Myrna Loy and William Powell

Vanity Fair,February 1936 and December 1930

flashback

'My best friends tell me," William Powell noted, "that the smartest thing I ever did was marry Myrna Loy on the screen"—thirteen times. And never more happily than when they played the madcap Nick and Nora Charles in six films based on Dashiell Hammett's bestselling (and last) gumshoe novel, The Thin Man. The first Thin Man (1934), shot in just sixteen days, was as sophisticated as a dry martini—which the Charleses downed in blithe profusion—and debuted a thoroughly moderne take on matrimony: "I think it's a dirty trick to bring me all the way to New York just to make a widow of me." "You wouldn't be a widow long." "You bet I wouldn't." "Not with all your money." The film reestablished Powell with an Oscar nomination and brought stardom to Loy. In real life, however, the perfect couple was otherwise engaged: Loy with producer Arthur Homblow, and Powell—newly divorced from Carole Lombard—with Jean Harlow. This month, Nick and Nora, a musical made with permission of the estate of Lillian Heilman—Hammett's original Nora—opens on Broadway at the Marquis.