Arthur Hailey

Career[edit]

Hailey's professional writing career began in 1955 with a script called Flight into Danger, which was purchased by the Canadian Broadcasting Corporation and telecast on 3 April 1956.^[7] This story of a plane flight in jeopardy after its crew is incapacitated was "the smash hit of the season," won enormous acclaim, and was broadcast internationally.^[8] It was adapted as a novel by "John Castle" (a pseudonym for Ronald Payne and John Garrod), with Hailey credited as co-author; it was published by Britain's Souvenir Press in 1958 under its original title, but renamed Runway Zero-Eight (Doubleday) for its 1959 American publication.^[9] The story was filmed in 1957 as Zero Hour! (Paramount), and for television in 1971 as Terror in the Sky.^[10]


With the success of Flight into Danger, Hailey was in demand as a television writer, and wrote for such shows as Studio One, Kraft Television Theatre, Playhouse 90, and Suspense. In 1959, he adapted his teleplay No Deadly Medicine (for which he won an Emmy nomination) into his first novel The Final Diagnosis. Published by Doubleday, it is the story of the chief pathologist at a Burlington, Pennsylvania, hospital. The book received good reviews,^[11][12] and was a selection of the Literary Guild of America.^[9] Hailey's second novel, In High Places (Doubleday) was published in 1962. Dealing with international politics^[9] the book was again selected by the Literary Guild, and was a best seller in Canada.^[13]


Hailey's commercial breakthrough came in 1965 with publication of Hotel^[14] (Doubleday), which followed five days in the lives of employees and residents of New Orleans' luxurious St. Gregory Hotel. The book spent 48 weeks on the New York Times Best Seller list, peaking at No. 3,^[15] and became the eighth highest-selling novel of the year.^[16] It established the template for Hailey's future works: ordinary people involved in extraordinary situations in a business or industry which is described in meticulous detail.^[2]


Following the success of Hotel, Hailey moved to California. In 1968 he achieved international fame^[17] with his fourth novel, Airport (Doubleday), the story of one eventful night at a midwestern international airport. The novel was No. 1 in the New York Times for 30 weeks, and became the top-selling novel of the year.^[18] The film adaptation, released in 1970, was the second-highest-grossing film of the year (second only to Love Story)^[19] and received ten Academy Award nominations, including best picture.^[20] The success of the film, together with that of 1972's The Poseidon Adventure, led to the proliferation of "disaster films" during the 1970s,^[21] which included three additional films in what became the Airport franchise.


After the financial success of Airport, on the advice of his tax attorney, Hailey moved as a tax exile to the Bahamas^[22] settling in Lyford Cay on New Providence Island. He had intended to stay for just two years, but liked it so much^[22] that he remained there for the rest of his life. In 1971, he published Wheels (Doubleday), set in the automobile industry; like Airport, it was a no. 1 New York Times best seller,^[23] and the highest-selling novel of its year.^[24] Hailey followed it with two additional no. 1 sellers: The Moneychangers (Doubleday, 1975),^[25] about the banking industry; and Overload (Doubleday, 1979),^[26] about an electric utility company.


In 1979, following publication of Overload, Hailey announced his retirement. After undergoing quadruple heart bypass surgery, however, he felt rejuvenated, and returned to work.^[27] His novel Strong Medicine (Doubleday), about the pharmaceutical industry, was published in 1984 and was another major best seller; it became the thirteenth highest-selling novel of the year.^[28] His commercial success had declined somewhat^[29] by 1990 with publication of The Evening News (Doubleday), and with his final novel, Detective (Crown), which appeared in 1997. Hailey continued to write, but—except for the slim The Lyford Legacy: A Brief History of Lyford Cay from 1788 (Lyford Cay Foundation, 2000),^[30]—Hailey now wrote only as a hobby.^[1]


Arthur Hailey's papers are housed at the Thomas Fisher Rare Book Library, University of Toronto, and at the Harry C. Moore Library of the College of The Bahamas.^[31]