Perry Mason (TV series)

Gail Patrick Jackson , executive producer of the television series Perry Mason (1961 photo)

Earl Stanley Gardner, the author of a series of novels about Perry Mason, negatively related to radio shows and films that were shot by Warner Bros., so he refused to grant a license to any other stage incarnations of his popular character Perry Mason. His literary agent was Thomas Cornwell Jackson, an advertising manager, who in 1947 married actress Gail Patrick. In her youth, Gayle spent two years at law college before going to conquer Hollywood, where she starred in more than 60 feature films, including “My Man Godfrey” (1936), “The Door to the Stage” (1937) and “My Beloved Wife” (1940). She stopped performing in 1948, became involved in the family and began to persuade Gardner to allow her to make a television series based on stories about Perry Mason.

“We talked and talked about which series he wanted us to shoot and how he wanted to control the creative side of the project ,” said Gail Patrick to journalist James Bowden in 1979. "I just think that he trusted me, and I continued to maintain my contacts in show business."

Gardner considered Perry Mason’s privacy irrelevant and wanted the series to focus on crimes and how Mason fights for those whose guilt in the eyes of others seems to be indisputable. “Earl was a fan of the law and knew the law to the subtleties ,” said Gail Patrick.

Patrick, her husband, and Gardner set up the production company Paisano Productions , and Gail Patrick became its president. When she first tried to sell the idea of ​​a series about Perry Mason to the CBS television broadcasting corporation, she was suggested that it was not a film, but a “live” weekly program. “It would kill the actor playing Perry ,” said Patrick. "The series" I love Lucy "showed that the replays were necessary . " And the company Paisano Productions shot the pilot series with their own money.

In February 1956, CBS announced the release in the fall of a new series about Perry Mason. The network received rights to 272 stories of Earl Stanley Gardner, including the character of Perry Mason himself and 11 other main characters. Rights were acquired from Paisano Productions, who filmed the series with CBS and owned 60% of the shares in the films.

Perry Mason was the first Hollywood series filmed for television. The series came out every week on Saturdays. Gale Patrick Jackson was an executive producer. “We were the first bona fide legal show, and we spent two years preparing stories about Perry Mason for television ,” said Gail Patrick.

Throughout 1956, Gail Patrick Jackson was engaged in the selection of performers ^[5] . The most difficult was to choose an artist for the role of Perry Mason. Candidates such as Richard Carlson , [ Connors ], Richard Egan , William Holden, and Ephraim Zimbalist Jr. . In early April, CBS negotiated with Fred McMurray , and Cornwell Jackson, as the newspapers wrote, postponed a two-month vacation in Hawaii, hoping that the series would be ready by September or October. “We couldn't afford a big star,” Patrick later said. In April 1956, she first saw Raymond Burr among dozens of other actors. Originally intended to take him to the role of the district attorney Hamilton Burger. Patrick was impressed by how Raymond Burr coped with the role of prosecutor in the 1951 film Place in the Sun. But then she came to the conclusion that he was ideally suited for the lead role of Perry Mason, for which, however, he needed to lose at least 30 kg of excess weight.

  Learning about this perspective, Raymond Burr, without hesitation, sat down on the strictest diet.  When the goal was achieved, the creators of the future series chose him from 50 finalists. 

In July 1956, Raymond Burr was approved for the main role, and the announcement of this was made in early August ^[6] .

Actor William Hopper also tried out for the role of Mason ^{[a] [7]} , but in the end he was approved for the role of private detective Paul Drake. Patrick recalled: “When Bill Hopper entered the listening room, he blurted out to me straight off:“ You hate my mother. ” And that was Hedda Hopper , which I really disliked for what she was doing, but “hate” is something else. In any case, Bill was ideally suited to the role of Drake, and we took him to the series. "

Barbara Hale was a famous actress, she starred in feature films, but she already had a family with whom she did not want to be separated for long periods of filming. According to Patrick, Hale herself called her to find out about the role of Della Street.

As for the role of the Los Angeles District Attorney, Gale Patrick had no doubts about the actor. “I saw a brilliant little film Hitch-Hiker, in which Bill Talman performed well, so I took him on the role of Burger’s prosecutor, and he did not disappoint us,” said Patrick. Later, when he was asked about how he feels, losing to Mason in court week after week, Bill Talman said: “Burger does not lose. How can the district attorney lose, if it is that he cannot convict an innocent? Unlike a fist fight or a duel with pistols, there can be a winner in court without being a loser. In fact, Burger, in a large number of cases, joined Mason in action against unethical lawyers or false witnesses, or someone else who obstructed justice. Like any lawyer in real life, justice is the main interest of the prosecutor Burger. ”

Ray Collins (Lt. Arthur Tragg) was a wonderful actor, with a beautiful voice, the company “Mercury” often invited him to their radio shows. According to Patrick Gale, the producers of the series decided not to pay attention to the fact that in real life he would have been fired long ago from active police service by age.

