Search on keywords “Los Angeles + Christmas” in the vast video wasteland that is YouTube, and this is the campy sort of thing that pops up…
For the more nostalgically minded, there’s also the following vintage three-clip Dragnet episode in which Sgt. Friday and fellow gumshoe Frank Smith perform the Christmas miracle of tracking down and returning a stolen Baby Jesus to the Old Plaza Church in time for Midnight Mass. (Accuracy Alert: Some of the Placita interior scenes were clearly shot in another, much larger church.)
The episode, which originally aired Dec. 24, 1953, on both TV and radio, is worth sitting through if only for its Film Noir glimpses of old Los Angeles, Joe Friday’s trademark, machine-gun-like banter with the parish priest, and its predictably Hollywood “surprise” ending. All in all, it’s a classic City of Angels yuletide story that will warm your heart…
