Dashiell Hammett

Dashiell Hammett (1894-1961), born Samuel Dashiell Hammett, was an American author whose name became synonymous with "hard-boiled" detective fiction. His best known creations were Sam Spade, the star of The Maltese Falcon, and Nick and Nora Charles from The Thin Man, all of whom gained greater fame through the many film and television adaptations and sequels. A strong anti-fascist but also a known member of the Communist Party, Hammett was blacklisted in the 1950s.

References

• In The Muppet Show episode 414, which spoofs film noir in general, Liza Minnelli plays Liza O'Shaughnessy; a reference to Brigid O'Shaugnessy, from The Maltese Falcon.

• Dog City relied heavily on both the atmosphere of Hammett's work and on spoofing specific characters and books. The premiere episode, "The Big Squeak" involved Kitty's desire for the Maltese Mouse. (The title was a reference to Raymond Chandler's novel The Big Sleep.) Sam Spayed appeared as a take-off of Humphrey Bogart's portrayal of Sam Spade in "Old Dogs, New Tricks." The second season episode "The Great Dane Curse" refers to and is loosely modeled after Hammett's novel The Dain Curse.

• Hammett's husband and wife team of Nick and Nora Charles were spoofed in Sesame Street Episode 3129 as the brother and sister sleuths Nick Chicken (played by Kevin Kline) and his adopted sibling Nora (a red chicken).

• In the second part of the Dinosaurs story "Nuts to War", Howard Handupme reads the surnames of individuals targeted for disagreeing with the government's war reports. In addition to the likes of Jane Fonda and Frank Zappa, the list mostly consists of people blacklisted during the McCarthy era, including Hammett (whose name is misspelled "Hammet") and Lillian Hellman, Hammett's lover.

• Statler and Waldorf: From the Balcony episode 33 featured a film noir spoof, with Statler as Dashiell "Dash" Chandler, whose name is an amalgam of Chandler and Hammet, though the actual case is yet another Maltese Falcon take-off (with Sam the Eagle as the "falcon.") The Blimp appears as Casper Von Blimpman, a take-off of Casper "The Fat Man" Guttman, but Statler refers to him as "The Thin Man," alluding to Hammet's other famous detective, Nick Charles.