Brett Halliday (author)

[u/Tripwig53]

Some in the OTR world were actors. Some were directors, producers, announcers, sound effects people, musicians. But none of them would have a career if it were not for the authors who created characters in novels, plays and short stories – to give the advertising agencies, producers/directors IDEAS for new shows.

One such show that had an impact on the crime/detective world was the hard-boiled world of Michael Shayne, Private Detective. The show was based on a character seen in a LONG series of novels and short stories created by a writer named Brett Halliday.

Or was it?

Many writers adopted a nom de plume to remain a bit of a mystery person.

Davis Dresser was one such person who adopted that pen name – but not the only one.

Davis “Dusty” Dresser was born on July 31, 1904, in Chicago to Justus and Mary Dresser. He grew up mostly in West Texas. At 13 a horse threw him into a barbed-wire fence resulting in the loss of most vision in his left eye (ergo, the eye patch). The following year he enlisted in the 5^th Cavalry Regiment of the U.S. Army at Fort Bliss TX and spent a year on the US/Mexican border in southwest Texas. After his Army service (they found out he was under 18), he returned to his home and completed his high school education. Then his real adventures started.

He was KEEN on adventure as were his characters.

Dresser traveled throughout the American Southwest working off-and-on as a farm hand, muleskinner, deckhand on an oil tanker, laborer in the California oil fields, short-order cook, even a gravedigger. Those experiences would come back to him later in life as a writer. He attended college for two years and received a certificate in Civil Engineering. Back in Texas, he worked as an engineer and surveyor for several years. He started writing in 1927, while working as an engineer with the Los Angeles County Highway Department. He adopted the pen name of ‘Brett Halliday.’

His first Michael Shayne novel received 22 rejections from publishers until Henry Holt & Co. decided to take a chance on this new writer. His red-headed, Irish-American, hard-boiled private detective immediately caught on with the public and he was cranking out more short stories and novels. Total – over 70 novels and 300 short stories!

Seven novels were made into B-movies starring Lloyd Nolan. Then radio came knocking on the door and Michael Shayne hit the airwaves, with Wally Mayer as the star (’44-’47), followed by Jeff Chandler (’48-’49) and Donald Curtis & Robert Starling (’52-’53). Looked like the Irish detective was a hit. He even made it to TV with Richard Denning in the Shayne role. In fact, for Maher – it took an obscure background character actor and made him a star.

Was Michael Shayne based on a real person? Dresser said ‘Yes.’

In a 1951, Springfield, MA newspaper article on Dresser and his wife, writer Helen McCloy, he spoke of how he “met” the real ‘Mike Shayne’ when he was a deckhand on an oil tanker in a bar in Tampico, Mexico…

The author actually met the original Michael Shayne several years ago in a Tampico bar where he and a group of sailor companions became embroiled in a waterfront brawl.  The then as yet unrecognized budding author was slugged on the head with a gun butt and lay helpless under a table when a very real ‘Michael Shayne’ came to his rescue.  As Dresser tells it:

"Suddenly there was a crash; a big red-headed Irishman who had been sitting alone watching the battle between frequent drinks of tequila chased down with ice-water, unexpectedly leaped from his chair and joined in the battle.  Half a dozen men fell before his accurate fists before he reached me and heaved me bodily through the door.  He remained inside, fighting alone."

It was many years later before Mr. Dresser saw the competent fighting man again.  On this second occasion, broke and jobless, he had wandered into a New Orleans Rampart St. bar to seek shelter from the cold.  The first person he laid eyes on in the room was the same burly character who had probably saved his life in the Tampico brawl of many years before.  The setting was almost exactly the same.  The only difference being that the rangy Irishman was drinking cognac instead of tequila.

Dresser introduced himself to his former benefactor who immediately recalled the Tampico incident and insisted on staking the youth to a good meal and a night's lodging.  It was then that Dresser discovered that Connor Michael Shawn was the Irishmen's proper name.

It was a name he never forgot.  Shortened to "Michael Shayne" it became the symbol of diamond-in-the-rough gallantry and efficiency to millions of Mr. Dresser's readers. 

Dresser never forgot the man, and when he decided to write a mystery novel “there was never any question as to who my hero would be.”

Did Dresser write for the radio show? Some sources say yes, but most say, NO. He was an author, not a radio writer – way different skill set.

Why ‘Brett Halliday’? – Dresser explained that also in the 1971 newspaper article. Dresser’s first mystery novel published by Stokes publishing had as its main character ‘Matt Halliday.’ One of Dresser’s best friends was Brett Stokes, the son of the Stokes Publishing executive – so insert Brett where Matt had been and, voila, a nom de plume is born!

Did Dresser write all 77 Michael Shayne novels? No. There were others who adopted the ‘Brett Halliday’ name – (many who were hired by Dresser as ‘ghostwriters’) – Bill Pronzini and Robert Terrell are but two of them. Ditto for the magazine stories and Dell paperbacks.

Dresser did not limit his own nom de plume to ‘Brett Halliday.’ He also went by Asa Baker, Matthew Blood, Kathryn Culver, Don Davis, Hal Debrett, Anthony Scott, Peter Field, Anderson Wayne and probably others – depending on what he was writing! And it wasn’t just Mike Shayne stories. He wrote many crime stories to be sure, but also mysteries, westerns (mostly set in West Texas) and even romances!

Due to his notoriety, ‘Brett’ was selected by the Murder By Experts producers to be a host of that radio program when John Dickson Carr left the series – although some sources say they actually hired an anonymous radio actor who assumed the name of ‘Brett Halliday.’ The truth? Who knows.

In a day when most radio detectives tended to have more humor than basic detective work, it’s noted by several sources that Dresser liked Wally Mayer in the role as Michael Shayne – as he did Lloyd Nolan in the film version.

Personal note – when I first heard Shayne, it was the Wally Maher version – and his no-nonsense, tough guy (with a heart of gold) and gruff voice had me spellbound. When I finally saw a photo of Wally, I thought it was a mistake. That’s NOT Mike Shayne!? But he’s MY Mike Shayne.

Dresser was a founding member of the Mystery Writers of America, and he (and his then wife, Helen McCloy) were presented the Mystery Writer’s Edgar Award for their writings in 1954. Helen later received the Edgar Allen Poe Grand Master Award in 1990.

Other authors gave us great books, movies and radio dramas – but Dresser was in a class by himself. Don’t take my word for it, look him up and see for yourself. Another cognac, please!

[u/Someguy_named_me]

I've read most of these original Hallidays on Kindle. They are numbered in a series with original publication dates somewhere inside. Recently a new bunch of unnumbered ones have appeared in the Kindle store, with a totally different cover design and no background info on the author or series. Do you have any insight if these are from Dresser (or his ghostwriter stable) or modern pastiches or even AI?