You may not know the name, or the face, but chances are you know his work, and can guess his identity from this theme song.

On this day, pulp fiction legend Erle Stanley Gardner was born in Malden. Trained as a lawyer, Gardner began writing fiction. He got his break when along with a rejection letter he received notes which were accidentally included about what was wrong with his manuscript. He quickly revised his work, and began selling novels.

Gardner quit law, and created a "fiction factory" which included a pool of young secretaries that he would shuttle into the desert for dictation sessions cut off from the rest of civilization for weeks at a time. The factory produced more than a million words per year, and quickly produced 80 Perry Mason novels. When Hollywood called, Gardner started his own production company, and cast film and television players, exercising creative control over the franchise.