Johnny Amsterdam
Created by Michael Lawrence (pseud. of Lawrence Lariar)

"Call Me Amsterdam ...
In fact, call me anything just so you call me for fun and games."
-- Johnny Amsterdam. The "fun" private eye.

The cover blurb of the 1960 PBO I Like It Cool describes JOHNNY AMSTERDAM as the "eye with a beard (who) squares off with the world of the beatniks." He was also something of a dog -- and made no bones about it.

He was a fun loving kind of gumshoe, and no doubt he fit right in with other happy-go-lucky P.I. studs of the era such as Shell Scott, Johnny Liddell,  Mike Hammer,  Mike Shayne, Peter Gunn and Pete Chambers.

According to J. Kingston Pierce, Amsterdam was:

"a Korean War veteran, partnered with the smart but unremarkable-looking Dave Gross (he ìcould tail a man into his own living room without being noticedî)--enjoyed the carnal courtesies of many a well-rounded miss. He had a slick patter, a quick temper and a couple of solid fists, and what appears on the cover of Cool to be a handlebar mustache with a goatee. Amsterdam was no slouch in the snooping department, and he seemed to move comfortably through all echelons of New York society, from the "coolsville" pads of Greenwich Village, to Manhattan boardrooms, to Park Avenue bedrooms. However, he may be best recalled for that gimmick of the "chin shrubbery," which Amsterdam seems not to have been wearing in Naked and Alone, but that left observers in this second adventure unsure of whether to treat him like a beatnik, a bum, or a bruiser."

NOVELS

• Naked and Alone (1953) ..Buy this book
• I Like It Cool (1960) ..Buy this book

Respectfully submitted by Kevin Burton Smith. Thanks to Big Al for the heads-up...

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