Jack Webb, Dragnet, and S&W

[PilotRights]

I hope I've posted this in the right place... I was reading about Jack Webb the other day and I saw that he received multiple guns from S&W during the run of Dragnet. The two that I saw looked to be a K-frame (M-15/M-19 maybe?) and also a Model 39. Does anyone know where I can find any more info about the guns that he was presented with. I have the SCSW but haven't seemed to be able to find anything. Thanks in advance for the help.

 

[Texas Star]

I think he also displayed a Model 12 Airweight on the show.

Someone here posted awhile back that the LAPD Academy has some of his guns on display.

I think a Model 15 is more likely as the LAPD did not allow .357's. (Model 19.) Model 15's appeared on the other LAPD show, Adam -12. Martin Milner is in ill health now, supposedly, and someone posted that he's trying to sell the gun that he carried on the show. Those M-15's had custom grips by John Hurst.

Raymond Burr (Perry Mason) was also presented with a Model 29.

 

[tecolote]

IIRC, the guns displayed at the LAPD Academy are a Model 29 and a model 39.
Here's a link:
http://smith-wessonforum.com/s-w-hand-ejectors-1896-1961/239425-jack-webbs-44-magnum-2.html


Regards
Tecolote

 

[robertrwalsh]

He also used a Colt DS for a couple of episodes, then switched to the S&W when he found out that very few cops were carrying the Colt DS any more.

He was also as far as I know the only non-cop to ever get an official LAPD police funeral.

 

[GF]

Here's a thread with info, (post #25) & some off topic pictures ...

http://smith-wessonforum.com/s-w-hand-ejectors-1896-1961/253282-joe-fridays-s-w-snubbie.html

GF

 

[gdnagle]

According to the IMDB Model 10, Model 15.


Colt Detective Special was use in 1954 series, S&W's in 1967 TV series.

I think you can watch the series on hulu.

 

[Stephanie B]

Model 15's appeared on the other LAPD show, Adam -12. Martin Milner is in ill health now, supposedly, and someone posted that he's trying to sell the gun that he carried on the show.

When the listing closed, the bidding had hit $10,000 without reaching the reserve price.

 

[153]

Milner's Model 15 with "Fuzzy" Farrant Stocks ...

 

[Photog]

I may be remembering wrong, but weren't the guns used in the Adam-12 TV show M-14's with 6" barrels?

 

[6GUNSONLY]

I think they started out with the 6" guns then later transitioned to the 4" Combat Masterpiece, IIRC. There's a thread about this here on the forum, look for "1 Adam 12, see the man..."

 

[gen3guy]

OK, here's what I remember about Sgt. Friday and guns. Not that it's relevant. Interesting Jack Webb history aside.

A potential crime victim expresses a desire to acquire a handgun. He is met with a characteristic Sgt. Friday tirade on what a foolish idea that is. "If you can get to a gun, you can get to a phone!"

It wasn't lost on me that this fictional event took place in L.A.

 

[italiansport]

I could be wrong about this but I sorta remember Friday introducing the then new Colt Cobra on this show very early on. This was a long time ago but I think he was extolling the fact that it was so light in weight.
Anyone else remember this?
As an aside: The absolute worst anti-gun police program I remember was Hawaii 50.
Jim

 

[Club Gun Fan]

I could be wrong about this but I sorta remember Friday introducing the then new Colt Cobra on this show very early on. This was a long time ago but I think he was extolling the fact that it was so light in weight.
Anyone else remember this.
As an aside: The absolute worst anti-gun police program I remember was Hawaii 50.
Jim

Yes, Jack Lord was anti-gun. Had no problem cashing his check though.
Sly Stallone is also an Anti!

 

[Grog]

Thanks to the Internet Movie Firearms Database.

http://www.imfdb.org/wiki/Dragnet_(1967)

6" Python, AUG, UZIs? Must be 1987
http://www.imfdb.org/wiki/Dragnet_(1987)

S&W goodness in 2003
http://www.imfdb.org/wiki/Dragnet_(2003)

Adam-12 - Internet Movie Firearms Database - Guns in Movies, TV and Video Games

Martin Milner - Internet Movie Firearms Database - Guns in Movies, TV and Video Games

 

[Old cop]

I always found it interesting that Hollywood is so anti-gun, but many of their movies feature guns in such a prominent way.

