By 3Rivers on Saturday, November 01, 2003 - 12:00 am:
Well, he is a big guy, was a D lineman on the 1991 Miami Hurricanes NCAA national championship football team, and bios list him as African-American and Samoan, so he fits the Samoan bill. As for being an aspiring singer, he has done some singing, even on “Saturday Night Live,” I understand. So in a way he seems like a natch. Some people were impressed with his acting lately, so I guess he could play gay or straight, and he apparently has charisma, charm and box-office appeal right now, to please the money men. “The Rock,” though, is a name in honor of his dad, a wrestler named Rocky Johnson. His grandfather was Samoan wrestling legend Peter Maivia, and for a time the Rock wrestled as Rocky Maivia, to honor both the Dad and granddad.

By Admin (Admin) on Saturday, November 01, 2003 - 04:46 am:
Elmore patterned Elliot after The Rock because he was impressed with his ability to raise one eyebrow at a time.

By JohnnyMoreno on Tuesday, November 04, 2003 - 11:28 am:
Another touchstone for the Detroit novels.

When Glenn goes to meet Snoopy Miller in Detroit in Out of Sight, Snoopy is telling Glenn about the sights and how he was affiliated when he was younger with a group of kids called Young Boys Inc. They sold drugs in and around Detroit.

Robert Taylor from Tishomingo Blues also was in Young Boys Inc. when he started the street life.

By lacrimatty on Wednesday, November 05, 2003 - 06:59 am:
Johnny Moreno

I have to hand it to you, mon, you’re finding lots of good touchstones. It takes a true student of Elmore to recognize them. Well done.

By JohnnyMoreno on Wednesday, November 05, 2003 - 02:20 pm:
Thanks LA

This isn’t so much of a touchstone as it’s just a comparison of names and general character with regard to our beloved Crowes.

In Cuba Libre, Roland Boudreaux has a bodyguard called Novis Crowe. Tishomingo Blues has one of the drug dealers called Arlen Novis. Then of course we have our Crowes in Gold Coast, Maximum Bob etc. All three set in the south.

My theory is that Novis Crowe migrated back to Louisiana from Cuba and somewhere along the Crowe evolutionary line, one of his kin took on the surname of Novis in honor of his ancestor and another kept the surname Crowe and named one of their sons Roland after a man their great-great grandaddy use to work for. They all end up in different parts of the south: Florida, Mississippi.

The common thread between them all? Big dumb entertaining guys.

By lacrimatty on Thursday, November 06, 2003 - 07:38 am:
Then we have Dale Crowe, Jr., and the Crowe we see in Fire In The Hole. I can’t remember his full name.

Kepp up the good work Johnny.

By lacrimatty on Thursday, November 06, 2003 - 07:39 am:
Then we have Dale Crowe, Jr., and the Crowe we see in Fire In The Hole. I can’t remember his full name.

Keep up the good work Johnny.

By Straw on Tuesday, November 11, 2003 - 10:21 am:
Elmore’s Personal Philosophy:

Here’s one from Gold Coast. It is the philosophy of Roland Crowe:

“Deal only in personal services. Not things. No lifting, no heavy work, no overhead, no machinery to speak of. Look good, listen carefully, take a minimum of shit, live close to the Beach and always make yourself available to people who called and said, Roland, there’s this man owes us money. Or, Roland, we believe this man is going independent on us. Or, we believe he’s telling us a story.”

By JohnnyMoreno on Monday, November 17, 2003 - 01:36 pm:
Re-reading Freaky Deaky and Gold Coast and noticed a touchstone between the two.

Maguire does the Country Club job with the Pattersons then they get busted. One of them was Cochise Patterson.

In Freaky Deaky, Donnell is thinking of how Cochise Patterson first got him into the Black Panthers and now he was “back in the slam doing fifteen to twenty-five.”

Also, Buck Torres with the Miami PD shows up briefly in Riding the Rap, prominently in Pronto and is a good friend of Harry Arno and Vincent Mora.

By Straw on Wednesday, November 19, 2003 - 08:09 am:
Well done Johnny. Excellent touchstone.

By JohnnyMoreno on Wednesday, November 19, 2003 - 09:23 am:
Raymond Cruz and his crew (Hunter, Norb) from City Primeval also cameo in Freaky Deaky.

...Raymond Cruz going by in his narrow navy suit, top cop and he looked it, his down-curved bandit mustache giving him a solemn expression. HIs eyes moved and he said, “Chris, how’s it going?” Chris hesitated. By the time he said, “Not too bad,” the inspector was out the door.

By Straw on Wednesday, November 19, 2003 - 04:00 pm:
Let’s also not forget Raymond Cruz’s cameo in “Out of Sight”.

By JohnnyMoreno on Thursday, November 20, 2003 - 08:09 am:
That’s right Straw. I just thought somebody already mentioned it.

By JohnnyMoreno on Monday, November 24, 2003 - 07:42 pm:
Elmore’s Philosophy

“Why don’t we give it to the screenwriter? Instead of us fucking up the story, let Scooter do it.”

Chili talking to Elaine at the end of Be Cool

By Straw on Monday, December 08, 2003 - 09:05 am:
This is more of a potential touchstone that an actual one: In “Swag”, Stick gets arrested by two cops in Hudsons Department Store when he goes to pick up the doll box with the money inside. One of the two cops is named Walter. It crossed my mind that this could be Walter Kouza who later appears prominently in “Split Images”. This is a stretch, but thought it was worth mentioning.