EXCLUSIVE — The Final Interview with Barbara Hale: “Perry Mason’s” Original Woman Friday
“I liked playing women with an independent streak.”
So said Perry Mason actress Barbara Hale in one of her last interviews before she passed away in 2017 at age 95.
Raymond Burr portrayed Perry Mason, TV’s top attorney (who never lost a case!) on the extremely popular series of the same name that originally aired on CBS from 1957 to 1966. But Perry would have been nothing without his secretary and right-hand gal Della Street, as portrayed with grace and subtle allure by the elegant Hale. Unlike the audience, Mason’s affection for Street was not so obvious. “Circumstantial evidence” is how he may have defined and defended his alleged attraction, although many wondered how he could turn away from her numerous charms.
Hale’s Street was one of television’s first single professional working women, and the story of how she came to play the part is just as monumental. Close friends with two of the show’s producers, Corny and Gail Patrick Jackson, Hale had worked with the former at an advertising agency in Chicago, and with Gail on a dollmaking venture. The doll project never panned out, but Hale remained friends with Jacksons, who later remembered her for a part in a certain new legal series she was developing.
