# Things I have learned listening to 1949-1950 "Dragnet" radio shows **URL:** \ **Category:** Cafe Society\ **Created:** [December 2, 2015, 6:58am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/things-i-have-learned-listening-to-1949-1950-dragnet-radio-shows/739198 "2015-12-02T06:58:50Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 20\ **Page:** 2
**Author:** ![dropzone](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/dropzone/32/7515_2.png) [@dropzone](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/dropzone)\ **Post date:** [December 5, 2015, 3:30am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/things-i-have-learned-listening-to-1949-1950-dragnet-radio-shows/739198/21 "2015-12-05T03:30:30Z")
I learned that, until the show went to TV, Los Angeles was pronounced with a hard G and there were many people in LA with Spanish surnames, including Friday’s boss. ---
**Author:** ![Baker](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/b/bb73d2/32.png) [@Baker](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Baker)\ **Post date:** [December 5, 2015, 3:55am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/things-i-have-learned-listening-to-1949-1950-dragnet-radio-shows/739198/22 "2015-12-05T03:55:14Z")
> [@astro](#): > > Small corner groceries and small services and goods shops of all types are everywhere. People would tell the shop owner to “put it on my bill”. From 1977 to 1979 I shopped at a small non-chain family run grocery here in Topeka, the last of it’s kind locally. They still allowed certain customers to pay monthly. Not just anyone, you had to be a well known to them regular customer. I think most of those customers were elderly folks on Social Security or pensions. Once, after I’d been shopping there a while, I went to write a check and found I didn’t have one left, and no cash on hand. I didn’t live far, so I said I’d run home and get a new checkbook, come back and pick up the groceries. They said I could take my stuff then! You better believe I got back to pay them ASAP. In a side note when I first began shopping there I was puzzled by how fast the couple who ran the place moved around. I mean, there were a couple other employees, but the one guy and gal were like quick change artists or something. Turns out it was _two_ married couples, identical twin brothers married to identical twin sisters. ---
**Author:** ![zbuzz](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/z/e19b73/32.png) [@zbuzz](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/zbuzz)\ **Post date:** [December 5, 2015, 4:44am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/things-i-have-learned-listening-to-1949-1950-dragnet-radio-shows/739198/23 "2015-12-05T04:44:55Z")
Does the radio show have any of the moralizing like the 1960s TV version has? Or is it straight forward police procedural? I’d love to hear what a 20 years younger Friday has to say about proto-beatniks. ---
**Author:** ![Roderick\_Femm](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/roderick_femm/32/14875_2.png) [@Roderick\_Femm](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Roderick_Femm)\ **Post date:** [December 5, 2015, 4:46am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/things-i-have-learned-listening-to-1949-1950-dragnet-radio-shows/739198/24 "2015-12-05T04:46:34Z")
> [@astro](#): > > There have been a few Hispanic voices and characters but so far zero black people. If it’s radio, how can you tell? ---
**Author:** ![madsircool](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/madsircool/32/3432_2.png) [@madsircool](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/madsircool)\ **Post date:** [December 5, 2015, 4:47am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/things-i-have-learned-listening-to-1949-1950-dragnet-radio-shows/739198/25 "2015-12-05T04:47:46Z")
> [@zbuzz](#): > > Does the radio show have any of the moralizing like the 1960s TV version has? Or is it straight forward police procedural? I’d love to hear what a 20 years younger Friday has to say about proto-beatniks. Tbf police saw the ugly side of the 60s. Its bound to jade most of us. ---
**Author:** ![astro](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/a/9dc877/32.png) [@astro](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/astro)\ **Post date:** [December 5, 2015, 5:59am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/things-i-have-learned-listening-to-1949-1950-dragnet-radio-shows/739198/26 "2015-12-05T05:59:29Z")
> [@zbuzz](#): > > Does the radio show have any of the moralizing like the 1960s TV version has? Or is it straight forward police procedural? I’d love to hear what a 20 years younger Friday has to say about proto-beatniks. A few things about kids in the 49-50 Dragnet universe. The “good kids” in Dragnet were literally “Golly Gee Willikers” stereotypes and would make old school Archie Andrews look like a hardass. Teenage gangs