2000 & 11 SELF-PORTRAITS / Cristina Nuñez
2000 & 11 SELF- PORTRAITS (14.10.-6.11.2011)
2000 & 11 SELF-PORTRAITS, an art project part of the Programme of Turku 2011 European Capital of Culture, managed to reach hundreds of residents of Turku. Self-portraits started to come about when residents of Turku grabbed pens, papers, paintbrushes and cameras and started to create in workshops as of autumn 2009. Several different communal art workshops produced pictures of the real people and about the time and the city they live in, which coincidently is also the time of the Capital of Culture 2011. Every residence in Turku has been welcomed to take part in these entrance fee free workshops.
The exhibition at Photographic Centre Peri consists of fictional self-portraits conceived in a workshop held by Magnus Scharmanoff and work created with Cristina Nuñez's Self-Portrait Experience method.
In 2010 the students of photography at The Arts Academy of Turku worked on fictional self-portraits in a workshop mentored by photographer Magnus Scharmanoff. The work combines fictional elements ‒ e.g. myths, fantasy and the realm of stories ‒ to the creative process of creating a self-portrait.
In 2008 Arts Academy at Turku University of Applied Sciences invited Cristina Nuñez to hold a series of workshops for the citizens of Turku. The pictures shown in the exhibition are the collaborative self-portraits Turku citizens have taken, alone in her studio, reacting to her instructions on the expression of difficult emotions, to enter the creative process and convert them into art.
These self-portraits become the portrait of their Higher Selves. The hundred images produced suggest a glimpse on Turku citizens' underlying emotions and carry other meanings still to be understood. I suggest the viewer to listen to the questions the images pose, regarding the inhabitants of the city of Turku.
(Cristina Nuñez)
Magnus Scharmanoff (b. 1964) is a world renowned photographer based in Helsinki. His work has been displayed in exhibitions in Germany, the United States and Ireland.
Spanish artist Cristina Nuñez has been taking self-portraits for more than 23 years, as a sort of self-therapy. In 2004 Nuñez created her method The Self-Portrait Experience, a journey to explore all aspects of our lives with the use of the photo-self-portrait. Since 2005 she teaches her method in self-portrait workshops in prisons, mental health centres, schools, universities and companies in Italy, Spain, Finland, Luxemburg, Canada, UK and USA. Her autobiography Someone to Love has been published as a book by The Private Space Books in Barcelona and exhibited at the Mois de la Photo in Montréal, Canada.
2000 & 11 SELF-PORTRAITS / Magnus Scharmanoff
2000 & 11 SELF- PORTRAITS (14.10.-6.11.2011)
2000 & 11 SELF-PORTRAITS, an art project part of the Programme of Turku 2011 European Capital of Culture, managed to reach hundreds of residents of Turku. Self-portraits started to come about when residents of Turku grabbed pens, papers, paintbrushes and cameras and started to create in workshops as of autumn 2009. Several different communal art workshops produced pictures of the real people and about the time and the city they live in, which coincidently is also the time of the Capital of Culture 2011. Every residence in Turku has been welcomed to take part in these entrance fee free workshops.
The exhibition at Photographic Centre Peri consists of fictional self-portraits conceived in a workshop held by Magnus Scharmanoff and work created with Cristina Nuñez's Self-Portrait Experience method.
In 2010 the students of photography at The Arts Academy of Turku worked on fictional self-portraits in a workshop mentored by photographer Magnus Scharmanoff. The work combines fictional elements ‒ e.g. myths, fantasy and the realm of stories ‒ to the creative process of creating a self-portrait.
In 2008 Arts Academy at Turku University of Applied Sciences invited Cristina Nuñez to hold a series of workshops for the citizens of Turku. The pictures shown in the exhibition are the collaborative self-portraits Turku citizens have taken, alone in her studio, reacting to her instructions on the expression of difficult emotions, to enter the creative process and convert them into art.
These self-portraits become the portrait of their Higher Selves. The hundred images produced suggest a glimpse on Turku citizens' underlying emotions and carry other meanings still to be understood. I suggest the viewer to listen to the questions the images pose, regarding the inhabitants of the city of Turku.
