← The Great Detectives of Old Time Radio| Daily Mystery Dramas
The Great Detectives of Old Time Radio| Daily Mystery Dramas
Dragnet: The Big Little Jesus (EP4869)
00:44:24
Today's Mystery:Joe Friday and Frank Smith investigate the theft of a statue of the child Jesus from a church nativity scene. Original Radio Broadcast Date: December 22, 1953 Originating from Hollywood Starring: Jack Webb as Sergeant Joe Friday;...
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Welcome to the Great Detectives of Old Time Radio from Boise, Idaho. This is your host, Adam Graham. In a moment, we're going to bring you this week's episode of Dragnet. But first, I do want to encourage you. If you're enjoying the podcast, please follow us using your favorite podcast software. Today's program is brought to you in part by the financial support of our listeners. You can support the show on a one time basis by mailing a donation to Adam Graham, P.O. box 15913. That's P.O. box 15913, Boise, ID 83715. You can also become one of our ongoing Patreon supporters for as little as $2 per month at patreon.greatdetectives.net after taking a break last year to bring you the Big Missing, we're returning to one of the great Old Time Radio Christmas classics, the Little Jesus. I will say, in the interest of full disclosure, that the commentary you'll hear after the episode is mostly the exact same thing I said years ago. I love this story. I don't think that I can keep raising the bar or finding new things to say about now. Of course, I listen to it because it's Christmas and it's the big little Jesus. But I think that for the most part, I see. Said everything I wanted to say back in 2023. But there is one small bit that is new. But now let's go ahead and listen to this episode from December 22, 1953.
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Ladies and gentlemen, the story you are about to hear is true. Dragnet, You're a detective sergeant. You're assigned to Burglary Division. You get a call that an important piece of religious art has been stolen from the oldest church in Los Angeles. There's no lead to its whereabouts. Your job. Find it, Dragnet. The documented drama of an actual. For the next 30 minutes, in cooperation with the Los Angeles Police Department, you will travel step by step on the side of the law through an actual case, from official police files, from beginning to end, from crime to punishment. Dragnet is the story of your police force in action. It was Wednesday, December 24th. It was cold in Los Angeles. We were working the day watch out of Burglary Division. My partner's Frank Smith. The boss is Captain Bernard. My name's Friday. I'd gone across the street to buy stamps for some Christmas cards I was sending out. It was 9:15am when I got back to room 45, burglary. I sat down at a table in the squadroom and I started to address the cards when Frank walked in carrying a stack of Christmas boxes. Hi, Joe. All right. Christmas cards, huh? Little late, aren't you? Well, I was gonna send him out Monday, but we had that stake out. You ought to get married, Joe. Yeah, it's the only system. Faye does all that stuff for me. Laundry, mails, cards. Only system might help. Brought in your present. Wanna open it? Now? No, I'll wait. I always opened a couple the day before. Why? Well, put you in the spirit ahead of time. I opened Phil's this morning. Who's he? Faye's brother in Denver gave me a magazine. One of those funny ones. What do you mean, a comic book? No, one of those funny ones. You know. No, I don't, Frank. Well, some of the pages have holes in them. You look through and there's a picture on the next page. Oh, yeah, I've seen those on the news stamp. They have cloth pasted in. Cloth? In the ads. If you want to buy a suit, they have a sample right there. You mean you can feel it? Reach right out and feel it. It was one for $200 a suit. Sure. Cloth comes from Scotland. What's it made out of? Solid gold? No, they got a special kind of goat over there. It's real smooth. Not a goat, Frank. A sheep. Well, it's a special kind of sheep then. Because a suit cost $200. You gonna get one? I told Fay. She said where the sample. Anything doing? Fanning and Prior were in on that market. Hold up. They come up with anything? Pound of air, nothing else. I hope it stays quiet. I got more shopping to do. I finished. What'd you get, Ann? Stationary set. Some paper and envelopes. Leather binding. Joe, you'll never learn. What's the matter? No woman wants a stationary set. Get her something personal. Well, it's got her initials on it. No, no. You want something more sentimental, romantic. What'd you get, Faye? It's different in her case. What'd you get, Faye? Sewing machine. That's romantic. Well, there's no way. Why didn't you buy our catcher's mitt? Burglary, Friday. Yes, that's right. You have the right department. All right, Father, we'll be right down. No, you can tell us about it there. Goodbye. The old mission church. They've had a theft collection money. Statue of the child Jesus. Frank and I checked out of the office and rode over to the church at the corner of Sunset Boulevard and Maine. The Ole Mission Plaza Church, founded 1781, the year Los Angeles became a pueblo. The outside was typical early Spanish design, complete with mission arches. It was made of adobe and painted white. They called it the Queen of the Angels. The padres from down in Mexico built it. The devout Mexicans in town still attended services there. 