Speaker 1: 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 dragonnapp 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
add gram pill Box one home nine one three. That's
Peelbox one home nine thirteen Boise idahol eight three seven
one five. You can also become one of our ongoing
Patreon supporters for his Little Ass two dollars per month
at Patreon dot Great Detectives dot 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 Big Little Jesus. I will say, in the interests
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 uh 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 said everything I
wanted to say back in twenty twenty three. But there
is one small bet that is new. But now let's
go ahead and listen to this episode from December twenty second,
nineteen fifty three.
Speaker 2: Ladies and gentlemen, The story you're about to hear is true.
Drag meant. 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 leed to its whereabouts. Your job find it.
Speaker 3: Dragnet the documented drama of an actual crime. Well the
next thirty 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 filence,
from beginning to end, from crime to punishment.
Speaker 4: Dragnet is the story of your police force and action.
Speaker 5: It was Wednesday, December twenty fourth. It was cold in
Los Angeles. We were working the day watch out a
burglery division. My partner is Frank Smith. The boss is
Captain Bernard. My name is Friday. I'd gone across the
street to buy stamps for some Christmas cards I was
sending out.
Speaker 6: It was nine to fifteen.
Speaker 5: Am when I got back to Room forty five Burglary.
I sat out at a table in the squadroom and
I started to address the cards when Frank walked in
carrying a stack of Christmas boxes.
Speaker 6: Hi, Joe, all right, Christmas cards? Huh? Did an't you?
Speaker 7: Well?
Speaker 6: I wasn't going to send him out Monday, but we
had that steak out. You ought to get married, Joe. Yeah,
it's the only system.
Speaker 5: Fay does all that stuff for me, laundry, mails, cards,
only system might help.
Speaker 6: Brought in your present? Won't open it now?
Speaker 2: No, I'll wait.
Speaker 5: I always opened a couple of day before. Why well,
I'll put you in the spirit ahead of the time.
I opened fills this morning.
Speaker 6: Who's he?
Speaker 5: Play's brother in Denver gave me a magazine, one of
those funny ones.
Speaker 6: What do you mean a comic book? No, one of
those funny ones, you know?
Speaker 5: No, I don't, Frank, Well, some of the pages have
holes in him you look through when there's a picture
on the next page. Oh yeah, I've seen those on
the news stand. They have cloth pasted in cloth in
the ads. If you want to buy a suit, they
have a sample right there.
Speaker 6: You mean you can feel.
Speaker 5: It, reach right out and feel it. It was one
for two hundred dollars a suit. Sure cloth comes from
Scotland once. It made out of solid gold.
Speaker 6: No, they got a special kind of good over there.
It's real smooth, not a goat, Frank a sheep. Well,
it's a special kind of sheep.
Speaker 5: Then, because the suit costs two hundred dollars, you're gonna
get one.
Speaker 6: I told Faye. She said, were the sample anything doing
fanning and pryor we're 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.
Speaker 5: What you get in stationary set? Some paper and envelopes,
leather binding, Joe, you'll never learn what's the matter. No
woman wants a stationary set, get or something personal?
Speaker 6: What's got her initials on it? No?
Speaker 5: No, you want something more sentimental, romantic. What'd you get, Fay?
It's different in her case?
Speaker 6: What'd you get? Faine? Sewing machine. That's romantic. Well, there's
no way.
Speaker 8: Why didn't you buy our catchers man burgery, Freddy, 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.
Speaker 6: They've had a theft collection money.
Speaker 5: 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 Old Mission
Plaza Church founded seventeen eighty one, the year Los Angeles
became a pueblow. The outside was typical early Spanish design,
complete with mission arches.
Speaker 6: It was made of.