(Cristina Nuñez)
Magnus Scharmanoff (b. 1964) is a world renowned photographer based in Helsinki. His work has been displayed in exhibitions in Germany, the United States and Ireland.
Spanish artist Cristina Nuñez has been taking self-portraits for more than 23 years, as a sort of self-therapy. In 2004 Nuñez created her method The Self-Portrait Experience, a journey to explore all aspects of our lives with the use of the photo-self-portrait. Since 2005 she teaches her method in self-portrait workshops in prisons, mental health centres, schools, universities and companies in Italy, Spain, Finland, Luxemburg, Canada, UK and USA. Her autobiography Someone to Love has been published as a book by The Private Space Books in Barcelona and exhibited at the Mois de la Photo in Montréal, Canada.
VESA AALTONEN Class Photo 2000-11 / Luokkakuva 2000-11
VESA AALTONEN / CLASS PHOTO 2000-11 (17.9.-9.10.2011)
Class Photo 2000-11 is a project by Turku-based photographer Vesa Aaltonen (b.1965) which was first conceived in 2000 as Aaltonen's eldest daughter began school. Aaltonen was thrown into thoughts about parenthood, but also about the transience of life. He was inspired to undertake a long-term photography project that traced the development of a group of children over a number of years.
The modest-sized Snellman School in Turku was perfect for the project. Aaltonen began to build up documentary portraits of the small class of only 14 pupils in the midst of the bustle of ongoing class activities. A systematic programme of photography was carried out for six years, until the group split up across various Turku upper comprehensive schools. The unpublished material, however, stayed on the photographer's mind and in 2009 he decided the project should continue.
Photographic Centre Peri is now hosting the first ever exhibition of Class Photo 2000-11, a series of photos which charts the growth of 10 children in Turku from the first grade all the way through to the threshold of adulthood.
It is fascinating to see how a person changes. Innocence, curiosity and a thirst for life are written on the face of a 7-year-old. The same eyes challenge the viewer in newer portraits taken at the threshold between childhood and adulthood. In the end it feels like 11 years haven't made that much of a difference after all.
This exhibition of Class Photo 2000-11 is part of the Turku European Capital of Culture 2011 programme and has been made possible through the support of The National Council for Photographic Art.
Vesa Aaltonen graduated as a photographer in 1995 from the Turku School of Art and Communication. He has participated in numerous group exhibitions and held solo exhibitions within Finland since 1997. In recent years, Aaltonen has produced large-scale community photography projects, of which the 11-part exhibition of Turku-St Petersburg-Cologne 2008-2011 will be showing until the end of September in the Turku Main Library and later in the autumn as a city art project in Cologne and as a solo exhibition at The Russian Museum in Saint Petersburg. Aaltonen lives and works in Turku.
PERISKOOPPI / työpajan näyttely
15.1.-22.1.2012
Valokuvakeskus Perin tiloissa pidettiin 9.-13.1.2012 intensiivinen valokuvatyöpaja, jonka töistä koostuva Periskooppi-näyttely avautuu yleisölle sunnuntaina 15.1.2012.
Viisipäiväinen työpaja oli avoin kaikille valokuvasta kiinnostuneille ja toteutettiin yhteistyössä Turun AMK:n Taideakatemian valokuvaksen osaston kanssa. Työpajan vetäjinä toimivat Lotta Djupsund, Kaarina Salmi, Salla Keskinen, Ville Koski ja Tiina Viitala, jotka ovat valmistuneet valokuvaajiksi Turun AMK:n Taideakatemiasta vuonna 2010.
Työpajan tarkoituksena oli tarjota osallistujille kokemus taidevalokuvan tekemisestä, kannustaa eri lähtökohdista tulevia tekijöitä kokeilemaan jotakin uutta sekä heittäytymään rohkeasti tekemiseen.
Työpajan jokaisena aamuna osallistujille annettiin kuvaustehtävä, jonka he toteuttivat kukin omalla tavallaan. Tehtävän teemaa pohjustettiin aiheeseen liittyvillä inspiroivilla valokuvilla sekä ohjaajien pienimuotoisilla esitelmillä. Kuvaustehtävät purettiin illan kuvakatselmuksessa vapaamuotoisen keskustelun merkeissä.