1005am Frank and I crossed through the courtyard. Used to be the old stable, but the Spanish priest changed all that. When it became a mission, stonemasons paved the stable floor and made it a courtyard. They planted grapevines, trees and flowers. A young priest crossed the courtyard to meet us. He'd been sitting on a stone bench reading his morning prayers as priests had done here for 172 years. We asked for Father Xavier Rojas, who communicated with us. We were told he was inside. We entered a side door. The church seemed to glow with the hundreds of votive candles flickering on both sides of the altar and at the shrines throughout the church. It was empty except for a few people praying Surrounding the main altar were several old oil paintings in gold frames. The air was heavy with the scent of Advent flowers. We found Father Rojas up near the sanctuary looking at the Nativity scene. He told us about the crib. It was a $70 duplication of the scene at Bethlehem. The parishioners had taken up a collection for it 31 years ago. It was put up every year on December 22 and taken down after the holy season. It was beautiful, except that one of the shepherds had lost an arm, the sheep was old and cracked and the infant Jesus was missing. Father Rojas led us back into the sacristy. I'm sorry to bother you, man. It's all right, Father. Especially now, the holiday season. We cash our checks, Father. You want to tell us what happened or what you think happened? I discovered the statue was missing right after the six o' clock Mass. Safe at six? Yes. I started over to the rectory and stopped by the crib. Was the statue there before Mass? I don't know, but it was there last night. How late is the church open? All night. You leave it wide open so any thief can walk in. Particularly thief Sergeant. You say it was there last night, father? How late? 10 or 11 o'. Clock. We had confessions. No one saw it after that. One of the altar boys, he says it may have been there. He thinks it was. Did he see it? He's not sure. What's his name? Pardon me. Here's the schedule. You'll find the names for every mass there. Was there a big crowd at the six o' clock mass, Father? Not too many. Seven's the big one. People on their way to work. Did anyone stay after Mass? Did you notice? Not especially. I came back here, took off the vestments, I suppose. It was 10 or 15 minutes before I went back in the church. It was empty then. No people were coming in for the seven o'. Clock. Are these the Alder boys? James Corneen and Joseph Heffernan. That's right. Joe's the one who mentioned it might have been there. Did you check with the other priests, Father, before I called you? None of them knows anything about it. Just for a check on the pawn shops. How much the statue worth in money? What's the point? In pawn shops, Father, only a few dollars. We could get a new one, but it wouldn't be the same. We've had children in the parish. They've grown up and married. It's the only Jesus they know. We understand. And we've had children who died. It was the only Jesus they knew. So many of the people who come here are simple people. They wouldn't understand, Sergeant. It would be like changing the evening star. We'll do our best, Father. That's why it would mean so much to have it back for the first mass on Christmas. It's not very long, father. Less than 24 hours. If anything turns up here, you know where to get in touch with us. Yes. Sad, isn't it? How's that? In so short a time, men learned to steal. Yes, but consider us, Father. Us. If some of them didn't, you and I'd be out of work. 10:50am we notified pawn shop detail. Frank and I checked out the two, all our boys. The first one, James Corneen, said he knew nothing about the missing statue. The second one, Joseph Heffernan, was not at home. His father said he had a part time job, but he'd have him get in touch with us right after lunch. By 11:30am we'd run out of book procedure. We had a man to find. Our only clue, he'd been to church. 11:33am we checked the phone books for the names of religious stores in the area. Two of them were closed. We tried the third. When we got there, the only person in the store was an elderly man sitting by a table. In front of him was a large, beautifully carved chess set. We're police officers. My name's Friday. This is my partner, Frank Smith. Great to see you. Caught me in the middle of a big chess match. Where's your partner? Up in San Jose. We've been playing for years. Same match? No, just two or three months on this one. What I meant was we've been playing different matches for years. I see. You know, we do it through the mail. I send him a move, he sends me one. Must keep you on your toes. Except during the holidays. Mail gets all fiddled up. That's no good. Guess not. Slows things down. That's no good. I like to catch him off guard. You, Mr. Flavin? How do you know? We never met. Your name's on the window out front, Mr. Flavin. We checked the other two religious stores in this neighborhood. They're closed. Miss. The best one anyway. 