Speaker 5: Adobe and painted white. They called it the Queen of
the Angels. The pod raised from down in Mexico. Building
the devout Mexicans and towns still attended services there. Ten
o five am, 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 flower 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 one hundred
and seventy two years. We asked for Father Xavier Rojas,
who communicated with us. We were total 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 aldar and at the shrines. Throughout the church
was empty except for a few people praying. Surrounding the
main order were several old oil paintings and 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 seventy dollars duplication of the scene at Bethlehem.
The parishioners had taken up a collection for it thirty
one years ago. Was put up every year on December
twenty second, and taken down after the holy season. Was beautiful,
except that one of the shepherds had lost an arm,
the sheep was old and cracked, and the infant.
Speaker 6: Jesus was missing.
Speaker 5: Father Rojas led us back into the sacristy I'm sorry
to bother you man, all right, father, especially now the
holiday season. We cash our checks, Father one, and tell
us what happened, or what you think happened. I discovered
the statue was missing right after the six o'clock mass.
Speaker 6: Save at six.
Speaker 5: 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?
Speaker 6: How late? Is the church open all night?
Speaker 5: You'll leave it wide open so any thief can walk in,
particularly paved. Sergeant, you say it was there last night?
Speaker 7: Father?
Speaker 5: How late ten or eleven 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.
Speaker 6: Did he see it? He's not sure. What's his name? Pardon?
Speaker 5: Here's the schedule. You'll find the names for every mass.
There was there a big crowd at six o'clock mass, Father,
not too many. Seven's the big one. People on their
way to work. Did anyone stay after?
Speaker 2: Master?
Speaker 6: Did you know this?
Speaker 5: Not?
Speaker 6: Especially?
Speaker 5: I came back here, took off the vestments. I suppose
it was ten or fifteen minutes before I went back
in the church.
Speaker 6: It was empty then. No people were coming into the
seven o'clock. Are these the older boys, James Corneen and
Joseph Heffernan.
Speaker 5: That's right, Joe's the one who mentioned it might have
been there. Did you check with the other priest's father
before I called you? None of them knows anything about it.
Just for a check on the pawn shops. How much
the statue worked in money? Well, that's the point in
pawn shop's 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'd come here as simple people,
they wouldn't understand such.
Speaker 6: It would be like changing the evening star.
Speaker 5: We'll do our best, Father, That's why would mean so
much much to have it back for the first Mass
son Christmas. It's not very long, father, less than twenty
four hours. When anything turns up here, you know where
to get in touch with us. Yes, sad, isn't it?
Speaker 6: How's that?
Speaker 5: And so short a time men learned to steal. Yes,
but consider us father hus. Some of them didn't, You
and I'd be out of work. Ten fifty am we
notified pawn shop detail. Frank and I checked out the
two Holler 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 had n't get in touch
with us right after lunch. By eleven thirty am, we'd
run out of book procedure. We had a man to
find our only clue. He'd been to church. Eleven thirty
three am. We'd checked the phone books for the names
of religious stores in the area.
Speaker 6: Two of them were closed. We tried the third. When
we got there, the.
Speaker 5: Only person in the store was an elderly man sitting
by a table.
Speaker 6: In front of him was a large, beautifully carved chess set.
We're police officers. My name is Friday. This is my partner,
Frank Smith.
Speaker 9: Neat to see you copy in the middle of a
big chess match. Where's your partner, Autrom sanos A. We've
been playing for years, same match, No just two or
three months on this one. But I meant was we've
been playing different matches for years. I see you know
you do it through the mail. I send him a move,
he sends me one. Let's keep you on your toes
except during the holidays. Mail gets all fiddled up. That's
no good. Yues not slow those things down.
Speaker 4: That's no good. I like to catch him off guard.
Speaker 6: You, mister Flavan.
Speaker 4: Do you know we never met?
Speaker 6: Your Name's on the window out front, mister Flavan. We
checked the other two religious stores in this neighborhood. They're closed.
Speaker 4: It's the best one anyway, fifty European items.
Speaker 5: We're checking the stories around the Mission Church. Oh what
statue of the Child Jesus? Do you have one we
could look at?
