Joe Friday's S&W Snubbie

Deacon KC

Deacon KC

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Watching Dragnet today and it involved our favorite cop with an Officer Involved Shooting. They read off the Serial Number and said it was a Smith & Wesson .38. The number was either 175806 or 1755806 [sorry, I wasn't quick enough]. Any ideas on what model or year it would be, or is it just Hollywood's spouting off?
 
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I watch that ol' show on Netflix all the time. :D

Don't know about that particular episode/revolver but this is a period correct holster for LA cops...

HPIM3358.jpg


HPIM3360-1.jpg


GF
 
Got a lot of his shows on DVD. My best guess is a two inch model 10. I can clearly see that it has a round butt with the "flat" style cylinder release latch. You can see him apply thumb pressure forward towards the muzzle to open the cylinder. If it was a Colt, you would have to be pulling that latch to the rear to open the cylinder. No doubt about, Joe Friday is a S&W fan !!
 
GF,

I really like the looks of your holster. Does that say "Police Special" and then Lewis something?
 
Lewis Leather, Sunset Blvd (where else in LA?), just behind the Academy. We used to run past the place during PT when I was in the Academy. Many older LA Detectives carried their 6" K38s in one. Cool holsters. I have a few.
Bob
 
They said Smith and Wesson on the show, so I'm hoping it might be accurate, Jack Webb was a stickler for accuracy.
 
Just the facts....

He used a 2" M&P in in the TV series. If you saw a flat latch, it must have been an M&P Airweight. There's a pretty good photo here, but it doesn't show the latch: http://www.imfdb.org/w/images/d/d4/Dragn67_5.jpg


The serial number doesn't jive. C175806 is too early for an M&P Airweight, it wasn't produced yet. It would date to around 1950 and would have a half moon front sight. There's a ramp front sight in the photo. D175806 would date to 1969-1970 which is too late for a flat latch. Neither of those series went over 1,000,000 so it couldn't have been 1755806.
 
Bob L said:
GF,

I really like the looks of your holster. Does that say "Police Special" and then Lewis something?
Click to expand...

I have one of those for a 4" K frame that I carried for years. It is stamped:

"Police Special
Lewis
LA CAL K 4"

The one in GF's photo has some additional stamping on it. It looks like, "59" and a "2." The 2, of course, is the barrel length.

These were made by Lewis Leather. I met Mr Lewis once in the 1970's but he closed up shop since then. I never knew just when or why but he was quite elderly when I met him. I believe he was a one man band who sold from his shop.
 
Thanks GF and All! I'm going to have to keep my eyes open for one of these in the used bins. It just really caught my eye!
 
In the episode we are talking bout with the SN, it never gave a close up, the gun was only seen briefly in his hand as he was shooting. There is no indication whether it is a 5 or 6 shot.
 
I also saw that episode today. The title is "The Shooting Board" as Friday exchanges shots with a miscreant who dies a short time later, causing Friday to have to submit to an internal investigation.

They definitely said it was a S&W .38. I heard the serial number but was too slow to get it all. I know it ended in 806. Must be they didn't think they needed to xx the last two digits. :D

The date on the show was MCMLXVII (1967). You would assume that a veteran detective like Friday had been carrying the same revolver for years, so my guess would be it should date to the late '50s or early '60s.
 
According to the "Movie Guns" website:

"the Smith & Wesson Model 10 snub revolver is the sidearm carried by Sgt. Joe Friday (Jack Webb). In Season 2's "The Shooting Board" (S2E21), Sgt. Friday uses his S&W when confronting a robbery suspect at a laundromat. When asked to give up his weapon for tests, Friday hands it over and the profile of the gun is seen. Friday mentions that it is his Smith & Wesson revolver."

Here's the web page, complete with photos of the episode:
Dragnet (1967) - imfdb :. guns in movies :. movie guns :. the internet movie firearms database

Looks like the bad guy was carrying a New Service!
 
That was one of my favorite episodes, especially since I'd been the subject of a shooting board investigation myself back in the day. My agency issued both the 2" model 10 & 4" model 15.
 
I watched as a younger person. Still, I liked when he wielded a shotgun and offered to have the bad guy's head roll down (forgot name) avenue. I think that was Sgt Friday, but it's been many years.

