Nick and Nora Charles the bantering, romantically involved detective duo has become a well-used trope in literature, stage, screen, and television ever since. The characters first appear in Dashiell Hammett's best-selling last novel "The Thin Man" (1934). Nick is an alcoholic former private detective who retired when he married Nora, a wealthy Nob Hill heiress. Hammett reportedly modeled Nora on his longtime partner Lillian Hellman, and the characters' boozy, flippant dialogue on their relationship. (The novel also mentions that Nick was once a Pinkerton detective, as was Hammett.) The novel is considered one of the seminal texts of the hard-boiled subgenre of mystery novels,
Samuel Arbuckle Samuel Arbuckle Samuel Arbuckle was an early California politician and pioneer to Los Angeles. He served on the first Los Angeles County Board of Supervisors in 1852. The first County Supervisors in 1852 for Los Angeles were Jefferson Hunt, Julian A. Chavez, Francisco P. Temple, Manuel Requena, and Samuel Arbuckle. Arbuckle was born on September 25, 1804 in Cheltenham Township, Pennsylvania where he spent his childhood and worked on his family's farm. Sam moved to Los Angeles, California where he eventually became one of the leading merchants in the area. Arbuckle focused on buying and selling goods ranging from real