Bertha Cool and
Donald Lam, 1939-1970
You have to like a dame who comes up with expressions such
as "Well can me for a sardine" and "Well peel me for a
grape." These are some of the many "coolisms" that pepper the
speech of extra-large, penny-pinching widow, Bertha Cool created by Erle
Stanley Gardner writing as A. A, Fair. Bertha ran B. Cool Confidential
Investigations in Los Angeles.
The first novel in the series. The Bigger They Come, was published in 1939. The final one. All Grass Isn't Green was published in 1970, the year of Gardner's death. There were twenty-nine books in all. The series lasted thirty-one years, making Bertha the longest running female private eye until passed by Sharon McCone in 2008.
The first novel in the series. The Bigger They Come, was published in 1939. The final one. All Grass Isn't Green was published in 1970, the year of Gardner's death. There were twenty-nine books in all. The series lasted thirty-one years, making Bertha the longest running female private eye until passed by Sharon McCone in 2008.
Bertha is white-haired and hefty, weighing up to 250 pounds
in some stories. She is not pleasant to look at or to be around unless she is
coddling up to a client who is offering money. Berth does love money and she is
not above soaking her clients for all she can get. She is corrupt and
dishonest, and willing to break the law. In the first book, she takes on a
diminutive, disbarred partner, Donald Lam, who remains with her through the
entire series. Lam stands about five feet. He has a penchant for bending and
twisting the law where Bertha out-and-out breaks it. As Bertha says, "He's
a little runt, but he's brainy." For his part, Lam sees Bertha as "a
big spool of barbed wire."
Together Cool and Lam make up one of the most mis-matched
detective duos since Violet McDade and Nevada Alverado. Gardner was friends
with Cleve Adams, the creator of Violet and Nevada, so the similarities are
probably more than coincidental.
At the heart of the relationship between these two
characters is their constant bickering. They bicker about everything. They
bicker about money and Bertha's greedy, penny-pinching ways. They bicker about
Donald's taste in women. Bertha thinks he falls too easily for the pretty ones.
They bicker about Donald's tendency to keep her in the dark as the cases
develop.
In Spill the Jackpot (1941)
Lam quits his job because he has lost his heart to a woman and plans to run
away with her. Bertha won't hear of it. She tells him he's not in love. “You’ve
just fallen for some little trollop who’s given you the come-hither eye. My
God, if you knew as much about women as I do, you’d never even think of
marrying one.”
Gardner's plots are mind-spinning in their intricacy. He
favored dialogue and action over characterization. He stressed "speed,
situation, and suspense" in his writing and that's what you get in the
Bertha Cool and Donald Lam stories. The storylines are so twisted and tangled
that the reader marvels at Gardner's ability to keep it all straight. Some of
the twists and tangles are created by Bertha and Donald themselves who are
constantly scheming and conniving to manipulate situations so that their sense
of justice is satisfied. Even Lam's quitting his job in Jackpot turns out to be a
contrivance that breaks open the case.
Some reviewers have said that Gardner gave his best writing
to Bertha. Had Bertha been given a TV
series like her literary sibling, Perry Mason, she might hold a higher place in
the public consciousness. A TV pilot was made and aired on CBS in 1958. It
starred Benay Venuta as Bertha and Billy Pearson as Donald Lam, but it never
developed into a series.
The Bertha Cool books are easy to
find. Used copies can be found on Amazon and in used bookstores. Some are
available on Kindle. One of the books, Top of the Heap, has been
republished by Hard Case Crime.
Writers in the central Texas area might be interested in a workshop on "Women and Crime", Saturday, September 5, in College Station, Texas. More information here: http://www.meetup.com/Brazos-Writers-of-Bryan-College-Station/events/223360417/
Mark Troy ©2015
Mark Troy is the author of The Splintered Paddle, The
Rules, Pilikia Is My Business and Game Face.
His website is at http://marktroymysterywriter.com
Posts
3 comments:
Mark, I think Bertha and Donald would have been hilarious in movies and TV. Maybe it will happen someday.
I agree, Earl. There are a lot of women who could play the role of Bertha well. I think that back in '58, TV execs were too afraid to put on a series with a woman as lead. When they finally did do a series, it was a decade later and the lead was played by Ann Francis. Nothing against Ann Francis, but the prevailing thought then, and even now, is that a woman in the lead has to be slinky and sexy. Had they done the series, I would wager that Bertha would be more famous than Perry.
Because it has been mentioned so much on Dorothyl, I got the first two season of VERA via the library. Definitely not a slinky or sexy female lead. She also seems to have the same ability by Mom had growing up--- the hairy eye when one screwed up.
Post a Comment