Speaker 6: Sure? No, sir're a larger one.
Speaker 9: You don't want a larger one unless it's for a church.
That's why you want a larger one.
Speaker 6: Could we see it? Please?
Speaker 4: It's not my dude to butt in. But unless you
live in a big place, this will make your living
room all the counter.
Speaker 6: Yes, most of the people who go to the Mission
Church trade here.
Speaker 9: Could many of them, specially to kids, white kids, more religious?
Check on yourself see have kids on more religious than
you might be. So that's what's wrong with the world. Oh,
I don't mean you're wrong with it and everybody.
Speaker 6: Yes, sir. What if we could take to the point,
mister Flavan.
Speaker 4: Sure a lot of people from the Mission church come
in here.
Speaker 5: Do people ever come in and sell back a religious article,
a prayer book or rosaries?
Speaker 6: Yes, sir?
Speaker 4: Second hand?
Speaker 9: You mean yes, sir, not since I ever been around
shilly Why people don't have religious articles so they can
get rid of them. They happened, so they can happen.
Speaker 5: But if a man had a statue and wanted to
sell it, he'd come to a place.
Speaker 6: Like this, sure, but he wouldn't want.
Speaker 10: To sell it.
Speaker 9: 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.
Speaker 6: You may be right, mister Flaman.
Speaker 9: I don't know what you fellas are looking for. But
if it's somebody who stole his tatoo, he's crazy and
you won't find him. You won't find him as long
as you live or in a million years.
Speaker 5: That should cover it. We checked religious stores out as
far as Vans. We asked the same questions. The owners
gave us the same answers, but none of them was encouraging.
As mister Flavan, Frank and I had lunch and reported
back to the office. It was one thirty pm when
we started into the squad room. The capital is just
coming out. I just checked Fan a luntrum and we've
been out on that theft of the mission. Make it
show on the Patterson case they locate him. I think
he's on the bus from Sacramento. Well, that means the
Bakersfield police.
Speaker 11: We'll wait and see one of you, fellow Sergeant Friday,
he is, I'm Drew Heffnon.
Speaker 10: My father said you wanted to see me.
Speaker 6: Sit down, son, You didn't have to come in. A
phone call would have worked.
Speaker 10: My father said to get on over. He says that
any kid that uses phones is lazy.
Speaker 6: We want to ask you about this morning. You served
six o'clock mass.
Speaker 10: Yes, sir, I'm seeing a boy. Do I get the sixth.
Speaker 6: You're a senior and you take the early trick.
Speaker 10: Yes, sir, that way, if you received communion, you get that.
Have breakfast sooner.
Speaker 5: Father Rojas says, you think the statue was there before
a mass.
Speaker 10: I didn't look, but I have a feeling that was there,
a feeling, you know how you have a feeling about
something but you're not sure.
Speaker 6: Could you stay around long after a mass?
Speaker 10: I put out the candles and hung up.
Speaker 6: My surp How long would that take?
Speaker 10: About five minutes? Maybe?
Speaker 6: Did any of the people at mass stay on?
Speaker 10: Some moms do, especially ladies. Oh maybe they don't finishing time,
or else they start new prayers. I don't know.
Speaker 6: So when you left there were still some women.
Speaker 10: There, No, sir, that was at first. After I went
back to the sacristy, there was only this one man.
Speaker 6: What man?
Speaker 10: He comes at six o'clock all the time.
Speaker 6: Do you know his name?
Speaker 10: No, sir, but he works down and arf, you know
all pint shop or the paint signs.
Speaker 6: Could you describe him?
Speaker 10: Short? Medium, We're no. Suit that didn't match, didn't match,
you know, different pants than coat.
Speaker 6: How about his age?
Speaker 10: Oh, he's pretty young.
Speaker 6: Take a guess about forty.
Speaker 10: Maybe there's nothing particular about him.
