October 4, 1931: "Dick Tracy" Premieres

October 4, 1931: Chester Gould's comic strip Dick Tracy premieres, in the Detroit Mirror. In a year of gangster culture, which had already seen the premieres of the films Little Caesar with Edward G. Robinson and The Public Enemy with James Cagney, and which would see the real-life Chicago gangster king Al Capone convicted within a few days, Gould's incorruptible detective caught on quickly with the public.

Born in Pawnee, Oklahoma in 1900, 7 years before Oklahoma gained Statehood, Gould based on the character of Tracy on Eliot Ness, the Department of the Treasury agent who had gone after Capone. His yellow overcoat and fedora hat made him stand out, even though no real cop would have worn something like that. Tracy was also a precursor to James Bond, with gadgets far ahead of their time, most notably the two-way wrist radio, first used in 1946, and upgraded to a two-way wrist TV in 1964.

Tracy also had what would later be called a "rogues' gallery" before any superhero did -- and before any superhero, as we now understand that term, had been developed. They were gangsters: Flattop, Cueball, Prune Face, The Brain, Mumbles, B.O. Plenty, and the "Mr. Big" of the strip, Alphonse "Big Boy" Caprice, obviously named after Capone.

Tracy had a girlfriend, Tess Trueheart, whom he later married. They adopted a character known at first only as "The Kid," but became known as Dick Tracy Jr.

There must have been something about Detroit in the 1930s. In addition to producing a World Series win for the Tigers, an NFL Championship for the Lions, 2 Stanley Cups for the Red Wings, and producing a Heavyweight Champion in Joe Louis, the city produced 3 great fictional characters in the decade: Tracy in 1931, the Lone Ranger on radio station WXYZ in 1933, and the Green Hornet on the same station in 1936.

Chester Gould continued to draw Dick Tracy until 1977, and died in 1985. The strip is still published today, with art by Joe Staton and writing by Mike Curtis. (No relation to the old Baltimore Colts linebacker of the same name.)

From 1937 to 1941, there were 4 serials, starring Ralph Byrd as Tracy. From 1945 to 1947, there were 4 feature films, 2 with Byrd, and 2 with Morgan Conway. Byrd starred on an ABC TV version in 1950-51, but his death in 1952 canceled it. In 1967, William Dozier, creator of the Batman and Green Hornet TV shows on ABC, cast Ray MacDonnell in a Dick Tracy pilot, but it wasn't picked up by any network.

In 1987, Warren Beatty and Dustin Hoffman starred in Ishtar, a film that became a massive flop. In 1990, Beatty made a live-action Dick Tracy film, which also flopped, partly because he cast Madonna as Breathless Mahoney, a brief femme fatale from the strip. He cast Hoffman as Mumbles, and, at one point, slapped him around. This led me to say, "Oh, sure, blame him for Ishtar!"

There hasn't been a live-action Dick Tracy since, either on TV or on film, because Beatty still owns the rights, and won't let anybody else try it. He should, because Tracy himself could use the redemption.

*

October 4, 1931 was a Sunday. Baseball was between Games 2 and 3 of the World Series, which the St. Louis Cardinals would win over the Philadelphia Athletics in 7 games. The NBA hadn't been founded yet. And the NHL season hadn't started yet.

There were 3 NFL games played that day:

* The New York Giants lost to the Green Bay Packers, 27-7 at the Polo Grounds.

* The football version of the Brooklyn Dodgers lost to the 3rd team in New York, the Staten Island Stapletons, 9-7 at Ebbets Field.

* And the Providence Steam Roller and the Frankford Yellow Jackets played to a 0-0 tie at the Cycledrome in Providence, Rhode Island. Both teams went out of business after the season.