Welcome to Masters of Mystery Monday, where each week we feature a fictional detective and examine his or her unique contribution to the mystery genre. You are invited to challenge yourself with a short detective quiz, and see the answers to the previous week’s quiz.
We leave the kid detectives this week and return to the adult realm of master detectives. This week: everyone’s favorite lawyer-detective – cue the music:
Erle Stanley Gardner’s Perry Mason
Some interesting facts about Erle Stanley Gardner and the Perry Mason series:
1. Gardner was a California lawyer for 20 years, which came in handy for those slick points of law that Mason uses to get out of tight spots.
2. The series is part of the hard-boiled, pulp fiction tradition, with sexy dames, hard-nosed cops, and the protagonist who has his own set of ethics and his own way of dispensing justice. Some critics contend that the series became more “soft-boiled” over time.
3. Over the course of 40 years (between 1933 and 1973), Gardner wrote over 80 Perry Mason “cases,” not including several short stories that featured the lawyer/detective. Before Perry Mason, Gardner wrote other pulp fiction stories, too.
4. The books are readable and comfortingly formulaic: the first half of the story is concerned with introducing the client, the problem, and the investigation, where the police and prosecution seem to have the upper hand and all seems lost; the second half of the story is the courtroom scene, where Mason uses all the lawyer tricks he can get away with to shuffle around the evidence and confuse the witnesses, until finally the true culprit confesses and his client is cleared.
Perry Mason’s appeal:
1. Della Street: the quintessential gal Friday, and an unacknowledged love interest for Perry. Super-efficient. I wish she could run my kids’ homework nights. 🙂
2. Paul Drake, of Drake Investigations: the man could find out anything, and was almost as fast as Google.
3. The clients: generally speaking, they were uncooperative bombshells, and their own worst enemy. Mason was essentially saving them from themselves.
4. Perry Mason: his cleverness and ingenuity won out every time. He was also not above walking on the shady side of the law from time to time: a little B&E, some suppressing of evidence, etc.
Beyond the books: radio and television
Radio: CBS ran the radio episodes in 15-minute increments, five times a week, from 1943 to 1955. It was sponsored by Tide laundry detergent, “the amazing washday miracle” (info courtesy of Jack French). In other words, it was a soap opera!
Television: This was the Perry Mason we are most familiar with. The series, starring Raymond Burr, ran from 1957 to 1966, and was a re-run staple for CBS, and later re-run on other stations.
Here’s a clip of the opening credits and music theme. Bring back memories?
Great sites for more info:
Perry Mason profile; Thrilling Detective site
Want the answers to last week’s quiz?
1. What film used the tagline “The Master of Suspense presents a 3,000-mile chase across America”?
- Rear Window
- Vertigo
- The Birds
- North by Northwest
2. What is the music used for Hitchcock’s television series theme?
- Tchaikovsky’s 1812 Overture
- Gounod’s “Funeral March for a Marionette” – want to hear it? Click here.
- Mussorgsky’s “Great Gate at Kiev”
- Iron Butterfly’s “In a Gadda Da Vida”
3. Who starred in the most Hitchcock films?
- Cary Grant
- Jimmy Stewart – they are tied at four films each – I know, I didn’t play fair on that one!
- Audrey Hepburn (not in any of Hitchcock films)
- Doris Day (in one film: The Man Who Knew Too Much)
4. What does nearly every leading actress in Hitchcock’s films have in common? They were blondes. Hitchcock had a fondness for blondes.
Be your own “Master of Mystery: take this week’s quiz!
Locale quiz: the city makes the detective. It’s his element, the source of his contacts; he knows all the seamy back alleys. Can you match the following detectives with their cities?
1. Sam Spade
2. Spenser
3. Sherlock Holmes
4. Charlie Chan
————————-
a. London
b. Boston
c. Honolulu
d. San Francisco
Hope you’re enjoying the quizzes. How influential do you think the character of Perry Mason has been for the lawyer/detective t.v. characters we have today? Who is your favorite t.v. detective? We’d love to have your input.
Thanks for joining me today. See you soon!
Kathy
Oooh, I love a good TV detective! I do think the success of Perry Mason has paved the way for many courtroom dramas over the years. Law & Order comes to midn – 1/2 Law and then 1/2 order. Similar set up.
Didn’t Burr almost make Perry Mason television movies into the 80s? 90s? I remember seeing him in his golden years….
My favorite TV detectives: Magnum PI, Mike Hammer, Monk, David Addison, Jesse Stone (can you tell I love Tom Selleck?), Brenda Lee Johnson, Shawn Spencer, cast of criminal minds, Seeley Booth, I could go on and on and on….
Hey, maybe you can guest blog for me sometime on Masters of Mystery! You’re right about the Perry Mason movies – they did a bunch. There was also a short-lived series in the 70s (not Raymond Burr) called “The New Adventures of Perry Mason.” Didn’t get far. I also agree with your “Law and Order” point, too!
Of your list, my fave old one is Magnum, and my fave new one is Criminal Minds.
Thanks, Tiffany, for your ever-sparkling comments, and great support!
What a well-put-together blog post. It makes me wish I hadn’t missed Perry Mason. Growing up, we lived so far out in the country, we got exactly one channel, and Perry Mason, even in re-runs, wasn’t on it. Good Times was, though. 😀
My favorite TV detective is Dexter.
You might want to watch Perry Mason in action on the internet. There are full episodes on there. Here’s one of them: http://www.cbs.com/classics/perry_mason/video/?pid=0H52szKVh8ExB4R4v04kGD6cnvydjZ_D&play=true
You are in good company with Dexter! We have limited cable, so I haven’t had the opportunity to watch him yet.
Thanks so much for your comment, Catie!
I love Mystery! Remember back in the early 90’s when Perry Mason and Alfred Hitchcock Presents came on back to back in the early days of Nic at Night? Awwww, now I’m getting all nostalgic!
I’m glad I stumbled on your blog!
I agree. Such a cool line-up. So glad you stopped by! Looking forward to seeing you here in the future, Aaron!
I remember watching Perry Mason and Matlock back to back on TV when I was growing up. Good stuff. I remember how disappointed I was Raymond Burr was the villain in Rear Window since I knew him as the guy who solved cases on Perry Mason.
I know what you mean about Rear Window. Raymond Burr was synonymous with the upstanding Perry Mason! Thanks so much for your comment!
Thanks for the memories, Kathy. My gosh, that music takes me back. My grandmother loved Perry Mason. I had to laugh at that opening sequence. Not much action, huh? How different things are nowadays.
I sound old…
Nancy
http://nancylauzon.blogspot.com/
The Chick Dick Blog
Yeah, I know, we’ll just ignore the “old” part. Love those memories, music, the way the women dressed – cool stuff!
So glad you stopped by, Nancy. Thanks!
Now I’m going to have to read a few of the Erle Stanley Gardner originals. (And not just for the paperback cover art…)
Boy, the theme song takes me right back. I loved that show! I had always thought the theme was written by Henry Mancini (who wrote the theme from “Peter Gunn” and “The Pink Panther”), but I was surprised to learn that it was “Park Avenue Beat” by Fred Steiner.
Also, I sympathize with Bluestocking’s disappointment to see Perry Mason as the villain in “Rear Window.” I really liked him in “Ironsides” as well.
You’d be surprised how many of the Perry Mason books are in the paperback mystery section of the public library. I spent a summer going through as many of them as I could find. They read very quickly, and are a lot of fun!
Thanks for your comment, Paul!