In Memoriam, William Talman and Wesley Lau

I’ve been racking my brain for something unique and different I could say today. The idea I had hoped to use hasn’t worked out, so I’ve had to think of something else. And I decided perhaps it’s time to share the memorabilia I’ve crafted for myself featuring the characters created by William Talman and Wesley Lau, the two beloved Perry actors who departed this life on this day in 1968 and 1984, respectively.

I should add immediately: I am making no profit from any of these! It’s pure love for the series, and for anything existing in the physical sense, there is only one of each, just for me. I have not, nor will I ever, sell any of the designs here.

I’ve bemoaned the fact that there are no Perry character shirts. Well, I decided that I wanted some just for me. I crafted several designs, one of which has been turned into a real shirt.

The first one I came up with is humorous, with the famous “Objection!” caption from the Phoenix Wright games atop Hamilton’s head as he exclaims indignantly in court.

The second is a bit humorous too, but was also meant to show my great love for our district attorney. I used a shot of his beautiful smile from the end of The Lover’s Leap. This is the design I have on my shirt.

For Andy, I came up with a bit more of an overtly fangirlish design, utilizing one of my favorite shots of him from The Renegade Refugee. I'm hoping to make this into a real shirt this year.

I also created a keychain, with a plug for the blog on the front and a picture of Raymond Burr and William Talman on the back. I often wear this around on a lanyard when I’m not wearing my Hamilton shirt.

My biggest project was undoubtedly when I decided to make a Hamilton plushie. I first tried to utilize the services of someone who has made plushies for me in the past, but upon having a much more difficult time contacting her, I determined to make it myself. For someone who can sew, but doesn’t like it much, I knew it would be a huge challenge.

I thought for a while that I would have to make the entire plushie from scratch, but then we were at JoAnn’s and Mom noticed a pre-made plushie without clothes or features or hair (or ears). I immediately decided this was the best possible solution. The face shape wouldn’t be quite right for Hamilton, but that was alright. I would do everything I could otherwise to make it a loving tribute to my favorite Perry character.

I based the clothes off of what Hamilton wears in The Twice-Told Twist, during the lunch scene with Perry. I love the blue suit and felt it would make a very nice color combination. I managed to get fabric in just about the right shades of blue for both the suit and the tie, and white for the shirt.

I felt it would be easier for me to sew everything by hand instead of with a machine, when it would be so small. And that is exactly what I did. The pants got a little lop-sided, as did the shirt collar, but overall I think I did pretty well, especially when I used to be extremely sloppy at sewing anything. I was very meticulous here.

The ears were definitely one of the strangest challenges. I have no idea why the plushie was sold without them, so I had to make them. The first attempt was too small and I had to try again. The next attempt went a lot more smoothly, and I was able to get the ears attached without too much trouble.

Then there was the hair. I did not want to try to attach loose hair onto a backing; I wanted something already on a backing. I was just lucky that I found some mohair for sale on eBay. It’s perhaps a bit darker than it should be, but Hamilton’s hair looks darker in the earlier seasons, so I went with it anyway. I sewed it on in pieces and was quite proud of how it came out.

I still haven’t made socks or shoes, both because I really don’t like sewing and was ready to scream by that point and also because I’m a little worried that the black material of the socks might start rubbing off on the plush after a while. That’s what happened with the gloves on another plush of mine (that I didn’t make). But aside from those things, he’s done and has been for over a year.

I have a whole bunch of pictures on a roll of film, but I’m wondering if they’ll even turn out. When I tried to have a few recent pictures taken, I found that they were all extremely light. I have never had that happen with a camera before. It’s like when a printer is running out of ink and prints everything way too light. I tried very hard to darken a couple of them, but the details are still really hard to see. The pictures can be clicked on to see their original size, but I'm afraid that still won't make some details show up well. Oh, I hope that other roll of film is better.

I wanted his expression to be calm, Hamilton on a good day. I based it on a lovely picture of William Talman from before Perry, and practiced a simplified version of it many times over, on paper, before I drew it on the plush with Sharpies.

