Dragnet, April 26, 1954

Stacy Harris pops up as a used car dealer in the Dragnet comic strip dated April 26, 1954.  

This time the artist is Mel Keefer.  

The Helen Corday Murder, Part VII

 *Alas, the strip from Thursday, August 7, 1952 is missing. However, the good news is that I found a better source for many of the daily comic strips, which are much clearer than the set reprinted here.  I hope to update them within the next week.  Stay tuned, because they really are quite stylish and fun.

*Update, Mar. 23: Still looking for the strip from Aug. 7, 1952.  It's the one where the cartoon Stacy Harris killer goes berserk.  I think we'll get lucky. 

I also missed a very big (and glaringly obvious) inside joke the first time around: the killer of Helen Corday is named Stanley Meyer in the comic strip.  The real Stanley Meyer produced the b&w Dragnet tv series as well as the 1954 film.

I found out some more information about the comic strip, along with some cleaner copies of the first few strips here.  Right as rain, the artist made the effort to depict Barney Phillips as Ed Jacobs, at least initially. 

I also found a week's worth of preview comic strips, which I posted on my other blog, here.  We're treated to seeing Joe Friday at home with his mother and a very clear depiction of Barton Yarborough as his partner.

The Helen Corday Murder, Part VI

 

The Helen Corday Murder, Part V

The Helen Corday Murder, Part IV

 

 

 

Radio Player to Debut in New Ladd Picture

HOLLYWOOD -- Stacy Harris, famous for his long-standing role in the radio program This is Your F.B.I. has been signed by Paramount to make his debut as a screen actor in Postal Inspector with Alan Ladd and Phyllis Calvert.

Harris will appear as a hard boiled yegg in the cast which also marks the film debut for another New York radio personality, young and lovely Blossom Plumb.

Harris' career started simultaneously with Burt Lancaster's on Broadway.  They both made their footlight bows auspiciously in A Sound of Hunting.  While Lancaster moved to Hollywood and films, Harris went into radio.

Postal Inspector will be directed by Lewis Allen and produced by Robert Fellows.


-Medicine Hat News (Alberta, Canada), July 22, 1949


A Sound of Hunting by Harry Brown opened on Broadway at the Lyceum Theatre on November 20, 1945 and closed three weeks later. A World War II comedy/drama, it was filmed by Edward Dmytryk as Eight Iron Men in 1952.  Barney Phillips was cast as Capt. Trelawny, the role played by Stacy Harris on Broadway.

The Helen Corday Murder, Part III

 

 

The Helen Corday Murder, Part II



 

 

 

 

The Helen Corday Murder, Part I

 

 

 

Dragnet, the radio program, first aired on June 3, 1949. 

 

The Helen Corday Murder was the fifth episode to air on July 7, 1949.  The story revolves around the brutal murder of a young woman, found bludgeoned to death by a piece of steel pipe. With the help of forensic evidence and a lucky break, Joe Friday and his partner Ben Romero (played by Barton Yarborough) apprehend the suspect after a short, but thrilling car chase.  Stacy Harris played the suspect, Frank Phillip Larson.

 

Dragnet, the tv series, made its debut on December 16, 1951.  The first episode was called The Human Bomb with Stacy Harris playing Vernon Carney, a mad bomber who holds City Hall hostage in an attempt to free his incarcerated brother, Elwood (played by Sam Edwards).  Raymond Burr plays the then Assistant LAPD Chief Thad Brown.

 
Shortly after the second episode was filmed, actor Barton Yarborough died of a heart attack on December 19, 1951.  Barney Phillips stepped in to play Ed Jacobs, who became Friday's partner for the rest of the season.  Beginning in the Fall of 1952, Friday's partner was Frank Smith, played by Ben Alexander for the rest of the black & white series.
 
Dragnet, the comic strip, made its debut on Friday, June 21, 1952.  Its first story was The Helen Corday Murder, adapted from the radio play.  Although Friday's partner is Ed Jacobs by this time on the tv show, the artist Joe Scheiber depicts him as Barton Yarborough and not Barney Phillips.  Stacy Harris is depicted as the suspect, albeit with a different name this time.

The Helen Corday Murder was adapted for television as The Big Barrette toward the end of the second season on June 18, 1953, one year after the comic strip version ran.  Olan Soule played Ray Pinker, who was the crime lab technician for the black & white, color, and both film versions of the series (with slightly different character names).  Once again, Stacy Harris gives a truly chilling performance as the psychotically deranged Larson.

A retrospective of Dragnet, the comic strip, can be found here. 

The radio broadcast of The Helen Corday Murder can be found here.

The television episode of The Big Barrette can be found here.

The Helen Corday Murder will be updated here every Monday over the next seven weeks.  The reproduction quality is what it is, but it's fun.  Stay tuned.

This one's about a Metropolitan Police Department.

It starts next Monday in this space.

New Show Has Agent After Spies, Smugglers

Stacy Harris, who has portrayed villains in movie Westerns for the past six years while performing on radio shows originating in Hollywood, has returned to New York for an eight-week run as a hero, Agent Doug Carter, in Doorway To Danger on NBC-TV.  The series, taking the time spot of Big Story for the Summer, will be seen Fridays, July 3 through Aug. 21 at 8 p.m.

Agent Carter investigates corruption in spy or smuggling rings operating in apparently law-abiding organizations, and intrigue in international espionage.  Raymond Bramley, who also is on Broadway in The Crucible, will be seen as Carter's chief, John Randolph.

Writers for the series are Martha Wilkerson, who wrote some of the Doorway To Danger scripts last Summer; Bob Shaw, for many years scripter of Mr. District Attorney; and Harry Junkin, formerly producer-director and often scriptwriter of NBC's Radio City Playhouse.

-Charleston Daily Mail June 28, 1953


Doorway To Danger was a summer replacement series, airing on NBC from 1950-1953.  Called Door With No Name for its first season, it seems to have been broadcast live.  I don't know if there are any surviving episodes.

Dragnet fans will recognize that Chief John Randolph shares his name with the man himself, John Randolph Webb.

The photo of Stacy Harris as Agent Doug Carter comes from Wikimedia Commons.

The Column on the Square

By Ed Brooks

 

Stacy Harris, formerly associated with Jack Webb on Dragnet, got plenty of money for starring in the TV crime series filmed here, N.O.P.D.  But ads announcing the beginning of the series Monday on Around the Town via Channel 4 ran all day and misspelled star Stacy's first name.

It's an old Welsh name, he reminded us, and when spelled S-t-a-c-e-y is feminine.  He prefers it the correct masculine way: Stacy.

-New Orleans Daily Picayune April 26, 1955