The following books provided background on Earl Long: Peapatch Politics: The Earl Long Era in Louisiana Politics (1991), William J. “Bill” Dodd; and Socks on a Rooster: Louisiana’s Earl K. Long (1967), Richard McCaughan.
The specter of Robert Penn Warren’s classic, Pulitzer Prize–winning novel All the King’s Men (1946) hovers over any book about Huey Long, particularly any work of fiction; I read the novel in high school and, because of it, developed an interest in Huey Long. But I made the conscious decision not to reread it before the writing of Blood and Thunder, not wanting to be either influenced or intimidated.
I did screen Robert Rossen’s award-winning 1949 film adaptation of the book, as well as Raoul Walsh’s 1953 film based on Adria Locke Langley’s Huey Long–inspired novel, A Lion Is in the Streets (1945). Surprisingly, in what I am aware is a minority opinion, I found the former film flat and artificial, particularly Broderick Crawford’s one-note performance, and the latter more lively and on target, with James Cagney capturing the huckster charm of a Kingfish.
Other films were more useful: Ken Burns’s excellent 1985 documentary, Huey Long; and the well-researched docudrama The Life and Assassination of the Kingfish (1977), from writer-director Robert Collins, who used many of the real locations. Also helpful were a 1992 segment of NBC’s Unsolved Mysteries that dramatized the viewpoints of both Ed Reed and Professor Starrs; and the 1965 David L. Wolper documentary, The Longs: A Louisiana Dynasty, written by Bud Wiser and directed by Alan Landsburg.
Huey Long’s connections to organized crime are documented in numerous sources, but I turned primarily to the following: Mafia Kingfish (1989), John H. Davis; Uncle Frank: The Biography of Frank Costello (1973), Leonard Katz; Lansky (1971), Hank Messick; Double Cross (1992), Sam and Chuck Giancana; All American Mafioso (1991), Charles Rappleye and Ed Becker; The Grim Reapers (1969), Ed Reid; and Frank Costello: Prime Minister of the Underworld (1974), George Wolf with Joseph DiMona.
Elmer Irey and Frank Wilson’s efforts to nail Long and his Longsters are detailed in Irey’s own The Tax Dodgers (1948), with William J. Slocum, and Wilson’s autobiography, Special Agent: A Quarter Century with the Treasury Department (1956), with Beth Day. Also helpful was Secret File (1969), Hank Messick. Thanks to Jim Doherty for providing further material on Frank Wilson.
The WPA Guides of the late ’30s and early ’40s are the backbone of my recreations of the era, never more so than with the Louisiana State Guide (1941), New Orleans City Guide (1938) and Gumbo Ya-Ya (1945). The WPA Guide to New York City and New York Panorama: A Companion to the WPA Guide to New York City were also helpful, as was Oklahoma: A Guide to the Sooner State (1941).
My attempt to re-create a sense of Louisiana in the thirties was dependent on the following sources: Louisiana’s Message 1930–1931, no date, no author, a guide issued by the state of Louisiana Department of Agriculture and Immigration; Do You Know Louisiana (1938), issued by the Louisiana State Department of Commerce and Industry; John Law Wasn’t So Wrong (1952), Hodding Carter; The Louisiana Capitol (1980), Ellen Roy Jolly and James Calhoun; The Bayous of Louisiana (1963), Harnett T. Kane; All This Is Louisiana (1950), Frances Parkinson Keyes; A Self-Guided Tour of Baton Rouge (1974), John P. and Lillian C. King; The Louisiana Capitol: Its Art and Architecture (1977); and New Orleans in the Thirties (1989), Mary Lou Widmer. Mary Jane Smith, at the Old Governor’s Mansion, gave me a gracious guided tour as well as a worthwhile illustrated pamphlet.
Information about the Stork Club came from No Cover Charge: A Backward Look at Night Clubs (1956), Robert Sylvester; information about radio star Phil Baker was found in Tune In Yesterday (1976), John Dunning. As is the case with previous Heller novels, pickpocket information came from the definitive Whiz Mob (1955), David W. Maurer.
Finally, I would like to thank my editor, Michaela Hamilton, and her associate, Joe Pittman, for their support and belief in Nate Heller and me; and my agent, Dominick Abel, for his continued support, both professionally and personally.
Photo Credit: Bamford Studio
Max Allan Collins has earned fifteen Private Eye Writers of America “Shamus” nominations, winning for his Nathan Heller novels, True Detective and Stolen Away, and receiving the PWA life achievement award, the Eye. His graphic novel, Road to Perdition, which is the basis of the Academy Award-winning film starring Tom Hanks, was followed by two novels, Road to Purgatory and Road to Paradise. His suspense series include Quarry, Nolan, Mallory, and Eliot Ness, and his numerous comics credits include the syndicated Dick Tracy and his own Ms. Tree. He has written and directed four feature films and two documentaries. His other produced screenplays include “The Expert, an HBO World Premiere. His coffee-table book The History of Mystery received nominations for every major mystery award and Men’s Adventure Magazines won the Anthony Award. Collins lives in Muscatine, Iowa, with his wife, writer Barbara Collins. They have collaborated on seven novels and numerous short stories, and are currently writing the “Trash ‘n’ Treasures” mysteries.
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