Viikon tehtäviin kuului mm. käyttää päivän uutisotsikkoa kuvan lähtökohtana, yhdistää luovasti eri taidemuotoja valokuvaan annetun aiheen pohjalta, rakentaa narratiivia kuvaan lähtökohtana annettu tarinanpätkä, tutkia muotokuvaa porautumalla syvemmälle kasvonilmeisiin ja asentoihin, luoda tai etsiä vahvaa tunnelmaa tilasta sekä syventyä valokuvan nimeämiseen ja kuvallisten ajatusketjujen assosiatiiviseen jatkamiseen.
Työpajassa keskityttiin kuvien sisältöihin ja monimuotoiseen ilmaisuun. Näyttelyssä näkyy osallistujien monipuolisuus erilaisten tehtävänantojen kekseliäissä tulkinnoissa -- teoksissa, jotka ovat tehty muutamissa tunneissa tehtävänannon antamisen jälkeen. Työpajan osallistujat osoittivat innokasta heittäytymistä uusiin ideoihin ja kuvaamisen tapoihin.
Työpajaan osallistui yhteensä 30 henkeä, joista 11 koko viikon, ja muut yhtenä tai useampana päivänä:
Noora Typpö, Anni-Veera Valpas, Otto Rainio, Jouni Lappi, Minna Scheinin, Suvi Kiukas, Anette Varjonen, Peter Fagerström, Julia Nekrasova, Börje Forsblom, Jyri Tuovinen, Aino-Maija Halme-Vaaja, Työryhmä HDVD, Mikko Kovasiipi, Ville Kumpulainen, Pia Kulmala, Pekka Hilke ja Hanna Paasiharju sekä Taideakatemian valokuvauksen ensimmäisen vuosikurssin opiskelijat Jukka Aro, Lilli Haapala, Johanna Heikkilä, Maria Kojonen, Ulla Kokki, Sirja Moberg, Oona Mustonen, Essi Orpana ja Sonja Vainionpää.
David Muth / Settings
David Muth / Settings (19.10-11.11.2012)
David Muth's exhibition Settings shows works from his eponymous series of large format photographs, along with his recent video entitled Christmas Piece.
The visible and the speakable, the unspeakable and the invisible: it seems that the photographs of David Muth's series Settings explain themselves easily. The images show domestic environments, scenes of lifeworlds in the country, in the village, in the city. Outside views as well as interior ones, extracts from everyday living environments in various regions and cities: Klosterneuburg, Wels, and Wien. There are no panorama-like views, but mostly details of architectural complexes that Muth brings into view - whereby we usually have to add the context of the subject by ourselves and therefore are more focused on the structure of the image.
Using a fixed camera view, David Muth films two men who tamper with a strange installation between a garage and a red van in the deep snow of Finland. The rational of the irrational becomes clear in these efforts of two engineers to win the competition for the fastest rotating Christmas tree.
David Muth is an artist, musician and programmer. Having grown up in Salzburg, Austria, he relocated to the UK to study at Middlesex University, where he received an MA in Digital Arts. He currently lives and works in London, Salzburg and Turku. His artistic practice combines conceptual and experimental approaches and is informed by his background in architecture. His projects range from installations and responsive environments, through video and experimental documentary, to composition and performance of music. Muth's work has been shown on numerous occasions internationally. He teaches at Goldsmiths and the Royal College of Art.
David Muthin näyttely Settings koostuu samannimisestä, ison koon kameralla tehdystä kuvasarjasta, sekä uudemmasta, Christmas Piece -nimisestä videotyöstä.
Näkyvä ja näkymätön, se mitä voi sanoa ja se mitä ei David Muthin Settings-sarjan kuvat tuntuvat selittyvän helpolla. Kuvissa näkyy kotiympäristöä, kuvia maaseudun elämästä, elämästä kylissä, kaupungissa. Ulkonäkymiä ja sisänäkymiä, otteita arkipäiväisistä elinympäristöistä erilaisissa paikoissa Klosterneuburg, Wels, Wien. Panoraamanäkymiä ei löydy vaan enimmäkseen yksityiskohtia arkkitehtonisista komplekseista, jotka Muth tuo näkyviin. Usein katsoja joutuu itse antamaan kuvalle kontekstin, minkä takia huomio viipyy kuvan rakenteessa.
