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

What's True?                                       

Author's Note About The Big Telephone

This was the first Dragnet story I wrote back in 2010.  The idea for The Big Telephone stemmed from the 1954 New Zealand case that was depicted in the 1994 movie Heavenly Creatures.  At the time, I felt people were more familiar with the 1960s revival series rather than the original Dragnet from the 1950s--be it radio or television.  By this time, I had acquired my copy of Dan Moyer's Just the Facts, Ma'am as well as Michael Hayde's My Name's Friday books.  

Television characters are usually one-dimensional.  I wanted to create a history for Sgt. Friday.  I wanted to show Joe's thoughts and reactions of the 1960s--clothing, teenagers, music, morals of the day.  Being a huge Beatles fan, I had to sprinkled in a few references in all of my Dragnet 1967 stories, even though Sgt. Friday is not a fan.  

I was ecstatic when I learned that Jack Webb himself liked The Beatles.  Need proof?  His daughter Stacy recalled visiting her father one day and finding him listening to the newly released Sgt. Pepper's Lonely Hearts Club Band album on his spectacular stereo sound system with speakers from the Coliseum.  I could just imagine Stacy, her younger sister Lisa, and Jack watching The Beatles on The Ed Sullivan Show on February 9, 1964 and her playing the latest 45 single on that same sound system.  In August of 1964, Jack surprised 14-year-old Stacy and 12-year-old Lisa with tickets to see their favorite group at the Hollywood Bowl.  But that wasn't the end...the girls even got to meet The Beatles at a party afterward.  Needless to say, they were starstruck.  Recently, I read that Kent McCord (Officer Jim Reed from Adam-12) brought Abbey Road and Let It Be over to Jack's house when those albums were released.  If I ever get the chance to meet Mr. McCord, I would like to ask him which songs Jack liked on each album.  

Last year, I went through all three of my Dragnet 1967 stories and tweaked them.  I had to add/delete dialogue and a few scenes.  For instance, I added in a few details from The Big Witness that would show up later in this series.  With the help of my online friend who was an LAPD officer, he gave me insightful suggestions and ideas as to better incorporate authentic and accurate police protocol/procedure of that era into the story.  Like Jack Webb, I try to have my stories be as authentic and accurate as possible on all fronts.  

Chapter One

• Joe copes with the changing world around him.  For instance, he has his opinions about mini-skirts and believes parents shouldn't let their teenage daughters out of the house wearing one of those.  He thinks to himself "If I had daughters...." In real life, Jack Webb had two daughters (Stacy -- January 11, 1950 to September 26, 1996 and Lisa -- November 29, 1952.

• While driving home from Parker Center, Joe fights the L.A. traffic on the freeway including a carload of teenagers in a Volkswagen. He mutters to himself, "Don't they know how to drive a stick-shift!"  In real life, Jack Webb had bought his eldest daughter, Stacy a Volkswagen for her sixteenth birthday and daringly taught her how to drive a stick-shift.  

Chapter Two

• In the flashback segment during the summer of 1928, Joe attends the visitation of his childhood sweetheart at her home.  This was not uncommon for a family to have a wake for a loved one in the living room of their house.  Years ago, I spoke with someone whose seven-year-old sister had passed away in 1931 of heart troubles.  She had been five years old when the viewing took place in the living room before heading out to the cemetery.

• In the flashback scene, on a day off of school, when Joe was being tutored in Latin by student Peggy Sanders, his aunt listened to the radio serial Ma Perkins.  My great-grandmother stopped what she was doing to listen every weekday at lunchtime.  The show aired from 1933-1960.  Actress Virginia Payne played Ma Perkins for the entire 27 year run.  She was only 23 years old when the program debuted.   

Chapter Four

• The high school depicted in this chapter is very loosely based on a high school a history teacher of mine taught at from 1960-1969. The two detectives will visit this school again in a future story.

• There are names that derive from Old Time Radio shows throughout my stories.  For instance, Joe and Bill visit Throckmorton High School.  The name Throckmorton was from the 1940s program The Great Gildersleeve which had been a spin-off of Fibber McGee & Molly.)  The main character's name was Throckmorton P. Gildersleeve.  The "P" stood for Philharmonic.

• Joe reflects on a case from late 1951 about a teenage girl who stabbed her mother and used two canaries for "practice."  Feel free to listen to the radio Dragnet episode aptly titled The Big Canaries.

Chapter Five

• Although it is not stated anywhere in the story or implied, some readers wondered about the friendship between the two teenagers.  It wasn't my intention, but the reader can draw their own conclusions.  

• There are quite a few reasons why this story was titled The Big Telephone.  I won't list them here; if you have already read the story, then you know.  In the background of the "book cover", you can see a rotary dial telephone.  The phone in the picture, I believe, is from the 1960s.  I found it at a flea market in Florida back in 1998.  It does not work, but sits in my curio cabinet with other vintage items of the '40s, '50s, and '60s.  At that time, I had no idea it would become a catalyst for my first Dragnet 1967 story.