Cool and Lam is a fictional American private detective firm that is the center of a series of thirty detective novels written by Erle Stanley Gardner (creator of "Perry Mason") using the pen name of A. A. Fair.
Cool and Lam is a fictional American private detective firm that is the center of a series of thirty detective novels written by Erle Stanley Gardner (creator of "Perry Mason") using the pen name of A. A. Fair.
In the first book about her, The Bigger They Come (1939; British: Lam to the Slaughter), Bertha Cool opened her detective agency after the death of Henry, her husband, in 1936. Her age is given as "somewhere in the sixties" in the first book; [1] in Some Women Can't Wait (1953), she is "about fifty years old", and, in Beware the Curves (1956), she is "in the late fifties or early sixties." She is described in various terms as overweight, and uncaring about her weight—in the first novel, Donald Lam estimates her weight at 220 pounds (16 st; 100 kg). At the beginning of Spill the Jackpot (1941), she had flu and pneumonia, and lost a great deal of weight, down to 160 pounds (11 st; 73 kg), and in many later novels, her weight is given as 165 pounds (12 st; 75 kg). She has white hair and "greedy piggish eyes". All the novels agree that she is extremely avaricious and miserly. However, she has persistence, loyalty, and nerve. Her favorite expletive is some variant of "Fry me for an oyster!" or "Can me for a sardine!". In the opening chapter of the first novel, she hires a small, nervy, and extremely ingenious former lawyer named Donald Lam. Donald later becomes a full partner in her business, forming the agency, Cool and Lam, which features in more than two dozen books by Gardner.
In her biography of Gardner, Dorothy B. Hughes wrote, "Erle said over and again that if Donald Lam, 'that cocky little bastard,' had a model, it was Corney"—Thomas Cornwell Jackson, his literary agent. [2] : 227 Jackson later married actress Gail Patrick, and they formed a partnership with Gardner that created the CBS-TV series Perry Mason . [3]
Donald Lam begins his adventures as the employee of Bertha Cool. As a detective, Lam is in stark contrast to the fictional hard-boiled types of his era. Donald is about 5 ft 6 in (1.68 m), weighs 130 pounds (9 st; 59 kg) soaking wet, and gets beaten up quite frequently. While he does get into several fistfights, he loses all but one — a single fistfight against an insurance investigator in Double or Quits, only after taking boxing lessons from a former pug named Louie Hazen in Spill the Jackpot, and studying jujitsu with a master named Hashita in Gold Comes in Bricks.
The Cool and Lam series consists of the following 30 books, including an unpublished work discovered in 2016. [4]
Turn On the Heat was adapted by Welbourne Kelley for the June 23, 1946, broadcast of The United States Steel Hour on ABC radio. [5] : 329 Frank Sinatra was the first actor to portray Donald Lam.
Cool and Lam first appeared on television in the January 6, 1955, episode of Climax! based on the debut novel, The Bigger They Come (1939). [8] It starred Art Carney as Donald Lam and Jane Darwell as Bertha Cool and is considered "lost."
A 30-minute pilot program called Cool and Lam was made in 1958 but never became a series. Billy Pearson was cast as Donald Lam and Benay Venuta as Bertha Cool. The pilot was loosely based on Turn On the Heat. One feature of interest is that, a few minutes after the start of the program, Erle Stanley Gardner is shown on the set of Perry Mason's office. He speaks directly to the viewer, introducing the characters, and talking about his pleasure in the casting and his hopes that the pilot will become a series. It is uncertain whether this pilot was ever broadcast and, if so, whether this segment featuring Gardner would have been included, since it pushed the running time of the program to the 30-minute mark and did not allow for commercials.
Perry Mason is a fictional character, an American criminal defense lawyer who is the main character in works of detective fiction written by Erle Stanley Gardner. Perry Mason features in 82 novels and 4 short stories, all of which involve a client being charged with murder, usually involving a preliminary hearing or jury trial. Typically, Mason establishes his client's innocence by finding the real murderer. The character was inspired by famed Los Angeles criminal defense attorney Earl Rogers.
Paul Drake is a fictional private detective in the Perry Mason series of murder mystery novels by Erle Stanley Gardner. Drake is described as tall and slouching, nondescript, and frequently wearing an expression of droll humor. He often smoked cigarettes especially when he had a subject of interest under surveillance. He is friend and right-hand man to Mason, a highly successful criminal defense lawyer in Los Angeles.