Liikkumattomassa kameranäkymässä David Muth näyttää kaksi miestä, jotka työstävät kummallista installaatiota autotallin ja punaisen pakettiauton välissä, suomalaisessa lumihangessa. Irrationaalisuuden rationaalisuus tulee selväksi kahden insinöörin yrityksissä voittaa kilpailu nopeimmin pyörivästä joulukuusesta.
David Muth on taiteilija, muusikko ja ohjelmoija. Hän vietti lapsuutensa Salzburgissa Itävallassa ja muutti sittemmin Englantiin opiskelemaan. Hän valmistui Middlesex Universitystä tutkintonaan MA Digital Arts. Muth asuu ja työskentelee Lontoossa, Salzburgissa ja Turussa.
Taiteellisessa työskentelyssään hän yhdistelee käsitteellisiä ja kokeellisia lähestymistapoja, ja käyttää arkkitehtitaustaansa monissa töissä. Hänen projektinsa vaihtelevat installaatioista ja reagoivista ympäristöistä, videon ja kokeellisen dokumentarismin kautta musiikin säveltämiseen ja esittämiseen. Muthin töitä on usein esitetty kansainvälisesti. Hän opettaa Goldsmithin taidekoulussa sekä Royal College of Artissa.
Room 616 video installation documentation
Juan Kasari
Room 616 video installation documentation from Peri photography center, Wäino Aaltonen museum, Turku, Finland
3 x video projection, build elements
size variable, loop 5min. 2015
Midori Mitamura Green on the mountain
Exhibition On Happiness 2003
Tokyo Metropolitan Museum of Photography.
Green on the Mountain
By chance, an old negative from Europe came into my hands.
I would guess it is a good seventy years old.
It is an afterimage of the daily lives of ordinary people in, I think, possibly Belgium.
Whether they might still be alive I have no way of knowing.
A group, apparently a family, is stretched out in a pasture, with mountains (the Alps?)
in the background. It looks to me like it must be a travel photo of a happy family.
Or perhaps they only appear that way?
No, they are happy, without a doubt.
Of course, I have no way of knowing whether it is really a portrait of a happy family.
The memories recorded on that film are not mine but of an
unknown family-memories of long ago, long dimmed.
There may be secrets between the family members that do not appear on the surface;
some may have been concealing, deep within themselves,
painful feelings or a sense of futility. Who can tell?
But assuming there really were people who existed there,
in truth, there is no way to tell whether the person beside you is happy,
or what that instant of theirs, captured on film, glowed, I am sure, with vivid greenery and blue skies,
even though it cannot be seen in a black-and-white print.
The times of a human life when one feels one is happy,
no matter how brief or how long, are only momentary flashes amidst the vast flow of time.
The emotions that the events of daily life give rise to cannot, by and large,
be recorded but live only within our memories.
Still, if even a moment of happiness glows strongly within one's memories,
would one not feel, at the end of life, that it was a happy life?
Perhaps the memory of that happy moment, shaking off time and space
simultaneously as we take leave of the flesh,
glows on, an eternal memory existing in a different dimension.
I have no way of knowing even if the people in the photograph ever saw a print of it,
but my hands would give the faint surviving images, their hues all but lost, a hint of color.
Now this moment too may continue to exist on another plane,
traveling along the time dimension of memory.
Traveling solo exhibition in Fainland 2005
Photographic galley Hippolyte/ Helsinki
Finnish Northern Photographic Center / Oulu
Photographic Center Peri/ Turku
Solo Exhibition 2006
Secession / Vienna, Austria 2006
Solo Exhibition 2012
Project Space Uqbar / Berlin
Timo Marila / Holiday Memories from Places I Haven't Visited
TIMO MARILA / Holiday Memories from Places I Haven't Visited (12/4--5/5 2013)
Pictures from the Headtrip
Holiday Memories from Places I Haven't Visited is Timo Marila's first private exhibition.
Marila graduates from Turku Arts Academy in spring 2013.
