La Collectionneuse: Gail Patrick

Elegant dark-haired beauty Gail Patrick was no conventional heroine and never hesitated to play unsympathetic, scheming, nasty, calculating or haughty characters during her career. But she never really took to a liking to acting. After she left movies, she went into the business world and was notably one of the first women to become a television producer. Raymond Burr, star of the Perry Mason series, once said of her: "Gail is the most fantastic woman I know. She is the closest thing to a dream I’ve met in this business." About her new career as a producer, Gail Patrick allegedly declared: "I’ve never felt self-conscious as a woman dealing with men. I think it’s because the men are concerned, as I am, only with the business at hand. I guess you’d say we meet on a mental level."


German postcard by Ross Verlag, no. 9326/1, 1935-1936. Photo: Paramount.


German postcard by Ross Verlag, no. 9590/1, 1935-1936. Photo: Paramount.

The Panther Woman contest

Gail Patrick was born as Margaret LaVelle Fitzpatrick on the 20th of June 1911 in Birmingham, U.S.A.

After graduating from Howard College, she entered the University of Alabama to become a lawyer. The time she spent there would serve her later in her business career.

While still at school, she entered on a lark a contest sponsored in 1932 by Paramount to find the ideal actress to play the Panther Woman in the movie Island of Lost Souls (1932). She was among the four finalists, but it was eventually Kathleen Burke who was chosen for the part.

However, Gail Patrick was awarded a Paramount contract. A determined woman, she succeeded in convincing the company not to ask her to pose for cheesecake pictures.


German postcard by Ross Verlag, no. A 1317/1, 1937-1938. Photo: Paramount.


German postcard by Ross Verlag, no. 840.

Cornelia Bullock and Linda Shaw: two defining characters

Gail Patrick made her film debut in a bit part in If I Had a Million (1932) and, gradually, got more important roles.

After having notably played opposite Randolph Scott in Wagon Wheels (1934) or Melvyn Douglas in The Lone Wolf Returns (1935), she got a big break as Cornelia Bullock, Carole Lombard’s frosty and condescending sister, in My Man Godfrey (1936) at Universal.

Another important role was that of cynical and bitchy would-be actress Linda Shaw in R.K.O.’s Stage Door (1937).

Her other films from the end of the 1930s include Her Husband Lies (1937), Mad About Music (1938), as Deanna Durbin’s mother, Dangerous to Know (1938), Wives Under Suspicion (1938) and Disbarred (1939). Her stay at Paramount ended with Grand Jury Secrets (1939).


Italian postcard by B.F.F. Edit., no. 2539. Photo: Paramount.


German postcard by Ross Verlag, no. A 2269/1, 1939-1940. Photo: Paramount.

Her career in the 1940s

Gail Patrick then freelanced and appeared in such films as Gallant Sons (1940), Quiet Please, Murder (1942), Women in Bondage (1943), Up in Mabel’s Room (1944), and Brewster’s Millions (1945).

Her most famous film from this period is probably the brilliant Screwball comedy My Favourite Wife (1940), opposite Irene Dunne and Cary Grant.

Patrick ended her movie career at Republic in run-of-the-mill pictures such as The Madonna’s Secret (1946), Rendezvous with Annie (1946), Plainsman at the Lady (1946), and Calendar Girl (1947).

The Inside Story (1948) marked her last appearance on the screen.


German postcard by Ross Verlag, no. A 2473/1, 1939-1940. Photo: Paramount.


Italian postcard by B.F.F. Edit., no. 2497. Photo: Paramount.

Perry Mason

Gail Patrick had never been that passionate about acting, so she decided to turn into a businesswoman. In Beverly Hills, she opened a children’s clothing shop called 'The Enchanted Cottage' and ran it for several years. For this achievement, she was named 'Woman of the Year' in 1950 by Woodbury Business College.

From 1957 to 1966, she was executive producer of the successful television series Perry Mason. It was not a facade job: she handled contract negotiation with CBS, was instrumental in the casting of the leading players, reviewed scripts and supervised other aspects of the production.

She was executive consultant on the new Perry Mason series (September 1973 - January 1974), which failed to catch on. Raymond Burr and Barbara Hale, who were strongly identified with the Perry Mason and Della Street characters, had been replaced by other actors, and audiences never took to the new casting.

Gail Patrick then retired and concentrated on charitable duties.


Italian postcard by Fotocelere, Torino, no. 74. Photo: Paramount.


Promotional card issued by Ross Verlag for Turkish chocolate brand Liomel Cikolatasi. Photo: Paramount.

Her four marriages

In 1936, Gail Patrick married Robert Cobb, the owner of the famous Brown Derby restaurant. They divorced in 1940.

Her next husband was Arnold Dean White, a U.S. Navy lieutenant. They married in 1944 but, after she had lost twins at birth in 1945, they divorced in 1946.

In 1947, she remarried to advertising executive Cornwall Jackson, with whom she would form in the 1950s the Paisano production company, alongside Erle Stanley Gardner, creator of the Perry Mason character. The couple adopted two children, Thomas and Jennifer, and divorced in 1969.

Her last marriage, to businessman John Velde Jr., occurred in 1974. They stayed married until her death from leukaemia on the 6th of July 1980.


Spanish postcard, Serie 4021, no. 126.


Latvian postcard by Upitis, Riga, no. 389. Photo: Paramount.

Several of Gail Patrick’s achievements

From 1960 to 1962, Gail Patrick was Vice-President of the National Academy of Television Arts and Sciences and President of its Hollywood chapter. It was the first time that a woman was given such a leadership position by the Academy.

In 1970, she was named National Honorary Chairman of the American Lung Association’s Christmas Seals campaign. In 1973, she became the first National Chairman of the American Diabetes Association board of directors.

Upon her death, a $1 million bequest from the Gail Patrick Velde trust was given to her sorority, Delta Zeta, at Howard College (now Samford University).

In 2008, in her honour, the fully equipped Gail Patrick Soundstage opened at the Columbia College Hollywood (now California College of ASU), where she once had been a member of the Board of Trustees.


Postcard from the Dutch East Indies (now Indonesia). Deanna Durbin, Gail Patrick and Herbert Marshall in Mad About Music (Norman Taurog, 1938).

Text and postcards: Marlene Pilaete.