What I’ve Learned from Watching Perry Mason during the Pandemic
by Judie Holcomb-Pack,
Winston-Salem, NC

I’ve spent numerous hours being entertained by episodes of Perry Mason on MeTV since the pandemic began. I have learned much about the people who lived in California in the late ‘50s to mid-‘60s, when these episodes were filmed. Such as:

·         Everyone in California drives a convertible.
·         Everybody smokes.
·         Men wear suits and ties, women wear dresses and heels, wherever they go – work, home, the park, bars, restaurants, traveling by plane, bus, or train, committing murder, stealing corporate secrets, blackmailing former lovers – they are always attractively attired.
·         Despite an average temperature in California of between 70 and 80 degrees, all the women wear mink coats.
·         There were apparently no Black people living in L.A. at that time.
·         Everyone owns a handgun and they keep it either in the glove compartment of their car, which as noted above is a convertible, with the top down or unlocked, or in the top right-hand drawer of their desk.
·         People there keep late hours; it was not unusual for meetings to be held at 8, 9 or 10:00 at night. Ditto for dinner; no one seems to eat before dark.
·         Della, Perry’s “personal secretary,” apparently worked 24-hours a day. She was often seen taking dictation late into the night, after which Perry, and sometimes private investigator Paul Drake, would then take her to dinner. However, some episodes showed Della sleeping on the couch in Perry’s office after a really long day.
·         On occasion, Della would cook dinner at Perry’s apartment, and Paul would join them. Pretty cozy relationship for a “personal secretary.”
·         Crimes are another topic of interest. Any time someone is murdered, the front door to their home is always unlocked and often left ajar. And people just walk in and “stumble” on a dead body.
·         When people enter a dark room to investigate a mystery or do a dirty deed, they never turn on the lights, they just ramble around until they stumble on the dead body.
·         When an innocent person stumbles on the dead body, the first thing they do is pick up the gun or knife lying next to the body and examine it, of course leaving their fingerprints on the murder weapon.
·         And who’s the first phone call the innocent person makes? To the police? Nope. To a doctor? Nope. They call Perry Mason.
·         And the whole Della thing is curious. She is always with him. Even when he goes on vacation, he finds a reason to call her to join him. It he’s sick, she’s at his place, feeding him soup and giving him his meds. And if he attends a formal party or event, who is his date? Why Della, of course.
·         No matter where Perry is, Della can reach him by phone – whether it’s a business, the victim’s home, a restaurant, the club, the lodge where he’s vacationing, even the police department – the phone rings and it’s always, “Mr. Mason, it’s for you.” Evidently this is her superpower.

Yes, I’ve learned a lot about crime and courtrooms by watching Perry Mason. Now I’m watching Leave It To Beaver. Maybe I can figure out June Cleaver’s secret to cleaning the house and making pot roast while wearing a dress and heels.

Apparently, there’s a whole alternate universe on MeTV and it took a pandemic for me to discover it.

Copyright 2020, Judie Holcomb-Pack