I have also wanted to make a plush of Andy. My biggest problem is wondering how to do the hair. From asking all around, it seems that for him I would have to work with loose pieces of hair, and I’m not sure I’m brave enough for that adventure. But I’m still looking for a more feasible solution, even a doll wig in the right size and approximate style, because I would really like to have one of him, too!

My love for the characters these wonderful men brought to life has certainly resulted in my trying out new methods of showing that love and being creative. I would never spend time engaging in such projects as plushie creation if the characters involved hadn’t deeply touched me.

And of course, I’ve also explored a medium with which I’m very familiar, that of fanfiction stories. I think with every new series I write about, I learn a little more about writing, and writing for the Perry crew has taught me a great deal. I spent and still spend many happy hours watching the character go on their adventures, and it makes me happier still to craft new ones for them to have. I only wish that the actors themselves could have participated in acting out my little adventures. That would have been a dream come true! I like to think that they are aware of and enjoy the stories, at least, even though some of them are very unusual.

I have even occasionally dipped into making fanart with Perry characters, even though I have mountains of trouble drawing anything resembling real people. Hamilton and Andy have both been drawn by me, although the one of Andy didn't turn out very well. I am happy that I managed to do a fairly good one of Amory Fallon, however. And I certainly haven't given up on hoping to get Andy right.

On August 30^th, and on every day, really, I strongly think about and miss our wonderful William Talman and Wesley Lau. Though they were both gone before I was even born, I wish I could have met them. From all that I have been able to find out, they were both people I would have enjoyed knowing—very devoted to family and friends, friendly, good-humored, and fun to be around.

I have tried to take lessons from them, especially in being close to family. I want to thank them both for how they and their characters have touched me and for things I have learned along the way. I may not like sewing, but knowing how to do it better might help me someday! And writing, as always, is my deep passion. I love to express myself, especially when I am inventing new stories for characters I love or otherwise writing about them.

William and Wesley: I know you're both shining wherever you are and whatever you're doing. Stars such as you will never go out.

Contemporary season 9

I saw an Andy Griffith Show calendar in Wal-Mart last night. It made me think: there are calendars for almost everything. Was there ever a Perry calendar? If not, there should be one! The television series is 55 years old and still going strong. I’m sure a calendar would be highly popular.

As much as I love some things in season 8, there are other things I don’t love so much. Season 8 definitely starts to show the strains of a mixed bag, with Andy’s sometimes-changing, stressed personality, wonderful Perry and Hamilton friendship scenes, some awesome episodes, and some that are an honest puzzle. Something somewhere in season 8 seems to feel worn-out, as though the writers aren’t always quite sure what to do and feel that they’ve stretched things as far as they can go.

If the feeling is real and not just my imagination, some of it may have been brought on by Raymond Burr’s restlessness with the role and his desire to do something different. And maybe the writers and crew members really were wracking their brains for new twists for the series.

I started realizing—no matter how many season 1 influences season 9 has, it also has many unique elements. Somehow it feels more contemporary, more fresh, as though the show is getting a new lease on life.

Bringing in the previously spoken-of Clay’s Restaurant was an excellent move, I think. It enables Perry and company to have somewhere to discuss the cases where they will be around other people, instead of just being isolated in Perry’s office. The office is a beloved location, and still is in season 9, but altering the main meeting place allowed for the exploration of new possibilities. In the restaurant, they run across Hamilton, Steve, and Clay very frequently, who all provide their own takes on the cases.

Steve also feels very contemporary and forward-thinking. As previously expounded on, he is given a great deal of development just in his few episodes. Tragg and Andy were never given the level of thought and consideration that was put into Steve's characterization. If they had been, it would have been incredible. Tragg and Andy remained fairly predictable throughout the series, with both only given occasional moments to show other facets of their personalities. But, perhaps because of Wesley's displeasure or perhaps because of the changing times around them, the writers at last did something different with Steve and allowed him to be both the most no-nonsense and the most three-dimensional of the main police characters. While Tragg's falsely friendly facade and his investigative slip-ups were intended to be, and were, laughed at, Andy was much less that way, and Steve, far less so. Aside from having to arrest the wrong person to keep the formula going, Steve rarely ever made ridiculously cringe-worthy or amusing slip-ups. Perry simply could not make a fool out of Steve as he did Tragg and even occasionally Andy. It's hard to feature laughing at Steve at all. And that's the way I prefer my police characters. I don't like making fun of the police.

