# 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:** 14\ **Page:** 3
**Author:** ![movingfinger](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/7ab992/32.png) [@movingfinger](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/movingfinger)\ **Post date:** [December 6, 2015, 7:44am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/things-i-have-learned-listening-to-1949-1950-dragnet-radio-shows/739198/41 "2015-12-06T07:44:19Z")
The LA Angels of the old (pre-1958) Pacific Coast League played at Wrigley Field, which was a miniature version of the one in Chicago, even with the ivy-covered walls. It only held about 28,000. the Angels were a farm team of the Cubs, hence the stadium name and ivy walls. It was located at 42nd Street And Avalon Boulevard, and is now a park. The Hollywood Stars were a Pittsburgh Pirates farm team and played at Gilmore Field on Beverly Boulevard next to the old Pan-Pacific auditorium. ---
**Author:** ![kaylasdad99](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/kaylasdad99/32/3398_2.png) [@kaylasdad99](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/kaylasdad99)\ **Post date:** [December 6, 2015, 11:54am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/things-i-have-learned-listening-to-1949-1950-dragnet-radio-shows/739198/42 "2015-12-06T11:54:42Z")
The bit about no Miranda warning during this time frame is easy to understand. The decision didn’t come down from SCOTUS until 1966. ---
**Author:** ![N9IWP](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/n9iwp/32/3154_2.png) [@N9IWP](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/N9IWP)\ **Post date:** [December 6, 2015, 12:50pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/things-i-have-learned-listening-to-1949-1950-dragnet-radio-shows/739198/43 "2015-12-06T12:50:05Z")
It wasn’t Dragnet, but an old time radio program I heard last night. It centered on a clock that was somehow used to determine an alibi (I missed the beginning) Anyhow, the detective knew it was planted - because the victim lived in a area of New York that used DC and the clock was an AC clock. I knew DC was used a long time ago, but did not know it was used as late as the 1950s. The last DC customer in NYC was in 2007: [http://www.coned.com/newsroom/news/pr20071115.asp](http://www.coned.com/newsroom/news/pr20071115.asp) Brian ---
**Author:** ![Andy\_L](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/a/c67d28/32.png) [@Andy\_L](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Andy_L)\ **Post date:** [December 6, 2015, 1:50pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/things-i-have-learned-listening-to-1949-1950-dragnet-radio-shows/739198/44 "2015-12-06T13:50:11Z")
> [@astro](#): > > Listened to about 20 1948-1950 radio shows so far at the [Internet Archive.](https://archive.org/details/Dragnet_OTR) Here is what I have learned so far. Wait til you learn about what not to buy a kid for Christmas… ---
**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, 8:38pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/things-i-have-learned-listening-to-1949-1950-dragnet-radio-shows/739198/45 "2015-12-06T20:38:55Z")
Didn’t the Cubs (or was it the minor league Angels?) do their spring training on Catalina, where there was yet again a third Wrigley Field? ---
**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, 9:24pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/things-i-have-learned-listening-to-1949-1950-dragnet-radio-shows/739198/46 "2015-12-06T21:24:51Z")
> [@Andy\_L](#): > > Wait til you learn about what not to buy a kid for Christmas… Probably the most appalling Christmas episode in TV or radio (it was shown on both), not just for its story, but for its lesson: If you kill your friend before Christmas, you get all his toys! ---
**Author:** ![Melbourne](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/b5e925/32.png) [@Melbourne](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Melbourne)\ **Post date:** [December 7, 2015, 10:06am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/things-i-have-learned-listening-to-1949-1950-dragnet-radio-shows/739198/47 "2015-12-07T10:06:27Z")
> [@N9IWP](#): > > I knew DC was used a long time ago, but did not know it was used as late as the 1950s. The last DC customer in NYC was in 2007: > [We'll be back shortly](http://www.coned.com/newsroom/news/pr20071115.asp) > > Brian It wasn’t deliberatly retired in my city: someone cut the cable, and it was easier to switch the remaining customers to AC than to fix the cable. As in NYC and Chicago at around the same time, those were all commercial supply customers. I wonder when/where the last residential supply customer were? It also raises the question, are there any cities left that still have DC commercial supply? ---
**Author:** ![Urbanredneck](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/u/ea5d25/32.png) [@Urbanredneck](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Urbanredneck)\ **Post date:** [December 7, 2015, 11:26am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/things-i-have-learned-listening-to-1949-1950-dragnet-radio-shows/739198/48 "2015-12-07T11:26:18Z")
I dont remember the show exactly but it was on some 1930’s era radio show and on one of them they advertised a retirement plan saying “what will you do… in 1975”. The cigarette commercials were funny. “Winston tastes good like a … cigarette should”. And “Call for Phillip Morris”. ---
**Author:** ![Jim\_s\_Son](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/j/e19adc/32.png) [@Jim\_s\_Son](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Jim_s_Son)\ **Post date:** [December 7, 2015, 3:37pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/things-i-have-learned-listening-to-1949-1950-dragnet-radio-shows/739198/49 "2015-12-07T15:37:05Z")
> [@Lumpy](#): > > Which if you were unlucky turned out to be snake pits of abuse. > > Pre-Civil Rights movement, white America wanted to forget blacks even existed as much as possible. Depends on where you ended up. Babe Ruth was put in St Mary’s Industrial School for Boys when he was an uncontrollable seven year old. As an adult he said Brother Gilbert and Brother Matthias were the finest men he knew and helped raised money for the school. He was trained to be a tailor. ---
