Original subtitles

Up next is some very rare footage and a chance to meet Earl Stanley Gardner and

see him at work, dictating the first couple of pages of his final Perry Mason

novel. We call it The Case of Earl Stanley Gardner.

Earl Stanley Gardner was a very determined young man. He wanted to be an

attorney, so he got up at 5 o 'clock every morning to study so he could go to

work in a law office after school.

That's how, at the age of 21, he passed the bar examination, and for the next

25 years was a dynamic trial lawyer.

But... At the age of 42, Gardner looked around for a new life. He loved the law

but dreamed of adventure.

Well, I got tired of being a successful attorney. In other words, the more

successful you become as an attorney, the more you're chained down to one

one chair, one desk, one telephone, one courthouse, one bank.

I wanted to sail into strange ports and trifle with strange women.

And so he turned his back on the law and became a writer.

Never mind that he didn't know the first thing about writing.

With him was his secretary, Gene Bethel, who served as critic, rooting section,

and buffer between Gardner and the world.

Any resemblance between Gene Bethel and Della Street, Perry Mason's famed

secretary, is entirely factual.

First, he was a very meticulous worker and a great man for detail.

And when he would write a lease or a contract, there would be every provision

that could possibly be thought of. His client would never have anything come up

that he hadn't covered in this lease or contract. And he was the same way with

all of his law problems. He worked that way with it.

And he started writing more and more, working at night, of course. And when I

think of the people who think that he should help them so that they can stop

write. And I think that he spent nights, he would work all day at law trying

cases. He would go home in the evening and work until midnight or later and

get up again very early in the morning and go ahead.

When Gardner could get away from his law office, he explored the West in a

camper of his own design.

It had hot water and a Navajo rug on the floor, but the most important piece of

furniture was Earl's dictating machine.

Well, I knew I was going to be a writer. I collected enough rejection slips to

stuff a mattress.

I had no ability, I have no natural ability to write. Everything I learned,

had to learn the hard way.

And I'm still not much of a writer. I'm a fair plotter because I studied the

mechanics of plotting and analyzed plotting.

As the flow of Earl's words increased, he found he needed more secretaries to

transcribe them.

I have been blessed during my life with loyalty.

Gee, Peggy, and Honey are three sisters who were secretaries when I was

practicing law.

After I started writing stories and gradually eased out of the practice of

they decided to toss their fortunes in with mine, and they have been with me

ever since.

The first time that I got to the point where I could leave the law business a

little bit, except for just short periods, was along in the middle of the

Depression. I got three house trailers and started out to keep my ambition of

going north in summer and south in winter.

We had a housekeeper and one trailer commissary and two secretaries from the

other, and the third one was my dictating.

their house, and we parked down there, not too far from where our ranch is at

the present time. I remember in the morning I got up and I was walking my

and we crossed the road. This was during the period of leaf lifting when two

fellows were out there about a hundred yards apart just putting in time lifting

leaves, and the dog crossed the road and went under the brush, and I followed

him, and then a rabbit jumped up, and the dog came back, so I came back.

And within earshot, without intending to, and I heard the two fellows who had

stopped, as they did in those days, leaned on their shovels and took them

a minute to get to the point where they wanted to get in conversation.

Hey, say, Bill, did you see that fellow with the dog that crossed the road?

Yeah, I seen him.

You know who that guy is?

Boy, I said to myself, is where fame catches up with me. I'd been able to

little stuff to some of the slicks, and I just perked up my head to listen, and

the answer came back loud and clear.

That's the SOB that's living with the three women.

Gardner set himself the colossal task of writing 100 ,000 words a month, a pace

he kept up year after year.

I've seen him at times. I can stand over in the office and watch him through the

glass door in his study.

and see him sit in his rocker, and he puts the rocker up at one end of the

and then he starts slowly rocking this way while he's thinking the plot out,

then as it becomes more and more complicated, it goes faster and faster,

down to the end of the rug goes this rocker, and then he picks it up and

it back to the other end, and down he goes again.

And that way, I think he works out his plots.