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  Perry Mason ( Raymond Burr ) and Hamilton Burger ( William Talman )

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  Paul Drake ( William Hopper ) and Perry Mason (Raymond Burr)

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  Paul Drake (William Hopper) and Della Street (Barbara Hale) in an episode with a police officer ( Frank Sally )

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  Lieutenant Arthur Tregg ( Ray Collins )

Gail Patrick Jackson and producer Ben Brady personally participated in the filming of each episode (of course, with the director of the next episode). In each episode, there were usually about ten famous artists in addition to the main characters. Many stars from the past and future of American cinema took part in the series. “I knew many of them personally from past work ,” said Gale Patrick Jackson. “They were grateful for the invitation and played their roles very powerfully ... Gloria Henry , Von Taylor , Hillary Brooke , John Archer , Morris Ankrum , Don Beddo , Fay Ray , Olive Blakeney , Paul Fix , Addison Richards . We also had newcomers such as Robert Redford , Darryl Hickman , Barbara Eden . The trick was to use them no more than once a year. People like Fay Ray played several different roles in the series. ”

If possible, Patrick tried to involve in the series those with whom she herself starred in Hollywood. Some of them have practically retired and were financially well-to-do people, but they liked to act, and they were happy to accept invitations to shoot. And, for example, the former master of the episode George E. Stone had a hard time making ends meet, and for many years he appeared regularly in the series about Perry Mason, playing minor roles while his health allowed him to do that.

  When Patrick found out about the former actress, who had lost one side of her body due to paralysis, she put a lot of effort into finding a role for her in the series, so that the actress could only be filmed from the side that was not affected by the ailment. .  

“This is not altruism,” Patrick recalled years later. “They are all great performers and each of them brought something interesting and vital to the series, some new face, even if someone had only one face, but its own, unlike anything . ”

The series about Perry Mason had a great influence on the radio network of the US West Coast. Beginning in the 1940s, Raymond Burr spoke on local radio stations and gradually became a real radio star. Starting to appear in the new series, Raymond actively attracted to the shooting of his colleagues on the radio ^[8] , so that only during the first season in the series about 180 radio celebrities “turned on” ^[9] .

The production staff of the Perry Mason series related to their work technically correct and aware of their responsibility to the audience, among which, of course, were professional lawyers and judges ^[10] . Producer Ben Brady, before being involved in show business, was a practicing lawyer in New York ^[11] , editor Jin Wan graduated from law school in Florida, and executive producer Gail Patrick Jackson studied law school for two years before becoming an actress. Many series are based on the novels and tales of Earl Stanley Gardner, who for many years worked as a lawyer. Of the 69 Gardner novels about Perry Mason, published before January 1963, only two were not adapted for filming the series ^[b] . All episodes of the first season (except three) were created on the basis of the Gardner stories. Three scenarios that were not adaptations, but, nevertheless, were based on Gardner's novels, but were so thoroughly reworked that, ultimately, the series received other names: "The Case of the Dead Twin" ("The Case of the Hired Brunette" ), “The Case of a Desperate Daughter” (“The Case of the Glamorous Ghost”) and “The Case of the Prodigal Parent” (“The Case of the Suspicious Groom”) ^[12] . In the second season, 14 episodes of 39 are based on the original works of Gardner. In recent seasons, when the list of the original works of the writer was exhausted, only one to five episodes have already been removed from the works of Gardner, and some of the series are remakes of earlier adaptations.

  By the summer of 1958, under the direction of Patrick Gale, 31 writers worked, who gave out “on the mountain” original scripts, characters in which were the characters of Earl Stanley Gardner.

Patrick spoke with humor about the writers. "They are confident that they will improve what Earl wrote, although most of them cannot even repeat his level . "

Writers handed over drafts of scenarios, and Patrick and Wang checked the scenarios for continuity of plot development, content and eliminated legal mistakes. Then the revised projects were sent to Gardner, the writer made the changes necessary to comply with the laws. Gardner carefully monitored screenplay throughout the series and at the same time continued to write new novels about Perry Mason ^[13] . Writer's Digest magazine wrote in 1961: "Among the writers, there was an opinion that writing scripts for the Perry Mason series is the most difficult job in Hollywood . "