In personality Steve is partially a cross between Tragg and Andy, but largely his own person. I half-wonder if at least some of his inspiration is the fact that Tragg was closer to being Perry's contemporary in the books (although Steve seems younger than Perry, rather than near the same age).

As I’ve mentioned, adaptations of Perry always kept up with the times. And within the television series, each season went with the flow, changing just enough to stay up-to-date while not changing the format much, if at all. Hence, each series of episodes feels like Perry, unlike with some shows, where they change so much over time that they’re barely recognizable.

Season 1 mostly feels very much like the noir series so popular in the late fifties. Seasons 4 and 5 embrace the arriving Space Age of the early sixties. Season 9 still has that special Perry feeling but also sometimes brings with it a feel similar to other dramas of the era, including an acknowledgment of the younger generation’s plight and the rising problem of teenage delinquency. Had there been a season 10, it would have been in color, we’re told, and it likely would have felt as contemporary as The Twice-Told Twist does.

I still wonder what a season 10 would have been like. I imagine it would have been fun, particularly in color. On the one hand, it almost feels like Perry needs to be in black-and-white, to preserve the mysterious atmosphere. On the other hand, both The Twice-Told Twist and The New Perry Mason present the series in color very well. It does not detract, but simply offers another angle, another way to look at it. And it’s very nice to see the characters and locations in color at long last.

(I just like to think that if there had been a season 10, they would have redone the colors of the courthouse. I can never picture things being so green and gray and blue. It’s interesting, but doesn’t feel much like a proper courthouse. I still envision the wood as being wood-colored, no matter what The Twice-Told Twist presents.) 

If it hadn’t been for Raymond Burr wanting to move on, and CBS wanting to end the series, I think it would have moved quite nicely into a season 10. Whatever new things it would have brought to the table, a tenth season would have still remained, firmly and faithfully above all else, Perry.

Perry-related Memorabilia

As a collector, I am absolutely thrilled and delighted by memorabilia for my favorite things. Naturally, this started me wondering what kinds of merchandise had been released for Perry Mason. Eliminating all talk of the original books, I will focus solely on what I’m aware was released for the television series. Also, I won’t really make too much mention of the videos and DVDs; surely we all know about those. And they’re not exactly what I would consider memorabilia; videos and DVDs, as far as I’m concerned, are a must. It’s mainly the fun but unnecessary little (or big) collectibles that I see as memorabilia.

Unfortunately, it’s very difficult to learn much of anything about the collectibles that do exist. Some of them are extremely rare. And even with those more common, people don’t seem to provide a great deal of helpful information about them.

There were two items called Mystery Magazines released by comic company Dell during 1964. I really don’t understand why they were called such; they were just regular-length comic books. “Mystery Magazine” implies something much bigger and more exclusive, at least to my way of thinking.

I can’t learn anything about issue #1, other than what’s written on the cover picture: “A gun! A glass eye! Perry Mason must solve the case with only two clues…” It sounds like either an original story or possibly an adaption of a book that was never an episode. (Anyone know of a storyline involving a glass eye?)

Issue #2, according to my scant findings, was an adaption of episode #5 The Sulky Girl. There are scans available on this website: http://comics.ha.com/c/item.zx?saleNo=7063&lotIdNo=127010 for at least a few of the pages, but you have to join in order to see them properly. The artwork looks fairly good, from what I can see, but I don’t want to judge the storyline until I can examine the entire adaption (if that ever happens).

The comics seem to be among the most expensive of the memorabilia. When I see issues listed, they can go as high as several hundred dollars.

This article here: http://vintages-antiques-collectibles.knoji.com/perry-mason-tv-show-memorabilia-values/ mentions a drinking glass with the show’s logo and a picture of Lady Justice. That sounds interesting, but I confess I’ve never been very interested in merchandise with only a logo on it. I want characters’ pictures!

And then there are the games. It seems Perry Mason was a fairly popular thing to adapt into games.