As an artist, I am interested in the existing and the non-existing, the real and the unreal. I am fascinated by what lies beneath the surface -- but not enough to drown in it. Imagination is my richest source for inspiration, and I go thieving come darkness.
Marila balances between photography and painting, taking steps from one side to the other in his work.
The series Holiday Memories From Places I Haven't Visited features a place where everything is possible and all borders have been removed. The images are illustrations of a kind, initiations to a possible story, pictures that have been filtered from other pictures, dreams, films and sounds.
On the trip Marila offers, you can spend your time in the Diesnyland-amusement park. Don't let the name distract you, they do serve candyfloss, too. If lying on the beach is of interest to you, you can do this on the shore of The Sea of Lies. You can admire the beautiful view from the balcony of our charming hotel.
Come along on the journey! Make your holiday unforgettable!
The soundscape created by musician Jaakko Tolvi serves as travel music (not in the video)
The exhibition has been supported by Finnfoto ry.
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TIMO MARILA / Holiday Memories from Places I Haven't Visited (12.4.--5.5.2013)
Kuvia päämatkalta
Holiday Memories from Places I Haven't Visited on Timo Marilan ensimmäinen yksityisnäyttely.
Marila valmistuu Turun Taideakatemiasta Keväällä 2013.
Taiteilijana olen kiinnostunut olevasta ja olemattomasta sekä todesta ja epätodesta. Minua kiehtoo se, mitä on pinnan alla - mutta ei niin paljon, että hukkuisin sinne. Inspiraationlähteistä vuolaiten virtaa mielikuvitus, pimeän tullen käyn varkaissa.
Työssään Marila taiteilee valokuvan ja maalaustaiteen välissä, ottaen askeleita puolelta toiselle.
Holiday Memories From Places I Haven't Visited -kuvasarjan tapahtumapaikkana toimii maailma jossa rajat on poistettu ja kaikki on mahdollista. Kuvat ovat kuvitteita, eräänlaisia alkusysäyksiä mahdolliselle tarinalle. Kuvia jotka ovat suodattuneet toisista kuvista, unista, elokuvista sekä äänistä.
Marilan tarjoamalla matkalla voit vaikka viettää aikaa Diesnyland -huvipuistossa. Älkää antako nimen häiritä, on siellä hattaraa tarjolla. Jos olet kiinnostunut loikoilemaan rannalla, voit tehdä sen Valheiden Meren rannalla. Viehättävän hotellimme parvekkeelta voit ihailla kaunista näkymää.
Tule mukaan matkalle! Tee lomastasi ikimuistoinen!
Näyttelyä on tukenut Finnfoto ry.
What else was there? 11.2.-6.3.2011 / February 11 - March 6, 2011
Viisi, kymmenen, viisitoista raipaniskua ja hevoset alkavat lähestyä tyhjästä horisontista. Lauma.
Heini Vanhasen videoteos Csíkós johdattelee Turun Taideakatemian kolmannen vuoden valokuvaopiskelijoiden yhteisnäyttelyyn Valokuvakeskus Perissä. Näyttelyssä esillä olevat valokuva- ja videoteokset ovat ryhmän Unkarin matkan antia lokakuulta 2010.
What else was there?
Naisia, jotka asettuvat olohuoneeseen kuin vanhaan unkarilaiseen maalaukseen.
(Hertta Kiiskin Sunnuntaina kylpylän jälkeen)
Riisuttu rituaali, jota sadat ihmiset toistavat yhtä aikaa, ylös ja alas.
(Tiina Palmun A men)
Yksi, joka vuokraa itselleen asunnon muutamaksi yöksi syrjäisestä talosta romanien kaupunginosassa.
(Tatu Gustafssonin There's a room in the middle)
Kuvausmatkalle osallistui 13 kuvaajaa, joita sitoi vain yksi sääntö: piti välttää turvallisia ja itsestään selviä ratkaisuja. Muuta yhteistä teemaa ei ollut. Kukin valitsi vapaasti oman tekniikkansa ja välineensä -- näyttelyssä on esillä niin valokuvia, videoita, musiikkia kuin ääntä.
Ohjaajana ja näyttelyn kuraattorina projektissa on toiminut valokuvataiteilija Jari Silomäki.