50% European items. We're checking the stores around the mission church. For what? Statue of the child Jesus. Do you have one we could look at? Sure. No, sir. A larger one. You don't want a larger one unless it's for a church. That's where you want a larger one. Could we see it, please? It's not my due to Butt in. But unless you live in a big place, this will make your living room all the kilter. Yes, sir. Do most of the people who go to the mission church trade here? Good. Many of them special to kids. Why? Kids more religious. Check on yourself. See if kids aren't more religious than you might be. So that's what's wrong with the world. Oh, I don't mean you're wrong. Withered everybody. Yes, sir. What if we could stick to the point, Mr. Flavin? Sure. A lot of people from the mission church come in here. Do people ever come in and sell back a religious article like a prayer book or rosaries? Yes, sir. Secondhand, you mean? Yes, sir. Not since I ever been around. It's silly. Why? People don't have religious articles so they can get rid of them. They have them so they can have them. But if a man had a statue and wanted to sell it, he'd come to a place like this. Sure, but he wouldn't want to sell it. He would if it was stolen. No, sir. If a man was to steal a statue, he'd be crazy or something like that. The only place he'd want to go is where crazy people are. You may be right, Mr. Flair. I don't know what you fellows are looking for, but if it's somebody who stole a statue, he's crazy and you won't find him. You won't find him as long as you live or in a million years. That should cover it. We checked religious stores out as far as Van Ness. We ask the same question. The owners gave us the same answers, but none of them were as encouraging as Mr. Flavin. Frank and I had lunch and reported back to the Office. It was 1:30pm when we started into the squadroom. The captain was just coming out. I just checked for you in the lunchroom. We've been out on that theft of the mission. May get some action on the Patterson case. They locate him? They think he's on the bus from Sacramento. Well, that means the Bakersfield police. We'll wait and see. Are one of you fell Sergeant Friday? He is. I'm Drew Hefner. My father said you wanted to see me. Sit down, son. You didn't have to come in. A phone call would have worked. My father said to get on over. He says that any kid that uses phones is lazy. We want to ask you about this morning. You serve six o' clock mass? Yes, sir. I'm senior boy, so I get the six. You're senior and you take the early trick. Yes, sir. That way if you receive communion, you get to have breakfast sooner. Father Rojas says you think the statue was there before Mass. I didn't look, but I have a feeling it was there. A feeling? You know how you have a feeling about something but you're not sure. Did you stay around long after Mass? I put out the candles and hung up my surplus. How long would that take? About five minutes, maybe. Did any of the people at mass stay on? Some moms do. Especially ladies. Oh. Maybe they don't finish in time. Or else they start new prayers. I don't know. So when you left, there were still some women there? No, sir. That was that first. After I went back to the sacristy, there was only this one man. What man? He comes at six o' clock all the time. Do you know his name? No, sir. But he works down in Olive. You know, paint shop, where they paint signs. Could you describe him? Sort of medium. Wearing a suit that didn't match. Didn't match? You know, different pants than coat. How about his age? Oh, he's pretty old. Take a guess. About 40 maybe. There's nothing particular about him. Then why'd you notice him? I seen him before. And the bundle? I guess. The bundle out in front of. I saw him when he was coming out. He had this bundle and he almost dropped it. How large a bundle? It's hard to say. Come on, son. Was it large or small? The size of the statue. About that big. Yes, sir. We located the sign. The suspect didn't work there anymore. But we discovered his name was Claude Stroop. We found out where he lived. 2:25pm we arrived. There was a hotel for men. Mostly old men. Mostly down and outers. Was called the Golden Dream. Police officers. We're looking for Claude Stroop. Hope Claude didn't get in any trouble. So do we. Is he in? No. He's got room 307. You can check if you like. He'll take your word. Were you on this morning? Huh?
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Yeah.
