George Jean Nathan, H. L. Mencken, Jack London, Jim Tully, Lon Chaney Sr., Mark Dawidziak, PulpFest, The American Mercury, Vanity Fair
Tour: Guest Stars
And on that tour by appointment for April 19 I was talking about, Charlie Morfin and Carrie-Anne of the Black Dahlia walks in Hollywood were up to check out the Frisco scene, get some tips about leading tours for film … Continue reading
Posted in News, Tour
Tagged Bela Lugosi, Bing Crosby, Black Dahlia tours, Bogie, Burritt alley, Burritt alley plaque, celebrity graves, Charlie Morfin, Dwight Frye, Jack Benny, John Ford, Lon Chaney Sr., Musso & Frank