 

[feralmerril]

Yes I remember that. He was bugging his partner Ben Alexander by not opening the package with his new gun in it right away. I met Jack Lord many years ago when I was a Universal Studio guard. He bought my lunch so I thought he was a nice guy but we didn't talk guns. I remember Jimmy Stewart also buying my lunch too in those days. They were nice guys. Hell it just dawned on me that was in 1964. That`s fifty years ago! I AM getting old. Now I got to go get my stewed prunes.

 

[MProSrSh9]

I always found it interesting that Hollywood is so anti-gun, but many of their movies feature guns in such a prominent way.

I think, above all, they are "pro-$$$." Guns and gun type action in movies = $$$. At the same time, I think they also wary of overt anti-gun political pressure and toe that line as well. Again, about $$$. Weird.... Ambivalent.... but true.

I think the underlings in Hollywood (actors, etc.) are anti because their bosses and funding sources are... Goodness help them if they take a pro-gun position and don't have the means to back it up. They'd never work there again, nor get any projects financed.

 

[MProSrSh9]

I'm a huge Dragnet fan, but the 1960's era (I have all the DVDs). I recall two episodes where guns used by Sgt. Friday were featured. The 1st, (from season 1 1967 ), involved the shooting of another LEO, Officer Dave Roberts. Friday was advised as to the location of the perp, holed up in a fleabag hotel, where he kept the sawed off shotgun he used to wound Off. Roberts. "He sleeps with it.... in his bed" said the informant. Hence, Friday checked out a 12G Ithaca pump action from the armory, loaded with 12g magnum 00-buckshot.

The second, I recall, is from season 2 (1968). After a late shift, Friday enters the Launderette near his apt. building for a pack of cigarettes. He spots someone trying to slip wire the coin changer. He draws and orders him to freeze. The perp turns on him and fires. He returns fire and hits the perp. He was using his S&W Snubbie at the time.

The ep. then goes into the BOI he faced for the shoting. Of course, up to the end, they could not find the slug the perp shot... until after Capt. Hugh Brown gave the "Friday speech..." Turns out the slug hit the wall under a shelf, grazing and lifting she shelf slightly to conceal the hole.

Nailbighter that one....

 

[DWalt]

" I met Jack Lord many years ago when I was a Universal Studio guard."

As I remember, Jack Lord was an outspoken anti-gunner. He's long-dead, so that doesn't make any difference now. I also remember that back in the days of the original "Hawaii 5-0" series, many of the episodes had an anti-gun message. I haven't noticed that in the current series.

 

[vr518]

I could be wrong about this but I sorta remember Friday introducing the then new Colt Cobra on this show very early on. This was a long time ago but I think he was extolling the fact that it was so light in weight.
Anyone else remember this?
As an aside: The absolute worst anti-gun police program I remember was Hawaii 50.
Jim

Hawaii Five-O was one of the best cop shows of that era. They were not talking anti-gun rhetoric in every episode. Try two - one season 7 episode, "Diary of a Gun" and one season 12 episode, "Use a Gun, Go to Hell". There were 284 episodes in it's 12-year run, and you only found stuff to dislike?

Yes, Jack Lord was anti-gun. Had no problem cashing his check though.
Sly Stallone is also an Anti!

Sure, Jack didn't mind cashing his check. He got paid, you didn't.

" I met Jack Lord many years ago when I was a Universal Studio guard."

As I remember, Jack Lord was an outspoken anti-gunner. He's long-dead, so that doesn't make any difference now. I also remember that back in the days of the original "Hawaii 5-0" series, many of the episodes had an anti-gun message. I haven't noticed that in the current series.

That was Jack's stance, which he was entitled to have. Only two episodes had an anti-gun message, one in Season 7, "Diary of a Gun," and one in Season 12, "Use a Gun, Go to Hell". There was an episode of the new H50 where Danno (Scott Caan) goes on an anti-gun tirade at a gun store owner. The speech stood out, not for his words, but for how irritating he sounded and how out of place the tirade was.

Incidentally, "Diary of a Gun," is similar to an episode of The Streets of San Francisco called "The Twenty-Five Caliber Plague," which aired in December of 1974, a few months before the Hawaii Five-O episode aired.