Raymond Chandler Raymond Chandler Raymond Thornton Chandler (July 23, 1888 – March 26, 1959) was an American-British novelist and screenwriter. In 1932, at the age of forty-four, Chandler became a detective fiction writer after losing his job as an oil company executive during the Great Depression. His first short story, "Blackmailers Don't Shoot", was published in 1933 in "Black Mask," a popular pulp magazine. His first novel, "The Big Sleep", was published in 1939. In addition to his short stories, Chandler published seven novels during his lifetime (an eighth, in progress at the time of his death, was completed by Robert B.
Book of Numbers (film) Book of Numbers (film) Book of Numbers is a 1973 American crime film directed by and starring Raymond St. Jacques. It was produced by AVCO Embassy Pictures, and is the story of two black waiters who team up in El Dorado, Arkansas to run a numbers racket among the poor and working class black community in the 1930s. Meanwhile, they evade and outsmart the KKK, corrupt white police officers, and deflect a hostile take-over from a nearby mafia gang. The movie is based on the 1969 novel of the same name by Robert Deane Pharr, and is the only film