are mostly all white and were not overtly organized criminal enterprises. They did bad stuff on occasion but it was mostly beating up other rival gang members. All out gang wars were a constant worry. Parents who coddled and defended their precious flowers enabled all this. And then they would blame the police when their little shits got killed. Dragnet troweled this point on. Criminal teenagers were sent to some kind of Juvenile camps or farms. Like today you could charge a under 17 kid as an adult if the crime was serious enough. The hardcore badun’s were back sass machines until someone got killed then they started crying like babies. Marijuana was killer devil weed. And yes there were a lot of 60 second Joe Friday threat lectures, but to be fair he has to swallow a boatload of surly teenage back sass before he unleashes. ---
**Author:** ![astro](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/a/9dc877/32.png) [@astro](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/astro)\ **Post date:** [December 5, 2015, 6:05am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/things-i-have-learned-listening-to-1949-1950-dragnet-radio-shows/739198/27 "2015-12-05T06:05:49Z")
nm. ---
**Author:** ![astro](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/a/9dc877/32.png) [@astro](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/astro)\ **Post date:** [December 5, 2015, 6:16am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/things-i-have-learned-listening-to-1949-1950-dragnet-radio-shows/739198/28 "2015-12-05T06:16:40Z")
Adult actresses doing little girl child voices is a bit painful to listen to but it’s OK. The funniest part is when they need background cat, dog or parrot meows, barks or squawks for setting the scene they load up the scene with those noises, these animals yammer away just won’t shut up while the humans talk. And these were are not prerecorded tapes of real animals, there were voice actors making those animal sounds. ---
**Author:** ![Ellis\_Aponte\_Jr](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/e/5daacb/32.png) [@Ellis\_Aponte\_Jr](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Ellis_Aponte_Jr)\ **Post date:** [December 5, 2015, 4:52pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/things-i-have-learned-listening-to-1949-1950-dragnet-radio-shows/739198/29 "2015-12-05T16:52:00Z")
> [@astro](#): > > Going to sporting events is considered a somewhat expensive special event these days, in the 40s’ and 50’s it was apparently considered affordable everyman entertainment Ticket prices for a major league baseball game averaged $1.50 in 1949-50, which adjusted for inflation works out to $15 today. In reality ticket prices average $30 today, so are relatively more expensive (setting aside all the merchandise fans are expected to buy nowadays). Worth noting that most baseball games were played during the day back then, hence were out of reach of the average 9-to-5 worker on a workday. LA didn’t have any major league baseball team back in 1949-50, so presumably Dragnet characters are going to minor league games, which would be cheaper to attend. LA did have two pro football teams in 1949, the Rams (NFL) and the Dons (AAFC) - googling old ticket stubs indicates that Rams tickets cost $3.60 while Dons tickets cost a mere $1.50. ---
**Author:** ![madsircool](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/madsircool/32/3432_2.png) [@madsircool](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/madsircool)\ **Post date:** [December 5, 2015, 7:31pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/things-i-have-learned-listening-to-1949-1950-dragnet-radio-shows/739198/30 "2015-12-05T19:31:11Z")
There were the LA Angels who played in a stadium on the current site of the Beverly Center. ---
**Author:** ![NDP](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/ndp/32/55_2.png) [@NDP](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/NDP)\ **Post date:** [December 6, 2015, 12:59am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/things-i-have-learned-listening-to-1949-1950-dragnet-radio-shows/739198/31 "2015-12-06T00:59:39Z")
> [@madsircool](#): > > There were the LA Angels who played in a stadium on the current site of the Beverly Center. You’re talking about the old [Wrigley Field (Los Angeles)](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Wrigley_Field_(Los_Angeles))right? That was the same stadium where they later shot “Home Run Derby” and where the expansion American League Los Angeles/California/Anaheim/Los Angeles Angels of Anaheim spent their first season in 1961. There was also the [Hollywood Stars.](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hollywood_Stars) Both teams were in the Pacific Coast League until the Dodgers moved in for the 1958 season. ---
