Radio was suffering from a manpower shortage during the final year of World War II when Webb recorded an announcer's audition at KHJ/Los Angeles for its sister-station, KFRC/San Francisco, that wound up on the program director's desk at KGO/San Francisco. In January, 1945, he received a hardship discharge as the sole support for his ailing mother and grandmother. He enlisted in the Army Air Force but washed out of pilot training after two years. Webb traded red for khaki in November, 1942. Moyer & Alverez report in their biography of Jack Webb, Just The Facts, Ma'am, that during this period red socks became his lifelong trademark. Webb also took a night class in radio production at Los Angeles City College, participating in a mystery anthology series, A Half Hour To Kill. Nevertheless he continued to hone his acting abilities in community theater productions. At graduation, was hired for an entry level job at Silverwoods Men's Clothing in Westwood that developed into an Assistant Manager's position several years later but precluded his accepting a scholarship at the Chouinard Art Institute in Los Angeles. His popularity with classmates resulted in his election as President of his senior class at Belmont High School while he picked up various odd jobs to help support his family. The asthmatic youngster was raised in a rooming house run by his destitute mother and maternal grandmother in the rundown Echo Park district of Los Angeles with a strong assist from welfare agencies and Our Lady of Loretto Catholic Church.ĭespite poverty, young Jack was an ambitious student showing talent in art and dramatics. Neither was Samuel Webb, who deserted Margaret Smith when she was pregnant with Jack. Jack Randolph Webb was born in Santa Monica, California, on April 2, 1920, literally a fatherless child whose birth certificate was never located. Jack Webb’s Dragnet became an institution. Only this time his character was the unforgettable Joe Friday, whose Network Radio run extended for eight years and his two careers in television ran from 1951 to 19 to 1970 - and still plays today in cable television syndication. They were unaware that Webb had been practicing the technique since 1946 in earlier programs as Pat Novak, Jeff Regan and Johnny Modero - now all but forgotten. To most listeners the program’s trademark opening of Webb, as a Los Angeles police sergeant describing the set-up to each week’s episode before stepping into the procedural drama, was something new. When Dragnet replaced T he Life of Riley for the summer on NBC in early June, 1949, its small audience was struck by its realism as described by Jack Webb’s flat, matter-of-factly, first person narrative.
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