PARNELL THOMAS AND SAM SPADE??

GEEZ, HOW IS SAM SPADE LINKED with Parnell Thomas?? Spade was the classic sleuth of The Maltese Falcon, The Kandy Tooth Caper, and numerous other adventures, 1946–1951, recounted these days on SiriusXM “Radio Classics.” J. Parnell Thomas was an American stockbroker and politician, a seven-term U.S. Representative from New Jersey, a Republican serving from 1937 to 1950.

Their Radio Link. Cerebral Cinema describes that on November 9, 1947, Sam shares with Effie his adventure on “The Bow Window Caper.” He’s hired by Dr. Helmut Ries, whose jealous wife is ruining his practice and has threatened to use a gun. Ries shows Sam a receipt for the gun and a note: “I hope you won’t force me to use this.” 

“And about that gun,” Sam recounts, “the Constitution says every citizen shall have the right to bear arms. Even Parnell Thomas can’t….” (the rest, “lost in the heat of the moment,” John Dunning notes in The Encyclopedia of Old-Time Radio.

Parnell Thomas. This off-hand reference was to lead to significant disruption of the Spade saga. We’ll return to Dunning’s fine account, but first let’s identify J. Parnell Thomas, pioneer anti-communist, staunch opponent of F.D.R, and chairman of the House Committee on Un-American Activities (HUAC)—during that period also called the “Thomas Committee.”

John Parnell Thomas, 1895–1970, seven-term U.S. Representative from New Jersey as a Republican, serving from 1937 to 1950. Later served time in Danbury Prison. Image by Harris & Ewing, Library of Congress Catalog.

F.D.R.’s New Deal. Wikipedia cites Thomas “claiming the President’s legislative agenda had ‘sabotaged the capitalist system.’ Thomas opposed government support for the Federal Theatre Project declaring that ‘practically every play presented under the auspices of the Project is sheer propaganda for Communism or the New Deal.’ “

Hmm… I wonder what Parnell Thomas would have thought of Orson Welles’ FTP voodoo Macbeth.

Macbeth, 1936. Welles and the New York City Negro Theater Unit set the Shakespeare classic in Haiti. Image from Free, Adult, Uncensored: The Living History of the Federal Theatre Project.

Parnell Thomas Visits Hollywood. Wikipedia recounts, “In May 1947, Thomas traveled to Hollywood to meet with film industry executives with a view to exposing what he believed was Communist infiltration of motion pictures content by members of the Screen Writers Guild. Returning to Washington, D.C., he shifted the focus of the committee to what he called the ‘subversives’ working in the film business.” 

“Under Thomas,” Wikipedia continues, “in October 1947, HUAC summoned suspected Communists to appear for questioning. These summonses led to the conviction and imprisonment for contempt of Congress of the “Hollywood Ten” who had refused to answer the Committee’s questions, citing the First Amendment.” Subsequent details are offered here at SimanaitisSays in “Red Scare Madness—The Fifties.”

The HUAC, Writer Dashiell Hammett, and Howard Duff a.k.a. Sam Spade. In On The Air: The Encyclopedia of Old-Time Radio, John Dunning writes, “Dashiell Hammet’s name had come up before the House Committee on Un-American Activities, and in June [1950] Howard Duff was listed in Red Channels. This may have been inevitable, for as early as 1947 [Sam’s “Parnell Thomas” remark above] the show had taken some not-so-subtle digs at Communist-hunting lawmakers.” 

Sam Spade, played by Howard Duff, with his office pal Effie Perine, portrayed by Lurene Tuttle.

“Sharp-eared listeners,” writes Dunning, “got the point, and so, by 1950, did Wildroot. The sponsor had moved to NBC in 1949 but was having serious second thoughts nine months later.” On September 9, 1950, “Billboard announced that Wildroot was dumping Spade and putting its money into a  new series, Charlie Wild, Private Detective.”

Some 250,000 letters later, “NBC was persuaded, unwisely,” Dunning says, “to continue the series without Duff.” It limped along with Steve Dunn for four months, but, as Dunning notes, “Not even Bogart could have followed Howard Duff by then.”    

Back to Parnell Thomas. Indeed, Wikipedia notes, “Prominent American columnists Jack Anderson and Drew Pearson were critical of Thomas and his committee’s methods. Rumors about corrupt practices on Thomas’s part were confirmed when his secretary, Helen Campbell, sent documents to Pearson, which he used to expose Thomas’ corruption in an August 4, 1948, newspaper article.”

“The fraud,” Wikipedia recounts, “had begun on New Year’s Day of 1940, when Thomas placed Campbell’s niece, Myra Midkiff, and Campbell’s maid, Arnette Minor, on his payroll as clerks. Midkiff earned roughly $1,200 a year and was to kick back her entire salary to the Congressman. Through this practice, he would also evade a tax-bracket increase.”

Image from timesmachine.nytimes.com.

Wikipedia relates, “Thomas refused to answer questions, citing his Fifth Amendment rights, the most common stance for which he had criticized accused Communists…. In an ironic twist, he was imprisoned in Danbury Prison, where Lester Cole and Ring Lardner Jr., both members of the ‘Hollywood Ten,’ were serving time due to Thomas’s inquiries into the film industry.”

Serves the slimeball right. ds 

© Dennis Simanaitis, SimanaitisSays.com, 2025