Stanley Meyer; Producer of TV’s ‘Dragnet’

Stanley Meyer, executive producer and a co-owner of the legendary “Dragnet” television series created by the late actor-producer Jack Webb and considered the most successful police show in the history of the medium, has died. He was 85.

Meyer died Saturday of heart failure at his Santa Monica home. He previously had undergone heart bypass surgery.

The veteran producer had claimed that his health was further weakened by the 1994 earthquake and lengthy litigation with his insurance company over repairs to the foundation of his 6,000-square-foot retirement home at the beach. In 1997 a Los Angeles Superior Court jury awarded $5.4 million to Meyer and his wife, Doris “Dodo” Meyer, former San Fernando Valley deputy to Los Angeles Mayor Tom Bradley, who spent three years living in a hotel.

Professionally, Meyer not only worked on the television series but also produced the 1954 motion picture version of “Dragnet,” which marked one of the earliest cross-promotions between film and television.

In addition to his television production company Mark VII that was involved with “Dragnet,” Meyer was chairman of Filmaster Ltd., which helped produce such popular early series as “Pete Kelly’s Blues,” “Gunsmoke” and “Have Gun Will Travel.”

Meyer also bought production rights to the Broadway hit musical, “Don’t Bother Me, I Can’t Cope” in 1973 when it moved from the Mark Taper Forum to what was then the Huntington Hartford (now Doolittle) Theater. He claimed production rights throughout California, but because of litigation with San Francisco companies and New York producers, contended that he failed to make a profit despite the highly successful Hollywood run.

Far from the limelight of the entertainment industry, Meyer took his greatest pride in his work for higher education. He interviewed and promoted prospective students from disadvantaged and minority backgrounds for such institutions as Yale, Harvard, Princeton, Brown, Columbia, Dartmouth, Cornell, Stanford and the Claremont Colleges.

The work earned him the Image Award of the National Assn. for the Advancement of Colored People, an award from the Boy Scouts of America, and recognition from the First AME Church as “a renowned humanitarian, counselor, and community friend for having carved the lives of many of today’s youth by securing scholarships.”

Meyer served as an intelligence officer in the Marine Corps during World War II, and was officer in charge of staging the official signing of the United Nations Charter in San Francisco by President Harry S. Truman.

In addition to his wife, he is survived by a daughter, Patricia, three sons, Michael, Peter and John, and seven grandchildren.