Näyttelyssä ovat mukana Tatu Gustafsson, Eeva Hannula, Marjo Karttunen, Hertta Kiiski, Maija Kurki, Timo Marila, Hilja Mustonen, Ville Mäkilä, Tiina Palmu, Aura Saarikoski, Marja Saleva, Heini Vanhanen ja Jussi Virkkumaa.
Valokuvakeskus Perin jälkeen näyttely nähdään Unkarin kulttuuri- ja tiedekeskuksen U-galleriassa Helsingissä ensi kesänä. Unkarin-projektia on tukenut Patricia Seppälän säätiö.
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Five, ten, fifteen cracks of the whip and the horses draw nearer out of the blank horizon. Herd.
Heini Vanhanen's video piece Csíkós provides the starting point for a group exhibition held at Photographic Centre Peri featuring the work of third year photography students from the Arts Academy at Turku University of Applied Sciences. The photographs and videos on display originate from the group's visit to Hungary in October 2010.
What else was there?
Women settling in a living room as in an old Hungarian painting.
(Hertta Kiiski: Sunday after the bathhouse)
A pared-down ritual which hundreds of people repeat together, up and down.
(Tiina Palmu: A men)
A person who rents an apartment alone for a few nights in a secluded house in a Romani part of town.
(Tatu Gustafsson: There's a room in the middle)
Thirteen photographers took part in the photography trip, during which they were bound to just one rule: avoiding safe and obvious solutions. There were no other common themes. Each person was free to choose their own equipment and technique -- the show features photographs as well as videos, music and sound.
Photographic artist Jari Silomäki acted as director and curator of the project.
The exhibition consists of works by Tatu Gustafsson, Eeva Hannula, Marjo Karttunen, Hertta Kiiski, Maija Kurki, Timo Marila, Hilja Mustonen, Ville Mäkilä, Tiina Palmu, Aura Saarikoski, Marja Saleva, Heini Vanhanen and Jussi Virkkumaa.
After its run at Photographic Centre Peri, the next showing of the exhibition will be in Gallery U at the Hungarian Cultural and Scientific Centre in Helsinki next summer. The Hungary Project was sponsored by the Patricia Seppälä Foundation.
2014 Schindler 5500 MRL High Speed Traction lifts @ Borgarfjordsgatan 21A in Stockholm
I film the lifts at Kista Torn in Stockholm with 3 Schindler lifts in Sweden.
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Lift Cavallari @ Viale Fratelli Rosselli 12-14, Como Italy
Dedico questo video a:Daniele, Aldo, Massimo e agli altri appassionati/I dedicated this video at: Daniele, Aldo, Massimo and at the others lifts fans
Ecco di seguito le caratteristiche tecniche/Following technical informations:
-Marca/Brand: Cavallari Como
-Azionamento/Type: Elettrico, a funi/Traction
-Capacità/Capacity: 325 KG / 4 Pers.
-Piani serviti/Floors served: 7(T,1,2,3,4,5,6)
-Posizione locale macchine/Position of machine room: sopra al 6° piano/above 6° floor
The Great Gildersleeve: Bronco and Marjorie Engaged / Hayride / Engagement Announcement
Premiering on August 31, 1941, The Great Gildersleeve moved the title character from the McGees' Wistful Vista to Summerfield, where Gildersleeve now oversaw his late brother-in-law's estate and took on the rearing of his orphaned niece and nephew, Marjorie (originally played by Lurene Tuttle and followed by Louise Erickson and Mary Lee Robb) and Leroy Forester (Walter Tetley). The household also included a cook named Birdie. Curiously, while Gildersleeve had occasionally spoken of his (never-present) wife in some Fibber episodes, in his own series the character was a confirmed bachelor.
In a striking forerunner to such later television hits as Bachelor Father and Family Affair, both of which are centered on well-to-do uncles taking in their deceased siblings' children, Gildersleeve was a bachelor raising two children while, at first, administering a girdle manufacturing company (If you want a better corset, of course, it's a Gildersleeve) and then for the bulk of the show's run, serving as Summerfield's water commissioner, between time with the ladies and nights with the boys. The Great Gildersleeve may have been the first broadcast show to be centered on a single parent balancing child-rearing, work, and a social life, done with taste and genuine wit, often at the expense of Gildersleeve's now slightly understated pomposity.
