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Tickling the ivories in this tough town...

Posted by Smokey Stover on December 02, 2006

In Reply to: Tickling the ivories in this tough town... posted by ESC on December 02, 2006

: : Does anyone know what author reintroduced this comical public notice and what town this notice refers to?:

: : "Tickling the ivories in this tough town is rumored to be a dangerous endeavor."

: :
: : I need to know what town this was and what author reintroduced this notice.

: How about: don't shoot the piano player. www.phrases.org.uk bulletin_board 3 messages 520.html

The same question, possibly by the same questioner (Brian), was put to Yahoo Answers, and the answer given was: the town was Chicago, the author Hank Janson.

The Hank Janson crime novels were written from 1946 to 1953 by the English writer Stephen Daniel Frances (1917-1989), in the "tough American detective" style, with the pseudonymic author posing as an American living in Chicago-as-gangsterland. His vivid descriptions of alluring females led to his being charged with obscenity in the bluenosed Britain of those days. He avoided prosecution by moving to Spain. His novels were representative of one species of pulp fiction, and there seems still to be a lot of interest in them, to judge by what Google brings up. Truth in Phrase Finding: I've never read anything by "Hank Janson."
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