Perry Mason
Created by Erle Stanley Gardner

PERRY MASON is Raymond Burr as a Defense Attorney, right? Not a P.I., right? Well, sorta. In the first ten or so books, Perry comes off as a particularly hardboiled lawyer/detective, throwing his weight around, duking it out with suspects, breaking and entering, and other private eye shenanigans.

As Doug Bassett pointed out on Rara Avis recently, "The first Mason, The Case of the Velvet Claws, in particular, is certainly hard-boiled. Mason is definitely seen as a sort of Sam Spade-like character, willing to twist the law to serve his own higher ideals of justice. I like Gardner's work generally -- he's a wonderfully readable author -- but later books are much tamer, maybe "medium boiled", if anything."

Erie Stanley Gardner, the creator of Perry Mason, was one of the leading writers for Black Mask, the legendary hard-boiled crime fiction magazine. Although Mason never appeared in its pages, in the early 1930s published a string of six short stories starring a crusading defense lawyer named Ken Corning who fought against injustice in a corrupt city. In many ways, Corning served as a rough template for Mason.

In fact, Gardner created a slew of characters for the pulps, private eyes and otherwise. And many claim his greatest creation was ther mismatched pair of Bertha Cool and Donald Lam. And even if one argues that Mason isn't really a private eye, it's hard to ignore the fact that the novels do feature one of the most enduring fictional private detectives of all time, even if he is always playing second fiddle to his famous client. i'm referring, of course, to Paul Drake, whom reader Frank Patterson has quite rightly taken me to task for overlooking.

FILM

It certainly didn't take long for Perry Mason to hit the silver screen. The first novel appeared in 1933, and the first film, The Case of the HowlingDog (based on the fourth novel of the series) appeared in 1934, starring Warren William as a rather tough attorney with a definite eye for the ladies. Mason, in these early films, was quite similar to the Mason of the books. He was tough, thoroughly professional, and honest (though not always exactly ethical). There were six films done by Warners in the period between 1934 and 1937, and while it started out as decent, grade A entertainment, the series quickly deteriorated into a string quickie B's done on the cheap. Williams stuck it out for three more, befoe bowing out. Ricardo Cortez got to play Mason once, as did Donald Woods, in the last of the six Warner flicks, The Case of the Stuttering Bishop.

RADIO
by Jack French

Nearly everyone is familiar with the Perry Mason in the hard-hitting novels of Erle Stanley Gardner and his ten year run on CBS television starring Raymond Burr. But radio's Perry Mason was very different. This 15-minute show was on the air five times a week on CBS at 2:15 pm, sandwiched between The Second Mrs. Burton and Lone Journey and it was sponsored by "new Tide, the amazing washday miracle." In other words, it was a soap opera!

Like most soap operas, it ran a very long time, from October 1943 to December 1955. Many actors played Mason over the years, including Barlett Robinson, Santos Ortega, Donald Biggs, and John Larkin. His secretary, Della Steet, was the voice of Gertrude Warner, and later, Jan Miner and Joan Alexander. It was not written by Gardner (although he got royalties for every show) so various other script writers handled this task, including Ruth Borden and Irving Vendig. The organist was William Meeder.

Perry wasn't in the courtroom a great deal as he was usually knocking down doors with Lt. Tragg and arrresting bad guys. But since this was a soap opera, there was little time wasted on male action. In a typical episode, Mason and Tragg are trying to capture Killer Bill Barker and, as they knock on his door, the announcer breaks in with: "But let's join Lt. Tragg's wife, Harriet, as she says to her neighbor, Martha...." The next twelve minutes have Harriet and Martha discuss whether Martha should remarry after the WW II death of her husband. And we get back to Mason and Tragg only for the lead-in to the closing Tide commercial.

For those few who love detectives in a soap opera, over 320 episodes of Perry Mason have survived and are available for your listening pleasure.

And, in 1956, Gardner spliced off the melodramatic drama from the detective show, and brought the cast, crew and format to television in as the soap opera, The Edge of Night, one of television's longest-running soaps (and it might even still be running, for all I know). And a year later, Perry Mason made his television debut.

TELEVISION

Raymond Burr starred as Mason in one of the all-time great detective shows. And just like in the books, the early Mason was not beyond cutting a few corners on behalf of his clients.

COMICS
Although Perry was a smash hit in books, on radio, and especially TV, that success never translated into comics. Mason's first appearances in comics were two comic book adaptations of Gardner novels in the late forties, in two issues of David McKay's Feature Books (issues 49 and 50, for those of you keeping scores). The Case of the Lucky Legs was adapted by Vernon Greene and The Case of the Shoplifter's Shoe was drawn by Paul Norris. Although both are extremely collectible now, at the time they barely drew any notice.

A few years later, an attempt was made to bring Perry Mason to the comics page of newspapers, with mixed results. Drawn by Mel Keefer and Charles Lofgren, and probably scripted by Gardner himself, it was difficult to adapt the intricate court cases into the comics media, but the strip does have its moments. Alas, it lasted less than two years.

NOVELS

SHORT STORIES

FILM

RADIO

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Respectfully submitted by Kevin Burton Smith. Radio info by Jack French. Thanks, Jack. And thanks to Ed Collins for the tip.

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