Monday, February 9, 2009

Ellery Queen: An Alias For an Alias and an Alias

by Anne Carter

Ha! What’s that supposed to mean, you ask? The name Ellery Queen conjures different meanings to different people. For some, it is the 1940’s radio program that comes to mind (find some of these episodes at RadioLovers.com) For others, it’s the various incarnations of the television series, starring Richard Hart, Lee Bowman, Hugh Marlowe, George Nader, Lee Philips, and probably best remembered, Jim Hutton as the fictional sleuth. Films followed, with Peter Lawford and Ralph Bellamy joining the long list of actors portraying Queen.

Reading fans will be quick to mention that the Ellery Queen novels, first of which was The Roman Hat Mystery published in 1929, preceded all the radio, television and movies starring the popular detective, his father (Inspector Richard Queen) and his assistant, Sergeant Velie. Then there was Ellery Queen Magazine (published by Dell Magazines, Penny Publications), a host of comic books and even jigsaw puzzles bearing the Queen moniker.

But who is Ellery Queen? The character name was also the alias for the two American cousins responsible for penning the novels and creating the image of the puzzle-solving protag. And it is humorous to note that each of the men had aliases of their own: Daniel (David) Nathan, also known as Frederic Dannay (1905-1982) and Manford (Emanuel) Lepofksy went by Manfred Bennington Lee (1905-1971).

Read more about the illustrious career of Ellery Queen at Wikipedia, and this eclectic site chronicling the detective-hero. You can find out more about the magazine here.

Anne Carter is the author of paranormal romantic mystery, POINT SURRENDER. Visit her at Beacon Street Books, and at the Word From Beacon Street.

5 comments:

Mark Troy said...

When I was a high school freshman, I couldn't get enough Ellery Queen.

Morgan Mandel said...

Sometimes it's the book, sometimes it's the movie or TV show that come first. You never know. One leads to another. I can only hope it will happen with one of my books.

Morgan Mandel
http://morganmandel.blogspot.com

Earl Staggs said...

Interesting backstory on Ellery Queen, Anne. These days, for those of us who write short mystery, Ellery Queen Mystery Magazine is one of the two top markets for our work. The other one is Alfred Hitchcock Mystery Magazine. Hmmmm. Wonder where that name came from.

Dana Fredsti said...

Although I'm familiar with the name and the magazine, I never have seen the show OR any of the movies based on the character! Not sure how it slipped through the cracks...

Anonymous said...

http://neptune.spaceports.com/~queen/index.html