QUARANTINE BLOG # 255

December 10, 2020

Let’s go back into the court room and take a look at William (Bill) Hopper, and his quintessential character, Paul Drake.

William Hopper’s acting career could be called, “The Case of the Reluctant Actor.”  Television’s Paul Drake once said, “I became an actor because it seemed the easiest thing to do and because it was expected of me.  But it stunk.”

His first movie was Sunshine Dad in 1916.  He appeared as “The Baby.”  He was one year old (born January 29, 1915).  His father, DeWolf Hopper, was the star of the silent motion picture.

His biggest accomplishment during his movie career of playing the buddy or the sidekick appears to have been as an answer to the Hollywood trivia question: What actor played in the B movie Public Wedding with a then unknown actress who went on to divorce a future president of the United States? (Answer: William Hopper.  The actress? Jane Wyman.  The future president?  Ronald Reagan.)

In 1957, when CBS launched the Perry Mason series, Hopper auditioned for both the Mason and Drake roles.  Executive producer Gail Patrick Jackson said, “He was perfect as Drake, and we got him.”

Here is William Hopper as Paul Drake in action in “The Case of the Garrulous Gambler.”

As head of the Drake Detective Agency (phone number: CRestview 9-7441), Paul was always available, especially when Perry Mason called.  

He was the only one to have access to the private side door to Perry’s office.  When entering, he’d deliver a “Hello, Beautiful,” to Della.

He was an important third of a great team.  Perry was the brains, Paul the brawn, and Della had the legs.  Like a one-man U.S. cavalry, Paul’s forte was to arrive in court at the last possible moment and whisper to Perry that he’d found the crucial evidence they’d been looking for. 

In “The Case of the Howling Dog,” Perry asked Paul if could find a good-looking brunette to impersonate a client.  The lawyer went to great lengths to describe the kind of actress he wanted:

Perry: “Do you think you can find one like that?”

Paul: “I’ve been looking for one for years.”

Just as Raymond Burr will always be Perry Mason, so William Hopper will always be Paul Drake.  He defined the role.  William Hopper died on March 6, 1970 of pneumonia.

I know I promised a wrap to the Perry Mason story today, but there is just too much good stuff out there.  Tomorrow, I promise, we’ll look at the opposition – the District Attorney and the police lieutenant.

👉  One of our readers offers “Eating in the 40s and 50s”:  Pasta had not been invented – it was macaroni or spaghetti.  All chips were plain.  Chickens didn’t have fingers in those days.  None of us had ever heard of yogurt.  Cooking outside was called camping.  Seaweed was not a recognized food.  Sugar enjoyed a good press in those days, and was regarded as being white gold.  Surprisingly Muesli was readily available – it was called cattle feed.  Water came out of the tap – if someone had suggested bottling it and charging more than petrol for it, they would have become a laughing stock.  There were three things that we never ever had on/at our table in the fifties ... elbows, hats and mobile phones.  And there were always two choices for each meal ... “Take it” or “Leave it.”

👉  Here’s Pickles for the season:

👉  And Dustin:

👉  Monday was the 79th anniversary of the Japanese sneak attack on Pearl Harbor (we looked back at that date that will live in infamy in QB 252).  TV station KTXL in San Francisco did a piece on 99 year old Arizona survivor Lou Conter.  Click on this video link to see the interview and give thanks for a man – as he says, one of many – who “just did my job.”  Because of the coronavirus he could not be in Pearl Harbor for the 79th, but next year at age 100 he plans to attend remembrance 80.

👉   Second Thursday in Advent

An Alternative World at Hand

“For whatever was written in former days was written for our instruction, so that by steadfastness and by the encouragement of the scriptures we might have hope.  May the God of steadfastness and encouragement grant you to live in harmony with one another, in accordance with Christ Jesus, so that together you may with one voice glorify the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ” (Romans 15:4-6).

Here is the good news I am privileged to announce to you.  There is a new world available that is here very soon.  It is being birthed in the wonder of Jesus of Nazareth.  It is a world marked by the stable smell of shepherds and the perfumes of the wise men.  It is a world marked by a Friday of suffering and death and by a Sunday of surprise and new life.  It is a world that exposes all the contradictions of our present life.  It is a world that invites us to move out from here to there in joy, in obedience, in discipline, to begin again.

As Paul spoke of the truthful reliability of God’s promise, he knew about a world of fickle deception and betrayal, as do we.  The world of advertising, of ideology, of euphemism offers us endless phoniness that coerces and manipulates and invites into a virtual world that has no staying power.  You cannot count on such a world, as it will turn on you and cost you dearly.  And yet, out beyond that fickle world there is the world of God’s reliable fidelity, a God who makes and keeps promises, and you can dwell there.

When Paul spoke about living in harmony with one another as a gift of Christ’s new regime, he knew about conflict and quarreling in his churches and all around the empire.  And so do we.  We imagine now that liberals and conservatives must be in conflict, and poor blacks and rich whites must compete with an edge of hate.  And yet, out beyond there is a world reconciled between Jew and Greek, between male and female, between free and slave, and all the other alienations that we can name.  Because Christ has broken down the walls of separation.  In him all sorts of people recover their sanity and their humanity enough to see brother and sister.

Grant us, reconciling God, the imagination with which to see the world coming into being through the wonder of Jesus of Nazareth.  May we embrace it and dwell there in joy, in obedience, in discipline, to begin again.  Amen.

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