The original Boston Blackie story by Jack Boyle, "The Price of Principle," was written while he was in prison under the penname 6066 and it was published July 1914 in American Magazine. The first story was quickly followed by three more short stories in the same magazine. The penname 6066 was actually his prisioner number when he was in the Canon City Penitentiary near Denver, Colorado. It has been said that Boyle wrote the first Blackie story in San Quentin but this is not true. He was released from San Quentin in 1911, three years before the first Blackie story. In San Quentin he was prisioner 24700. Boyles only book was written in 1919. It was actually a compilation of a series of short stories that appeared in Redbook magazine. Jack Boyle later published further Blackie tales in Cosmopolitan magazine but only after the 1919 release of the hardcover collection.

How did Boston Blackie get his name? Some suggest that the nickname "Blackie" sprang from the character’s family surname, Black but Jack Boyle himself refutes this notion in the very first Boston Blackie tale, "The Price of Principle." The introduction of the character reveals that his "piercing black eyes and New England birthplace had won him his nickname." So Blackie’s creator expressly establishes that his colorful nickname is derived from his commanding eyes, and not from a variation of his family name. While Jack Boyle provided his criminal hero a surname relatively early in the series, it wasn’t until he penned his final story that he divulged his full given name. On May 9, 1925, the Los Angeles Times published the seventh installment of Boyle’s serial "Daggers of Jade." In it he presents us with "John Dawson, once known by the the police of every city from Maine to California as Boston Blackie." This seems to be consistant with the name of his wife, Mary Dawson, "his best loved pal," getaway driver, and collaborator on all his capers. This can be better understood when you realize that the Mary in the Boston Blackie stories has an underworld crook for a father. The one thing Boston Blackie definitely isn't is a P.I. It was only later, in film, radio, and eventually television, that he transformed into a private eye.

The movie characters all assumed the name "Boston Blackie" thinking that it was because his last name was "Black." His full movie name was first revealed in the 1943 movie "After Midnight with Boston Blackie" when he was paged by a porter on a train. The name the porter used was "Horatio Black." The movie Boston Blackie is a young, handsome, well educated, gentleman that loves women and children. However, he is also a hardened criminal, a jewel thief and safe cracker, that has served time in a California prison. Blackie gets into a dizzying array of tight spots. He pulls off the gold bullion robbery of a lifetime, saves a friend from the gallows and escapes from prison.

In truth, the reality seems obvious. Horatio Black, "Boston Blackie," seems a more dashing name for a safecracker than the workaday John Dawson. It’s not too surprising that Jack Boyle settled on the name John for his rogue hero. After all, his own name was John Alexander Boyle.

As Frank D. Sherry says in Twentieth Century Crime and Mystery Writers, "Stylistically, the story is an interesting example of a hard-boiled tale told before the hard-boiled style was born, and is flawed by a sentimental ending typical of the times."

Silent Movies

Boston Blackie made his first screen appearance in the 1918 production of Boston Blackie's Little Pal for Metro, This was the beginning of a string of silent movies for several different studios. Blackie was played by different actors including Bert Lytell, Lionel Barrymore, Raymond Glenn, David Powell, William Russell and Forrest Stanley. In these films, Blackie was a professional thief with a heart of gold. The last silent Blackie film was in 1927.

Silent Movie Listings

40's Movies

Boston Blackie
In 1941 Chester Morris starred in the first of of a series of fourteen very sucessful Boston Blackie films for Columbia Pictues, thus began new adventures of Boston Blackie. The first movie Meet Boston Blackie sets Blackie up as a former professional thief now working as a sort of freelance adventurer/detective. Adventurer, yes. Detective, ???. On the right side of the law, he preferred not to get too involved with the police (did I just hear Jack Boyle roll over in his grave). Blackie is now evolving into a new character that turns out to be very interesting and entertaining. According to critic Leonard Maltin, Chester Morris provided an amiable, charming hero in all episodes. Morris "brought to the role a delightful offhand manner and sense of humor that kept the films fresh even when the scripts weren't."

40's Movie Listings/Play Bills

Bio Chester Morris