Characters I'd Like To See Rebooted: Rocky Jordan
As I pointed out in my review of the OTR series, Rocky Jordan is an American expatriate restaurateur from St. Louis, now the owner and operator of the Cafe Tambourine within the native quarter in Cairo, "within sight of the Mosque Sultan Hassan." The series was highly reminiscent of the film Casablanca, with actor Jack Moyles playing the part of Rocky Jordan, who can be described as perhaps "a poor man's Rick Blaine." But I'm not sure that characterization is actually fair.
Rocky Jordan, while similar in many respects to Bogart's Rick Blaine, was a different character. The radio series made Rocky a much more well-rounded character than what appeared in Casablanca: we learn that Rocky is from St. Louis, but for some unspecified reason, he cna never go back; at one time, he operated a version of the Cafe Tambourine in Istanbul before settling in Cairo; he has a reputation for somehow being implicated in murder cases; he has a love-hate relationship with the Cairo police - he respects Police Capt. Sabaaya, but at the same time tries very hard to stay out other people's messes and give as little information to the Police as possible.
This is a character who is street wise, tough, smart, and a danger/intrigue magnet. He has a soft spot for damsels in distress (even though he tries to hold them off for as long as possible). He is a rogue, but one that you actually root for.
I would love to see a Rocky Jordan TV series, or even a comic book. I think the character is that good.
Having said that, I would move the setting back a few years and put him in pre-WWII Cairo, with all of the intrigue that suggests.
I'm working on a novella that incorporates him in just this way, but this is a piece of fanfic; I want someone to really reboot this character.
Episodes of the OTR series can be downloaded from the Internet Archive http://www.archive.org/details/RockyJordan.
Rocky Jordan, while similar in many respects to Bogart's Rick Blaine, was a different character. The radio series made Rocky a much more well-rounded character than what appeared in Casablanca: we learn that Rocky is from St. Louis, but for some unspecified reason, he cna never go back; at one time, he operated a version of the Cafe Tambourine in Istanbul before settling in Cairo; he has a reputation for somehow being implicated in murder cases; he has a love-hate relationship with the Cairo police - he respects Police Capt. Sabaaya, but at the same time tries very hard to stay out other people's messes and give as little information to the Police as possible.
This is a character who is street wise, tough, smart, and a danger/intrigue magnet. He has a soft spot for damsels in distress (even though he tries to hold them off for as long as possible). He is a rogue, but one that you actually root for.
I would love to see a Rocky Jordan TV series, or even a comic book. I think the character is that good.
Having said that, I would move the setting back a few years and put him in pre-WWII Cairo, with all of the intrigue that suggests.
I'm working on a novella that incorporates him in just this way, but this is a piece of fanfic; I want someone to really reboot this character.
Episodes of the OTR series can be downloaded from the Internet Archive http://www.archive.org/details/RockyJordan.
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