They Shoot Horses, Don't They?McCoy's first novel describes the tawdriness and brutality of a dance marathon. It would be adapted as a film in 1969. McCoy was born in Tennessee and worked as a newspaperman, sportswriter, and screenwriter. His other novels are No Pockets in a Shroud (1937), I Should Have Stayed Home (1938), Kiss Tomorrow Good-Bye (1948), and Scalped (1952).
Kiss Tomorrow Good-Bye. McCoy's intentionally shocking novel about a highly educated criminal prompts a strong negative reaction. One reviewer calls it "one of the nastiest novels ever published in this country."
Career Highlights: Gentleman Jim, They Shoot Horses, Don't They?, Rage at Dawn
First Major Screen Credit: Her Resale Value (1933)
Biography
After briefly entertaining the prospect of becoming a professional tennis star, Horace McCoy pursued a short acting career, then headed to the Southwest, where he worked as a newspaper journalist. Inspired by W. R. Burnett's crime novel Little Caesar, McCoy switched to writing hard-boiled detective fiction. In Hollywood from 1933, he wrote or co-wrote several entertaining (if unmemorable) programmers. By the 1950s, he was typed as a specialist in "outdoor" melodramas like Dangerous Mission (1954) and A Rage at Dawn (1955). Horace McCoy is best-remembered as the author of the unrelentingly pessimistic Depression-era novel They Shoot Horses, Don't They?, which, after several false starts, was finally filmed in 1969 thirty-four years after its publication, and fourteen years after McCoy's death. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide
Horace McCoy (April 14, 1897 – December 15, 1955) was an American writer, whose hard-boiled novels took place during the Great Depression. His best-known novel is They Shoot Horses, Don't They? (1935), which was made into a movie of the same name in 1969, fourteen years after McCoy's death.[1]
From 1919 to 1930 he worked as a sports editor for the Dallas Journal in Texas. In the late 1920s he began getting stories published in various pulp mystery magazines.[1]
During the Depression, McCoy moved to Los Angeles in an attempt to become an actor. He worked as an actor in The Hollywood Handicap (1932). A job as a bouncer at a Santa Monica pier provided the inspiration for They Shoot Horses, Don't They?, the story of a depression era dance marathon. His novel I Should Have Stayed Home dealt with the experiences of a young Southern actor attempting to find work in 1930s Hollywood. Another novel, No Pockets in a Shroud, featured the paradoxical cliche of a heroic, misunderstood reporter as the protagonist.[1]
McCoy published the noir classic Kiss Tomorrow Goodbye in 1948. The story is narrated by the amoral protagonist, Ralph Cotter. It was made into a James Cagney movie of the same name.[1]
In Hollywood, McCoy wrote westerns, crime melodramas, and other films for various studios. Although most of his movie work is unmemorable, McCoy worked with such movie directors as Henry Hathaway, Raoul Walsh, and Nicholas Ray.[1] He was also an uncredited script assistant for King Kong (1933).[2]
