What's True? (Author's Note About The Big Witness)

What's True?

Author's Note About The Big Witness

The idea for The Big Witness surfaced a few years back while browsing through online newspaper archives from the 1940s.  A story fascinated me about several murders that occurred throughout the decade, committed by the same person.  Off and on, I had been reading an excellent and informative book entitled Soldier from the War Returning: The Greatest Generation's Troubled Homecoming from World War II by Thomas Childers.  I had been listening to radio Dragnet as well and mentally noting some of the background information for Sgt. Joe Friday.  In one early episode, he mentions meeting someone he knew while overseas in the Army. This person was now a suspect in their current case.   I recall reading in Dan Moyer's wonderful biography Just the Facts, Ma'am about how Jack Webb could have avoided military service altogether during the war due to being classified as 3-A.  Of course he did no such thing and joined the Army Air Corps.  

With all of this in mind, a story began to weave it's way through.  As you know, I love history, with the 1940s being a favorite.  Since Joe did not really have a history, I decided to create one for him.  I wanted to write a beginning to the stories and thoughts from Joe I have throughout my three Dragnet 1967 stories.  This way my entire Dragnet arc would come full circle (in my next 1967 story.) 

If you have not read The Big Witness yet, I suggest you stop reading this blog entry here because the next few paragraphs may contain spoilers.  I do not want ruin the story for anyone.  

Chapter One

• When Joe and Sgt. Ben Romero meet with Evie Flowers for the first time, she mentions that she has a job on campus "helping the blind veterans get to class."  In actuality, I knew someone who did just that only it was in Chicago in 1948, rather than Los Angeles.

• The address--4656 Collis Avenue was indeed a real house only it was built in 1940 and located near Pasadena.  In my story, the house is much older--built some time in the 1920s.  (Yes, I am aware of the continuity issues throughout the show, especially when the same address becomes the home of the boy in the 1949 episode .22 Rifle for Christmas.)

• Ma Friday (played so convincingly by a 24-year-old Peggy Webber and Policewoman Dorothy River (not sure which actress voiced her) were actual characters in the early days in radio Dragnet.  Joe and Dorothy do go on a few dates, but nothing further about a relationship (or lack thereof) is mentioned.

Chapter Two

• The druggist believed Joe and Ben were there at his drugstore because the wrong dosage of a prescription had been sent out.  It was for a baby and the dosage given on the bottle was for an adult.  Had the baby taken that amount of medication, they would have died.  One of my aunts relayed this story to me years ago as her father had been a long time pharmacist in Chicago during the 1930s and 1940s.  No, the baby was not given an adult dosage of the medication. 

• Having been to many nostalgia conventions in the past, I have seen the mint green triple-head malt mixers like the one the soda jerk, Homer Franklin, uses to make Joe and Ben chocolate milkshakes.  This is a way to ease the boy's nervousness as the two detectives question him about the druggists daughter and her mother's suspicious death.  

Chapter Three

• This was a fun chapter to write.  I had consulted a few knowledgeable people as to how Joe and Ben would travel to Las Vegas to pick up a suspect in May of 1948.  After getting numerous responses of saying they'd travel by car, by train, and even by plane, a Facebook friend came to the rescue and gave me, you guessed it, "just the facts."  A huge sincere "thank you" for their knowledge of the area and maps provided. 

• During their travels, Joe and Ben drive through Colton, California where they pass a McDonald's Bar-B-Que as well as a Bell's Drive-In.  The street names given were the actual locations.  McDonald's Bar-B-Que would become McDonald's Hamburger's and soon the franchise we all know.  Bell's Drive-In sold hot dogs at that time.  Later on, they sold tacos and became Taco Bell.  

• Mitla's Cafe, where Joe and Ben eventually stop to have a bite to eat, was indeed real Mexican restaurant.  In the 1930s, they were the first to serve hard-shell tacos.

• At the beginning of their trip, Ben begins on Highway 99, then over to Route 66 and finally Highway 91 which would take them into Las Vegas.  This would have been the actual route one would've taken in May, 1948.  The speed limit was 45 at one point.  Not wanting to make Joe perfect, he does get a traffic citation for speeding.  

• The story Ben tells Joe about when his son was born was true.  This would have been in 1942 since on several episodes, it was mentioned his son was six years old--although one said the boy was three.  At that time, doctors were encouraging women to have their babies in a hospital rather than at home.  In my great aunt's case, she had been born at home, despite the doctor's advice.  This was in 1945, three weeks after the unconditional surrender of the Japanese, thus officially ending World War II.  And the bassinet could not be used due to it having bed bugs?  Yes, this happened as well.  There is more to that story, not included in The Big Witness that I thought I'd tell it because it shows the innocence of the time period.  When my great aunt's mother knew the baby was arriving soon, she sent her seven and thirteen-year-old sons along with her uncle to the movie theater nearby.  My grandpa was there too, but not in the apartment at that time.  I'm not sure where he was, however, since he was 17 at the time, he may have been out with his friends or working somewhere.  The boys noticed how their uncle kept leaving the theater to make yet another phone call in the lobby.  He must've had a lot of nickels on hand!  Still oblivious to what was going on, they all came home and discovered their family had expanded to include a baby sister, yet the younger ones were not sure where this new addition came from.  

Chapter Seven

• The dream Joe has during the opening of this chapter is an actual incident that happened to Jack Webb as a young boy.  

• Ben's recollections of his seventeen-year-old self insisting that his parents sign the papers for him to fight in the Great War actually happened.  I once spoke with someone who's brother did just that--only he went off to World War II and did come home.  