**Author:** ![guizot](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/guizot/32/3636_2.png) [@guizot](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/guizot)\ **Post date:** [December 6, 2015, 2:30am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/things-i-have-learned-listening-to-1949-1950-dragnet-radio-shows/739198/32 "2015-12-06T02:30:56Z")
> [@NDP](#): > > You’re talking about the old [Wrigley Field (Los Angeles)](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Wrigley_Field_(Los_Angeles))right? I don’t think so. I believe the Beverly Center was an amusement park before, not a baseball stadium. There was a baseball stadium just east of that location, near the Pan Pacific Auditorium and CBS Television City. Wrigely Field was on Avalon Blvd. (Wrigley also developed Catalina Island, with the city of Avalon.) ---
**Author:** ![guizot](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/guizot/32/3636_2.png) [@guizot](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/guizot)\ **Post date:** [December 6, 2015, 2:39am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/things-i-have-learned-listening-to-1949-1950-dragnet-radio-shows/739198/33 "2015-12-06T02:39:50Z")
> [@RealityChuck](#): > > One of the joys of _Dragnet_ is its dialog. People would go off on tangents – for several lines of dialog – that has nothing to do with plot or character. But it worked. Yeah, that’s what I meant in the post above “by constitutionally slow-witted and naive.” It might’ve worked back then, but after a while (on the radio show, a least), it gets intrusive, because even back then, I’m sure, you would have some people more keen to the discourse of police questioning than others. It was a heavy-handed way to make the show more “real,” contrasting the “average Joe” with the savvy police detective. ---
**Author:** ![Lumpy](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/lumpy/32/446_2.png) [@Lumpy](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Lumpy)\ **Post date:** [December 6, 2015, 2:43am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/things-i-have-learned-listening-to-1949-1950-dragnet-radio-shows/739198/34 "2015-12-06T02:43:32Z")
> [@astro](#): > > Criminal teenagers were sent to some kind of Juvenile camps or farms. Which if you were unlucky turned out to be snake pits of abuse. > [@astro](#): > > There have been a few Hispanic voices and characters but so far zero black people. Pre-Civil Rights movement, white America wanted to forget blacks even existed as much as possible. ---
**Author:** ![guizot](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/guizot/32/3636_2.png) [@guizot](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/guizot)\ **Post date:** [December 6, 2015, 3:22am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/things-i-have-learned-listening-to-1949-1950-dragnet-radio-shows/739198/35 "2015-12-06T03:22:17Z")
> [@astro](#): > > Listened to about 20 1948-1950 radio shows so far at the [Internet Archive.](https://archive.org/details/Dragnet_OTR) Okay, I’ve finally gotten a moment to check out this web site, because the thread has made me curious. A long time ago KNX used play these old radio shows every night–two different series each night. (I used to listen to them when I was driving taxi here in L.A.) They included _Dragnet_, (so I learned all these things in the OP, too), but most of the other shows were, IMHO, really just not that good. I think their appeal was more nostalgia, than anything. However, one, I thought, has stood the test of time, better than all the others: The _Lives of Harry Lime_, (a radio version of the _The Third Man_. And this website has it, which is great. ---
**Author:** ![RealityChuck](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/realitychuck/32/195_2.png) [@RealityChuck](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/RealityChuck)\ **Post date:** [December 6, 2015, 3:41am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/things-i-have-learned-listening-to-1949-1950-dragnet-radio-shows/739198/36 "2015-12-06T03:41:13Z")
> [@guizot](#): > > Yeah, that’s what I meant in the post above “by constitutionally slow-witted and naive.” > > It might’ve worked back then, but after a while (on the radio show, a least), it gets intrusive, because even back then, I’m sure, you would have some people more keen to the discourse of police questioning than others. It was a heavy-handed way to make the show more “real,” contrasting the “average Joe” with the savvy police detective. Except the detectives other than Friday did it, too. The dialogue still seems very real: in real life people don’t stick to the topic at hand and turn conversations into what they want to talk about. ---