Around 1959 we had something called The Case of the Missing Suspect. Instead of me trying to explain all the rules, here’s the extent of the information I’ve found on it (which isn’t much): http://boardgamegeek.com/boardgame/5633/perry-mason-game-case-of-the-missing-suspect It sounds quite fun. Eight different cases to solve, clues, questioning witnesses, trying to find the missing suspects. . . . It reminds me a little bit of Clue.

Then in the eighties, there were two more games: the afore-mentioned computer game and another board game. I’m assuming the reunion movies are what sparked the interest enough to do this. To my relief, the games take place in the television series universe instead of the movie universe, and hence, seem to feature all of the original characters in some form or another.

The board game was just called The Perry Mason Game. http://boardgamegeek.com/boardgame/3688/the-perry-mason-game Hamilton made it onto the cover and the board itself, which geekily pleases me! It sounds like in this game, you actually act out being in court, which is awesome. And someone tells me that there are two mysteries for the game: The Stuttering Bishop (book version?) and The Tandem Target. (I also wonder if Andy is around, even if unnamed, since he was very prominent in The Tandem Target episode.) It actually is referred to as being like Clue.

(… And excuse me, I have to interrupt this entry to cheer. My area finally has a MeTV affiliate! It just started this week. YES! A station that won’t skip seasons seven and eight of Perry! And so many other oldies shows are now open to me! I’m so excited right now! Now I have all three of the broadcast oldies channels: Me, Antenna, and THIS!)

Ahem. Okay, sorry. Now, if I can concentrate long enough to go on with what I was saying. . . . (Which is starting to look unlikely. . . .)

The computer game, being made in 1985, was for DOS. Hence, it was mostly text. They did occasionally insert illustrations, from the sixteen minutes I saw of someone’s walkthrough (which only got them to the beginning of the court case). Della looked the most like herself in her illustration. I think they were trying to portray William Talman’s and Ray Collin’s versions of Hamilton and Tragg in the illustrations, too, although I wasn’t quite sure. And Tragg’s description, as previously mentioned, did not sound like Ray’s Tragg. There was also a Sergeant, but it wasn’t Brice. (Poor, neglected Brice.) It was someone I’d never heard of. Why didn’t they just use Brice?

And as for the gameplay, well, apparently you type commands and then receive descriptions based on those commands. For instance, if you want to read a suspect’s dossier, you type something like “Read ____’s File.” If you’re searching a room, you type the locations where you look. It’s very interesting. If you type something that doesn’t make sense, you’ll be told to try again, “Counselor”. Being mostly text-based, it’s really like a Choose Your Own Adventure book, leaving much to the imagination.

It’s fascinating and intriguing, to see how they handled things back then, but I can’t help wishing they would get the bright idea to make a Perry computer game now. Wouldn’t that be awesome? There’s so many innovations in 3D technology, they could really come up with models that look like the characters from the series! (If they could get permission to use the likenesses, of course.) I would so buy a game like that!

Heck, I’d buy the original game, if we had a working computer with the disk drive to fit the size of disk it came on. (And if I could buy it for a decent price.) Come to think of it, I think at least one of those computers does still work.

There have been non-fiction books written about Perry. I suppose the most well-known is The Perry Mason TV Show Book. Despite its inaccuracies, and me having some serious disagreements over some of the authors’ personal opinions on characters, I love the book and am often going back to re-read parts of it. I’m not sure why they decided to put it online, but I was thrilled the first time I found it there years ago. http://www.perrymasontvshowbook.com/

Some time ago, I noticed this little thing on Amazon.com: http://www.amazon.com/Perry-Mason-Milestones-Thomas-Leitch/dp/0814331211/ref=wl_it_dp_o_piT1_S_nC?ie=UTF8&colid=2ELK10PKQ7BY2&coliid=I29J1HLKFX9P3B But I’ve searched high and low and I can’t find any real information on it. Does anyone know what it is and how good it is?

