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ERLE STANLEY GARDNER by William F. Nolan
Page Number Seven eye Paul Drake, who did Mason's investigative work, had an office in the same building. Mason's antagonists were Hamilton Burger, the district attorney who constantly lost to Mason in court, and Police Lieutenant Arthur Tragg, who was often the arresting officer. Although he did not entirely abandon pulp writing until 1943, Gardner began slowing his production of pulp tales in favor of Mason and other writing projects. Early in 1935 Gardner's marriage to Natalie ended. There was no divorce and no bitterness; he continued to send her money for the remainder of her life, but their close relationship was over. Gardner admitted that he had never been meant for marriage and family. By this point, Warner Brothers had acquired motion picture rights to several of Gardner's novels, and the studio was busily cranking out Perry Mason films. Three were released in 1935, with two more appearing in theaters in the following year. On-screen, Gardner's lawyer was portrayed by the dapper Warren Wilham in the first four Masons and by the Latin lover Ricardo Cortez in the fifth. Neither actor pleased Gardner, and the liberties taken with his books roused him to outright anger. The critic Joan Kotker, reviewing Perry Mason in the spring 1997 issue of the Armchair Detective, cites the fact that the success of the film version of Dashiell Hammett's The Thin Man affected the Perry Mason movies. - The result was that in The Case of The Curious Bride Mason is introduced recovering from a drinking binge ... on his office floor, showing that just like Nick Charles, Mason can down them with the best (p. 236). Additionally, instead of operating out of his small office, he heads up a huge law firm with an army of partners and secretaries. After a sixth film in the series, Gardner refused to license any more of his Mason novels to Hollywood. (He declared that he didn't need the money, and he certainly didn't need the grief.) From the beginning of the Mason series, readers began to speculate on the exact relationship between Perry and Della. What was going on between them? Was it more than a boss/secretary relationship? Were they in love? Were they sleeping together? Would they marry? Gardner enjoyed this kind of speculation and often teased his readers by setting up emotional scenes that promised more than they delivered. In The Case of the Lame Canary (1937), Mason proposes to Della, but she gently rejects him with the comment that he is not the marrying kind. Perry won't take "no" for an answer. He asks her again in The Case of the Substitute Face (1938), and again she refuses, telling him that he does not really want a wife. He tries a third proposal in The Case of the Drowsy Mosquito (1943), but once again she declines his offer. Actually, from the outset of the series, Gardner had determined that Perry and Della would never wed, despite reader demand to the contrary. In an essay for the Atlantic in January of 1965, he recalled giving in to such a demand when he was writing the Ed Jenkins stories for Black Mask. Ed became involved with a rich socialite, Helen Chadwick. She wanted him to marry her, and Black Mask readers agreed. They pressured Gardner into allowing Ed to marry Helen. Right away, he knew the marriage wouldn't work. The Phantom Crook just couldn't operate with a wife in tow. "So I . . . killed Helen off, Gardner stated. "My daughter [who was a Jenkins fan] wouldn't speak to me for a month. He went on to talk about the Mason series. "I'm in love with Della Street, and I'm not going to kill her off... better authors than I am find themselves unable to cope with the problem of a married hero, [so] I'm not going to paint myself into that corner again (p. 75). Della knows her place in Mason's life, not as his wife but as a secretary who was willing to go to jail for him. Della does, in fact, get arrested five times. She suborns a witness and conceals evidence to aid her boss. Furthermore, on at least four occasions, she risks death by physical violence. In other words, she will do anything for Perry-except marry him, which is just the way Gardner wanted it. As Gardner's writing style matured over the years, Perry Mason matured too. In the early novels, the lawyer |