Perry Mason is a fictional character, a defense attorney who originally was the main character in numerous pieces of detective fiction authored by Erle Stanley Gardner. Perry Mason was featured in over 80 novels and short stories, most of which had a story line which involved a client of his being put on trial for murder. Typically, Mason was able to establish his client's innocence by demonstrating the guilt of another character. Gardner was one of the best-selling authors of all time, and had "135 million copies of his books in print in America alone in the year of his death." (1969).[1] The character of Perry Mason was portrayed each weekday on a long running radio series[2], followed by the well-known depictions on film and television, including "television's most successful and longest-running lawyer series"[3] from 1957 to 1966, another series in 1973-1974, and more than 25 made-for-TV movies from 1985 to 1993.
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The name "Perry Mason" dates to creator Gardner's childhood. As a child, Gardner was a reader of the magazine Youth's Companion. The magazine, best known for producing the original Pledge of Allegiance in 1891, was published in Boston, Massachusetts by the Perry Mason Company (later renamed "Perry Mason & Co." after the founder died). When Gardner created his fictional attorney, he borrowed the name of the company that published his favorite childhood magazine.[4]
Gardner provided more information about Mason's character in the earliest novels, although his character is largely taken for granted in later novels and the television series/movies. In the first novel (The Case of the Velvet Claws, 1933), Perry Mason describes himself as follows:
Gardner depicts Mason as a lawyer who fights hard on behalf of his clients and who enjoys unusual, difficult or nearly hopeless cases. He frequently accepts clients on a whim based on his curiosity about their problem, for a minimal retainer, and finances the investigation of their cases himself if necessary. In The Case of the Caretaker's Cat (1935), his principal antagonist, District Attorney Hamilton Burger, says: "You're a better detective than you are a lawyer. When you turn your mind to the solution of a crime, you ferret out the truth." And in The Case of the Moth-Eaten Mink (1952), a judge who has just witnessed one of the lawyer's unusual tactics says: "Mr. Mason ... from time to time you seem to find yourself in predicaments from which you extricate yourself by unusual methods which invariably turn out to be legally sound. The Court feels you are fully capable of looking after your own as well as your clients' interests."
Another frequent antagonist, Lieutenant Tragg of the Homicide Squad, has a discussion with Mason about his approach to the law in The Case of the Drowsy Mosquito (1943). Mason is recovering from having been poisoned, and Tragg is investigating. He says:
Other than what we learn of his character from his actions in the novels, we know very little about Perry Mason. We are told nothing about his family, his background, his personal life, or his education. Paul Drake seems to be his only friend, and Della Street his only (unacknowledged) romantic interest. We only know that he lives in an apartment because he is occasionally wakened from sleep to go to his office -- he does not entertain anyone at home. We know his tastes in food, because many scenes take place in restaurants, and that he is an excellent driver, because he participates in the occasional car chase. Other than those scanty facts, there is so little physical description of him that the reader is not even really sure what he looks like.
The movies from the 1930s were not closely based on the character of Perry Mason as revealed in the books and contain plot and character developments which are not taken as canonical in the remainder of the books and adaptations -- for instance, in one film Perry marries his long-time secretary Della Street, while Paul Drake turns into comic sidekick Spudsie Drake.
Erle Stanley Gardner "had spent more than twenty years practicing law in California, and the knowledge he gained was put to good use in the Perry Mason stories, which hinge on points of law, forensic medicine or science as clever as a watch mechanism ... and also the total lack of characterization."[5] While the Mason novels were largely a form of pulp fiction of the sort that began Gardner's writing career, they are somewhat unusual in that the whodunnit mysteries usually involved two solutions: one in which the authorities believed (whereby Mason's client was guilty) and an alternative explanation (whereby Mason's client was innocent). The second half of each novel is invariably devoted to a lengthy courtroom scene, during which Mason arrives at the alternative explanation and proves it to the satisfaction of the court. "It is perfectly true that our author works to formula; in one sense, the plot never varies. Having said this, one must add that the variety of persons and circumstances and the ingenuity in contriving the details that Gardner dreamed up in his dozens of cases are astonishing and entrancing."[6]
A hallmark of the stories is that Perry Mason (with the assistance of his devoted secretary Della Street and his faithful private investigator, Paul Drake), once embarked on a case, will juggle the evidence using unusual, even bizarre tactics, in order to mislead the police -- but (except for the very earliest novels) always in an ethical fashion. From "The Case Of The Long-Legged Models" (1958): "It's my contention, Della, that an attorney doesn't have to sit back and wait until a witness gets on the stand and then test his recollection simply by asking him questions. If facts can be shuffled in such a way that it will confuse a witness who isn't absolutely certain of his story, and if the attorney doesn't suppress, conceal, or distort any of the actual evidence, I claim the attorney is within his rights."
