Jack Webb
This article is about the actor, producer and writer Jack Webb. For the mystery writer, see John Alfred "Jack" WebbJohn Randolph "Jack" Webb (
April 2,
1920 –
December 23,
1982) was an
American actor,
television producer director, and writer who is most famous for his role as
Detective Joe Friday in the television series
Dragnet.
Born in
Santa Monica, California, Webb grew up poor in the
Bunker Hill slum section of
Los Angeles to a Jewish father and a Catholic mother; he was raised Catholic. He was a sickly child and studied art as a young man. One of the tenants in the rooming house run by his mother was an
ex-jazzman who imbued Webb with a lifelong interest in jazz when he gave him a recording of
Bix Beiderbecke's "At the Jazz Band Ball."
After serving as a crewmember of a
B-26 Marauder in
World War II he starred in a radio show about a
private detective,
Pat Novak for Hire. Other radio shows include
Johnny Modero — Pier 23,
Jeff Regan—Investigator,
Murder and Mr. Malone, and
One Out of Seven.
Probably his most famous role on the big screen was as the combat hardened, tough as nails drill instructor on
Parris Island in the film
The D.I.. The persona he played in this role characterized that which he would play in all his roles.
Webb had a role in the 1948 film
He Walked by Night about the murder of a
California Highway Patrolman. The film was made in
semidocumentary style with technical advisors Capt. Harry Didion and Detective Marty Wynn of the Los Angeles Police Department. It was this film that gave Webb the idea for
Dragnet. After getting assistance from, and riding along with, Los Angeles police personnel, Webb produced
Dragnet which premiered in
1949 on the
NBC radio network. Sponsored by Fatima cigarettes,
Dragnet starred Webb as Joe Friday and
Barton Yarborough as
Ben Romero. They played detective sergeants working various divisions.
Walter Schumann composed the theme music for the show. Webb narrated the show in first person as the character Joe Friday and maintained almost fanatical attention to detail. Webb believed that viewers wanted "realism" and strove to give it to them. Jack Webb had tremendous respect for the people in law enforcement. He often mentioned in interviews that he was angry about the "ridiculous" amount of abuse that they were often subjected to. He said that he wanted to perform a service for the police by showing them as heroes and perhaps "make their life a little easier".
Despite his reputation, he wasn't above bending the rules, according to one "Dragnet" technical advisor who pointed out that several circumstances in one episode were extremely unlikely. "You know that, and now I know that. But that little old lady in Kansas will never know the difference," Webb said.
In 1950, Webb appeared alongside future Dragnet 1967 partner
Harry Morgan in the film noir
Dark City.
The year
1951 saw
Dragnet become a successful television show. Unfortunately Barton Yarborough died suddenly, and Barney Phillips (Ed Jacobs) and
Herbert Ellis (Frank Smith) supplanted his partner. In 1952,
Ben Alexander would step in as the jovial, burly Frank Smith. Alexander proved to be a popular addition to the show as Webb's detective partner and remained with it until its cancellation in 1959.
Dragnet began with "The story you are about to see is true. Only the names have been changed to protect the innocent." At the end of each show, the results of the trial of the suspect and severity of sentence were announced by
Hal Gibney. Webb frequently re-created entire floors of buildings on soundstages, such as the police headquarters at Los Angeles City Hall for
Dragnet and a floor of the
Los Angeles Herald-Examiner Building for the 1959 film
-30-.
During the early days of
Dragnet, he continued to appear in other movies, notably the 1950
Billy Wilder film
Sunset Boulevard.
Webb's personal life was better defined by his love of
jazz than his interest in police work. His life-long interest in the
cornet and racially tolerant attitude allowed him to move easily in the jazz culture, where Webb met singer and actress
Julie London. They married in 1947 and raised two children. They later divorced and Webb married three more times.
In 1951, Webb introduced a short-lived radio series,
Pete Kelly's Blues, in an attempt to bring the music he loved to a broader audience. That radio series became the basis for a 1955
movie of the same name. However, neither the radio series nor the movie resonated with the audiences of the time.
|
Harry Morgan (left) as Ofc. Bill Gannon and Jack Webb (right) as Sgt. Joe Friday from the 1967 version of Dragnet. |
In 1967 Webb produced and starred in a color version of
Dragnet for TV. This co-starred
Harry Morgan as Officer Bill Gannon. The show's pilot, originally produced as a made-for-TV movie in 1966 did not air until 1969; the series itself ran through 1970.
Beginning in 1968, in concert with
Robert A. Cinader, Webb produced NBC's popular
Adam-12, which focused on LAPD uniform officers veteran Pete Malloy (
Martin Milner) and rookie Jim Reed (
Kent McCord), which ran until 1975.
In the early 70s Webb produced
The DA with
Robert Conrad and
O'Hara: US Treasury with
David Janssen. These were short-lived, but another show,
Emergency!, proved to be a success, running from 1972 to 1977, with ratings occasionally even topping its timeslot competitor,
All in the Family. Webb cast his ex-wife, Julie London, as well as her second husband and Dragnet ensemble player
Bobby Troup, as nurse Dixie McCall and Dr. Joe Early.
Project UFO was another Webb production and depicted
Project Blue Book, a U.S. Air Force investigation into
unidentified flying objects. This was the last major product of his Mark VII production company. The end credits for the Mark VII productions famously showed a man's hands using a
sledge hammer to stamp "VII" into a metal plate. It was later revealed that the hands belonged to Webb himself.
He was working on scripts for another revival of
Dragnet in 1983 with
Kent McCord as his partner, when he died of a
heart attack in 1982 at the age of 62.
He was interred in the
Forest Lawn, Hollywood Hills Cemetery in Los Angeles. Webb was given a funeral with full police honors (including the chief of police announcing that the badge number 714 that Webb used in
Dragnet would be retired) although he had never actually served on the force. The number had been selected by Webb as a tribute to baseball's
Babe Ruth, who hit 714 regular season home runs during his major league career.
Not only did the LAPD use
Dragnet episodes as training films for a time, they also named a police academy auditorium after him.
Webb's legendary series (including
Dragnet,
Adam-12, and
Emergency!) are rarely seen today due to the fact that his estate now owns the rights. However, Universal (the original series' distributor) has released many of Webb's series on DVD. The
Dragnet 1967 and
Adam-12 theme songs are available on
iTunes for downloading to the
iPod.
The Badge Prentice-Hall, (hardback, 1958)
*Hugh W. Binyon:
Reflections in a Pig's Eye Babcock Publishing; (paperback, 2002)
*Michael J. Hayde:
My Name's Friday: The Unauthorized but True Story of Dragnet and the Films of Jack Webb; Cumberland House Publishing; ISBN 1581821905 (paperback, 2001)
*Jack Webb:
The Badge: The Inside Story of One of America's Great Police Departments ; Prentice-Hall; (hardback, 1958)
*Maurice Zolotow:
The True Story of Jack Webb The American Weekly, Sept. 12, 19, 26, Oct. 3, 1954.
*
Jack Webb radio show (2 episodes)*
* [
1] Badge 714 (
Dragnet and Webb fan site)
* [
2] Badge 714 (
Jack Webb radio appearances)
* [
3] Pat Novak For Hire (
Pat Novak For Hire fan site)