Speaker 6: Then why do you notice him?
Speaker 10: I seen him before and the bundle, I guess.
Speaker 6: The bundle out in front.
Speaker 10: I saw him when he was coming out. He had
this bundle and he almost dropped it.
Speaker 6: How large your bundle?
Speaker 10: It's hard to say.
Speaker 6: Come on, son, was it large or small? The size
of the.
Speaker 10: Statue got that big? Yes, sir.
Speaker 6: We located the signs shop.
Speaker 5: The suspect didn't work there anymore, but we discovered his
name was Claude Strup.
Speaker 6: We fought out where he lived. Two twenty five pm.
We arrived there.
Speaker 5: It was a hotel for men, mostly old man, mostly
down on hours. Was called the Golden Dream.
Speaker 6: Police officers, we're looking for Claude Stroup.
Speaker 4: Hope Claude didn't get any trouble.
Speaker 6: So the way is he in?
Speaker 4: H he's got room three h seven. You can check
if you like.
Speaker 6: Go take your word. Were you on this morning? H? Yeah?
Speaker 9: The early shift? Well, we don't have shifts. My uncle
owns the place on the shift. Did Stroop spend last
night here? Came in about eleven? When'd he leave this morning?
Speaker 4: Round six men.
Speaker 9: Before to come back after eight o'clock or so? Then left,
supposed to be back at ten and pulls this trick?
Speaker 6: What trick?
Speaker 4: Our program? He knows the other fellas need.
Speaker 2: Him program be here at the hotel.
Speaker 9: Every Christmas, we have a program, put up a tree
and sing and mostly old fellas singing like that makes
him remember back when they were kids. And Jimmy Finn
comes on. He shares number four oh nine. His family
once had a lot of money, so he tells the
fellas about it, stories about Christmas, how they had this
big log and his grandfather used to start it up.
And after dinner everybody turned over his plate and there
underneath was a twenty dollar gold piece, brand new one.
Speaker 6: When Stroup came in this morning, did he have a bundle?
Speaker 4: I didn't see him come in?
Speaker 6: He said, you saw him.
Speaker 4: I saw him go out after, but not come in.
When was that eight? If you want to look for
a bundle, I could give you his key.
Speaker 7: We don't have a ward.
Speaker 6: It's all right.
Speaker 4: I know about police. It's all right with me.
Speaker 6: It's not with us.
Speaker 4: I didn't mean that. I just met. It was all
right with me.
Speaker 2: Jean we.
Speaker 6: On, Uh stop steave Man.
Speaker 5: When there were three old men, they couldn't tell how
much better they would have been.
Speaker 6: With Stroop singing the fourth part, But somehow you didn't care.
This was Christmas at the.
Speaker 5: Golden Dream, and it sounded fine.
Speaker 6: Cross flaws crool. Well, when poor man.
Speaker 9: Came inside calling water.
Speaker 6: This is the last rehearsal.
Speaker 4: I got most of the songs down.
Speaker 6: Pat sounds pretty good.
Speaker 4: That's why I see shame. Claude isn't here. He's tenor
and they need him to make it sound just right.
Speaker 6: Does Stroop have a job?
Speaker 4: No, sir, he used to have jobs, not much.
Speaker 9: Lately though, you say where he was going? No, he
should have. The fellas need him.
Speaker 6: But he comes in what do you call us?
Speaker 4: Sure and not saying anything to him.
Speaker 6: That's right.
Speaker 9: I hope it's nothing serious for Claude. Fellas troubles out
to be over troubles.
Speaker 4: Way back wouldn't count tell us anyway. I don't know
much about it.
Speaker 6: As much as you know, and not come on.
Speaker 4: It was something back where he used to live, robbed
somebody or something, what else? That's all.
Speaker 9: It was a long time ago, away far back. But
he forgot it all or robbing and everything?
