Perry Mason in Ventura

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Did you know Perry Mason creator Erle Stanley Gardner used to practice law in Ventura? Gardner had an office in a stately downtown buildiing and walked a couple of blocks to the courthouse to try cases, while writing a few of the earliest tales of the defense lawyer in his office. On my visit to Ventura, I photographed a plaque on that office building, which has been renamed in honor of Gardner.

Perry Mason used to be hugely popular in Gardner’s series of 80 (!) novels as well as in movies, radio and the Raymond Burr TV drama. Like a lot of mid-century mystery novelists, Gardner, who died in Temecula in 1970, seems to have faded from public consciousness. I tried reading one of his Masons during my mystery-reading phase of childhood but didn’t get far, which was probably my fault, not his.

You can read more about him here.

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