Alabama Yesterdays: William P. McGivern

Thursday, December 8, 2016

Alabama Book Covers (16): William P. McGivern

At some point in the dim mists of the past I ran across the Wikipedia entry for fiction and television writer William P. McGivern, which noted that although born in Chicago, he "grew up in Mobile, Alabama." Let's investigate.

McGivern was indeed born in Chicago in 1918. We can find him there in the 1920 U.S. Census, along with older brother Francis and their parents Peter and Julia. The family lived at 4903 Forrestville Avenue and the father was superintendent at a brewery.

The future writer served in the Army in World War II and then studied in England. He spent two years as a police reporter in Philadelphia before his first novel, But Death Runs Faster [AKA The Whispering Corpse] appeared in 1948. McGivern was off and running. By the time he died in 1982 he had published more than 20 novels, mostly mystery and crime thrillers, numerous short stories and various television scripts.

Several of his novels have been adapted as films including Fritz Lang's The Big Heat [1953] starring Glenn Ford and Gloria Grahame and Rogue Cop [1954] with Robert Taylor and Janet Leigh. A particular favorite of mine is Odds Against Tomorrow [1959] in which Harry Belafonte and Robert Ryan try to rob a bank without killing each other. Shelley Winters and Gloria Grahame also star. McGivern's time as a police reporter adds a realism to his crime writing and that is carried over into these films.

In addition to the crime novels, McGivern also wrote a number of short stories, including some science fiction. He wrote a World War II novel and two books with his wife Maureen, including a memoir of the family's world travels. In the 1960's and 1970's McGivern wrote scripts for a number of television series such as The Virginian, Ben Casey, Adam-12 and Kojak. He also wrote a novel as "Bill Peters".

Ok, but what about the "grew up in Mobile, Alabama" business? Beats me where that came from. You'll find it stated in a number of places across the web, all of which seem to originate with that Wikipedia entry. Yet the 1930 and 1940 U.S. Census records show McGovern living with his family in Chicago. In 1930 father Peter is listed as a real estate salesman; by 1940 he has moved to insurance sales. Perhaps the family moved to Mobile for some years between the census taking and then returned to Chicago.

Oh, well, perhaps I'll find documentation some day....

UPDATE October 16, 2021

I recently stumbled across some of that documentation. McGivern published a story "Adopted Son of the Stars" in the March 1941 issue of Fantastic Adventures and also included in that issue is an "Introducing the Author" piece written by McGivern. The opening paragraph: "I was born at a very early age in Chicago, and for the next few years took little interest in anything but vitamins. Upon reaching the abuse of reason I learned that my family had transplanted me to Mobile, Alabama, a sunny little place hidden right down in the southernmost tip of the state."

He goes on to note that there he "blasted my fond parents' hope in me by planting six of a neighbor's chick three feet in the ground" hoping to grow chicken trees. He mentions remembering his father play piano and singing, and the time he ate three bowls of chicken gumbo. Before too long the family moved back to Chicago. The rest of the piece describes McGivern's further education and early writing career, and includes a photograph of the young author. See below for both pages.

My guess is that the McGiverns lived in Mobile either between the 1920 and 1930 censuses or the 1930 and 1940 ones. Some further research in city directories and so forth may one day produce an actual address.

Two individual subscribers to the PulpMags@groups.io discussion list are largely responsible for this further bit of McGivern documentation. Steve Ericson is a dealer in used, rare and collectible book, pulps, etc,, specializing in science fiction and fantasy. You can find him at Books from the Crypt. He regularly posts pulp covers and contents to the list, and I noted this issue in a recent posting. Another collector and dealer on the list, Curt Phillips, kindly provided me with scans of McGivern's note.

Since this piece was originally posted, I've written about the film Odds Against Tomorrow. Now we can say for sure it has two Alabama connections, McGivern and his novel and the appearance of Birmingham native Wayne Rogers in a very early role.