Anonymous - 10-30-2005 at 06:49 AM
http://www.nctimes.com/articles/2005/10/30/news/californian/...
By JOHN HUNNEMAN
October 29, 2005
TEMECULA ---- He crossed the desert in search of whales and photographed desolate yet breathtaking parts of the world where man had dared not tread
for hundreds, if not thousands, of years.
Though more widely known for his 127 novels ---- including 82 featuring famed lawyer Perry Mason ---- Erle Stanley Gardner was an adventurer and
explorer who chronicled his trips around the world in magazine articles, books and on film.
After decades without being seen, photographs taken by Gardner and those who traveled with him on his explorations of Baja California are part of "The
Baja Adventure" exhibit, which debuts Saturday at the Temecula Valley Museum.
The opening of the exhibit coincides with the fourth annual Erle Stanley Gardner Mystery Weekend, set for Nov. 4-6, in Temecula. The weekend
celebrates the life and works of the famed author who called Temecula home from 1937 until his death in 1970.
It's estimated that more than 350 million of Gardner's books have been distributed worldwide, making him one of history's all-time best-selling
mystery writers.
But the "whodunits" were only part of his literary work. During his years at Rancho del Paisano ---- located across from present day Great Oak High
School ---- Gardner and his entourage, often including wife Jean and his longtime friend and ranch manager Sam Hicks, set off on numerous adventures,
many of them heading south to the rugged and then largely uncharted land of Baja California.
Sometimes traveling by airplane and helicopter, but more often by Jeep and Pak-Jak ---- a modified dune buggy capable of climbing vertical obstacles
---- Gardner and his group traversed the peninsula while photographing sweeping vistas, native vegetation, ancient cave drawings and each other.
The photographs, taken from 1947 through the mid-1960s, were developed as slides to be projected on a screen, which Gardner did while he narrated
tales of each adventure, said Wendell Ott, director of the Temecula Valley Museum.
The slides ---- about 6,000 of them ---- had been stored in Jean Gardner's garage in Fallbrook, where she had moved after her husband's death. Most
had not been viewed for decades.
Jean Gardner died in December 2002 at age 100.
"After Jean died, her brother Norm called and asked if we'd be interested in the slides," Ott said. "He said we really ought to have them."
Gardner wrote six books about his exploration of Baja California. Among the more famous is "Hunting the Desert Whale," published in 1963.
That book follows Gardner and his party, including Hicks, as they travel about halfway down the peninsula to Scammon's Lagoon, also called Laguna Ojo
De Liebre, on the Pacific Ocean side, which is visited each year by grey whales migrating south from the Bering Sea.
Traveling over old roads ---- and sometimes no roads ---- and sleeping under the stars was part of each adventure.
"I went to sleep again and awakened with a start," wrote Gardner. "Some big animal was moving cautiously within a few feet of me. I could hear the
soft footfall of a cautious foot on gravel, then a rock moved under the weight of an animal that must have had some size. I thought of the stories I
had heard of mountain lions and lay motionless, listening."
Photographs taken by Gardner are included in his books, but they were printed in black and white.
Using a computer and scanner recently purchased with money from a grant received by the museum, Ott and his staff have been able to digitally scan the
slides and print them in their full, vibrant and original color.
"I don't know what kind of camera (Gardner) had back then, but I'm sure it was the best," Ott said.
The results are the stunning photographs of the excursions. The photos were being mounted on museum walls this week ahead of the exhibition.
Ott said he and his staff have barely scratched the surface of the donated photographs.
"We've only gotten through a couple of hundred slides so far," he said.
The photographs in the upcoming exhibit are from three expeditions, one in 1947, one in 1952 and the last in 1967, Ott said.
Not all of the 6,000 slides are of Gardner's trips to Baja and the others may well be used for future exhibits at the museum.
"The more we collect about Gardner, the more we come to know him more as a human being and not just a mystery writer," Ott said.
"Erle Stanley Gardner ----The Baja Adventure" will be on exhibit at the Temecula Valley Museum from Saturday through Jan. 8. For information, call the
museum at (951) 694-6452.
bajalou - 10-30-2005 at 07:36 AM
Thanks Anon - I'm sure going to try to get up there and visit it.