**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 7, 2015, 3:46pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/things-i-have-learned-listening-to-1949-1950-dragnet-radio-shows/739198/50 "2015-12-07T15:46:23Z")
> [@Jim\_s\_Son](#): > > Depends on where you ended up. Babe Ruth was put in St Mary’s Industrial School for Boys when he was an uncontrollable seven year old. As an adult he said Brother Gilbert and Brother Matthias were the finest men he knew and helped raised money for the school. He was trained to be a tailor. Like I said, luck. There were good ones and really, really horrible ones. God help you if you were in one where the staff believed in sadistic corporal punishment or were pedophiles. > [@RealityChuck](#): > > Probably the most appalling Christmas episode in TV or radio (it was shown on both), not just for its story, but for its lesson: > > If you kill your friend before Christmas, you get all his toys! Sorry, reference? ---
**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 7, 2015, 4:23pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/things-i-have-learned-listening-to-1949-1950-dragnet-radio-shows/739198/51 "2015-12-07T16:23:15Z")
> [@Lumpy](#): > > Sorry, reference? Here’s the [TV version.](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_BHmsLsYUNA) ---
**Author:** ![Jim\_s\_Son](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/j/e19adc/32.png) [@Jim\_s\_Son](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Jim_s_Son)\ **Post date:** [December 7, 2015, 4:25pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/things-i-have-learned-listening-to-1949-1950-dragnet-radio-shows/739198/52 "2015-12-07T16:25:11Z")
It probably doesn’t apply much to “Dragnet” but in" Perry Mason" a decade later they frequently talk about getting a divorce in Mexico or Nevada and how long you have to wait for it to be valid in Los Angeles. Fun fact: before “Dragnet” Webb produced and starred in a radio show named “Joe Novack for Hire” as a detective forced to clear himself because an inept cop played by Raymond Burr. It also featured a lot of purple prose. Webb got a role as a police lab worker in a small studio film “He Walked by Night”. It was produced by Bryan Foy of "Seven Little Foys"vaudeville fame. Foy wanted a realistic portrayal of the police search for a robber (Richard Basehart) who steals electronic equipment and resells it, killing someone in the process. He got an LAPD robbery sergeant named Marty Smith as a technical advisor. Smith was happy to earn some extra money but because he didn’t like the “Joe Novack” radio show, he tried to avoid Webb. This proved impossible. Webb wanted to learn the movie business and asked questions about it to everyone on the set. Eventually he met Smith who told him his show was horrible, it unfairly portrayed police as incompetent and as a throwaway line invited Webb to the station and use some real cases in his show (Smith didn’t have the authority for that, he was mad at Webb). Webb replied it wouldn’t sell, the public wanted fiction. When “He walked by Night” it got pretty good reviews and did well at the box office for a small studio. Webb noticed that (along with reviews that were mild about his performance) and began thinking that maybe there was a market for portraying police as ordinary, hard working people trying to figure out a crime and catch the bad guys. He tracked down where Smith was working (Smith had forgotten about his offer to let him see police cases) and asked Smith and his partner all kinds of questions…how do you frisk a suspect, how do you fingerprint someone, enter a building where a suspect is? Eventually Webb and others put together “Dragnet”. They got NBC to put it on in a bad time spot since NBC needed talent after CBS raided it getting Jack Benny, Burns and Allen, Bing Crosby, Amos and Andy. NBC thought it was dull and terrible. They were astounded when the leading radio critic, Jack Gould of the New York Herald-Tribune (Gould was also nationally syndicated) reviewed it very favorably. Gould thought some of the dialogue was over written but praised it for avoiding car chases, gun battles and showing police work as it often is: long hours of work, tracking down leads, waiting, asking many people questions. The rest is history…greatest police show ever. ---
**Author:** ![Andy\_L](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/a/c67d28/32.png) [@Andy\_L](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Andy_L)\ **Post date:** [December 7, 2015, 5:14pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/things-i-have-learned-listening-to-1949-1950-dragnet-radio-shows/739198/53 "2015-12-07T17:14:48Z")
> [@Lumpy](#): > > Like I said, luck. There were good ones and really, really horrible ones. God help you if you were in one where the staff believed in sadistic corporal punishment or were pedophiles. > > Sorry, reference? > **[Dragnet (radio series)](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Dragnet_%28radio_series%29#Topics_and_themes)** > > Dragnet was an American radio series, enacting the cases of a dedicated Los Angeles police detective, Sergeant Joe Friday, and his partners. The show took its name from the police term "dragnet", meaning a system of coordinated measures for apprehending criminals or suspects. > Dragnet is perhaps the most famous and influential police procedural drama in media history. The series gave audience members a feel for the boredom and drudgery, as well as the danger and heroism, of police work. Dragnet ... " Dragnet broke an unspoken (and rarely broached) taboos of popular entertainment in the episode “.22 Rifle for Christmas” which aired December 22, 1949 and repeated at Christmastime for the next three years. The episode followed the search for two young boys, Stanley Johnstone and Stevie Morheim, only to discover Stevie had been accidentally killed while playing with a rifle that belonged to Stanley—who’d be receiving it as a Christmas present but opened the box early; Stanley finally told Friday that Stevie was running while holding the rifle when he tripped and fell, causing the gun to discharge, fatally wounding Morheim. " ---
**Author:** ![Kimballkid](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/k/b5a626/32.png) [@Kimballkid](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Kimballkid)\ **Post date:** [December 7, 2015, 5:49pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/things-i-have-learned-listening-to-1949-1950-dragnet-radio-shows/739198/54 "2015-12-07T17:49:47Z")
> [@astro](#): > > Criminal teenagers were sent to some kind of Juvenile camps or farms. Or reform school, aka ‘The Reformatory’. [Previous page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/things-i-have-learned-listening-to-1949-1950-dragnet-radio-shows/739198.md?page=2)