**Author:** ![Trinopus](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/t/2bfe46/32.png) [@Trinopus](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Trinopus)\ **Post date:** [December 6, 2015, 4:44am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/things-i-have-learned-listening-to-1949-1950-dragnet-radio-shows/739198/37 "2015-12-06T04:44:06Z")
> [@guizot](#): > > . . . A long time ago KNX used play these old radio shows every night–two different series each night. (I used to listen to them when I was driving taxi here in L.A.) They included _Dragnet_, (so I learned all these things in the OP, too), but most of the other shows were, IMHO, really just not that good. I think their appeal was more nostalgia, than anything. However, one, I thought, has stood the test of time, better than all the others: The _Lives of Harry Lime_, (a radio version of the _The Third Man_. And this website has it, which is great. I remember listening to KNX for those broadcasts! (I still listen to it for the best news coverage in southern CA.) And, yep, The Lives of Harry Lime was a darn fine show. Lots of fun, very witty, and a definitely nicer version of the character than in the movie. May I recommend “Bold Venture,” Bogart and Bacall, sweet little adventures set in pre-revolution Cuba, where Bogie plays a hotel-owner who also has a sailboat, so you’ll meet smugglers, murderers, blackmailers, blockade runners, and all sorts of adventure. Really fun show! My “fix” for old time radio comes from [otrcat.com](https://www.otrcat.com/) Very low prices! ---
**Author:** ![Rick\_Kitchen](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/rick_kitchen/32/522_2.png) [@Rick\_Kitchen](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Rick_Kitchen)\ **Post date:** [December 6, 2015, 5:00am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/things-i-have-learned-listening-to-1949-1950-dragnet-radio-shows/739198/38 "2015-12-06T05:00:34Z")
> [@dropzone](#): > > I learned that, until the show went to TV, Los Angeles was pronounced with a hard G and there were many people in LA with Spanish surnames, including Friday’s boss. Former Mayor Sam Yorty always pronounced it LOAS AN-juh-LEEZ ---
**Author:** ![madsircool](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/madsircool/32/3432_2.png) [@madsircool](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/madsircool)\ **Post date:** [December 6, 2015, 5:09am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/things-i-have-learned-listening-to-1949-1950-dragnet-radio-shows/739198/39 "2015-12-06T05:09:21Z")
> [@guizot](#): > > I don’t think so. I believe the Beverly Center was an amusement park before, not a baseball stadium. There was a baseball stadium just east of that location, near the Pan Pacific Auditorium and CBS Television City. Wrigely Field was on Avalon Blvd. (Wrigley also developed Catalina Island, with the city of Avalon.) It was Gilmore Field > **[Gilmore Field](https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Gilmore_Field)** > > Gilmore Field was a minor league baseball park in Los Angeles, California, that served as home to the Hollywood Stars of the Pacific Coast League from 1939–1957 when they, along with their intra-city rivals, the Los Angeles Angels, were displaced by the transplanted Brooklyn Dodgers of the National League. > Gilmore Field opened on May 2, 1939 and was the home of the Hollywood Stars of the Pacific Coast League until September 5, 1957. The stadium had a seating capacity of 12,987 people. > The bal... ---
**Author:** ![guizot](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/guizot/32/3636_2.png) [@guizot](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/guizot)\ **Post date:** [December 6, 2015, 5:18am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/things-i-have-learned-listening-to-1949-1950-dragnet-radio-shows/739198/40 "2015-12-06T05:18:06Z")
> [@RealityChuck](#): > > Except the detectives other than Friday did it, too. The dialogue still seems very real: in real life people don’t stick to the topic at hand and turn conversations into what they want to talk about. That’s true. In Dragnet, usually before they learn of the episode’s assignment there is some of that dialog about their personal lives between Friday and his sidekick. Friday typically gets impatient with the sidekick, who takes too long to get to the point, and it’s always the sidekick who initiates it; Friday rarely talks about his personal life, unless asked. The idea is to show that Friday is all about business. And yes, generally speaking, that’s the way people really talk (I should know, my masters is in discourse analysis. I study this kind of language in real life contexts.) However, in _Dragnet_ they just tried too hard. It was so contrived, that after a dozen or so episodes it loses its effect. Still, it was better (and more realistic) than the typical dialog of most of the stuff on those old shows. [Previous page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/things-i-have-learned-listening-to-1949-1950-dragnet-radio-shows/739198.md?page=1) [Next page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/things-i-have-learned-listening-to-1949-1950-dragnet-radio-shows/739198.md?page=3)