Speaker 6: No, not quite hm. He remembered it this morning. Oh
res very jam old man.
Speaker 12: You dismay Jesus Christ same on this day.
Speaker 5: We went back to the office and ran stroops name
through our eye. If he'd been booked anywhere. We had
no record of it, at least not under that name.
Four or fifteen pm. Pawn shot detail report it back
no object resembling the statue of the Child Jesus had
been turned in four eighteen pm.
Speaker 6: I hung up the bone.
Speaker 9: Patterson's on a Sacramento bus. I thought Bakersfield had it.
They were supposed to confirm they did up over the station.
Speaker 5: What about Panning and prior. They're still out, Well, they'll
be back soon. When's the bus arrived six o'clock. There's
plenty of time for him to make it.
Speaker 6: There's more time for you. We're still in that theft.
Can it wait? No? What is it? Ten fifteen dollars statue?
When's the price determined? The case?
Speaker 5: I realized it's a church statue, but that doesn't give
a priority. It's important to them. Captain Joe and I
promised to get it back.
Speaker 2: What you got on it?
Speaker 6: Nothing much?
Speaker 5: And whire is a big herder burgery Friday when no,
don't say anything. No, right, Cloud's troop. He just walked
into the hotel. He's our suspect. Nobody's leaked to him. No,
you'll keep You're gonna run.
Speaker 6: Him down tomorrow. It'll be too late then I need
it for the first mass in the morning. Skipper's kind
of the big thing for them.
Speaker 9: I'm sorry, I can't juggle details around, so you can
get a statue back this time later on.
Speaker 2: We'll do our.
Speaker 6: Best, Yes, sir, you better get over the station. Yes, sir,
what you call father ro Hotsover Commission. Tell them we're
too busy to work on.
Speaker 5: That statue, but we'll do it later tomorrow or when
we get a chance.
Speaker 6: I can't you call it. Well, we better get over
the station.
Speaker 5: If Patterson's on that bus, we don't want to miss him,
all right, I'll call.
Speaker 6: Him alrighty, yeah.
Speaker 9: I can send finding in priority. Might as well stand
another thing. Whenever you say, Kavin, you.
Speaker 3: Are listening to Dragnet, the authentic story of your police force.
Speaker 6: An action or three pm. We arrived at the Olden
Dream Hotel.
Speaker 5: The desk clerk was right, Claude Stroop looked like a
man who at his troubles at bargain rates.
Speaker 6: We named Claude Stroup. Yes, police officers, we'd like to
talk to you.
Speaker 13: I didn't do anything against the law, honest, I didn't
do anything against.
Speaker 6: Yep, I'm been accused. I want to take you downtown.
Speaker 9: We like to talk to you. No said, I'm not going.
I'm not going anywhere. I'm not going to talk to anybody.
Speaker 14: You're half wrong already.
Speaker 5: Five point fifteen pm we returned Stooped for interrogation.
Speaker 6: He kept his word. He refused to talk.
Speaker 5: Six oh five pm, Frank called Fay total he'd be
a little late. Stroop didn't move for a whole hour.
He sat and stared, but he didn't talk. Six forty
pm we got a final report from pawn shop detail.
The shops were closed. There was no statue. Stroop still
hadn't talked.
Speaker 9: Don't you ever want to go? Homestroop? If I was
to talk, you 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.
Speaker 13: 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 and a single one. Why don't
just tell us what happens, toupe?
Speaker 6: How would I know you'd let me go?
Speaker 13: 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 towards the hotel back up. I
left my stuff at the hotel, and then I picked
up Georgia's car. I didn't steal it. He said I
could have it any time I wanted, Only this time
I didn't ask him.
Speaker 6: I took it and started out. Yeah, I should have asked,
but I just didn't.
Speaker 13: I went over to Grand Avenue for the Christmas bulbs
for this fellow sales in 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 off and tried to wipe it off with my handkerchief,
you know, spit on a line.
