Written by Bernie Weisz Historian Pembroke Pines, Florida e mail addresS:
[email protected] of Review: "The Choirboys: An Authentic 1975 Predawn Nightmare!"In 1975, a Los Angeles Police Department officer-turned-novelist named Joseph Wambaugh wrote the controversial novel "The Choirboys". Still a hot book, Wambaugh wrote this almost 40 years ago! What was happening in 1975? Pol Pot and his Khmer Rouge took over Cambodia, the city of Saigon on April 30th was surrendered to the North Vietnamese and all remaining Americans were evacuated, thus ending America's role in the Vietnam War. The U.S. "Apollo" and the Soviet "Soyuz" spacecrafts took off for their historic July 15th link up in space. Gerald Ford experienced two unsuccessful assassination attempts on his life, one by ex Charles Manson gang member Lynette "Squeaky" Fromme. Muhammed Ali defeated Joe Frazier in the "Thriller in Manilla", The Pittsburgh Steelers defeated the Minnesota Vikings in New Orleans to win the Super Bowl, and the Cincinnati Reds defeated the Boston Red Sox in 7 games to capture baseball's "fall classic", and Joseph Wambaugh penned "The Choirboys" The Choirboys was a tragicomedy that parodied the effects of urban police work on young officers, which Wambaugh exaggerated through the exploits of his characters, a group of Los Angeles police officers in the Wilshire Division of the L.A.P.D. Wambaugh used a group of ten patrol officers as his main characters that held end-of-shift "get together's" which Wambaugh euphemistically coined "choir practice". It was sarcastically called "choir practice" to disguise the true nature of these meetings from their superior officers, which involved heavy drinking, complaints about their superior officers, war stories, and group sex with a pair of raunchy, overweight "police groupie" barmaids. Wambaugh had these "choir practices" held in MacArthur Park, overviewing downtown Los Angeles. Although a novel, MacArthur Park (named after General Douglas MacArthur) is a real park located at 2230 West 6th St., in the Westlake neighborhood of Los Angeles, California. Aside from Wambaugh's novel, MacArthur Park was featured as the setting in two movies, e.g. "Kiss Kiss Bang Bang", and "Training Day". Sardonically disillusioned, at these "choir practices", each of Wambaugh's officers expresses differently that many of the fellow officers they work with are not unlike the suspects they arrest, and the absurd regulations of the L.A.P.D. are oppressively enforced on them while their commanders (who usually acquire their positions through nepotism, favoritism and are without basic police work skills) indulge themselves hypocritically. I do not want to be a "plot spoiler", but I will mention that the theme of police officer suicide provides all the way to the end of this novel a grim undercurrent to the black humor and is suggestive of a subconscious motivation for all "The Choirboy's" activities. The author, Joseph A. Wambaugh, born January 22, 1937, was originally from Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania. He was the son of a police officer, and joined the U.S. Marines at age 17. He works this into "The Choirboys" early, as he starts off with "The Secret of The Cave", which is a description of two future police officers experiences while they were trapped in a cave near Khe Sanh, South Vietnam in 1967. This little vignette at the beginning of "The Choirboys" has later disastrous consequences at the conclusion of this book, as the reader will find out. One of Wambaugh's characters, officer Sam Niles, due to the aforementioned Vietnam experience, developed severe claustrophobia, which later became a key factor in what Wambaugh called the "MacArthur Park shooting". Wambaugh married at 18, received a B.A. and M.A. degree from California State University in Los Angeles, and then joined the L.A.P.D in 1960. Rising from the rank of patrolman to detective sergeant, he served until 1974. Because he was amongst their ranks, Wambaugh had a unique perspective on police work which greatly assisted him in his first novel, "The New Centurions", published in 1971 to critical acclaim and popular success. Wambaugh actually remarked while working, "I would have guys in handcuffs asking me for autographs". Both "The New Centurions" and his second book, "The Blue Knight" were novels written while he was actively employed in law enforcement. Quitting police work and turning to full time writing, "The Choirboys" was also the start of a new approach. Where in his first two books, Wambaugh portrayed conventional and heroic fictional policemen as the basis for his characters, starting with "The Choirboys", he began to use dark humor and outrageous incidents to emphasize the psychological peril inherent in modern urban police work. Furthermore, in "The Choirboys", Wambaugh used names of many characters by often unflattering nicknames rather than given names e.g. Herbert "Spermwhale Whalen, "Father" Willie Wright and Henry "Roscoe" Rules. It is no coincidence that Wambaugh left the L.A.P.D. while writing "The Choirboys" as the reader will discover that in this book he became sharply critical of the command structure of the L.A.P.D. and individuals within it, and later, of city government as well. It is interesting to note that in 1977, "The Choirboys" was made into a film starring Louis Gossett, Jr. and James Woods. However, the movie lost the focus that Wambaugh so eloquently set forth in his novel. Wambaugh's book had "The Choirboys", i.e. the five sets of L.A.P.D partners which, while on night watch, were joined together by the pressures of the job. Wambaugh showed that this patrol squad was composed of men of varying temperaments and they chose to spend their pre-dawn hours