Jack Web also played a good drill instructor.
 
ScottieG59 said:
I watched as a younger person. Still, I liked when he wielded a shotgun and offered to have the bad guy's head roll down (forgot name) avenue. I think that was Sgt Friday, but it's been many years.

Jack Web also played a good drill instructor.
Click to expand...
Click the link in Rute Boye's post, then scroll down to see Friday with the Ithica shotgun. The caption says:

"Flinch and you'll be chasing your head down 5th Street!" :eek::eek::eek:
 
Guys, I love it.
You fellas get down TO it, good investigatory work.
Those old holsters, do they have spring steel sandwiched between the layers to retain the weapon?
I ask, because I make quite a few holsters, but have never got to eyeball one of these.
 
I recall one program where Joe removed his holster & weapon directly from his cross-draw position without undoing his belt. His holster was secured by a metal clip on the back of the holster. I had one of those holsters for my J frame 60, and it was made by Bucheimer (Clark). Don't know if the TV program holster was this brand or something else....The clip held the holster very stable.
 
"Guys, I love it.
You fellas get down TO it, good investigatory work.
Those old holsters, do they have spring steel sandwiched between the layers to retain the weapon?
I ask, because I make quite a few holsters, but have never got to eyeball one of these."

Yes, a piece of spring steel runs around the holster in the sewn pocket.
I would be happy to send you one to examine if you'd like. PM me if you want to examine one.
regards,
turnerriver
 
Pure Class

turnerriver said:
"Guys, I love it.
You fellas get down TO it, good investigatory work.
Those old holsters, do they have spring steel sandwiched between the layers to retain the weapon?
I ask, because I make quite a few holsters, but have never got to eyeball one of these."

Yes, a piece of spring steel runs around the holster in the sewn pocket.
I would be happy to send you one to examine if you'd like. PM me if you want to examine one.
regards,
turnerriver
Click to expand...
John,
You are one of the type of guys that keep bringing me back.
 
I was about eight when Dragnet aired, but had a Joe Friday cap gun that had silver plastic grips with his Badge 714 in them. The gun was an obvious copy of either a Model 36/37 or a M-12 Airweight as it had the flat cylinder release. It had a ramp front sight.

I read here and there that Jack Webb was presented by S&W with both an M-12 snub and an M-39 9mm auto, maybe others. Actor Raymond Burr got a M-29, but I have no idea why, as he wasn't asociated with guns much in his roles. They did appear as evidence on his, "Perry Mason" show, of course.

If the cap gun was really patterned after the gun from the show, it was a flat latch M&P Airweight or a Chief. The cap gun was just a bit larger than a Chief's Special.

I agree that the gun seen in the link above is a K-frame snub .38. LAPD did issue the Ithaca M-37 shotgun, so it was a logical item on the show.
 
There was a Dragnet in the first series in which Friday had to go under a house to chase some plague-infected mice. I remember him shooting one off the top of a water pipe (I hope it wasn't a gas pipe!), and there was a closeup of his snubnose revolver. Does anyone recall that episode and if he was using a S&W at that time? For some reason I think he had a Colt in the black and white years, maybe a Cobra.

I only saw this one once and may not recall it that well. Mid- to late '50s, I think.
 
1953

dragnetfridaycoltdsbg53.jpg


IMFDB also has a page for Dragnet 1951 but remember not to trust everything you see. They let just about anybody post there.....

Adam-12 is a good page too.
 
Last edited:
Inspired by all this chat, I went on Netflix and played some of the early 50s Dragnet episodes. I was immediately impressed by how low the production cost must have been. No action sequences, no fancy sets, and mostly dialogue taking place in an interrogation room, office, living room, etc. along with simple plots. A young Lee Marvin was in the S1E1 as a murderer. Otherwise, I did not recognize any of the supporting cast actors.

There was some gun and ballistics lore in a couple of episodes I saw - one featuring a M1911 used in a wife's suicide (which looked like a murder), in which the husband was cleared by the appearance and location of the fired casing (and some other evidence). Another was a murder made to look like a suicide, in which a Winchester M94 .30-30 was used. The bullet trajectory made suicide impossible and the murderer was caught.

Anyway, there was enough of interest in the gun sense that I may watch a few more episodes if I get bored.
 
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