Lou Rand’s “The Gay Detective”
by Jeff Baker
Bay City…Early Nineteen-Sixties…Fog rolling in across the bay…the famous bridge…you know which city this is supposed to be. Bars that are clandestine rendezvous for furtive meetings between men in back rooms…bodies found in the darkness. Not warm, welcoming bodies but Gay men, murdered. No suspects. Few clues. One looks like murder-suicide. It isn’t
Into this foggy mess steps Francis “Frank” Morley, detective for hire. The classic private eye with a dingy office, a loyal secretary and a hulking mass of muscle for an assistant. And Morley is as openly Gay as you can get in 1961.
But Lou Rand’s novel “The Gay Detective” is not a recent entry into the genre of historical mysteries, this one with some campy twists; the book was actually published in 1961, long before the entry of fictional (and real) Gay private eyes into the American consciousness. The book did not get good reviews initially, maybe because of its Gay content, maybe because there was a glut of hard boiled detective books of varying quality. It’s been reprinted in this more welcoming era https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/491567.The_Gay_Detective and it reads as a somewhat campy time capsule, especially for people who know San Francisco, the thinly disguised “Bay City” that Morley calls home.
Morley, like a good many of the Gay characters in the novel is effeminate. He fits a stereotype. And he doesn’t give a damn, he’s tough as nails. He is described thusly: “An unconsciously un-masculine something was hinted at by the play of brilliant blue eyes beneath his long and luxuriant lashes.”
A few of his lines sound like they might have been delivered by Paul Lynde rather than Sam Spade. Like “My God, Bessie! It looks like the third act of Aida out there.”
Morley’s effete manner is taken head-on in a scene between his new assistant, ex football jock and car salesman “Tiger” Olsen as he discusses it with Captain Starr of the Bay City Police. Olsen is the first speaking here in this exchange.
“Yeah we got together. Down at Sandy’s Gym. Morley knocked me on my ass twice in five minutes, just for thinking what you think.”
“Oh, no! You mean that guy can fight too?”
“That I do.” Olsen rubbed his jaw reminiscently.
“Well then, why the hell does he act—”
“I don’t know Captain,” Olsen cut in. “Maybe it’s some kind of Eastern gag.”
The book is full of classic, pulpy prose, like:
At this point, the outer door of the reception room opened to admit a haughty, mink-draped lady. She was preceded by a bust like the prow of a battle ship.
“The Gay Detective” differs from a book like “The Man From C.A.M.P.” in that it is not a spoof. Its characters come off as believable people and Bay City comes off as a realistic place.
The book is a breezy, fast-paced read. Morley is incredibly likable and may occasionally swish for the benefit of onlookers but does not allow anybody to step on him. It has all the trappings of a classic hard boiled detective novel—the run-down office, the quick with a wisecrack loyal secretary (“Miss Campbell” in this case), the splashes of humor amid the violence and, of course, the violence. This is, after all, a novel about the blackmail and killings of Gay men in the City. We see the killings and the killers. It is brutal and horrifying and it even horrifies some of the people responsible for the deaths. Again, this is a crime story, not a farce.
And after sixty years the novel holds up as a detective story, bringing Bay City, its locations and characters to vivid life.
The Cleis Press edition of “The Gay Detective” benefits from a fine introduction by Susan Stryker and Marion Meeker in both a historical and literary context. It notes that the fictitious Bay City offers “a veritable road-map to the inner dynamics of pre-liberation Gay culture.” It also points out that just as several of the locations were disguised versions of the real city several characters, including the Gay ones, were versions of real people. Whether those real people found out about this is hard to say as the book underwhelmed the market and it and its author have been all but ignored in the scholarship of Gay culture that has followed.
Author Lou Rand was a pen-name for Lou Rand Hogan (1910-1976), whose actual name was Louis Randall. He was a professional chef who had worked in prestigious San Francisco hotels like the Mark Hopkins and the Palace as well as on a cruise ship line. (No joke there.) He was also a personal chef to billionaires and sultans and wrote about food for such publications as “Sunset” and “Gourmet” magazines under the name “Lou Hogan.” He also wrote about Gay life for such publications as “Bay Area Reporter” and “The Advocate.”
If Hogan is known today, it is for “The Gay Cookbook,” a campy, delightful and very practical guide to the kitchen aimed at men who live alone and occasionally entertain. A poignant description of the semi-lonely, solitary life Gays were presumed to be living in pre-Stonewall America.
The cookbook has been reprinted and is better known in literary circles than Hogan/Rand’s only detective novel. Indeed, I would not have known about “The Gay Detective” if not for a mention in a review of “The Gay Cookbook.”
The book not only features recipes, but (sometimes hilarious) descriptions of items and terms used in cooking delivered with a campy (if dated) sense of humor.
The self-described “campy cartoons” sprinkled throughout the book are by David Costain and feature a (sometimes hapless) Gay man going through the travails of cooking and entertaining. They are delightful!
And “The Gay Detective” both cooks and entertains. Had it not been widely (and wrongly) panned on its original appearance there might have been a sequel.
Both of Rand/Hogan’s books are readily available in the 21st Century. Here’s the links. https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/1240782.The_Gay_Cookbook
Jeff Baker’s fiction and non-fiction have appeared in the online ‘zine “RoMMantic Reads” https://rommanticreads.wordpress.com/ among other places, and he has a story in the latest QSF anthology “Rise.” He blogs about reading and writing sci-fi, fantasy and horror around the thirteenth of each month in this same space. He wishes readers a Happy Thanksgiving whether they cook the food themselves or not. Jeff regularly posts fiction on his blog https://authorjeffbaker.com/ and wastes time on Facebook at https://www.facebook.com/profile.php?id=100063555483587