ArvadaGeorge - 10-30-2005 at 07:38 AM
David-k
Think you can get copies of the photo's, and post them for us all?
Neal Johns - 10-30-2005 at 08:12 AM
Oh, Boy!
I'm on the way to the North T-Town!
Thanks, Anom.
Neal Johns - 10-30-2005 at 08:22 AM
From Jean Gardner's obituary December 14, 2002
Jean Gardner, 100; was inspiration for Della Street character
By Jack Williams
To those who knew her best, Jean Gardner was the real Della Street.
One of three sisters who worked as a secretary to Erle Stanley Gardner,
she served as a model and inspiration for the prolific author's Street
in his series of Perry Mason mystery novels.
"Jean was the perfect secretary," said her brother, Norman Walter.
"People likened her to that Della Street character, but neither she nor
Erle would admit she really was."
Mrs. Gardner, who married her longtime boss less than two years before
he died in 1970, died in her sleep Dec. 5 at her Fallbrook home. She
was 100.
"I think he put several girls together," Mrs. Gardner said of the
Street character in a 1990 interview with The San Diego Union. "She was
too perfect for one girl to live up to."
Gardner's novels, beginning with "The Case of the Velvet Claws,"
published in 1933, spawned a popular "Perry Mason" television series
from 1957 to 1966. It starred Raymond Burr as a crime-solving defense
attorney and Barbara Hale as Della Street, his devoted girl Friday.
Mrs. Gardner began working for Gardner in 1923 when he was a partner in
a Ventura law firm. When he left in 1933 to pursue writing full time,
Mrs. Gardner continued as his chief secretary, sharing responsibilities
with others ? including her sisters Peggy Downs and Ruth "Honey" Moore.
A relentlessly creative worker, Gardner dictated his plots while his
secretaries took shorthand in shifts. When he wasn't writing under his
own name, he assumed the pseudonym A.A. Fair.
In his extensive travels, which included visits to such far-reaching
destinations as China, he required a secretary to take notes and
dictation.
"He would head north in the summer and south in the winter," Walter
said. For a couple of years, Gardner traveled with his secretaries in
trailers. After discovering Temecula in 1937, he bought a 300-acre
ranch and turned it into his home base.
He had been separated from his first wife, Natalie, for 30 years when
she died in February 1968. Six months later, he married the former Jean
Walter Bethel in Carson City, Nev.
"I guess we had gotten used to each other," Mrs. Gardner told the
Union.
Suffering from cancer, Gardner died at 80. But Mrs. Gardner's work was
far from done.
Under her supervision, more than a dozen of his books were published
from 1971 to 1991, five of them featuring Perry Mason.
"Wherever they would travel, Jean would take down notes on all the
scenery and plant life," Walter said. Some of the research found its
way into Gardner's writing.
Mrs. Gardner was born Agnes Helene Walter in Miles City, Mont. She
graduated from high school in Lancaster before moving to Ventura, where
she was a receptionist at the Pierpont Inn when she met Gardner.
When Gardner asked her to work for him, she suggested her sister,
Peggy, instead. Eventually, she followed her sister onto Gardner's
staff. Her other sister joined later.
Mrs. Gardner married a firefighter, Les Bethel, early in her
secretarial career. The marriage ended in divorce, Walter said.
"Jean was dedicated to her job," he said. "She was loyal and wanted to
do it as well as she could. She could also put out a fine meal."
As a young woman, Mrs. Gardner won honors in archery in Washington
state.
Her sisters both died in their 90s, said Walter, a Fallbrook resident
and her only survivor.
David K - 10-30-2005 at 09:39 AM
The people running the show invited me to bring my photo collection of Choral Pepper's (they saw my web page http://choralpepper.com ) and 'talk about' Erle Stanley Gardner...
I offered to come and display the photos I have of the Gardner trips, but I did not know Erle (I met Jean at his Temecula ranch when I was a kid, but
Erle was in Baja that day my parents took me there)... he died when I was about 12.
They said they had plenty of photos, but wanted a speaker to discuss them... I am curious to see what they have at the show!
Some of the photos of Gardner given to me...
David K - 10-30-2005 at 11:47 AM
Some of the photos at http://choralpepper.com...
