In February 1956, CBS announced its new series, Perry Mason, anticipating it would begin that fall. The network obtained the rights to 272 stories by Gardner, including Perry Mason and 11 other principal characters. The rights were purchased from Paisano Productions, which would film the series in association with CBS and own a 60% interest in the films.
Perry Mason was Hollywood’s first hour-long weekly series filmed for television. Gail Patrick Jackson was its executive producer. “We were the first bona fide law show and we spent two years preparing Perry for the television bar,” Patrick said.
Casting
Gail Patrick Jackson was immersed in auditions throughout 1956. The role of Perry Mason proved to be the hardest to cast. Richard Carlson, Mike Connors, Richard Egan, William Holden, and Efrem Zimbalist, Jr., were considered. In early April, Fred MacMurray and CBS were reportedly in the midst of negotiations, and columnist Hedda Hopper wrote that Cornwell Jackson had postponed a two-month vacation in Hawaii, hoping to get the series ready by September or October. In mid-June, Hopper reported that the Jacksons had left on their annual trip, after stating that Perry Mason would not be ready for TV that fall.
“We couldn’t afford a big star,” Patrick later said. Among the hundreds of actors she saw audition in April 1956 was Raymond Burr, who initially read for the role of district attorney Hamilton Burger. Patrick had been impressed with Burr’s courtroom performance in the 1951 film, A Place in the Sun, and told him he was perfect for the title role in Perry Mason, but at least 60 pounds overweight. Over the next month, Burr went on a crash diet. When he returned, he tested as Perry Mason, and was chosen from a field of 50 finalists. By July 1956, word was out that Burr had the role. . .
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The show’s theme music is one of the most recognizable in television. Composer Fred Steiner set out to write a theme that would project the two primary aspects of Mason’s character — sophistication and toughness. “The piece he came up with, titled ‘Park Avenue Beat’, pulsed with the power of the big city and the swagger of a beefy hero played to perfection by actor Raymond Burr,” wrote The Los Angeles Times. Described by Steiner as “a piece of symphonic R&B”, the Perry Mason theme heard at the opening and end credits became the composer’s best-known work.
Much of the incidental music was drawn from the CBS-TV Music Library. This included music by Bernard Herrmann, who went uncredited since the cues were stock music that was edited into the score. Herrmann’s music has been identified in the following episodes: “The Case of the Restless Redhead”, “The Case of the Sleepwalker’s Niece”, “The Case of the Nervous Accomplice”, The Case of the Drowning Duck”, “The Case of the Silent Partner”, “The Case of the Half-Wakened Wife”, “The Case of the Calendar Girl”, “The Case of the Spurious Sister” and “The Case of the Mythical Monkeys”. Production records show Herrmann’s music being used in 100 episodes, through “The Case of the Tandem Target”.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Perry_Mason_(TV_series)
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ANVIL LAUNCHES CROWD-FUNDING CAMPAIGN TO HELP WITH ITS NEXT ALBUM
Background: “We’re underway in recording a new album and want to invite you to be a part of it as it comes to life! After years of having record labels being in between the band and our fans, we’re finally at a point in our history to directly connect. We are proud to announce to our fans that they can keep in personal touch with the band and be directly involved in the process of creating the next Anvil album. This will be the first time that we’ve used a crowd-funding approach and we are fully confident in our fans to really pitch in and help. Considering that almost anyone aware of Anvil knows our long and sometimes brutal history, we’re hoping you would be honored to help and prove us right in our belief in you… and we promise another top-notch Anvil recording that we can enjoy for many years into the future…” Check it out at http://www.pledgemusic.com/projects/anvil . Rewards include drum lessons from Robb Reiner, guitar lessons from Lips, attending a band rehearsal, a private viewing of Reiner’s art collection’, and a vibrator used live on stage by Lips.