On Christmas eve I was in Union Square, Manhattan, and at a bookstore I saw Bob Ottoson's book way up on a top shelf. Knowing I was getting Selby's book the next morning, I took a pass on buying Bob's.
As I drove away from Union Square in the evening, snow started falling. However, I hadn't left the city when I realized I was making a grave mistake.
With the snowflakes increasing, I turned around and headed back to Union Square. By a miracle, I got a parking space across the street from the bookstore. Up to the top shelf I climbed, grabbed Bob's book, bought it, and restarted my trip home to Larchmont.
The next day I spent all day comparing the filmographies in the two books along with the one in Silver/Ward's book, which I already owned.
Given that the three filmographies were not identical, that Christmas I learned about the elasticity of film noir -- a hugely important lesson because it meant discovering that film noir cannot be defined by having a PI or a femme fatale -- that film noir can includes gothics and women in distress.
This was knowledge that neither Foster nor Eddie understood when they later wrote their own books.
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