The influence of the television series has given the general public the impression that Mason is highly ethical. In the earliest novels, Mason was not above skulduggery to win a case. In The Case of the Counterfeit Eye (1935) he breaks the law a few times including manufacturing false evidence (glass eyes). Mason manipulates evidence and witnesses, resulting in the acquittal of the murderer in The Case of the Howling Dog (1934). The Case of the Curious Bride (1934) is "a good Perry Mason except for one great flaw, which the author would scarcely have been guilty of later on: he tampers with the evidence, by having a friend move into an apartment and testify to the state of the doorbells. ... One is left with the uncomfortable idea that maybe the murder did not take place as Mason reconstructs it."[6]
In later novels, the only crime which he can be seen to commit might be illegal entry, when he and Paul Drake are searching for evidence, and even then he would expect to put up a strong and effective defense leading to an acquittal. Hamilton Burger is constantly under the impression that Mason has done something illegal, but has never been able to prove it.
Gardner prefaced many of his later novels with tributes to coroners and forensic pathologists whose work was instrumental to solving cases. Gardner inserts his ideas about the importance of proper autopsies into many of his Mason novels. In The Case of the Fugitive Nurse, for instance, close scrutiny of dental records in the identification of burned bodies is a key point. In that same story, the possible use of additives to track illegal resale of medical narcotics is examined.
However, a study of Gardner’s novels by critic Russel B. Nye (The Unembarrassed Muse, Dial, 1970) did expose a pattern. Nye called Gardner’s novels as formal as Japanese Noh drama. He described fairly rigid plot points: Attorney Perry Mason’s case is introduced. Mason and his crew investigate. Mason’s client is accused of a crime. Further investigations ensue. Then the trial begins. In a courtroom coup, Mason introduces new evidence and often elicits a confession from the lawbreaker.
The character was adapted to radio as a 15 minute daily crime serial. It had little in common with the common portrayal of Perry Mason, such that Gardner withdrew his support for a TV version of the daytime serial, in favor of the Prime Time Emmy Award winning courtroom drama. The general theme of the radio serial was continued under a different title, with differently named characters, as Edge of Night[2].
The Perry Mason character appeared in comic books, and a short-lived (October 16, 1950–June 21, 1952) comic strip. He was also the inspiration for The Whole Truth (1986) by James Cummins, a book-length collection of sestinas.
The daytime soap opera The Edge of Night was originally meant to be a daytime version of Perry Mason, until Gardner had a falling-out with CBS network officials. He was later mollified enough to allow production of the most famous incarnation of the character.
Perhaps the most famous incarnation came in the form of a CBS TV series that ran from 1957 to 1966, with Raymond Burr in the title role. Also starring were Barbara Hale, William Hopper, William Talman, and Ray Collins. The familiar theme song was Park Avenue Beat by Fred Steiner.
Several years after the first series' cancellation, a new series, The New Adventures of Perry Mason, aired in 1973, featuring Monte Markham in the title role. It was not successful, and reruns are not seen in syndication.
Television producers Dean Hargrove and Fred Silverman resurrected the popular Mason character in a series of TV movies for NBC beginning in 1985. (They would create the Matlock series one year later.) Hargrove and Silverman were able to bring back the two then-surviving major stars, Raymond Burr and Barbara Hale (reprising their roles as Mason and Della Street, respectively) for the first telefilm, Perry Mason Returns, in which Mason, now an appellate court judge, resigns his position to successfully defend his secretary, Della, on murder charges. William Katt (Hale's son) was cast as Paul Drake, Jr. (William Hopper, who played private investigator Paul Drake in the original television series, had died years earlier; Hopper's photograph appears on Paul Drake Jr's desk.) In the later TV Movies, Perry Mason used the services of attorney Ken Malansky (portrayed by William R. Moses).
The successful series of Perry Mason TV movies continued through 1993, the last of which (The Case of the Killer Kiss), being completed only weeks prior to Burr's death, was dedicated to his memory. The last of these films were set in Denver rather than Mason's traditional locale of Los Angeles; it was said that the character had moved there, but the real reason for the change was Denver's considerably lower production costs. After Burr's death, there were four more Perry Mason movies, starring either Paul Sorvino or Hal Holbrook as friends of Mason, who was ostensibly out of town. The movies were aired under the series title A Perry Mason Mystery.
Recurring characters in the Perry Mason universe include:
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After the death of Raymond Burr, four movies were produced under the series titled "A Perry Mason Mystery" in which Barbara Hale continued to star as Della Street: