Original subtitles

How? I'm not going to tell you.

No. Very honestly, I knew Gail Patrick for about five

years before this.

And very honestly, again, she was running a children's

store on Rodeo in Beverly Hills.

And I wanted to use, I made dolls.

And I wanted to have a doll that represented the young actors and

actresses of the time.

And then each picture that they made, I would make wardrobe from the picture for

the doll.

It never worked out. But Gail and I became very, very close friends because

was interested in what I was trying to do.

the Enchanted Cottage on Rodeo Drive, which housed the children's clothes and

children's items.

It was just a darling place, and I wanted to make a box like the Enchanted

Cottage to sell the doll in, you know, put the doll in. That was their box. And

then that also would be their stage and their connection to Hollywood.

So consequently, we got to know each other real well, and one day she called

she said, Barbara.

I said, hi, hon. She said, I just have an idea, and I've decided I think you

should be Della Street.

I said, I beg your pardon.

And she said, well, hon, I think you should be Della Street.

We're doing a new series called Perry Mason.

And I said, Gail, stop right there, please.

I said...

my children are little they're young and i really don't want to do a series at

this time i think it's bad for the children also bad for the husband for me

have another husband or children and see that every week on television so she

said oh no no no you don't have any children in this in fact you play a

secretary i said I play a secretary?

And she said, yes.

And she said, and Raymond Burr is going to be Perry Mason.

I said, Raymond Burr?

Oh, I haven't seen him in an age.

I know him very well, and Lord, he's a good actor.

Oh, he's a good performer.

So he's going to do it. She said, let me send you a script.

So I got the script, I read it, and I...

sent it back and I said, you know, I really still feel that I don't want to

the series now, but I think Ray is wonderful because there's no other actor

town that could do the three -day monologue that this gentleman has to do.

Because doing Perry Mason, you had to, he was in the courtroom for three days

and it was like a 15 -page monologue every day.

And I said, Raymond is wonderful.

She said, uh -huh.

Okay, now, then, are you going to do it? I said, no, Gail. I said, no. She said,

honey, we're only going to do 18.

I said, 18?

Okay, I'll talk to Bill. We'll see.

So I talked to my husband, Willie, and we decided 18 shows.

Okay, that would be fun. I'd be working with Raymond.

It's going to be a good show.

300 shows later and nine and a half years actually we were

still working but that was that was this show and it was beautiful and it's been

a wonderful career in fact Our son, Bill, was just a little fellow,

and in first grade they had to make a picture of their mother and their daddy

and say what their mother and daddy did.

So he did his picture of his mother and a picture of his daddy, and he said,

this is my daddy, I love him, and so forth.

And he said, and this is my mama, I love her, she's the secretary.

So I thought, well, if he thinks I'm a secretary, by gosh, that's great. Here

go. So isn't that fun?

Isn't that fun?

And working with Raymond and working with Bill, the two Bills, and Ray

Collins, dear heaven have mercy, what a wonderful experience.

They treated me like their little sister, I must say, and they teased me

much.

Raymond was constantly pulling gags, as were the boys, but we managed to get

through it. I tried to pay him back as much as I could, but I didn't do very

well. He always topped me.

Oh, golly. Oh, hundreds of them.

Well, I think Art Marks, when you were talking to him, he was talking about Ray

leaving the balloons in my room.

They weren't balloons.

They were air balloons.

And when I opened the door to my little cottage, the balloon, it was just like a

Lucy show.

The balloon came out the door, just like the bread on Lucy when she was cooking

bread. And I went screaming on set, and I said, Burr.

I'm going to get you. Get that out of my dressing room. I have to get dressed.

He said, Barbara, please, I don't know what you're talking about. And he said,

don't hold up the set.

Thank you very much.

Turned and walked away.

Well, then another time, he handed me...

the most beautiful bouquet. He stopped the set down and all of the crew and the

extras in the courtroom, you know, they were sitting and watching.

And he called me up and he said, I just wanted to wish you the most beautiful

and wonderful happy birthday.

I said, oh, Raymond, how lovely.

And with which he handed me this box, huge long box of long stem roses.

The most beautiful things. I took the, you know, it had the little picture

but I took the top off and I said, oh, Raymond, thank you so very much. I

up at him and then I looked back down and, oh, good God, there were about 40

little white mice with their little heads sticking up between the roses. He

them all under the roses, which I dropped.

Immediately. He's nailed my shoes to the floor so that when I get up, I always

took my shoes off under that table in courtroom.

When I get up to do a run for him while the cameras are rolling, I'd slip

my shoes on and run around the table, you know.

He nailed them to the floor.

Couldn't get out. They don't sound funny, but believe me.

We had more fun. You just can't imagine.

And as serious and serious as he was regarding

work, being professional, that's how funny he was.

He'd laugh.

That man was just Peck's bad boy. He'd laugh. Tears would stream down his

face. He was beautiful in every way that I can say.

honest to heaven our children called him uncle ray and he loved them and we all

loved him believe me i uh to this day i i truly miss

raymond so very much because he was he was my big brother that i never had and

it was a lovely time how did i meet him

my very first day at RKO that was February 14th

1943 believe it or not and as I always told

Raymond I've got to digress for a minute I always told Raymond you know I'm only

three and you're four and he said young lady I want to tell you something I'm

three you are four And we did that for 50 years thereafter.

Anyway, getting back to what I meant, Ray, I was in makeup taking the things

from a show that I'd been told I had to work on.

And that first day, and Ray came in because he had to bring some makeup and

things back from his set where he was working, and we met each other then, and

then said goodbye.

And I thought, boy, is he a good -looking young man.

And that was 50 years later.

We were on the Perry Mason set celebrating our 50 years of friendship.

believe we knew each other for 50 years?

I just, I think we were so, I was so lucky.

I was so lucky.

And always have been.

God's good.

Raymond.

was supposed to test for Hamilton Burger.

Did you know that?

Well, let me tell you.

He said he would, but he insisted that he test for Perry Mason,

too. And the producer said, I don't care if he tests for Dulles Street as long

as he'll test for Hamilton Burger.

And, of course, you know what the outcome was.

With Earl, the only action I had with Earl, one time in one of

the scenes, Bray and I had been supposedly out on location, and we came

back, and I sat down in the office.

This was shooting. We're shooting. I sat down in the office on the sofa there,

and I raised my foot a little bit, and I rubbed my...

my foot because I was tired from that long hike in the forest.

We had to cut it out.

I said, why?

What did I do?

They said, Mr.

Gardner saw it. And he said, no lady would do that in the Perry Mason's

You reached down and touched your foot.

Well, as a result, it sounds ridiculous, but we shot it over.

Then another time, I was trying to be just friendly with Raymond, and so we

shooting, and he was at his desk, and I went over by the desk, and I was looking

at a paper, so I kind of sat on the edge of the desk, and I said, yes, yes, to

Raymond, and cut.

We got a recording from...

mr earl stanley gardner do it over no woman no

secretary would ever sit on her boss's desk had to do it over so you see earl

was very involved in what went on in that in that office it was amazing just

amazing anything but like me i must say

she was

Very proper, I think, quite proper.

She did like to tease a little bit once in a while with Mr. Burr.

That's like me.

But we weren't alike. We weren't alike, darling.

She, I don't know. I can't answer that, really. I just

can't answer it.

Many of the ladies said that they wanted to be just like Della, you know, the

young people that would write in, because they said she really respects

and looks after him and does an excellent job all the time.

Another lady would write in, or a young lady would write in and say she really

likes her boss and nobody knows what goes on outside of the set, of the

which meant she thought there was a little hanky -panky going on maybe.

And I always said, you know, that's audience participation.

Ray and I could never get too close, so we satisfied the ladies that wanted to

be just a good secretary and an honest, wonderful secretary, and also the ladies

that were attracted to their boss a little bit. You know, it satisfied them.

But it was difficult at times because Mr. Gardner didn't want Raymond and

to get too close.

But after Mr.

Gardner passed away and the movies of the week, we did get much closer because

Mr. Gardner wasn't there, so they allowed us to at least... Raymond came

Della's house once, and they had...

where they left the studio together.

I don't mean... I mean in the picture, you know.

Raymond always wanted to do the show for a two -hour movie because he said, it's

a better show. It can be extended upon and be a much better show.

And I didn't think it would ever happen.

But then, in 85, so be it, it did.

It did happen. And they called us, and I said, what are you going to do about

the actors? Because the two Bills, Bill Hopper, Bill Tallman, and Mr. Collins,

Ray Collins, they were gone, you know.

So our boys, my brothers, so to speak, were all gone.

And they said, well, we're going to, Mr. Hargrove, Dean Hargrove said, we're

going to have a younger, we're going to appeal to a younger group of people by

having a younger person play Paul Drake. It'll be his son.

And younger people being involved in the show.

I said, well, that's interesting.

That's a good idea.

I said, who?

do you have any idea who these people might be and mr hargrove said well yes

there's one young man in town he said he's uh he's a blonde boy

and he said he's he did something about hero greatest somebody's great hero or

something like that i said oh um do you mean william katt And he said,

yes. I said, oh, he's in Kansas City doing Music Man right now.

He said, oh, you know him.

I said, yes, Mr. Hargrove, I know him very well.

I changed his diapers. That's my son.

And he just about fainted.

And then Bill did the show. Bill came on and was Paul Drake Jr. for nine

shows, which was wonderful.

Just wonderful. And then Bill was called away to do another show.

So, too bad.

With my son, it was wonderful.

I only had to send him to his room about twice a day.

He minded very well.

He said, Mother, forget it.

No, he's great to work with. Just great.

We did four movies after Raymond left.

And it was... There was a great

fog, may I say.

But we all... It wasn't too bad for the first two shows that we did.

And then word came, for sure, we weren't quite

positive. We still held hope.

did another show.

And our last show was very difficult to get through.

Very difficult.

In fact, it makes me sad just to think of it,

because Raymond held the show together, really.

He was, can I say, the godfather of

Perry Mason.

in his attitude and his caring for the cast and crew.

He kept it light by teasing the heck out of me

and many others, but he had a wonderful sense of humor, and

it kept everything light with all the seriousness.

Everything was quite serious in Perry Mason, as you know.

And consequently, he was the comic relief.

He wore his clown hat and loved doing it. He was just a

great tease, great, wonderful teddy bear and a very strong, strong

man in his beliefs and in his caring for others.

Oh, goodness.

I have so many, you know, working with somebody for all those years.

It's like saying, which child, which of your children is your favorite?

How can you say which is my favorite about things that happen or memories?

know, you can't. As a result, if you don't mind, I'd like to offer...

a toast to Raymond.

Raymond gave this bottle to our agent David Shapiro and it was from the first

bottling of his wine which is now still going and delicious

and he gave it to us

for this reason to celebrate

the 50 years 50 years of Perry Mason and as a toast

to Perry Mason, Raymond Burr, my boss.

Cheers.