Trial Series

The first film was the film "The Case of Mink, beaten by moths." Screenwriters Lawrence Marks and Ben Starr adapted Earl Stanley Gardner's novel, retaining all the plot lines and characters. On television, this film was shown on December 14, 1957 as the 13th episode of the first season, although the film itself was shot the year before, from October 3 to 9, 1956, after the return of Raymond Burr from Havana, where he was filmed ^{[c] [15]} , after which he made a two-week tour of military hospitals in the West Indies. ^[16] . In terms of script writing and the quality of filming, this series very much resembles Hollywood films of category “B” of that period, that is, low-budget film production not distinguished by high artistic merit. The film was directed by Ted Post , who had previously shot some noir films. In the films that were filmed after that, the methods of camera movement, the use of deep space, and other stylistic features characteristic of the “noir” style were softened or completely absent. At the beginning of November 1956, journalist Eva Starr wrote: “Our sources at CBS report that they shot a test film for a new series about Perry Mason, the“ probe ”turned out to be successful, and the series itself will probably be shown next season in good airtime. " ^[17] . On November 30, 1956, Earl Stanley Gardner wrote to the producer of the series, Gail Patrick Jackson:

   "I can not forget how I sat in the hall and watched this first film ... As I saw how, thanks to your ideas, your tact and perseverance, the approach to the series gradually changed, I came to the conclusion that you did a great job, I am very proud of you and the fact that I work with you.  It seems to me that you saw in Raymond Burr such opportunities that no one else saw in him.  I think that it was you who developed these opportunities in it and inspired not only actors, but also producers and directors.  I think that we are on the way to a very big success ” [12]  . 

TV series

The series began filming in April 1957 ^[d] . The budget of each series was $ 100,000 (at prices of the 10s of the 21st century, this is equivalent to about $ 3.7 million). The filming took place in the pavilions of the 20th Century Fox film studio in Los Angeles near Sunset Boulevard ^{[18] [19]} and the CBS Studio Center. Raymond Burr lost 50 kg and continued to lose weight when the shooting started: “I just have no time to eat,” he said. “Once a week, Burr is filmed in a new series, which is practically a full-length feature film,” newspapers wrote. "He is present in 98 percent of all scenes." “I had no life outside the series,” Burr recalled. “And it went on 24 hours a day, six days a week. I never went home for the night. I lived on the set. I got up at 3 am and proceeded to memorize my text for the day ahead. Sometimes my work day ends at 9 pm I had a kitchen, a bedroom, an office, a living room where the filming took place on that day. ” ^[20] In the first year, thirty-nine episodes were filmed. "Ray wrote down the key lines of his shirt cuffs," said Gale Patrick Jackson. Such directors as Laszlo Benedek , Jesse Hibbs , Arthur Marx , Christian Nybi and William D. Russell took part in the work on the series. Some of these directors, including Lewis Allen and Richard Donner , had considerable creative baggage behind them in the form of famous feature films. Many experts noted that the films were shot in a style close to the "noir" style. ^{[21] [22]} . All the series, except for one, were shot on a black and white film.

(to be continued).

Each episode was usually divided into two parts: in the first, a murder occurs, in the second, Perry Mason defends a client accused of murder and proves his innocence by finding the real killer ^[23] . In most episodes, the identity of the perpetrator was established before the end of the trial.

At the end of the series, the characters come together to discuss how the crime was solved. In some episodes, District Attorney Hamilton Burger and Police Lieutenant Arthur Tragg are joining Perry Mason and his co-workers, Della Street's assistant and Detective Paul Drake.

In the series, for the first time, they began to put a small sign in chalk on the spot where they found the corpse. The first episode of this action took place in the eleventh episode of the second season (“The Case of the False Witness Parrot”). However, this technique was used by Earl Stanley Gardner in the book "Double insurance", written in 1941 under the pseudonym A. A. Fair. ^[24] .

The Fred Steiner musical screen saver Park Avenue Beat is one of the most recognizable melodies in the world ^[25] . When asked why Perry Mason wins every case, Raymond Burr replied: "But, madam, you see only those things that I do on Saturdays" ^[4] .

The episodes were shot in black and white, and only one - “Case of a beaten twist” - in color.

In the Senate, S. Sotomayor stated that she wanted to become a prosecutor after watching the series about Perry Mason. In the series, the prosecutor loses all the cases except one ^[26] . Later, CNN stated that there were three such episodes ^[27] : “The case of an unreasonable witness” ^[28] , “The case of the death sentence” ^[29] , “The case of a frightened typist” ^[30] .

• Raymond Burr - Attorney Perry Mason
• Barbara Hale - Della Street, Mason Assistant
• William Hopper - Paul Drake, Private Detective, Mason's Assistant
• William Telman - Attorney Hamilton Burger
• Ray Collins - Police Lieutenant Arthur Tregg
• Wesley Lau - Police Lieutenant Andy Anderson
• Richard Anderson - Police Lt. Steve Drumm

The series was broadcast for many years on the TBS television station and more recently began to follow the Hallmark Channel . The CBS channel posted on its website the first and second season of the series for viewing ^[31] . Since 1966, the series has been shown on KPTV. Since 1970, he walked at 12 o'clock, except for the interval of 1974-1975, when he walked at 12:30 ^[32] .

• The page about the series on gloubik
• Wiki TV series page

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