• Ben continues and relates to Joe about his first kill during wartime which involved hand-to-hand co combat.  The way he tells it was very real as someone told me this happened with their father during World War II.  
• When Joe confides to Ben about his war buddy, the story he tells about him being from a small town was loosely based on a story I heard from a World War II veteran a few years ago.  I lived in a small suburb of Rockford, IL for nearly a decade and met a World War II veteran who flew B-17's during the war.  He was born in the mid-1920s in this area and during the 1930s there really was only one police officer who worked part-time for the town.  

• As stated above, in real life, Jack Webb was classified 3-A.  According to Dan Moyer's book, Just the Facts, Ma'am, Webb qualified for this deferment because he was the primary support for his legally blind grandmother.  After Pearl Harbor was bombed on December 7, 1941, with the help of a friend's father, he obtained a job at the Byron Jackson Pump Company where he became an electric-hacksaw operator making parts for antitank guns.  After six months, Webb decided this swing-shift job was not fulfilling or adventurous enough.  It was then he chose to enlist in one of the branches of military service (despite his deferment.)  After failing the written exam for the Navy and shunning the Marine Corps. due to a belligerent recruiter, the Army Air Corps. was it (pages 28 and 29.)

• When many veterans returned hom from World War II, whether consciously or unconsciously, they carried a part of the war with them for the rest of their lives.  Others adapted to civilian life just fine, while some dealt with what was known as "battle fatigue" back then.  Some cases were worse than others, but many could still live a mostly normal life.  They became employed or went to college, obtained a loan for a home courtesy of the newly-constructed G.I. Bill.  Many raised a family thus creating the "baby boom" generation.  It all seems idyllic, however, many suffered alone.  I tried to recreate this in The Big Witness with Joe's war experiences and afterward.  He has a short-temper at times, nightmares, seldom speaks of the war until a poignant scene in the story arises.  Many turned to alcohol, women, and while the marriage rate soared after the war, so did divorces.  I tried to find a way for Joe to battle his demons with the help of his partner Sgt. Ben Romero and steady girlfriend Policewoman Dorothy River.  I recall watching the 2007 Ken Burns documentary The War and a woman explained that the recently returned veterans in the neighborhood who gathered on her front porch on many evenings, unbeknownst to them were healing by discussing their war experiences with one another.  I attempt to convey this in my story as well although the ending may not be the happiest but it's a pathway to normalcy.

Chapter Eight

• With my stories, I do my best to recreate the time period specified.  I would like it to be as accurate and authentic as possible.  For instance, at one point, after Joe and Dorothy relationship goes up a notch, she explains how difficult it was to obtain a diaphragm as an unmarried woman.  The incident spoken of occurred in the 1930s and can be found in the following book, Devices & Desires:  A History of American Contraception by Andrea Tone.  I thought it would be fascinating and realistic to show this other side of things besides that old and overdone "guy goes to the drugstore" bit.  This too shows that they were two consenting, responsible adults.

• While there are a few love scenes in my stories, I wanted to write them in a different way by avoiding the cliched, sophomoric, vulgar, and juvenile descriptions writers (be it fan fiction or published works) tend to gravitate to upon such scenes.  I still get the point across. I have been told that these scenes have been tastefully done and that I write them very well.  I wanted to include them when I felt they were necessary (much like the cursing).  I did not want either to be gratuitous as many writers tend to lean heavily on such additions that can become unnecessary and unrealistic.  Nor did I want to scenes to feel they were "tacked on" as if to say, "let's add a sex scene here because it's the popular thing to write these days and may increase readership."  Still, there are people out there who cannot fathom Joe Friday having a steady girlfriend, much less having relations.  When writing, you create three-dimensional characters, provide them with a background and history.  On the radio and television shows, you only see a one-dimensional character.  

Chapter Nine

• The scene where Ben talks about taking his son bowling and the interaction with the pin-boy was true.  I knew someone who told me about the time a pin-boy tied a string of fishing wire to a pin to "help" the girl whom he had a crush on knock more pins down.  This was about 1950 and soon thereafter, the automatic pin-setting machines made their appearance in bowling alleys across the nation.  Suddenly, many teens were out of a job due to technology.

• The police protocol and procedural aspects of the day throughout The Big Witness (as well as my other Dragnet stories) are as authentic and accurate as can be.   I cannot express my gratitude enough for the knowledge and expertise from an online friend of mine who is a retired LAPD police officer.  He is also a history buff and assisted with Sgt. Ben Romero's background information.  

Chapter Ten

• While Joe is home sick with the grippe, Ben visits and tells him of his day.  The case he mentions about the man taking his own life due to his wife two-timing him, was found in a newspaper that had been inside a wall used as insulation for a house.  The newspaper was from February of 1945.  Albeit very brittle, that article was still able to be read.  I decided to include it in The Big Witness. 

Chapter Eleven

• Not only in this chapter, but throughout The Big Witness, many radio shows are mentioned playing in the background.  All of the programs and times were taken from radio logs an Old Time Radio enthusiast generously uploaded from The Los Angeles Times between radio's Golden Age.  The year, month, and even the day can be found.  

• The case Joe and Ben attend the hearing for was loosely based on the real incident that took place in Texarkana in 1946.  However, the real case was unsolved.  Those murders were never been solved.  
  

Chapter Twelve

• As I stated above, I do have a plan in the works for another Dragnet 1967 story.  This story will flashback to some of the scenes that take place in The Big Witness.  I have left the ending for the reader to decide.  Although it will be explained more in my next writing endeavor.   But for now, I will be posting my three Dragnet 1967 stories, beginning with The Big Telephone.