BOOK REVIEWS

Just the Facts, Ma'am: The Authorized Biography of Jack Webb Daniel Moyer and Eugene Alvarez 2001 Should you buy this book? Mais oui!

Jack Webb was born on April 2, 1920, and died at the early age of 62 on December 23, 1982. Just The Facts, Ma'am tells the story of his life. He grew up very poor, with no father in the house, and early began his interests in jazz music and producing entertainment shows for his high school. He served in the military from 1942 to 1945. When he got out, he auditioned as a disc jockey and got the job. Thus started his career in radio. His first starring drama role was in Pat Novak For Hire in 1946. This role led to other radio roles as well as parts in the movies. Webb's first role, as forensic chemist Lieutenant Lee Jones, in He Walked By Night (1948) starring Richard Basehart and Scott Brady, also provided the inspiration for his radio program, Dragnet which debuted in 1949. From there, Webb never looked back. Dragnet came to tv, as did Pete Kelly's Blues. Then came Adam-12, Emergency, Ohara, US Treasury (starring Richard Jannsen), Hec Ramsey, (the detective western starring Richard Boone) and even Project UFO. Jack Webb on the cover of Time Magazine, in 1954 Authors Daniel Moyer and Eugene Alvarez, working in close cooperation with Webb's daughter Stacy, have told the story of Jack Webb's life, from his childhood poverty to his rise to a successful television producer and actor. Many of Webb's friends are interviewed and provide insight into his life. The book also features artwork drawn by Webb himself, as well as many photos of Webb's childhood, family and later career. Webb comes across as a complex, flawed, driven man. Sad to say, Moyer and Alvarez aren't quite up to the task of telling the story. Many tidbits of information are tossed out into the narrative and lay there, with no more flesh added to the bones. At times the narrative jumps back and forth between time periods which can be a bit irritating. There is disappointment, also. Although the authors provide quotes from several of Webb's friends and business associates - there are no insights from Martin Milner or even Harry Morgan, two men whose careers were given a boost by Webb and who would have had a great deal of interest to say. It is assumed they declined to give interviews. However, quotes from Webb's first wife, Julie London (later to star in Webb's Emergency along with her second husband, Bobby Troup) are given, as well as from Janet Leigh, Harry Bartell, Peggy Webber and many more. Despite the short-comings of the writing style, this is a must read for fans of Webb, Dragnet, as well as self-made men and how-they-did-it. This book is a revised and expanded edition, from a limited edition first published in 1999. It includes a bibliography as well as a webography, and of course an index. Table of Contents Preface Prologue 1. ''We were unbelievably poor.'' 2. ''No, ma'am, I'm Jewish and Irish 3. ''A well-favored man is the gift of fortune.'' 4. ''My heart did not belong to Hart Schaffner and Marx'' 5. ''I went in with a dream. I cameout with a blank page.'' 6. ''For eight or nine weeks I was everybody's hotcake.'' 7. ''The magic csrpet unravelled and I couldn't get a job.'' 8. Radio Dragnet - ''Don't change a thing! Keep it just as it is!'' 9. ''I can't stop working.'' 10. ''My name's Friday. I'm a cop.'' 11. ''It is the most realistic police program on television.'' 12. Pete Kelly's Blues - ''The best damn picture I ever made.'' 13. ''This motion picture will be of immense value to the marine corps.'' 14. ''I was never caught jaywalking again.'' 15. ''To Jack Webb, The Best Reel Cop From LAPD, The Best Real Cops'' 16. ''How in the world is Jack going to sustain a show about two radio car officers? 17. ''Without Emergency, who knows how long it would have taken this country to realize the benefits it derived?'' 18. ''The Los Angeles Police Department has lost a family member who projected an image we all wished we could project.'' 19. ''Jack Webb: He tried Appendix Dragnetese A Jack Webb Chronology Notes Bibliography Index About the Authors On a serendipitous note, January 15, 2003 marks the 54th anniversary of the murder of Elizabeth Short (remembered as the Black Dahlia). Webb's character in the docudrama He Walked By Night, forensic chemist Lee Jones, was a real life police lieutenant who was not called in to do the autopsy on Short, in Max Allan Collins' The Black Angel, a fictionalized version of the case (2001). In his citations at the back of the book, Collins mentions that Webb devotes a chapter to the Black Dahlia case in his 1954 book, The Badge.

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