Watching the original Perry Mason in 2022
I confess to watching recently more than 3 years of the original Perry Mason mystery series. It premiered in 1957 and ran until 1966. I see it free on Freevee. I saw much of the series when it first ran but have forgotten the plots. Here is what I’ve learned:
The plots are as intricate and interesting as they were then, when I was 12-15. Unlike many of today’s TV mysteries, they rely little on technology and a lot on the initially hidden relationships among people. You always know Mason will win in court, except for one early case where it turns out he is defending an impostor. Figuring out what he is thinking and how he will play it is still challenging and enjoyable.
Time passes
Lots of things have however changed. There are no cell phones, messaging, videos, or email. Phones have dials. People write notes or letters. Giant cameras with flash bulbs take pictures. The cars, which play important supporting roles, are floppy behemoths with sweeping tail fins. Dollars are worth at least ten times more than they are today. Everyone smokes.
Race matters
The casts are 95% or more white. The first I remember seeing a Black person, with a minor role as a night watchman, was in the second year. He appears in an episode also featuring Japanese participants, who are vital to the story. Before that, I recall only one episode with a clearly non-white character. He is a Chinese factotum. Even nightclubs and jazz joints in Los Angeles are without Black people, who were then called “Negroes.”
Gender does too
Women fare a bit better. They dress stylishly (for the time), unless they are intended for plot purposes to be unattractive. They wear hats, even indoors. But women are mostly subordinated to powerful men. That includes Della Street, Mason’s clever “confidential secretary,” as well as the many other secretaraies, heiresses, wives, and girlfriends who figure in the plots. Some are clever, rebellious, or nasty. But most of those are made murder victims in the first few minutes of an episode or in the end turn out to be the perpetrators.
The men are mostly dressed in suits and ties. They wear fedoras on the street (Kennedy would kill that custom before the series ends). They too can be clever, rebellious, or nasty but still manage to play dominant roles. Paul Drake, Mason’s favorite private investigator seems to be the paragon. His tall, blond (I’m assuming–the series is in black and white) good looks occasionally play a role in the plot. But Della is far more clever.
Raymond Burr, who plays Perry Mason, was what we would now term “gay.” He was closeted. LGBTQ people do not appear in the series, unless I have missed one or two.
Enjoyable, but don’t send me back there
We are having lots of fun watching these murder mysteries while preparing to go to bed. They don’t elicit bad dreams, I suppose because the murders are less gruesome than many on TV today. And always solved. I plan to get through the whole series.
But don’t send me back there in a time machine. The racism is by omission. The sexism is in plain sight. I never liked searching for and plugging dimes into a public pay phone.
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