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,
Fatty and Mabel at the San Diego Exposition Fatty and Mabel at the San Diego Exposition Fatty and Mabel at the San Diego Exposition is a 1915 American silent black-and-white short comedy film, directed by Fatty Arbuckle and starring Arbuckle and Mabel Normand. It was produced by Keystone Studios. Fatty (Roscoe Arbuckle) and Mabel (Mabel Normand) are a married couple visiting the Exposition. Fatty gets in trouble by flirting with a passing woman (Minta Durfee) while Mabel shops. He chases the woman into a hula pavilion and makes approaches to the dancers. He is accosted by both Mabel and the woman's husband; eventually the police are called to