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The early shift. Well, we don't have shifts. My uncle owns the place. I'm the shift. Did Stroop spend last night here? Came in about 11. When did he leave this morning? Round six, maybe before. To come back after 8 o' clock or so, then left. Supposed to be back at 10. And pulls this trick. What trick? Our program. He knows the other fellas need him. Program? Here at the hotel? Every Christmas we have a program. Put up a tree and sing. They're mostly old fellows. Singing like that makes them remember back when they were kids. Then Jimmy Finn comes on. He shares number 409. His family once had a lot of money, so he tells the fellows about it. Stories about Christmas. How they had this big log. And his grandfather used to start it up. After dinner, everybody turned over his plate. And there underneath was a $20 gold piece. Brand new one. When Stroup came in this morning, did he have a bundle? I didn't see him come in. You said you saw him. I saw him go out after, but not come in. When was that? 8. If you want to look for a bundle, I could give you his key. We don't have a warrant. It's all right. I know about police. It's all right with me. It's not with us. I didn't mean that. I just meant it was all right with me. Good King Wenson lost Look down on the face of Stephen There were three old men. You couldn't tell how much better they would have been. With Stroop singing the fourth part. But somehow you didn't care. This was Christmas at the Golden Dream and it sounded fine. When the poor man came in sight Gathering winter fume this is the last rehearsal. They got most of the songs down pat. Sounds pretty good. Yeah. That's why it's a shame Claude isn't here. He's tenor, and they need him to make it sound just right. Does Troop have a job? No, sir. He used to have jobs. Not much lately, though. Did he say where he was going? No. He should have. The fellas need him. When he comes in, will you call us? Sure. And not say anything to him? That's right. I hope it's nothing serious. For Claude fellas, troubles ought to be over. Troubles? Way back it wouldn't count now. Tell us anyway. I don't know much about it. As much as you know. Now, come on. Was something back where he used to live. Robbed somebody or something. What else? That's all it was a long time ago, way far back. But he forgot it all. The robin and everything? No, not quite. He remembered it this morning. God resting very gentleman. Let nothing you dismay For Jesus Christ our Savior Was born upon this day to save us. We went back to the office and ran Stroop's name through R and I. If he'd been booked anywhere. We had no record of it. At least not under that name. 4:15pm Pawn shop detail reported back. No object resembling the statue of the child Jesus had been turned in. 4:18pm I hung up the phone. Patterson's on that Sacramento bus. I thought Bakersfield had it. They were supposed to confirm they did operate station. What about Banning and Prior? They're still out. Well, they'll be back soon. When's the bus arrive? 6 o'. Clock. There's plenty of time for him to make it. There's more time for you. We're still on that theft. Can it wait? No. What is it? 10. $15 statue. When's the price? Determine a case. I realize it's a church statue, but that doesn't give it priority. It's important to them, Captain. Joe and I promise to get it back. What do you got on it? Nothing much. And why are you so big? Harder. Burglary. Friday. When? No, don't say anything. No. Right. It's Claude Stroup. He just walked into the hotel. He's our suspect. Nobody's leaked to him? No, you keep. You can run him down tomorrow. It'll be too late then. I need it for the first mass in the morning, Skipper. It's kind of a big thing for them. I'm sorry. I can't juggle details around. So you can get a statue back if there's time later on. We'll do our best. Yes, sir. You better get over to the station. Yes, sir. Will you call Father Rojas to over at the mission? Boy. Tell him we're too busy to work on that statue. But we'll do it later. Tomorrow or when we get a chance. Why can't you call? Well, we better get over at the station. If Patterson's on that bus, we don't want to miss him. All right, I'll call him Friday. Yeah, I can send Fanning and Prior. We might as well stay on that other thing. Whatever you say, Captain. You are listening to Dragnet. The authentic story of your police force in action. 4:43pm we arrived at the Golden Dream Hotel. The desk clerk was right. Claude Stroop looked like a man who'd had his troubles at bargain rates. Your name Claude Stroup? Yes, sir. Police officers. We'd like to talk to you. I didn't do anything against the law. Honest. I didn't do anything against it. You haven't been accused. Want to take you downtown. We like to talk to you. No, sir. I'm not going. I'm not going anywhere. I'm not going to talk to anybody. You're half wrong already. 