Erie Stanley Gardner was a successful California
criminal lawyer long before he
tried his hand at writing
fiction.
Encouraged by the response to his first Perry Mason novel,
The Case of the Velvet
Claws
(1933), Gardner decided to write fulltime. His
works sold over 135 million copies during his lifetime. Gardner also
wrote for the Perry Mason radio series and
helped create the award-winning television series starring Raymond
Burr. Fred MacMurray and Efrem Zimbalist, Jr.,
by the
way, were first considered for the lead. Burr
tested for the role of
Mason's nemesis, the
prosecutor Hamilton Burger. Gardner
himself appeared as a judge in one episode, "The Case of the Final
Fadeout."
For recreation, Gardner loved to go
houseboating
in the Sacramento-San Joaquin Delta. He enjoyed spending several
weeks each year lazily drifting through the
sloughs and backwaters of California's
heartland. He often traveled with a couple of secretaries and, in
order to avoid what he called "the problems of privacy that go with
mixed company," he had separate houseboats for men and women. On the
men's boat, he said,
"we
live just as we darn please." Gardner mastered
the art of leisure, listening to owls hooting at night, sleeping
late, and lounging on deck in his pajamas. Over the years, he became
a familiar figure in the little Delta towns where he would stop and
buy groceries or have a meal. One of his favorite
hangouts was the
Big Horn Restaurant in Rio Vista.
Occasionally Gardner traveled with friends and
associates who helped him with his writings. He especially enjoyed
the company of the warden from the Nevada State Prison in Carson
City. Gardner was indebted to the warden for rescuing him one
afternoon after he had spoken at a luncheon in Reno. A group of
amateur writers descended upon Gardner, pleading with him to spend
the afternoon helping them with their writing. The warden
hastily
intervened and took Gardner out to the prison for a visit. When they
arrived, Gardner was smitten by an attractive female inmate, one
Emma Jo Johnson, outfited in a specially tailored prison uniform.
"Prison uniforms are not particularly stylish," Gardner noted, "but
the fit across the hips on this one was something
out of this
world." He agreed to take the case of this
comely convict and
eventually got her pardoned. Not even Perry Mason ever came across an
m.o. (that's modus operandi)
as unusual as hers. Emma Jo had been convicted
of murder...by can-opener!
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Dictionary |
fiction |
regény |
claw |
karom |
the lead |
főszereplő |
nemesis |
bosszúálló |
prosecutor |
ügyész |
Fadeout |
kiégés |
houseboat |
lakóhajó |
slough |
mocsár |
backwater |
holt ág |
heartland. |
hátország |
darn (damn) |
a fenébe |
lounging |
lustálkodni |
hangouts |
törzshely |
warden |
fegyőr |
hastily |
sürgősen |
smitten |
rá csapott |
outfited |
felszerelve |
pardoned |
amnesztiát kapott |
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Expressions |
criminal lawyer |
bűnügyekkel foglalkozó jogász |
tried his hand |
kipróbálni |
award-winning |
díjnyertes |
by the
way |
mellesleg |
tested for the role |
szerepet kipróbálni |
lazily drifting |
lustán
sodródni |
familiar figure |
jól ismert
fickó |
was indebted to |
hálával
tartozni |
out of this
world. |
túlvilági |
comely convict |
csinos bűnöző |
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