Many of the original episodes were co-written by John Whedon, father of Tom Whedon (who wrote The Golden Girls), and grandfather of Deadwood scripter Zack Whedon and Joss Whedon (creator of Buffy the Vampire Slayer, Firefly and Dr. Horrible's Sing-Along Blog).
The key to the show was Peary, whose booming voice and facility with moans, groans, laughs, shudders and inflection was as close to body language and facial suggestion as a voice could get. Peary was so effective, and Gildersleeve became so familiar a character, that he was referenced and satirized periodically in other comedies and in a few cartoons.
Dragnet: Claude Jimmerson, Child Killer / Big Girl / Big Grifter
Dragnet is a radio and television crime drama about the cases of a dedicated Los Angeles police detective, Sergeant Joe Friday, and his partners. The show takes its name from an actual police term, a dragnet, meaning a system of coordinated measures for apprehending criminals or suspects.
Dragnet debuted inauspiciously. The first several months were bumpy, as Webb and company worked out the program's format and eventually became comfortable with their characters (Friday was originally portrayed as more brash and forceful than his later usually relaxed demeanor). Gradually, Friday's deadpan, fast-talking persona emerged, described by John Dunning as a cop's cop, tough but not hard, conservative but caring. (Dunning, 210) Friday's first partner was Sergeant Ben Romero, portrayed by Barton Yarborough, a longtime radio actor. After Yarborough's death in 1951 (and therefore Romero's, who also died of a heart attack, as acknowledged on the December 27, 1951 episode The Big Sorrow), Friday was partnered with Sergeant Ed Jacobs (December 27, 1951 - April 10, 1952, subsequently transferred to the Police Academy as an instructor), played by Barney Phillips; Officer Bill Lockwood (Ben Romero's nephew, April 17, 1952 - May 8, 1952), played by Martin Milner (with Ken Peters taking the role for the June 12, 1952 episode The Big Donation); and finally Frank Smith, played first by Herb Ellis (1952), then Ben Alexander (September 21, 1952-1959). Raymond Burr was on board to play the Chief of Detectives. When Dragnet hit its stride, it became one of radio's top-rated shows.
Webb insisted on realism in every aspect of the show. The dialogue was clipped, understated and sparse, influenced by the hardboiled school of crime fiction. Scripts were fast moving but didn't seem rushed. Every aspect of police work was chronicled, step by step: From patrols and paperwork, to crime scene investigation, lab work and questioning witnesses or suspects. The detectives' personal lives were mentioned but rarely took center stage. (Friday was a bachelor who lived with his mother; Romero, a Mexican-American from Texas, was an ever fretful husband and father.) Underplaying is still acting, Webb told Time. We try to make it as real as a guy pouring a cup of coffee. (Dunning, 209) Los Angeles police chiefs C.B. Horrall, William A. Worton, and (later) William H. Parker were credited as consultants, and many police officers were fans.
Most of the later episodes were entitled The Big _____, where the key word denoted a person or thing in the plot. In numerous episodes, this would the principal suspect, victim, or physical target of the crime, but in others was often a seemingly inconsequential detail eventually revealed to be key evidence in solving the crime. For example, in The Big Streetcar the background noise of a passing streetcar helps to establish the location of a phone booth used by the suspect.
Throughout the series' radio years, one can find interesting glimpses of pre-renewal Downtown L.A., still full of working class residents and the cheap bars, cafes, hotels and boarding houses which served them. At the climax of the early episode James Vickers, the chase leads to the Subway Terminal Building, where the robber flees into one of the tunnels only to be killed by an oncoming train. Meanwhile, by contrast, in other episodes set in outlying areas, it is clear that the locations in question are far less built up than they are today. Today, the Imperial Highway, extending 40 miles east from El Segundo to Anaheim, is a heavily used boulevard lined almost entirely with low-rise commercial development. In an early Dragnet episode scenes along the Highway, at the road to San Pedro, clearly indicate that it still retained much the character of a country highway at that time.