5:15pm we returned stroop for interrogation. He kept his word. He refused to talk. 6:05pm Frank called Fay, told her he'd be a little late. Stroop didn't move For a whole hour he sat and stared, but he didn't talk. 6:40pm we got a final report from pawn shop detail. The shops were closed. There was no statute. Stroop still hadn't talked. Don't you ever want to go home, Stroop? If I was to talk, he wouldn't let me go. Depends on what you'd say. I'd say it wrong and I wouldn't get home. You won't this way either. I'd like to go. You can bet on that. This is the seventh year we had the program and I never missed a one. Not a single one. Why don't you tell us what happens, Troop? How would I know you'd let me go? You wouldn't. I might as well, anyway. All right. What happened from Mass on? Well, there was Mass. I came out and started down toward the hotel backup. I left my stuff at the hotel and then I picked up George's car. I didn't steal it. He said I could have it anytime I wanted. Only this time I didn't ask him. I took it and started out. Well, I should ask, but I just didn't. I went over to Grand Avenue for the Christmas bulbs for this fellow. Sells him second hand. It was coming out of the lot, but I did it. Yeah, the bumper must have caught the other car didn't leave too big a dent. But there was this long scratch. I got out and tried to wipe it off with my handkerchief. You know, spit on it like. Well, it didn't do no good. I didn't think anybody saw. I don't know how you fellows found out about it. I'll check auto records. Right. Stroop, we didn't bring you down here to talk about that. We didn't? No. There's a statue missing from the church. A statue of the child Jesus, you mean I took it. You took a bundle out of church. Yes, sir. That was my other pants for the program tonight. I had a place sewed up and there was a button on it you can check. But I wouldn't take a statue. I don't think you would either. He's clear at auto Records for the program. You mean it's all right? Good night, Stroop. Good night. Merry christmas. Where to? Well, I don't know. We could stay and work on it tonight. Wouldn't do any good. We won't find it. I don't think so. No use kidding the priest build his hopes up. Might as well go tell him now. Merry christmas. 7:27pm we found Father Rojas. Frank told him how it was that we couldn't get the statue back by morning. But that we'd keep trying during the week. He said he understood. We told him we had to get on. As Frank and I started to leave, the doors at the main entrance to the church opened. It was a good 200ft away. It was hard to be sure, but it looked like a small boy drawing a bright red wagon behind him. When he got closer, you could see he was no bigger than a pint of milk. It was a luminous eyed little Mexican boy with a face as young as yesterday. Yesterday the priest seemed to know him. Aquito. In the back of the wagon was the missing statue of the child Jesus. He picked it up gently and walked up to the priest. Father Rojas. He just stood there looking up at Father Rojas. It's Paco Mendoza, a boy from the parish. Ask him where he found it. He didn't find it. He took it. Why? He says all through the years he's prayed for a red wagon. This year he prayed to the child Jesus. He promised that if he got the wagon, the child Jesus would have the first ride in it. He wants to know if the devil will come and take him to hell. That's your department, Pilot Noel Diablo. This is a Ma Paquito mucho. We crossed over to the sanctuary. With the help of Father Rojas, the young boy replaced the infant Jesus in its rightful place. The crib in the nativity scene. Frank and I could have been wrong, but the small plaster statue seemed to approve. Mary, Joseph, the wise men. Gaspar, Melchior, Balthazar, the old shepherd, the young shepherd, the peasant. They all seem to approve. Priest told the boy to go home. He took hold of his wagon, started the long walk out of the church. There wasn't much we could say. There wasn't much to say. We just stood there and watched him go. Halfway up, he turned to look back. He went on out. I don't understand how we got that wagon today. Don't kids wait for Santa Claus anymore? It isn't from Santa Claus. The firemen fix old toys and give them to new children. Paikito's family. They're poor. Are they? Father. Sam, The story you have just heard is true. The names and locations were changed. You have just heard, Dragnet. A series of authentic cases from official files. Technical advice comes from the office of. Chief of Police W.H. parker, Los Angeles. Angeles Police Department. I've got Dan Morgan here on the pod. Say hi, Dan. Hey, how's it going today? It's going. Good man. Tell us who you are and what you do.
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I'm Dan Morgan. I'm an attorney and a managing partner at Morgan and Morgan, which is America's largest injury law firm.
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A
That's pretty awesome.
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B
Why do you guys think you win so many cases?
- [33:12]
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The insurance companies and other companies that we go against know that we're going to take it to the end that we believe in the case.
- [33:17]
B
So we fight for every dollar and we're not afraid to go that extra.
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Mile for our clients. Are insurance companies like actually afraid of you guys? We don't bluff. We take it to trial.
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And we are not strangers of getting.
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Very, very, very large verticals. Awesome. So how does someone get in contact with Morgan and Morgan? What would I do if I got into an accident? Probably the easiest way is dialing pound law. That's £529 from your cell phone.
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Our call center is always waiting to take your call. 247365 wow.
