Octavus Roy Cohen

Octavus Roy Cohen (1891–1959) was an early 20th century American author specialising in ethnic comedies.

Life

He was a descendant of Portuguese Jews and author, and was born on 26 June 1891[1] in Charleston, South Carolina, where he received his secondary education at the Porter Military Academy, now the Porter-Gaud School. He went on to receive a college education at Clemson University. Between 1910 and 1912, he worked in the editorial departments of the Birmingham Ledger, the Charleston News and Courier, the Bayonne Times, and the Newark Morning Star. He became popular as a result of his stories printed in The Saturday Evening Post which were about African-Americans. [2] In 1913, he was admitted to the South Carolina bar and practiced law in Charleston for two years. Between 1917 and his death, he published 56 books, works that included humorous and detective novels, plays, and collections of short stories. He also composed successful Broadway plays and radio, film, and television scripts.

As a mark of his success, on March 20, 1923 Octavius Roy Cohen bought in Birmingham, Alabama what is now referred to as the "Redin-Cohen" house in Jefferson county historical commission (Vol.1237, p.104), a beautiful Tudor Revival style home.<Alabama Title & Trust Co., Examiners of Land Titles, 2109-2111 3rd Ave, Birmingham, AL> He previously lived in an apartment on 21st south where he hosted local writers and journalists to discuss fiction writing. <http://www.encyclopediaofalabama.org/article/h-3716> The house current address is 3225 Cliff Road South, although at the time Cliff Rd S was called Holly Ave and the cross street Whitaker St (now 33rd street). The house was built circa 1918 by Mrs. Viola Roden Redin, one of five daughters of the leading saloon operator in Birmingham on the northern half of lots 1 and 2 in block 864 based on the City of Birmingham plan and survey by Elyton Land Company. The Cohens occupied the house until May 7, 1937, a time period covering some of Cohen's major work.

He moved from Birmingham Alabama to Harlem in New York in the late 1930's and thereafter to Los Angeles to pursue a film career. He married Inez Lopez in October 1914 in Bessemer, AL. He died on 6 January 1959 in Los Angeles after losing his wife in 1953. They had one son, Octavus Roy Cohen Jr. <http://www.encyclopediaofalabama.org/article/h-3716>

Works

His most notable creation was "Florian Slappey", a fictional black detective who appeared both in print (in the Saturday Evening Post) and in a series of short films in the 1920s,[3] These were "ethnic comedies" following the bumbling investigations of Slappey and his travels from Birmingham, Alabama to Harlem, New York. These were later assembled into a stage play "Come Seven". A second stage detective play "The Crimson Alibi" featured a white detective, David Carroll.[4]

He wrote:

  • Polished Ebony (1919)
  • Gray Dusk (1920)
  • Come Seven (1920)
  • Highly Colored (1921)
  • Midnight (1922)
Installment of the short-lived comic strip Tempus Todd, the first comic strip in a mainstream newspaper to portray black characters as real people. Here, Tempus and a bakery owner talk about advertising.

Cohen wrote several novels about detective David Carroll. One of these novels, The Crimson Alibi was adapted for the stage by George Broadhurst.[5] Cohen's character of Jim Hanvey, "a sort of backwoods Nero Wolfe", "one of the earliest private eyes",[6] appeared in two films; Curtain at Eight (1933), based on his novel The Backstage Mystery, and Jim Hanvey, Detective (1937), based on his original story. "Hanvey made most of his appearances in short stories in The Saturday Evening Post, where much of ... Cohen's other work was also published. ... Cohen created a few other detectives ... one of the first black eyes, Florian Slappey, although they're more famous now for their unflattering portrayal of blacks than their historical significance."[6]

Jim Hanvey books by Cohen:[7]

  • Jim Hanvey, Detective (1923, short stories)
  • Detours (1927, short stories, one featuring Hanvey)
  • The May Day Mystery (1929)
  • The Backstage Mystery (also published as Curtain at Eight) (1930)
  • Star of Earth (1932)
  • Scrambled Yeggs (1934, short stories)

He pronounced his first name oc-tav'us, a as in have.[8]

Films

Cohen was scriptwriter (or co-scriptwriter with Alfred A. Cohen) for six known films:[9]

  • The Eyes of Mystery (1918) directed by Tod Browning
  • Melancholy Dame (1929) directed by Arvid Gillstrom, Florian Slappey played by Charles Olden
  • Music Hath Harms (1929) directed by Walter Graham, Florian Slappey played by Harry Tracy
  • The Framing of the Shrew (1929) directed by Arvid Gillstrom, Florian Slappey played by Charles Olden
  • False Witness (1935) directed by Edward Buzzell
  • They Met in a Taxi (1936) directed by Alfred E. Green
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References
  1. https://www.imdb.com/name/nm0169665/
  2. Honey, Maureen. “Images of Women in the Saturday Evening Post, 1931–1936,”.Journal of Popular Culture; Bowling Green, Ohio Vol. 10, Iss. 2, (Fall 1976): (p.352)
  3. Blacks in Films, Jim Pines ISBN 0 289 70326 3
  4. http://www.thrillingdetective.com/slappey.html
  5. Bordman Gerald, American Theatre: A Chronicle of Comedy and Drama 1914-1930.Oxford University Press USA, 1995 ISBN 0195090780 (p.106).
  6. "Jim Hanvey". www.thrillingdetective.com.
  7. Crime Fiction, 1749-1980: A Comprehensive Bibliography by Allen J. Hubin, Garland, 1984, ISBN 0-8240-9219-8
  8. Charles Earle Funk, What's the Name, Please?, Funk & Wagnalls, 1936
  9. http://www.thrillingdetective.com/slappey.html
  • This article incorporates text from a publication now in the public domain: Gilman, D. C.; Peck, H. T.; Colby, F. M., eds. (1905). New International Encyclopedia (1st ed.). New York: Dodd, Mead. Missing or empty |title= (help)

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