Honey West
Created by G.G. Fickling (pseud.
of Gloria and Forest Fickling)
Move over, Kinsey.
Step aside, Sharon.
Someone get the smelling salts for V.I.
Here comes the shocking truth. The first really successful woman private eye in a series was a bimbo! Or at least frequently clothing-challenged.
Evidence? Typical exclamation from her occasional rescuer and boyfriend, Johnny Doom: "Honey! Where are your clothes?"
Still, considering the decidedly prefeminist times, HONEY WEST was, according to co-creator Gloria Fickling, a "beautiful, brainy and very much determined, sensual female."
Actually, Honey was the creation of fashion writer Gloria and her husband, sportswriter Forest Fickling, who were friends of Shell Scott's creator, Richard Prather.
She first appeared in the 1957 novel, This Girl for Hire, as a very Shell-like P.I., with the same often zany blend of humour and sex, although her creators did darken things up a bit by giving her a very personal reason for pursuing the PI profession -- apparently Honey was searching for the murderer of her beloved father, Hank West, also a private eye, who was killed in an alley behind the old Paramount Theatre in Hollywood.
But of course, Honey was a "girl," so even if she did think of herself as something of a tough cookie, she was often in need of rescue (of either her life, or her virginity) by her ever-virtuous partner, Johnny. She went on to appear in ten more frothy, light-hearted, innuendo-laden books from 1958 to 1971, and even popped up in a short-lived television series produced by Aaron Spelling in the mid-sixties, certainly one of the first TV dramas (if you can call then dramas) to feature a female lead.
Television's Honey kept her clothes on, but pretty much everything else was changed when her character, after a successful appearance on an episode of Burke's Law, was spun off into her own show. It was 1965, and the world was going spy crazy. There was James Bond, The Avengers and The Man (and soon, The Girl) From U.N.C.L.E. So now she and Sam Bolt (who used to be Johnny but could still be called upon to rescue Honey at least once in every show) were high-tech private eyes. They tooled around in a specially-equipped mobile crime lab/spy van with "H.W. Bolt & Co., TV Service" on the side. She now carried a .38 in her purse, a derringer somewhere else (wink, wink) and all sorts of gimmicks: an exploding compact, a garter belt gas mask, teargas earrings and a lipstick microphone.
Although Sam constantly pressured Honey to marry him, the love of Honey's life seemed to be Bruce, her pet ocelot -- another contribution from the TV writers. Gimmicks? What gimmicks?
All in all, though, it was a fun show, and Honey wasn't quite the bimbo she could have been (see Spelling's later Charlie's Angels to see how bad it could have been.) She was played by Anne Francis, drop dead gorgeous, and a dead ringer for Honor Blackman, the woman who played Pussy Galore in the James Bond flick Goldfinger.
And speaking of Charlie's Angels, following the original commercial success of the 2001 big screen remake, there were even rumours that actress Reese Witherspoon was all set to star in a film as Honey West, with the team behind her then-current smash Legally Blonde slotted to write and produce.
The Ficklings also created another smirky eye, high-priced P.I. Erik March, who was actually introduced in a bit part in Honey's first adventure, This Girl For Hire, and later thooked up with Honey in 1971's Stiff As a Broad.
UNDER OATH
GET MORE HONEY IN YOUR LIFE
NOVELS
TELEVISION
- "The Swingin Mrs. Jones" (September 17, 1965)
- "The Owl and the Eye" (September 24, 1965)
- "The Abominable Snowman" (October 1, 1965)
- "A Matter of Wife and Death" (October 8, 1965)
- "Live a Little... Kill a Little" (October 15, 1965)
- "Whatever Lola Wants..." (October 22, 1965)
- "The Princess and the Paupers" (October 29, 1965)
- "In the Bag" (November 5, 1965)
- "The Flame and the Pussycat" (November 12, 1965)
- "A Neat Little Package" (November 19, 1965)
- "A Stitch in Crime" (November 26, 1965)
- "A Million Bucks in Anybody's Language" (December 3, 1965)
- "The Gray Lady" (December 10, 1965)
- "Invitation to Limbo" (December 17, 1965)
- "Rockabye the Hard Way" (December 24, 1965)
- "A Nice Little Till to Tap" (December 31, 1965)
- "How Brillig, O, Beamish Boy?" (January 7, 1966)
- "King of the Mountain" (January 14, 1966)
- "The Perfect Un-crime" (January 28, 1966)
- "Like Visions and Omens... and All That Jazz" (February 4, 1966)
- "Don't Look Now, But Isn't That Me?" (February 11, 1966)
- "Come to Me, My Litigation Baby" (February 18, 1966)
- "Slay, Gypsy, Slay" (February 25, 1966)
- "The Fun-Fun Killer" (March 4, 1966)
- "Pop Goes the Easel" (March 11, 1966)
- "Little Green Robin Hood" (March 18, 1966)
- "Just the Bear Facts Ma'am" (March 25, 1966)
- "There's a Long, Long Fuse A' Burning" (April 1, 1966)
- "An Eerie, Airy, Thing" (April 8, 1966)
COMICS
SOUNDTRACKS
Report respectfully filed by Kevin Burton Smith. Thanks to Peter for the scoop on the Honey West flick.
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