Cool, Bertha. Bertha Cool was created by “A. A. Fair,” the pseudonym of Erle Stanley Gardner, (Black Barr, Major Copley Brane, Terry Clane, Ken Corning, Speed Dash, Jax Keen, Barney Killigen, Bob Larkin, Lester Leith, Señor Lobo, The Man in the Silver Mask, Perry Mason, Ed Migraine, Hugo Oakes, Patent Leather Kid, Phantom Crook, Paul Pry (II), Doug Selby, Pete Wennick, White Rings, Gramps Wiggins, Bob Zane, Sidney Zoom) and appeared in twenty-nine novels from 1939 to 1970, beginning with The Bigger They Come. Bertha Cool is one of the first female hard-boiled detectives. She is a large woman (over 220 pounds), but her fat covers a lot of muscle, and she is sprightly despite her bulk. She is in her sixties, with gray hair, gray eyes, and a generally benign expression. But she is very hard-boiled, and more than that is mercenary: she squeezes pennies until they scream and will take whatever case presents itself just so long as she gets paid. (“A lot of agencies won’t handle divorce cases and politics. I’ll handle anything there is money in. I don’t give a damn who it is or what it is, just so the dough’s there.”) She excuses this on the grounds that she suffered through the Depression. She was married, and kept her weight down with great suffering to herself (“Nature intended me to be fat”), but caught her husband cheating on her and let herself go. When he died she took control of Cool Confidential Investigations, his former firm. She is assisted by Donald Lam, a short twenty-nine year-old (unjustly) disbarred attorney who is the brains of the duo but is forever underpaid by Bertha. Donald Lam has an off-again, on-again relationship with the firm’s secretary, Elsie Brand.
-
Recent Posts
Recent Comments
Archives
- September 2024
- June 2024
- December 2023
- November 2023
- April 2023
- March 2023
- January 2023
- November 2022
- August 2022
- February 2021
- December 2020
- September 2020
- August 2020
- June 2020
- February 2020
- January 2020
- October 2019
- August 2019
- June 2019
- March 2019
- February 2019
- December 2018
- July 2018
- June 2018
- May 2018
- April 2018
- December 2017
- September 2017
- April 2017
- February 2017
- January 2017
- October 2016
- August 2016
- June 2016
- April 2016
- March 2016
- November 2015
- October 2015
- August 2015
- July 2015
- June 2015
- May 2015
- April 2015
- March 2015
- February 2015
- January 2015
- October 2014
- July 2014
- June 2014
- January 2014
- October 2013
- September 2013
- August 2013
- June 2013
- May 2013
- June 2012
- May 2012
- April 2012
- February 2012
- January 2012
- December 2011
- November 2011
Blogroll
Categories
Meta