decompressing from the job in relaxing drink and sex sessions they deemed "choir practice" in MacArthur Park. Wambaugh's thrust was that these men were endangered ultimately not by the violence of their jobs but by their choice of off-duty entertainment. However, in the film, the entire ending was changed by the producer. Ostensibly to make it more interesting, the film showed Wambaugh's characters as a bunch of drunken debauchers, while the book had "The Choirboys" as sympathetic characters. Ultimately the film was unsuccessful and critically panned. Wambaugh himself refused to have his name associated with the film, as considered it to be an extremely poor interpretation of his novel. For this reason, he is uncredited as it's creator. In 1995, "The Choirboys" was selected by the "Mystery Writers of America" as #93 of "The Top 100 Crime Novels of all Time". But Wambaugh didn't stop there. He has written a total of 19 nonfiction accounts of crime and detection and novels, with his most recent contribution to the literary field of "Hollywood Station" (2006 novel), "Hollywood Crows" (2008 novel) and finally, as of this writing, "Hollywood Moon" (2009 novel). However, "The Choirboys" will give you everything-crime, humor, sarcasm, violence, sex, gore, war and much more! A great book!
So that was The Choirboys. Interesting. Alright how to review this novel? There have been a few fellow Goodread reviewers who have asked me how the book stacks up to the real thing. Is is it accurate and truthful? Are cops really like that and so on and so forth. After giving it some thought I think the best way to approach this reviw is to break it into sections. So here goes. ACCURATE & TRUTHFUL (with some reservations)The book is mostly a series of events leading up to a tragedy. There is no central plot involving a criminal mastermind, criminal conspiracy or an investigation. We are introduced to many different officers and different experiences they have both professionally and personally. The events are tragic, hilarious, semi-serious, bizarre, disgusting and horrific. Some of these events took me back to calls I've been on in the past.I can remember a suicide in which the victim used a magnum revolver on himself, dealing with a drunk driver who was totally naked (except for his fishing hat), and almost shooting another officer when he ran up behind me when I was looking for a suspect who had just beaten another person to the point of death with a claw hammer. The struggle to stay awake during the long stretches of nothing and the non-stop craziness when call after call is stacked up and there is just not enough officers to go around. The unexpected violence, the smell (now that's something that one can only experience first-hand. The smells that cops experience.Sorry but the Internet will never convey that experience) and the grinding of the teeth when one's instinct demands that a suspect be pounded, but the law and society says otherwise. Wambaugh accurately conveys the anger, irritations, humor, pathos, boredom, fear and exhilaration that is part and parcel of police work. He does a very good job in that respect.I've known cops who have crashed and burned. I worked for several years with an officer who fought a losing battle with alcohol and had a couple failed marriages. He finally killed himself. I've known other (former) officers who made some really bad choices (mostly having to do with sex - of course) and lost their jobs. In a couple cases they also went to prison. It happens. The officers depicted in this novel are based on actual cops. I wish I could say that my profession is made up of god-like people, but that would be crock and everyone knows it. NOT SO TRUTHFUL(in my humble opinion)There are a few things to keep in mind when reading this novel. First of all I have gotten the impression (based on reading and instinct) that Wambaugh had pretty much resigned from the L.A.P.D. in spirit ,if not body, by the time he began writing The Choirboys. He had already had a couple best sellers in "The New Centurions" and "The Blue Knight" and it was time to commit full-time to his writing career. Knowing that he was going to resign before Choirboys was published Wambaugh uses the novel as his chance to vent about all those things that he didn't like about the L.A.P.D. Why not? He was wealthy (or getting there real quick) and he didn't need the job anymore. That tends to make one braver. As a result the book presents a very slanted view of the department's administration. I've been in the profession of law enforcement for over fourteen years and I work for a much smaller department (65 officers vs. thousands of officers like L.A.P.D.). Our administration has made decisions that have irritated me as well. However administration has a very tough job involving pressures that I don't experience at my level and I'm okay with that. I don't believe that everyone past the rank of sergeant is an absolute and total idiot. Which is the impression that Wambaugh conveys in this book. Really? All of them? If that was the case I'm surprised that anyone got paid and the fleet kept running not to mention the lights and water keep running (yes police departments have to pay for utilities) No it's too much. I think that Wambaugh was influenced by the time period when he wrote the book. The serious anti-establishment attitude that was so prevalent in the early seventies. It slants the book and gives it an air of unreality. I also believe that it's sour grapes. He was getting ready to quit and he had had enough. So basically he is giving the finger to the department and that's all there is to that. The officers that the book focuses on are screw-ups. Make no mistake they're bad cops (most of them) in so many