Erle Stanley Gardner was an American author and lawyer, best known for the Perry Mason series of legal detective stories, but he wrote numerous other novels and shorter pieces and also a series of nonfiction books, mostly narrations of his travels through Baja California and other regions in Mexico.
Della Street is the fictional secretary of Perry Mason in the long-running series of novels, short stories, films, and radio and television programs featuring the fictional defense attorney created by Erle Stanley Gardner.
Hamilton Burger is the fictional Los Angeles County District Attorney (D.A.) in the series of novels, films, and radio and television programs featuring Perry Mason, the fictional defense attorney created by Erle Stanley Gardner.
Doug Selby is a fictional creation of Erle Stanley Gardner. He appears in nine books, most originally serialized in magazines. He was portrayed by Jim Hutton in a 1971 television movie, They Call It Murder, loosely based on The D.A. Draws a Circle—the only film adaptation of the series.
Perry Mason is an American legal drama series originally broadcast on CBS television from September 21, 1957, to May 22, 1966. The title character, portrayed by Raymond Burr, is a Los Angeles criminal defense lawyer who originally appeared in detective fiction by Erle Stanley Gardner. Many episodes are based on stories written by Gardner.
William Morrow was an American publisher. He attended Harvard College, class of 1900. At New York city, on April 24, 1923, he married novelist Honoré Willsie Morrow. He founded William Morrow and Company in 1926 and led it until his death.
Gail Patrick was an American film actress and television producer. Often cast as the bad girl or the other woman, she appeared in more than 60 feature films between 1932 and 1948, notably My Man Godfrey (1936), Stage Door (1937), and My Favorite Wife (1940).
The following is a list of the Perry Mason novels and short stories by Erle Stanley Gardner, published from 1933 to 1973.
The Case of the Howling Dog is a 1934 American mystery film directed by Alan Crosland, based on the 1934 novel of the same name by Erle Stanley Gardner. It is first in a series of six Perry Mason films Warner Bros. made between the years 1934 and 1937.
The Case of the Curious Bride is a 1935 American mystery film, the second in a series of four starring Warren William as Perry Mason, following The Case of the Howling Dog. The script was based on the 1934 novel of the same name by Erle Stanley Gardner, published by William Morrow and Company, which proved to be one of the most popular of all the Perry Mason novels.
The Court of Last Resort is an American television dramatized court show which aired October 4, 1957 – April 11, 1958, on NBC. It was co-produced by Erle Stanley Gardner's Paisano Productions, which also brought forth the long-running hit CBS-TV law series, Perry Mason.
The Case of the Black Cat is a 1936 American mystery film directed by William C. McGann and an uncredited Alan Crosland, based on the 1935 Perry Mason novel The Case of the Caretaker's Cat by Erle Stanley Gardner. The film stars Ricardo Cortez as Perry Mason and co-stars June Travis and Jane Bryan in her film debut. The film is the fifth Perry Mason adaptation distributed by Warner Bros. Pictures in the 1930s and the first in the series not to feature Warren William as Mason.
The Case of the Stuttering Bishop is a 1937 American mystery film directed by William Clemens and starring Donald Woods as Perry Mason and Ann Dvorak as Della Street, his secretary. Edward McWade plays the role of stuttering Bishop William Mallory. It is the sixth and final film in the Warner Bros. Perry Mason series. It is based on the novel The Case of the Stuttering Bishop (1936) by Erle Stanley Gardner.
They Call It Murder is a 1971 American television film directed by Walter Grauman and starring Jim Hutton.
Special Investigator is a 1936 RKO Radio Pictures American crime-drama film, starring Richard Dix and featuring Margaret Callahan, Erik Rhodes and Owen Davis, Jr. It was directed by Louis King from a screenplay by Louis Stevens, Thomas Lennon and Ferdinand Reyher, based on "Fugitive Gold", a story by Erle Stanley Gardner originally serialized in the New York Herald Tribune's This Week magazine from May 26–July 7, 1935.
This is a bibliography of works by and about the American writer Erle Stanley Gardner.
"The Case of the Restless Redhead" is the premiere episode of the CBS television series Perry Mason. Adapted from the 1954 novel of the same title by Erle Stanley Gardner, this episode marked the beginning of Raymond Burr's long-running portrayal of the famous fictional lawyer.