Shtick: The Dispatcher

For those of us who still inhabit the world of Jack Webb and R.A. Cinader, Shaaron is the voice that draws us to reverie, her distinctive twang alerting us, “One-Adam-12 a 415 fight group with chains and knives.”

An LAPD dispatcher and the wife of an LA policeman, she was hired by Mark VII Productions to do what she did – be the voice of Central Control, sending men to their tasks and dooms with cool, feminine efficiency.

So identifiable is her tone and manner that if you watch Disney’s The Boatniks – the world’s most benign movie – she is instantly recognizable on the motorcycle cop’s radio in the film’s first sequence.

She did nothing else, as far as I know. She had no credited roles, and never appeared onscreen. But she is a touchstone, the voice of a gatekeeper to a particular dream.