Starting in the early 1920s, Erle Stanley Gardner wrote mystery story after mystery story from both his home and office in downtown Ventura, making him one of America's most prolific writers of the 20th century. They were stories with titles such as "The Shrieking Skeleton," "The Case of the Velvet Claws," "This is Murder" and "Bats Fly At Dusk."

Some Gardner characters were just as memorable as the titles to his works, including "Speed Dash the Human Fly." But his most famous character was a hardboiled lawyer/detective who never lost a case in court and who always got to the bottom of a mystery.

Before "Matlock," "The Practice," or "Law & Order," Gardner gave the world its quintessential lawyer: Perry Mason.

In many ways, Perry Mason was everything Gardner was not, said Ventura historian and author Richard Senate.

"While Gardner was a hard-working trial lawyer who always championed lost causes and the underdog, Mason was even more so," Senate said. And whereas Mason was tall and dashing and an ace in the courtroom, Gardner was a short and portly attorney who won only about half his cases, said Senate, who wrote the book "Erle Stanley Gardner's Ventura -- Birthplace of Perry Mason."

Gardner finished the first Mason book on March 1, 1933, in his law office inside what would later be known as the Gardner Building, at 21 S. California St. in downtown Ventura. Gardner would go on to write 84 more Mason mysteries. Many of them were conceived and transcribed in the Gardner Building.

Because Ventura served as the backdrop for so much that Gardner produced, Senate and a number of other local Gardner fans established the Erle Stanley Gardner Society earlier this year.

"We should honor him if for no other reason that he is the only resident known around the world from Ventura," Senate said. "All of Ventura would become fodder for his stories and characters."

Gardner turned to writing to supplement his meager law income. In those pre-TV days, people hungered for pulp fiction and wild characters.

And Gardner could provide plenty of them.

"He invented some really bizarre characters: men who could see in the dark, or who fought crime with the use of a pool cue," Senate said. "He was a writing machine, a fiction factory."

Gardner would practice law by day and then write at night, often writing two or more stories in a sitting. "His goal was to produce 100,000 words a month," Senate said.

Gardner would often sit down at a desk with a couple of pieces of paper in front of him: One would contain a plot outline and another would have a list of characters for the story. With his trademark booming voice, Gardner would then dictate the story or book into a Dictaphone during marathon sessions. His secretaries would later type them up.

Gardner's office was just a short walk from Ventura City Hall, which then served as the county courthouse. It was there that Gardner defended many of the downtrodden, poor Chinese or Mexican laborers.

Here, too, Gardner used many of his courtroom experiences as material for his Perry Mason novels, Senate said.

Gardner also learned to speak Mandarin Chinese. He was involved with legal reform work and archaeology. He was also a lover of the outdoors.

"He was truly a renaissance man," said Senate, adding a person such as Gardner comes along but rarely.

Gardner left Ventura in 1934 when he bought a ranch near Temecula. But his name and his stories would forever be associated with Ventura, Senate said.

"We need to do everything possible to keep his memory alive," Senate said.

The Erle Stanley Gardner Society's last meeting was June 20 at the Book Mall at Oak and Santa Clara streets in downtown Ventura.

The group will discuss a number of projects, including placing some of Gardner's personal memorabilia on permanent display at the Pierpont Inn.

"Whenever he won a case, he would go to the Pierpont and order a steak, a baked potato and a green salad," Senate said.

The inn also is important because it was there that Gardner met his second wife -- Jean Walters -- working at the desk. Walters later worked as Gardner's secretary and is reputed to have served as the character for Mason's ever-faithful secretary, Della Street.

John Scheibe's e-mail address is jscheibe@insidevc.com.

http://www.insidevc.com/vcs/county_news/article/0,1375,VCS_226_745133,00.html

Published: July 8, 2001

Copyright 2001, Ventura County Star. All Rights Reserved.

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