Quote: Fred Steiner, 1923 – 2011

Randy Lewis of The Times has a nice obit on Fred Steiner (1923-2011), who composed the famous theme for the “Perry Mason” show:



About lmharnisch

I am retired from the Los Angeles Times
This entry was posted in 1923, Music, Obituaries, Television and tagged , , , . Bookmark the permalink.

4 Responses to Quote: Fred Steiner, 1923 – 2011

  1. The theme was also as big as Raymond Burr’s formidable body. I can still hear it echoing down the legal hallways of my mind.


  2. Earl Boebert says:

    Netflix now has the original Perry Mason shows on DVD. The digital remastering is superb, making these a veritable museum of late 1950s-early 1960s Los Angeles. Everything is there in sharp focus: clothes, hairdos, furniture, cars, and street scenes. Plus great bits by some of the best character actors of the Golden Age.

    Those not familiar with the show, I offer the Perry Mason Quiz Game. After the show settled down, the plots were as stylized as Japanese Noh drama, giving you the opportunity to guess the following:

    1. Who gets killed? (Hint: somebody obnoxious)
    2. Who gets falsely accused? (Hint: If the possibilities are female, pick the blonde.)
    3. Who did it? (Hint: If the possibilities are female, pick the brunette.)
    4. How did Perry know?
    5. Is the perp’s confession a bang (“I could have killed him a hundred times”) or a whimper (“I had to do it. Don’t you see? I, I had to.”)?

    Extra bonus questions:

    Does Perry’s client lie to him?
    Does Lt. Tragg put his mark on the murder weapon?
    Does Paul Drake knock “shave and a haircut – two bits” on the back door of Perry’s office?




  3. Randy Skretvedt says:

    He also wrote the jazzy, uptempo theme of “The Bullwinkle Show,” and the charging march that began “The Adventures of Dudley Do-Right.”


  4. Perry says:

    Why title the theme for a show about a boundary-skirting Los Angeles lawyer “Park Avenue Beat”? I’ve always suspected that Steiner had already written it, never published it, and just dusted it off for Perry Mason. Perhaps it was a fragment of some opus that he never got around to finishing. Still, it is terrific. So many shows of that era.– even the failures,like Straightaway — had great themes.


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