With the birth of Perry Mason, Earl Stanley Gardner was truly going places.

He wrote six Perry Mason books a year, and his public still clamored for more.

His books were translated for a growing army of fans around the world.

Like a hyperactive volcano, Gardner erupted words.

Secretaries pounded away day after day to keep pace with the flow.

stories, books, magazine articles, features, and hundreds of letters.

Some critics said that no man could write so many words.

And in a way, that was true, because Earl did not write stories, he told

In this unmarried sequence, we watch him dictating the first couple of pages of

his last Perry Mason book, The Case of the Fabulous Fake. In later editing,

one sentence was added, not another word was changed.

I've read of this as Sunday, March 3rd, 1968, the start of a new Perry

Mason story.

I haven't the title for it as yet.

Paragraph, Perry Mason looked up from his desk as Duller Street, his

confidential secretary, stood in the door of the office which communicated

the reception room.

Paragraph, yes, Duller, he said, paragraph.

Dulles Street said, we have a young woman in the outer office who won't give

name. Paragraph, that I won't see her, Mason said.

Paragraph, I understand how you feel about these things, she said, but I

there is some particular reason why this young woman won't give her name.

Paragraph, what reason, Mason asked.

Paragraph, Dulles Street smiled. I think perhaps it might be interesting if you

found out, she said. I can't find out.

Paragraph, how old, Mason asked.

Paragraph, not over 21 or 22, Della Street said. Paragraph, Mason frowned.

you sure she's over 21?

Paragraph, Della Street shook her head.

You can't tell by looking at her teeth, she said, smiling.

Paragraph, how about her hands, Mason asked.

Paragraph. And you can't tell too much by a woman's hands until after she

30.

Della Street said, paragraph, all right, Mason said, bring her in, we'll take a

look.

Paragraph, Della Street turned, went into the outer office and shortly

with a young woman who seemed rather excited as she

approached the desk and said, Mr. Mason, paragraph.

Mason smiled at her and said, put yourself at ease, young lady.

After all, I'm an attorney, and if you are in trouble, perhaps I can help you.

Won't you be seated?

Paragraph, she seated herself across the desk and said, Mr. Mason, I, several

dots, I, several dots, I'm going to have to disappear, and I don't want my

parents ever to be able to find me.

Paragraph, Mason regarded her thoughtfully.

Why are you going to have to disappear, he asked. The usual reason?

Paragraph, what's the usual reason, she asked.

Paragraph, Mason smiled and shook his head. Don't cross -examine me, young

he said.

Let me examine you.

Why do you want to disappear?

Paragraph, I have my reasons, she said. I don't think I need to go into them at

the present time, but I do want to disappear.

Paragraph, and you want me to help you with... Paragraph, I want you to be in

such a position that you can, if necessary, furnish the missing link

connect me with my past life.

But I don't want you to use it unless I give you permission and...

tell you to, or unless certain circumstances develop which will make it

imperative that you do get in communication with my parents.

And so Perry Mason was sent out on another case, and his fans wondered if

would ever lose one.

Well, that's one of the questions they always ask me.

Perry Mason never lose a case.

I don't know. I've never written about a case that Perry Mason has lost. And

every time I've sat in court and watched him work on a case, he's been defending

somebody who's innocent. And I certainly wouldn't want to let Hamilton Burger

win a case by having an innocent person convicted.

The other question I ask me all the time is, what about Perry Mason and Dulles

Street?

They're always busy when we see them in the books or on film.

Always too busy to have any personal relationship, but what about the time in

between cases?

Is there any hanky -panky? And I told him, well, that depends on what you mean

by hanky and what you mean by panky.

And I think that Perry Mason would be very foolish if he didn't recognize the

unusual charm and beauty of Della Street, and I don't think he's that

And they ask me if they're ever going to get married, and sometimes I tell them

that they are not, but that is not a fair question because I don't know what

Perry Mason is going to do. I'll write about it, and if Perry Mason and Dulles

Street get married, I'll write about it and perhaps sell the book.