Speaker 6: Only didn't do no good.
Speaker 9: I didn't think anybody saw. I don't know how you
Fellas found out about it. I'll check out of records, right, stroop.
We didn't bring you down here to talk about that.
Speaker 4: We didn't know.
Speaker 5: There's a statue missing from the church, the statue of
the Child Jesus.
Speaker 2: You mean I took it?
Speaker 13: You took a bundle out of church. You guys say
that was my other pants for the program to night.
I had a place sewed up and there was a
button off you can check. But I wouldn't take a statue.
I don't think you would either.
Speaker 4: He's clear at auto records quite hope for the program?
Speaker 6: You mean it's all right? Good night's troop.
Speaker 7: Night, Merry Christmas?
Speaker 6: Where too? Well, I don't know. We could stay and
work on it tonight. It wouldn't do any good.
Speaker 5: We won't find it, I don't think, so tell he's
kidding the priest. Build his hope set as we'll go.
Tell him now, Merry Christmas. Seven twenty seven pm. 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.
Speaker 6: He said he understood. We told him we had to
get on.
Speaker 5: As Frank and I started to leave, the doors at
the main entrance to the church opened.
Speaker 6: It was a good two hundred feet away.
Speaker 5: 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 was no bigger
than a pint of milk.
Speaker 6: It was a luminous side.
Speaker 5: Little Mexican boy with a face as young as yesterday.
The priest seemed to know him.
Speaker 6: Akito. In the back of the wagon was the missing
statue of the child Jesus. He picked it up gently
and walked up.
Speaker 5: To the priest has He just stood there looking up
at Father Rojas. Spaco Mendoza, the boy from the Paridi
ask him where he found it, dundel and contrasting.
Speaker 10: On here's a maniana.
Speaker 6: He didn't find it. He took it white Okayo restaurant.
Speaker 15: Must I leave Histores, I leave his l flemo riahi
in me communs, he.
Speaker 6: 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.
Speaker 15: And is diabo paquito he wants not the devil will
come and take him to hell.
Speaker 6: Not sure department problem noel diavo. This is a ma
Pako crossed over to the sanctuary. With the help of
Father Rojas.
Speaker 5: The young boy replaced the infant Jesus in the right
to replace the crib in the nativity scene. Frank and
I could have been wrong, But the small plaster's statue
seemed to approve Mary Joseph, the wise Man, Gaspar.
Speaker 6: No Kire Baldazar, the old shepherd.
Speaker 5: The young shepherd, the peasant. They all seemed to approve.
Red 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 them go.
Halfway up, he turned to look back, and he went
on out.
Speaker 6: I don't understand how we got that wagon today. Don't
kids wait for Santa Claus anymore?
Speaker 5: It isn't from Santa Claus. The fireman fixs old toys
and kids them to new children. Paquito's family, they're poor.
Speaker 6: Where are they father? The story you have just heard
is true.
Speaker 2: The names and locations were changed.
Speaker 6: You have just heard.
Speaker 3: Dragnet a series of authentic cases from a technical advice
comes from the Office of Chief of Police W. H. Pucker,
Los Angeles Police Department.
Speaker 1: Welcome Back. A quite 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 nineteen sixty eight 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'd did deil.
I think the core of the story spoke to something
more timeless. Over the years, many Christmas specials, some good
and some bad, have pride 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.
Speaker 6: A little boy with a.
Speaker 1: Repaired second hand 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 song at the Golden Dream Good King Winces's Loss.
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 WinCE's Loss is a challenge because at first glance,
it doesn't seem to fit into the typical themes of
chrism music Jesus sent 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 or
Not or something that's just a little more jolly like
deck the Halls. Well, 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 Wincess Loss 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 together full all that most of us know.
The Victorian song is rooted in the legend of a
real tenth 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 with a Christian frame.
Once's Loss 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 Breeen'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.