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Dan Morgan from Morgan & Morgan, America's large injury law firm. Thanks for coming by the show. Thanks for having.
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Me. Visit forthepeople.com for an office near you. Welcome back. A Clark classic episode with a very different feel from the normal dragnet. It has some points that are artifacts of its time. I actually went and watched the 1968 version because I wasn't sure that they used that line about the dad saying that boys who use the phone are lazy. But they did. Still, I think the core of the story spoke to something more timeless. Over the years, many Christmas specials, good and some bad, have decried the commercialism of Christmas. This is kind of the opposite side of the coin. Rather than complaining about apartment stores and big interest and big corporations, this holds up the example of Christmas observed by those who have very little. A little boy with a repaired secondhand toy, a group of down and out men giving their all to prepare for Christmas and sharing a humble meal. And stories of better days they celebrate even though they are poor. But are they father? It's a simple but profound question that the episode leaves the audience to ponder as a mystery. There's not a whole lot here and obviously they don't even really solve the case. But it's a story about Joe and Frank being drawn into this world and understanding that even though there's not a lot of money involved, that this is an important case. It was unusual at the time for Friday or his partner to push back on the captain, but he does hear and it's a good question. When does the money determine the Importance of the case. The question ties into the theme that the season is about things greater than money or financial value. The episode's theme is quietly encoded in the song sung at the Golden Dream. Good King Wenceslaus. I used to think the choice of the song was incidental, that they just wanted some Christmas song. And the reason is because I didn't understand it. Now, to be fair, I think that a lot of people don't. Because Good King Wenceslaus is a challenge. Because at first glance it doesn't seem to fit into the typical themes of Christmas music. Jesus, Santa, winter and having a good time. It also varies from other Christmas classics in really dramatic ways. I remember a time I got together with some friends to sing carols. Someone forgot to bring words. And it was a short session because we all knew nothing more than the first verse and chorus of each song. And honestly, whether you're talking about a sacred song like Silent Night or something that's just a little more jolly like Deck the Halls. While there are many verses to most songs, the first verse and the chorus are enough to capture the feelings. And that's what we hang on to emotionally, most of us. Good King Wenceslaus is different because it's a story song and the first verse doesn't tell us much. It's at the feast of Stephen, which if you look up is the day after Christmas Day. The king's looking out the window, it's cold, and a poor man comes out to gather full. That's all that most of us know. The Victorian song is rooted in the legend of a real 10th century Bohemian king who left the comfort of his palace to enter a winter storm to give alms to a poor stranger. By its final verse, the carol becomes an explicit call to charity, even promising blessing to those who follow the king's examples. But within a Christian frame, Wenceslaus also becomes a mirror of Christ, leaving the warmth and glory of heaven to enter the cold poverty of the world. And that's where Breen's choice becomes so precise. Sung by forgotten men in a broken down hotel, the song becomes practically a prophecy. Christmas in the story belongs most clearly to the poor. And so the king in the statue of the child of Jesus was where he belonged all the time. In terms of the production itself, in his book My Name's Friday, Michael Hayes cites two things that he found were distracting problems with the episode. But the first goes back to a problem that during the golden age of Hollywood, many people failed to comprehend the difference between Portuguese and Spanish last names, and that People from Brazil and Portugal speak Portuguese now. You can be ignorant of this, and you can get through your life without ever knowing this. And odds are you will never have a problem as a result of this. Jack Webb was not so fortunate. As the program was being filmed and recorded, he discovered that the young actor that he'd hired was of Portuguese descent and couldn't speak a word of Spanish. He had to learn his lines phonetically. And according to Haid, this came off as too wooden to me. I never saw it that way. I. I always interpreted the way he delivered it as him being nervous just because sometimes when I'm nervous, I can come off a little stiff. Third point, which I do agree with hate on, is that Friday is just way too harsh this episode. While I think it's understandable that he's racing against the clock so he might not be patient, this behavior in some ways was just totally against the sort of personality that Friday had shown. I mean, he was getting rough with everybody, the desk clerk and even the altar boy. If I'm in the place of the altar boy in this episode, I'm really afraid that Friday's gonna nail me to the wall for something if I don't deliver with my best guess as to the size of the bundle versus the size of the statue of