Then there were, of course, articles and books written on some of the actors involved with the series. A couple of books were done about Raymond Burr, but I question the level of their accuracy and I won’t get into that here. There are a few old magazines with articles listed on that list of ten bits of memorabilia. I imagine there are others. I’ve got a few old TV Guides with full and half page ads for some of the reunion movies. And even though I don’t consider them canon, I find that neat.

There are quite a few 1950s and 1960s articles written about Perry and the cast members that can be found in old newspaper archives, as demonstrated to me by someone from the Perry Yahoo Group. He very graciously typed up many of them for the members to read. The originals were taken from online newspaper scans here: http://www.fultonhistory.com/Fulton.html (And hopefully there are other articles of interest to be found there as well.) I highly encourage perusal!

Now, where the video and DVD releases are concerned, of course Columbia House released theirs before CBS did any of their boxsets. Columbia, unfortunately, did not get around to releasing all of them, and they never released in any specific order. At least, not to my knowledge, even though they do have themed tapes for some series. But Columbia’s releases are important for one little thing: there are a few episodes of seasons 7, 8, and 9 available from them that are not currently available anywhere else (unless you have Me or another channel that shows those seasons in full!). This well-known and well-loved website lists which ones were released: http://www.storrer.com/masongardner/pmesg.htm

CBS has currently released up to all of season 6. I am highly anticipating the first half of season 7 this month!

There are other kinds of memorabilia. There are press photographs, both signed and unsigned, available on eBay and other locations. I like checking eBay every now and then to see what’s available. There’s quite an impressive selection!

There are scripts and props and things like Emmy Award statuettes. I would love some scripts of the episodes I particularly adore. So far I haven’t located any of those, but this website does have copies of three out-of-town season 8 episodes, if you just want the script contents and don’t care about having an original: http://www.crossovers.net/makeitgoaway/ I’ve communicated with the people before and got hold of a copy of a Monkees script. I have been very impressed with their services!

You can find a purchasable and downloadable MP3 of the theme song, Park Avenue Beat, at Amazon.com and probably on iTunes as well. It’s a full-length version, very interesting.

CBS has a site where they sell T-shirts of many CBS series: http://www.shoptvcity.com Unfortunately, there aren’t any of Perry! They mostly just have logo stuff too, but some series do feature character shirts! I’ve emailed asking about the possibility of Perry shirts in the future. If all of the interested fans could show them that there’s a definite market for Perry shirts, perhaps they would make some.

If anyone is aware of any other Perry memorabilia, let me know! Meanwhile, I’m dancing off to Livejournal to squeal over having MeTV at long last.

In Memoriam: Ray Collins

The reason for the post being a day early this week is that it was on July 11^th, 1965, when Ray Collins passed away.

While pondering on exactly what sort of content this post should have, I’ve been re-reading some biographical information. Wow, he was one amazing man! By all accounts, he kept very busy from the time he first started acting on the stage, at age 14. And later on he had quite a career in radio, too, performing in various adaptions of literary classics and other things.

There are many movies he was in that I have yet to see. And some I saw so many years ago that I remember very little of them now and have need to see them again.

I’ve been thinking on Lieutenant Tragg of late, too. Upon re-watching The Loquacious Liar I discovered that I have been mis-stating the number of years Tragg says he’s been on the police force. I have no idea how I remembered thirty years as almost twenty-five. Nor do I have any idea exactly how I am going to repair all such references in stories. I’ll be very subtly trying to change it here and there in past stories, since no one else seems to have noticed or commented on the mistake.

Tragg’s life before he was on the force is a closed book. I think the mention of him being around for thirty years might be the most background information we ever have on him. That, and his sad admission that after all this time, informing someone of a loved one’s death has never gotten easier. While Tragg has a lot of great screentime in The Clumsy Clown, I love that little scene in The Loquacious Liar most. It’s certainly one of his best and most compassionate scenes, along with scenes in The Fugitive Nurse from season 1 and The Hateful Hero from season 6.

I might go so far as to say that those four episodes, and also The Moth-Eaten Mink, may just be the five best Tragg episodes across the entire series. But then again, there’s so many wonderful episodes with Tragg in seven seasons that it’s difficult to narrow it down! Tragg is prominent in The Moth-Eaten Mink, The Fugitive Nurse, and The Clumsy Clown, but The Hateful Hero is really Andy’s episode, and I don’t recall if The Loquacious Liar featured Tragg more than usual. So perhaps those latter two would instead count among a list of the best Tragg scenes, rather than Tragg episodes overall.