Speaker 6: Clearly to the poor, and so the king.
Speaker 1: 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 sides two
things that he found were distracting problems with the episode.
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 Web
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 Hayes, this came off as to woulden to me.
I never saw it that way. 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 staff.
The point which I do agree with hayt On is
that Friday is just way too harsh this episode. Well,
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's a 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 is 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 hard boiled 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
nineteen forty nine, and Web either being unwilling or unable
to rain his friend in would lead to bigger problems
in the nineteen fifty four 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 nineteen fifty three and sixty seven version of
the story. In addition to Jack Webb, Harry Bartel, Herb Vigrin,
and Ralph Moody appear as Father Rojas, the desk clerk,
and mister Flavin. In all versions of the story. There
are details that did get changed in the nineteen sixties version.
In the nineteen sixties TV version, for example, Claude Stroup
works at a mini golf place, and when Friday presses
the older boy on whether the package was about the
size of the statue, he's dialed back the intensity about
two or three levels, so it's not so out of
character for the good sergeant. Otherwise, the nineteen sixty seven
broadcasts 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 and the work of actors, particularly the work
of old radio actors was often disregarded or as seen
as disposable or replaceable, and seriously, could anyone else but
Ralph Moody play mister Flavin? Web knew that the story
needed to be remade for technical reasons. Even if the
original nineteen fifty three 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 nineteen
sixty seven. 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 and that didn't
need to be updated or changed. In fact, it was
more needful in nineteen sixty seven than it had been
in nineteen fifty three. Now, the world was not a
perfect place. In nineteen fifty three, 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 his grand a scale, as the nineteen sixty eight
Apollo eight mission and the reading of Genesis in that
it provided hope and reassurance to a troubled world and
perhaps still can today. Listener comments and feedback now and
we go over to Spotify where Mechanic sixty six rites
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 Preon
supporter since January twenty twenty one, currently supporting the podcast
at the Shawmus level of four dollars or more per month.
Thanks so much for your support.
Speaker 10: Tom.
Speaker 1: That will do it for today. If you're enjoying the podcast,
please follow us using your favorite podcast software. And if
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the video, subscribe to the channel, and mark the notification
bill 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 of
Radio at Amazing Great Detectives dot net, we have our
first Christmas special available for you tomorrow and join us
back here tomorrow for yours truly, Johnny Dollar, where.
Speaker 16: I'm glad to see I'm back to town? Why certainly?
Speaker 10: Doc Oh, this is mister Dollar.
Speaker 6: Hi, Chris?
Speaker 10: Is he still our eyes and.
Speaker 16: Couldn't shave and sitting out here waiting for you?
Speaker 6: You haven't seen the patience?
Speaker 16: Letical man, who's a duty.
Speaker 5: And all that?
Speaker 10: But I'm too old.
Speaker 3: Talk back to a gun.
Speaker 6: They wouldn't let you. Well, I'm not a medical fan.
Speaker 4: Supposelease be careful, Johnny.
Speaker 6: I told your star bus stay away and leave the
old man.
Speaker 16: Well, if I little Genie the policy pictures?
Speaker 6: Who are you, mister buddy do Gastino? This is Johnny Dollar.
He's in the insurance company to see about changing the policy.
Speaker 16: Who are you talking, man, Adam?
Speaker 6: Give us some terrorist directions?
Speaker 16: Back to by stove? Have you know policy changing at
this late date? Mister ned Kringle is very bereaved at
the imminence of his uncle's demid just family admitted it.
This said Alice, the most of your long folks, I
don't leave the young man was great. Your foot is
in the door, mister, I don't like your foot.
Speaker 1: I hope you'll be with us then, In the meantime,
send your comments to Box thirteen at Greatdetectives dot net,
follow us on Twitter at Radio Detectives, and check us
out on Instagram, Instagram, dot com slash Great Detectives from Boise, Idaho.
This is your host, Adam Graham signing off.