DUM-FOUNDED

Jack Mathews quotes producer David Permut selling the big-screen version of “Dragnet” with no words . . . just simply “dum-de-dum-dum” (“ ‘Dragnet’ Producer Rolls to Next Project,” July 2).

What isn’t always known is that exact portion of the “Dragnet” signature tune started life as the opening strains of the score that Miklos Rozsa wrote for Universal’s original 1946 version of Hemingway’s “The Killers,” which, in turn, was Burt Lancaster’s first movie.

Walter Schumann actually scored the TV show and received solo credit, but a court case after the series debuted in the early ‘50s resulted in Rozsa’s name appearing alongside Schumann’s in future uses.

ALAN WARNER

Hollywood