Come to think of it, Tragg never really got a spotlight episode, per se. I should give him a spotlight story. I try to rotate among the cast, and the Andy/Amory Fallon mystery is still planned to be next. Tragg will certainly play a large part in that, being as close to Andy as he is, but I should also have one where Tragg is the central character.

I became advised of the existence of a Perry computer game made in 1985 (possibly to promote the first reunion film, I wonder?), and yesterday I looked it up. Perry Mason: The Case of the Mandarin Murder is a fascinating early effort at a mystery and detective game along the lines of the popular Nancy Drew and Sherlock Holmes games today. It deserves an in-depth post all its own, so for now I will just focus on what’s seen of Tragg in what I saw of someone’s walkthrough of the first sixteen minutes of the game. (That’s viewable on YouTube, for anyone interested in having a look!) I will also mention that the time period was clearly moved to the present-day of that time (the 1980s, but what I saw could also double as our present-day), and without harming characters or plot, much to my delight!

The game seems to be a curious mixture of the books and the television series. Having seen very little of the game (I wonder if that person will upload his walkthrough of the rest of it), I base that opinion mostly on the description of Lieutenant Tragg. The only thing that really sounded like Ray Collins’ Tragg was the inclusion of his whimsical smile. Otherwise, it sounded like a Tragg I don’t really know. He was mentioned as being as tall as Perry, with a suit five years out of style and yellowed teeth from years of cigar smoking.

Tragg smoking cigars? That’s an image I’m having a hard time calling to mind—so much so that it’s amusing me more than anything else. It sounds so very out-of-character for Ray’s Tragg. I can’t recall him ever lighting a cigar.

(None of the characters smoke at all in my stories, by the way. Despite the present-day setting I give them, I tried to move everything of the time period over from the series, right down to the fedoras. But smoking cigarettes is about the one thing I refused to bring over. Yes, trying to picture Tragg with a cigar amuses me because it sounds so ridiculously out-of-character, but the general act of anyone smoking cigars or cigarettes doesn’t amuse me one bit.)

And a suit five years out of style? Well, I suppose as a modern viewer I wouldn’t be a good judge, but I always thought Tragg was a snappy and up-to-date dresser. I just can’t see him wearing something so long out of style. Although on the other hand, Tragg is stubborn and wants his own way, and if he had a suit that he thought was especially neat, I can picture him insisting on continuing to wear it whether it went out of style or not.

As for being as tall as Perry, well, I’m pretty sure that does come from the books. In addition to being around Perry’s age (a notation not mentioned in the game).

As Hamilton begins questioning Tragg, he asks how long Tragg has been on the police force. Tragg says it’s been twenty years, and also mentions that he has been the Chief of the Homicide division for some time.

(Can a lieutenant be the chief of a division? I’m curious. I thought the captains were the ones over the divisions. Upon looking up the query here: http://www.lapdonline.org/join_the_team/content_basic_view/9127, it seems the game’s answer was likely incorrect, or at least, very simplified at best.)

Concerning the twenty years bit, I suppose one could decide that the game’s events simply take place long before the events of the TV series, since in the first episode all of the Core Five (Perry, Della, Paul, Hamilton, and Tragg) already know each other quite well. But considering how the game’s Tragg just doesn’t quite gel with Ray’s, I’d be more inclined to say that the game created a separate “universe” to play in, not fully part of either the book or the television universes.

The game Tragg actually sounded fairly similar to Ray’s Tragg when he spoke at an earlier point in the game. It was mainly the descriptions that threw me off.

Despite liking Dane Clark’s Tragg, of course it’s Ray’s interpretation that instantly comes to mind when I think of the character. Ray Collins was iconic in that role.

So much so that on his headstone, it even bills him as Lt. Tragg under his name.

I know you’re shining wherever you are right now, Ray. And down here, we still love and miss you. You will always be our Lieutenant Tragg.