the child Jesus really quick. Of course, Breen had written hardboiled crime stuff like Pat Novak for Hire, and I think he was kind of leaning into that approach with the Dragnet episode. It's a bit distracting here, but his inability to get Friday's voice right as listeners had seen and heard it since 1949 and Webb, either being unwilling or unable to reign his friend in would lead to bigger problems in the 1954 Dragnet film, I guess, is another story. On a more positive note, one of the things I noted is how many people were cast in both the 1953 and 67 version of the story. In addition to J. Webb, Harry Bartel, Herb Vigren and Ralph Moody appear as Father Rojas, the desk clerk and Mr. Flavin. In all versions of the story, there are details that did get changed in the 1960s version. In the 1960s TV version, for example, Claude Stroup works at a mini golf place. And when Friday presses the altar boy on whether the package was about the size of the statue, he's dialed back intensity about two or three levels. So it's not so out of character for the good sergeant. Otherwise, the 1967 broadcast remains pretty much the same. And I think with those three actors, he recognized that those performances were perfect for what the script required, which is refreshing for an era when the work of actors, particularly the work of old radioactors, was often disregarded or as seen as disposable or replaceable. And seriously, could anyone else but Ralph Moody play Mr. Flavin? Webb knew that the story needed to be remade for technical reasons. Even if the original 1953 color print had survived, there were many technical complaints with it and it couldn't compare to what they were able to do in color in 1967. He certainly recognized that there were some minor tweaks that could be done to the script and perhaps to his performance without doing any harm to the story. The core of the episode was beautiful, that didn't need to be updated or changed. In fact, it was more needful in 1967 than it had been in 1953. Now, the world was not a perfect place in 1953. A country was just coming out of the Korean War, but there was a level of upheaval, division and uncertainty that was really palpable in the United States during that era. I think of it in the same sort of class, though not obviously on as grand a scale as the 1968 Apollo 8 mission and the reading of Genesis, in that it provided hope and reassurance to a troubled world and perhaps still can today. Listen our comments and feedback. Now we go over to Spotify where mechanic66 writes in regarding the episode the Big September Man. Good one. Well, thanks so much. Appreciate you taking the time to comment. Now it's time to thank our Patreon Supporter of the Day and I want to go ahead and thank Tom, patreon Supporter since January 2021, currently supporting the podcast at the Showmas level of $4 or more per month. Thanks so much for your support Tom. That will do it for today. If you're enjoying the podcast, please follow us using your favorite podcast software. And if you're enjoying the podcast on YouTube, be sure to like the video, subscribe to the channel and mark the notification bell. All those great things that help YouTube channels to grow. We will be back next Thursday with another episode of Dragnet, this time a non Christmas themed one. But Christmas related programming does continue tomorrow over on the Amazing World ofradio@amazinggreatdetectives.net we have our our first Christmas special available for you tomorrow and join us back here tomorrow for yours truly, Johnny.
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Dollar. Where yeah, I'm glad to see you. Will you drive me back to town? Why certainly Doc. Oh this is Mr. Dollar. Hi son Chris Is he still all right? I couldn't say. Been sitting out here waiting for you. You haven't seen the patient? The medical man owes a duty and all that. But I'm too old. Talk back to a gun, they wouldn't let you in. Tired of it. Well, I'm not a medical man. Well, please be careful, Johnny. I told you, Starboard. Stay away and leave the old man. Well, if it ain't little genie the policy fixer. And who are you, Mr. Willie D'. Agostino? This is Johnny Dollar. He's from the insurance company to see about changing the policy. Who is it, Willie? Who you talking to? Relax, will you, and let them give us some tourist direction back to Barstow. There'll be no policy changing at this late date. Mr. Ned Kringle is very bereaved at the imminence of his uncle's demise. Just family admitted at this sad hour. So mosey along, folks. I'll leave the young man to his grave. Your foot is in the door, mister. I don't like your.
- [46:32]
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Foot. I hope you'll be with us then. In the meantime, send your comments to Box 13@GreatDetectives.net follow us on Twitter radiodetectives and check us out on Instagram instagram.com greatdetectives from Boise, Idaho, this is your host, Adam Graham, signing.
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A
Off. If Objects Could Talk takes art and artifacts out of the Getty Museum's vaults. Oh, my.
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B
Goodness. Can it be any brighter in.
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Here? And puts them in front of the microphone. A podcast. Oh, yeah. Hear from a fancy Egyptian cat, A satyr who's right at home in Malibu. Dudes, and many more. Listen to if Objects Could Talk Wherever you get your podcasts and on Getty Edu slash.