(This Footnote to History article was printed on page 5 of the April 8, 1954, publication of the Los Angeles Mirror, and is reprinted word-for-word below.)

Roscoe Goes to Calaboose to Escape TV at Home

Roscoe Tard can count on five nights’ sleep, anyway. 

It’ll be in a cell at the Long Beach City Jail but at least he won’t be disturbed by his wife’s televiewing.

According to police, the 35-year-old laborer got so fed up with TV that he climbed up on the roof of his home at 818 E Anaheim St, Long Beach, and chopped down the antenna.

And when the police arrived they said they found him chasing his wife Beatrice, 31, around the house.

Tard pleaded guilty to disorderly conduct yesterday and told Municipal Judge Charles D. Wallace:

“Your honor, my wife played the TV all night. I couldn’t sleep and she just wouldn’t turn the darn thing off.”

The judge sympathized with Roscoe and told him, “I can see that it might make you emotionally disturbed.”

But he added tersely, “Five days or $25.”

Roscoe gratefully chose the calaboose.