ways. Misogynistic, alcoholic, abusive, corrupt, racist, and so on. Any police department worth it's salt would get rid of those officers as fast as it could if it had any sense whatsoever. But they are purposefully exaggerated characters and they are based (loosely I hope) on actual L.A.P.D. cops that Wambaugh had either heard about or knew. In Choirboys he brought all these cops together and put them in the same division on the same watch. While one will always have one or two colorful officers on any team you probably won't have ten of those officers working together.We don't have choir practices in my department. We/I work a twelve hour shift (not an eight hour shift). I work as a one man car ,not a two man car, meaning that I deal with everything on my own. I don't have a partner to divide up the work load. A a result when my shift is over I'm tired. I go home to the wife and kids. I've been married for twenty-three years and I don't screw around on my wife. However that's just me. The book was written over forty years ago and there have been big changes not only within the L.A.P.D., but in America law enforcement and American society in general (for example there are many more women now wearing badges and they are on the road). Try to keep that in mind when reading this novel. Please. CONCLUSIONA pretty good book all in all. I found the chapter near the end in which there is a blow-by-blow accounting of a choir practice to be rather tedious. It dragged on too long. Obnoxious drunks are obnoxious drunks. Doesn't matter if they are cops or civilians. I don't like obnoxious drunks and I found myself skimming through that chapter. I wasn't offended by the various racial epitaphs nor should you be. First of all the book is forty years old and second of all police work isn't a nice job. It can get ugly at times and cops are called things and say things that aren't always real pleasant. If you're sensitive about such things (and no I am not making fun of you if you are) then don't read this novel. However by today's standards it's actually pretty mild - with a few notable exceptions. So if you are curious about what a patrolman experiences (and it is about the patrol experience - not the detective) then give The Choirboys a read. Just remember what I wrote. It isn't a real pleasant read, but you might find it rather enlightening.
I oscillated back and forth on what I thought of this story but the final few pages are such a rush that on the whole, I think I enjoyed it. Not so much a story as a collection of shorter stories hung together on the skeleton of a case, The Choirboys is thoroughly depressing in its unrelenting cynicism and its repulsive, mildly corrupt, hair-trigger violent and all around contemptible cast. It was therefore kind of a shock to find myself, by the book's end, empathising with this lot. With minor touches of dark, almost absurdist humour and the occasional foray into more philosophical concerns, one can certainly see how it has inspired authors like David Simon and the other plethora of police procedurals and psychological tragi-dramas that have come after it.
—Patrick Lum
This is one of my favorite books. I've read it three times since the initial read, and intend to read it again every once in awhile. This book is very well written and runs the gamut of emotions. It's shocking, sad, engrossing, sometimes even a bit touching, and often flat-out hilarious. The first time I read it I was still in high school and would often read late at night. On at least two occasions while reading this book I woke my parents up with loud, uncontrolled laughter. Wambaugh writes at the start that this is the truest book he's ever written. I'm not sure what that says about a police force, but it makes for one hell of an enjoyable read. Even though the book is a bit dated now, I do not hesitate to recommend it to anyone who enjoys a great story.
—Paul
Remember those times when you were a child, on those rare occasions when you were allowed to stay up late and you got to see what TV shows and films your parents watch after you’d gone to bed? If, like me, you are old enough to have been a child when it was unheard of, or very rare, to have a TV in your room, then you might relate to the previous sentence.Those nights, either because my parents were away and I was being looked after by a not so strict baby sitter, or was up late for some other unforeseen event, were like small glimpses into what awaited me in years to come when I finally turned into an “adult”.Well, I don’t know if it’s because this book is about a bunch of 1970’s cops (doing things that young children would never imagine a “policeman” gets up to), that this book reminds me of those nights I was able to watch late night TV and hear unshaven, greasy looking men talk about “broads and tits”, or see those “broads” (and their “tits”) on the screen in some gritty cop show where the character swore, smoked dope, shot people, and had sex.While reading this book, I was a child again, looking into the adult world and feeling nervous but excited about that world being my world one day. There’s no plot, but plenty of story. In fact it reads almost like a journal, or a commentary of police life in 1970’s Los Angeles through the eyes of very real characters with names like “Spermwhale”, and “Whatdoyamean Dean”. Amongst all the thugs, drunkenness, prostitute shagging, drug taking, odd shooting, and roll calls, this book convinces the reader that police are people just like the rest of us. The writer, apparently, was a cop, and so this can be read as a first-hand account of what life on the streets of LA was like back in those days. I wonder if it’s still the same. Definitely worth a read for its realism.
—Rob Damon
