Tonight's episode is full of super dogs!
We Never Close! Everybody shops at the one and only Hollywood Ranch Market at Fountain Avenue.
Just incredible.
I tried really hard to find this building, but this is the closest thing I could find:
Corner of Fountain and La Brea:
And this depressing-looking husk with a neat diptych mural:
It's almost fifty years later, so I don't expect it to exist or look anything like it does in the show if it did.
According to Dear Old Hollywood, it was at the corner of Vine and Fountain. There's a new strip mall with a shoe store and a chicken restaurant. Go progress, right? …eh.
Here is some L.A. that's still the same, right?
Yeah! It's on the National Register of Historic Places.
Surprised that they don't actually name it in the intro, here.
It is, of course, Angels Flight.
What's to note is that Angels Flight closed on May 18, 1969. This footage would have been among the last shot of it prior to the Bunker Hill redevelopment. I can't help but think of that as another metropolitan postwar land grab; enforced gentrification and all that.
Joe says it costs but five cents to ride.
Did you know that this was the original stacked interchange?
It debuted in 1949.
Oil refining.
Apparently this building is hiding something that has to do with extracting oil from the earth:
Sinister, right?
Hotel in a handsome font. A neon sign indicates a liquor store. A giraffe advertises on the far left.
Gannon's got his Royal typewriter.
It appears to be a Royal KMM designed for 1941.
What's that over Bill's head? A yellow foot?
Man, typewriters used to be a huge deal.
DON'T WE KNOW IT
The acting is quite stiff; it's as if part of this scene was Woody Allen dreaming about Dragnet.
Joe name drops The Yellow Pages. in 1969, the yellow pages were an institution.
These days, they are a useless conveyor of advertising and vulgarity.
OH CRAP DON DUBBINS
WHEN DID YOU GET BACK
CLARK HOWAT ARE YOU SURE THIS IS OK?
HOLD THE PHONE
YES
And he's even got the versatile hairdresser assistant from the other Anthony Eisley episode to help!
How about it, you guys? Check out some dogs with Don Dubbins.
Don Dubbins Dog Show
So cute, and so atypical for Dragnet.
YES THOSE TWO ARE CHUCKLEHEADS
Don Ross? Who do you think you are? Olan Soule?
*scoff*
Wearing a lab coat and looking scientific. Pfft.
Whatever! I'm a dog!
JOE DID YOU KNOW THIS BLOG WAS GHOST WRITTEN BY AN ACTUAL DOG?
Let's have a poll. If you were a white guy born around 1900 or so, look unimpressed.
Awesome job.
Vincent Dee is having a love affair with this aubergine tie:
I'm having a love affair with you, Ginger!
Man, I can go to Bonnaroo or wherever and say "Seek!" and Ginger will take me directly to the party.
Also, loving Don's cardigans. He's not a son of a Gypsy king, nor is he trapped in Nazi dress. Vincent Dee has softened his look completely up. What would a professional dog trainer wear in 1968? That seems like a reasonable guess.
What an interesting camera angle - This looks difficult to shoot like an interrogation room.
It's as if the camera were us, sitting behind the desk with a view of a nearly excruciatingly blank wall.
Lucky for us, we've got our trio of heroes sitting seance-style.
I'd like to communicate with John E. Chilberg, II about that blue and brown pottery ash tray, cos it is bangin'!
Let's go see where John McCarthy and John Sturtevant put their energy this week.
Lots of patterns, but lighter colors.
Lew is getting eaten by a drum lampshade because of course.
This place is "gently trashed" not unlike the murder scene when we last caught up with Burt Mustin.
Those walls look the same as when we were dealing with that weird problem in the Hotel Esinore.
Solid gold lamps seemed to maintain their popular hold, anyway.
Buddy Lester has played a neat bartender character before, and Jack Sheldon has been a drunk.
Cute pair, right?
And that sofa? To die for.
"Five bricks and one lid."
That's a wrap!
Leon "Pork" Hardy
and
Charles Blake Anderson
Now serving their terms in the State Prison, San Quentin, California.
Starred
Jack Webb as Sergeant Joe Friday
Harry Morgan as Officer Bill Gannon
Don Dubbins as Bob Buesing
Clark Howat as Captain Al Trembly
Lew Brown as Officer Mason
Robert Patten as Officer Young
Jack Sheldon as Leon Hardy
A. B. Lester (Buddy Lester) as Charles Anderson
Don Stewart as Officer Elinson
Marshall Reed as Officer Whitney
Vinton Hayworth as Judge
S. John Launer as Chief Houghton
Additional Notes
At one point, Lew Brown is razzing Joe and mentions Sergeant Preston of the Yukon, who of course had a dog called King. Excellent callback.
Art Direction - John E. Chilberg, II
Set Decor - John McCarthy & John Sturtevant
Costumes - Vincent Dee
Written by Burt Prelutsky
Aired 30 January 1969
Let's chat it up in the comments section for sure,
Suzy Dragnet
The old Hollywood Ranch Market in the early 70s was the easiest place in town for a minor or illegal alien to buy a fake photo ID.
ReplyDeleteIt was also a very easy and relatively safe and well lit place for the purchase of various illegal substances and devices.
The place also featured prominently in Frank Zappa's film (filmed though unreleased in 1968, ultimately self released in the 1980s) 'Uncle Meat.'
Suzy - I like the link to Sgt. Preston. I remember that show. It was on Saturday mornings in repeats I think. TV was so innocent and even a little educational for kids. My brother and I used to get up early on Saturdays because TV would start its broadcast day about 6:30 with a shoe called Modern Farmer. The title is self explanatory. We were easily amused. About the Hollywood Ranch Market. I like the way the clock keeps moving quickly. Now they would have a sign reading 24/7. But I guess visual aids were a big deal then. KennyP
ReplyDeleteThe Hollywood Ranch Market was there forever. It's somewhat legendary among James Dean fans, as its the place he went to grab a doughnut the morning he died, just before he drove off in the Porche. The dealership was just across the street (Competition Motors) and was recently replaced with a Korean church of some sort.
ReplyDelete"the one and only Hollywood Ranch Market at Fountain Avenue."
ReplyDeleteI remember it from the Sixties when I was a kid. That sign was a real attention grabber. Never been inside, however.
You'll be happy to know that the Angel's Flight still runs; my wife and I paid 25 cents each for a one way trip up Bunker Hill on it in 2011.
Oh, excellent episode, by the way. I liked this one!
ReplyDeleteGreat episode. Ranch Market burned down in the early 80s.
ReplyDeleteAngels flight is still around, but different location than the original.
Bunker Hill use to be filled with beautiful old Victorian houses, my aunt use to live in one. By the 70s/80s it was a very run down area and the houses were split up like apartments. RIP Bunker Hill, you now have 80 story buildings on top of you.
https://i.pinimg.com/736x/ff/d7/3c/ffd73cfa6f40a10d9db5e2e901dbeb2e--california-vintage-hotel-california.jpg
Never mentioned that the underworld paid ginger the highest compliment,by putting a price on ginger's head.
ReplyDeleteI Love Suzy's taste to choosing the screenshots, she looks the same things I did while watching these episodes!
ReplyDeleteWay funky sound on the dialog when the three are in the room where Gannon comes up with the idea to use dogs to sniff out drugs; really 'boomy' and reverb-y. Boom mic too far away? The whole scene is, for the most part, played in a wide shot...
ReplyDelete