Maltese Falcon Society Don Herron and private investigator Jayson Wechter. The society's first meeting was held at John's Grill, a restaurant where Dashiell Hammett ate and which he featured in "The Maltese Falcon". The speakers at that first meeting were David Fechheimer, a Hammett researcher and private investigator, and E. Hoffmann Price, a pulp fiction author. The society opened chapters in New York and Japan. By 1982, the society had 110 members in San Francisco, 55 in Japan, and 50 in New York. As its official toast, the society adopted the one used by Sam Spade in Chapter 2 of "The Maltese Falcon":
The Maltese Falcon (1941 film) 1989, but that version is no longer available. CBS/Fox Video released a 101-minute black-and-white version of the film on laserdisc in 1982. The music was written by Adolph Deutsch, who later went on to win an Academy Award. The recording was re-released in 2002 along with other film soundtrack works by Deutsch, including "George Washington Slept Here," "The Mask of Dimitrios," "High Sierra" and "Northern Pursuit." Perhaps the earliest radio adaptation of "The Maltese Falcon" was on the "Silver Theater" broadcast on the CBS radio network on February 1, 1942, with Bogart as star. "Philip Morris Playhouse" staged an adaptation