The Case of the Crying Cherub

Dismissed. Perry got a confession from the "real killer" on the witness stand. Interesting show. Art gallery. Bizarre mother. Nothing particularly quotable. There was a neat moment right at the end where Perry showed Della and Paul a portrait that the boyfriend of the defendant had done of him. The artist was an abstractionist but Perry said he could see the resemblance. Della shifted the orientation of the painting to landscape (horizontal). Perry moved it back to portrait (vertical). Wordless vignette and very charming.

There was a scene with Perry working alone in his office late at night. It struck me as remarkable because he wasn't wearing a tie and his shirt sleeves were rolled up (or folded up). I almost took a photo but wasn't quick enough. Same with the portrait at the end of the show. If I'd known what was coming, I'd have had my camera ready. This is the problem with watching a show as it is broadcast. No control except for the mute.

Hamilton Burger wasn't in the previous episode, but Perry was on the road for that murder. But I certainly noticed his absence in "Crying Cherub." A deputy prosecutor who was an art aficionado lost this case for The People. If I'd checked the Perry Mason TV Series Wiki ahead of time, I'd have known the reason why. But I did my own research and learned that William Talman had been arrested in mid-March 1960 on marijuana/morals charges after police raided a party where he was a guest. The prosecutor didn't pursue the marijuana charges because the revelers were all naked.

Here is a quote worthy of a Perry Mason script.
“How could a person have marijuana in his possession when he didn’t have a strip of clothes on his body,” demanded Deputy District Attorney John W. Loucks, when asked by the Sheriff’s Department to press charges. (Lodi News-Sentinel, March 14, 1960)

Talman was fired by CBS for violation of the morals clause in his contract but he was reinstated after about eight episodes. Raymond Burr and Gail Patrick Jackson went to bat for him and the judge also dismissed the case. If I had looked at that PM TV wiki before the episode began, I'd have been alerted to watch for the changes in the opening credits. Burger and Tragg are no longer shown. OTOH, if I had looked at that page, I'd have also been told who the murderer was.

This clip is courtesy of MS Windows 7's Snipping Tool and The Blade (Toledo, Ohio) of July 3, 1960.


It led me to find this from The Blade (Toledo, Ohio), June 18, 1960:

What was it about William Talman anyway? We watched Perry Mason when it was first run and I remember that public service announcement that he filmed when he was dying of lung cancer. His Burger doesn't give off the same vibe as Lt. Gerard from The Fugitive. I always dread the shows that have Gerard on the scene because he is so relentless and I just know Dr. Kimble is going to get it tonight. And, yes, I watched The Fugitive back in the day, too, and I know how it pans out. But still, Gerard is one hateful character. Burger was not hateful. Burr and Talman portray the attorneys as friendly to one another outside of the courtroom.

A writer for TV Guide did an interview with Talman in 1963. In it he says the actor "has been a loser so many times that, compared with him, Hamilton Burger (the character Talman plays on Perry Mason, who always loses to the legal sleuth) looks like a winner." You can read the entire interview here if you want (a real shame about that black background). The most interesting thing to me was the section on his personal finances.
Then, in January 1961, a Los Angeles judge ruled that Talman had to continue paying his first wife, whom he married in 1942, 24 percent of his income. To that date he had paid her nearly $250,000. At the time he was also paying his second wife $700 a month in alimony and child support.
Talman earns around $65,000 a year. What is left of a modest inheritance is now swelling the accounts of lawyers and ex-wives. In addition, he must pay his agent 10 percent, his business manager 5, and the Government (for income taxes) nearly 40. Also, he is a paid-up member in five unions. He must live on between 11 and 13 percent of his income.
Makes you wonder what things would have been like if he hadn't had a "business manager."