Nick Ransom
Created by Robert Leslie Bellem (1902-1968)

What kind of P.I. gets knocked unconscious by a man with no legs and only one arm? Hollywood stuntman turned private eye NICK RANSOM was one of Robert Leslie Bellem's "other" eyes. He carried his roscoe under his arm, and has a plastic cigarette holder with silver filigree that a client once gave him. He only uses it on occasion to impress potential clients (or to save his life) because he prefers his poison straight. He gets a little help from his buddy, Ole Brunvig, on the homicide squad who is one mean cop.

Of course, Bellem is best known for Dan Turner, he of the sneezing roscoe. The Ransom stories are more subdued (they would almost have to be) would than the Turner stories, although some of that ol' Turner charm starts to pop up. With over 3000 pulp stories to his credit, it's no surprise Bellem created a few non-Turner P.I.s. Others included Cliff Downey and Duke Pizzatello.

Ransom himself only appeared in a few short stories in Thrilling Detective magazine, but he lived in in a dramatic production by New York's old school theatre, an Off-Off Broadway theatre company, adapted from one of Bellem's short stories, and starring Matt Wagner (pictured) as Nick.

EVIDENCE

• "The sky came down and hit me on the noggin. All the stars in the heavens fell with the sky and danced in my optics, and all at once I was pitching down a long dark tunnel that gulped m like a raw oyster. My head came off and floated away. It wasn,t a head, it was a balloon, and somebody had cut the string. It drifted on a rising current, and the current became a whirlpool of pain filled with India ink.
  .
  Blooey. I didn,t even feel the floor when it bounced me."
  (Nick in "Preview of Murder")
  .
• "My head vibrated like strings on a hockshop banjo and my stomach churned."
  (Nick returns to consciousness, ibid.)

OH YEAH?

• "Pulp Theatre! From the pages of a 1949 "pulp" detective magazine to the stage, set to live jazz music: meet Nick Ransom, handsome former Hollywood stuntman turned Private Detective, as he tries to solve a murder mystery chock full of guns, gams, bullets, bodies, scotch, scandal, naked truth (and naked women)."
  (the blurb from the stage production)

UNDER OATH

• "...the Old School Theatre Company revive[s] a 1949 pulp detective story in Preview of Murder, delving straight-faced into the smoky tale of a mysterious set of homicides. Though Old School's fliers cite The New York Times' plaudit, "Laughs ... in a mad, crazy flood," the chuckles heard are actually the spasmodic byproduct of embracing noir on its own terms. Lead actor Matt Wagner, who plays private dick Nick Ransom, is the most engaging presence in an interesting, if somewhat subdued, genre exercise."
  (Orlando Weekly).

SHORT STORIES

• "Suicide Scenario" (February 1948, Thrilling Detective)
• "Homicide Shaft" (April 1949, Thrilling Detective)
• "Preview of Murder" (June 1949, Thrilling Detective)

THEATRE

• PREVIEW OF MURDER
  (August 10-26th, The 2001 New York International Fringe Festival)
  Based on the short story by Robert Leslie Bellem
  Adapted by Dawne Seifert
  Directed by John Peterson
  Original Music by Andy Cohen
  Starring Matt Wagner as NICK RANSOM
  Also featuring Dawne Seifert, Jon Hemingway, Mike Gold, Robert Watts, John Dowgin, Terry Burch
  Nominee: 2002 Spotlight Production, The Orlando International Fringe Festival.
  

Joint report respectfully submitted byKevin Burton Smith and Dale Stoyer.