Here' Erle and Choral Pepper...
capt. mike - 10-30-2005 at 01:02 PM
wonder if there's any pics of Jimmy Smith?
David K - 10-30-2005 at 01:57 PM
That would be something!
Choral Pepper is the one who named Jimmy 'The Grinning Gargoyle' when Jimmy visited the Gardner camp by the San Ignacio airstrip...
One of the photos I posted above is of the arrowheads being presented to Dr. Carlos Margain (Mexico's archeologist)... That was the inspiration for
Jimmy's 'Made in Japan' yarn in his book.
Museum hours &
John M - 10-30-2005 at 03:28 PM
Just spoke to the Museum.
Open Tuesday through Saturday 10:00 to 5:00
Sunday 1:00 to 5:00
Closed Mondays
The woman I spoke with said the dispaly is not yet complete but they hope to be finished with it by November 4th.
Use the Rancho California Exit off Interstate 15.
John M.
dug - 10-30-2005 at 03:48 PM
David K
Please let us know when you will be speaking. I'll drive 45 minutes to hear you and see the exhibit.
David K - 10-30-2005 at 05:19 PM
Hi Dug, sorry if I wasn't clear above.... Because I did NOT know Erle or was on his expeditions (too young), I am NOT going to be there to talk or
show the Pepper photos. I did offer Mr. Ott to bring the photos I have, but he was looking for someone to give a talk about the photos (and he said
they had plenty)...
Thanks for the offer to drive to Temecula to hear me... You are welcome to see the files of photos Pepper gave to me at my Oceanside home... they are
a Baja treasure, for sure!
Neal Johns - 10-30-2005 at 07:03 PM
John M (my older cousin - see avatars) and all Nomads, let's pick a day, Saturday or Sunday to go see the pics. Either works for me. (an hour south on
I-15). You can recognize me by the lack of all that disgusting hair that DK has.
Ask John M about the book he just wrote and has just been published! He's a good dog! (pun)
David K - 10-30-2005 at 08:45 PM
Next Saturday works for Baja Angel and I...
Exhibit visit
John M - 10-30-2005 at 10:07 PM
We are heading to Anza Borrego for 4 days, leaving here on Thursday the 10th. We plan to be at the museum when they open on that day.
Be in Shoshone this coming weekend.
Thanks for the shameless plug Neil! And for you Neil, Rufus sends her love! woof. woof
John M
Neal Johns - 10-30-2005 at 10:21 PM
Saturday afternoon it is!
David K - 10-30-2005 at 10:37 PM
OK grand!
I am jealous------
Barry A. - 10-30-2005 at 11:08 PM
You guys (and gals) that live so close----it's easy for you----but us'uns in the northwoods--it ain't so easy. Have a wonderful time, and don't forget
to post on how the visit to to the museum went-----also, find out if I can see the pictures when I am in Borrego for a month in February.
Thanks, Barry
ps----David, love seeing those old Pepper photos that you post from time to time----they are sure great!!!!
Who's going today???
David K - 11-5-2005 at 09:56 AM
Hope to see some Nomads at the Gardner Baja exhibit today...
Baja Angel and I will be there at noon +/-
Neal Johns - 11-5-2005 at 10:21 AM
Museum Address:
28314 Mercedes St. (Old Town) Temecula
David K - 11-6-2005 at 10:35 AM
Exit I-15 at Rancho Calif. Rd., go west to signal, turn south... museum is on the left, beyond the gazzebo, just before entering 'Old Town
Temecula'...
We had fun seeing Neal & Marian Johns and Roy 'The Squarecircle'. The exhibit was worth the drive... I have many photos... See photos forum on
Nomad for them all ...
Anonymous - 11-7-2005 at 11:21 AM
Were there any members of the Gardner expeditions there or scheduled to be in the near future? They would be great to listen to and share their
experiences. Thanks for posting this.
David K - 11-7-2005 at 06:26 PM
Nope, some have already passed away and others are up there in years.
I have been fortunate to know or speak with: Choral Pepper, J.W. Black, Ricardo Castillo, Jorge Yee, and Bruce Barron who all were on Erle's 1966
caravan (and others, too).
See http://community-2.webtv.net/baja4me/1757/ and http://choralpepper.com