SHERLOCK HOLMES Well Staged Murder - cloudfront.net

SHERLOCK HOLMESWell Staged Murder

Program Guide by Ivan G. Shreve, Jr.

Although he cemented his cinematic immortality with onscreen villainy in features like David Copperfield (1935) and The Adventures of Robin Hood (1938), portraying Arthur Conan Doyle’s Sherlock Holmes remains actor Basil Rathbone’s lasting contribution to motion pictures. Rathbone made his debut as Doyle’s sleuth in 20th Century-Fox’s The Hound of the Baskervilles (1939) and encored that same year in The Adventures of Sherlock Holmes. Both of these features co-starred Nigel Bruce as Dr. John Watson, Sherlock’s assistant, companion…and biographer.

The success of those two films prompted NBC Blue to resurrect the Sherlock Holmes radio program (which had been on a three-year hiatus) in the fall of 1939. Both Rathbone and Bruce reprised their characters in a series for Bro-mo Quinine. In April of 1943, The (New) Adventures of Sherlock Holmes had

moved to Mutual with Petri Wines paying the bills. It’s this version of the long-running program that’s perhaps most familiar to old-time radio fans, owing to the large number of broadcast transcriptions that survived. Each week, the an-nouncer would make his way to the California beach resi-dence occupied by the retired Dr. Watson...and after being offered a generous glass of the sponsor’s product, would set-tle in as the good doctor remi-nisced about one of Holmes’ famous adventures.

CD 8A: “The Case of King Philip’s Golden Salver” - February 29, 1948A priceless golden platter given to Queen Elizabeth by Philip of Spain has been stolen from the Tower of London. Ronald Backwater, the fiancé of Lady Cynthia St. Simons, has been accused of the crime. Holmes’ has been asked to free Ronald from the guardhouse.

CD 8B: “The Adventure of the Six Napoleons” - March 7, 1948Why have busts of Napoleon Bonaparte been shattered outside a shopkeeper’s establishment and a doctor’s house? Lestrade’s theory is that it’s the work of Professor Moriarty (who purportedly hates Napoleon). However, Holmes suspects that something more sinister is afoot…particularly when the vandalism leads to a murder!

If you enjoyed this CD set, we recommendSherlock Holmes: Elementary, available

now at www.RadioSpirits.com.

www.RadioSpirits.comPO Box 1315, Little Falls, NJ 07424

© 2018 RSPT LLC. All rights reserved. For home use only. Unauthorized duplication prohibited.

Program Guide © 2018 Ivan G. Shreve, Jr. and RSPT LLC. All Rights Reserved.

48012

Bust of Napoleon

2 7

At the same time that Basil Rath-bone and Nigel Bruce were reading scripts weekly before a microphone, the duo continued to thrill moviego-ers as Holmes and Watson in a series of B-films produced by Universal. Af-ter twelve programmers at that studio, Rathbone was convinced that portray-ing Holmes was killing his movie ca-reer and that he was in danger of being forever associated with the role. He wasn’t wrong on that score; though his

performance in the stage production of The Heiress would net him a Tony Award in 1948, he was primarily relegated to spoofing his role as Holmes.

Rathbone’s decision to stop making Holmes pictures after 1946’s Dressed to Kill meant that the creative minds behind the radio Holmes would have to locate a replacement. They didn’t have to worry about Nigel Bruce—he would continue as Dr. Watson, with an increase in salary and top billing on the series. Actor Tom Conway—familiar to moviegoers as “The Falcon” in a popular film franchise from RKO—donned the deerstalker hat and inverness cape as Kreml Hair Tonic and Shampoo took over as the program’s sponsor. Conway was serviceable as Holmes...but there was no denying that the beloved chemistry defined by Rath-bone and Bruce was lacking. Furthermore, the rumored tension between Holmes’ producer and writers made for a rather unpleasant experience for Nigel, and he elected to bow out as Watson (as did Conway as Holmes) at the end of the 1946-47 season when the program relocated to New York.

A new sponsor -- Clipper Craft Clothes (also known as the Trimount Cloth-ing Company) -- was one of the many changes brought to The Adventures of Sherlock Holmes when it returned in the fall of 1947. Basil Loughrane was now the director-producer, and returning to pen the escapades of the world’s greatest consulting detective was Edith Meiser. It was Meiser -- an actress-playwright (and a confessed “Baker Street Irregular” -- who should receive the lion’s share of the credit for even getting a Holmes radio program on the air in the first place). In 1930, Meiser took the initiative of crafting several scripts based on adven-tures from the Holmes “canon” (the fifty-six stories written by Arthur Conan Doyle himself)…and then she pitched them to NBC. NBC was interested, but told Edith that they wouldn’t put the show on the air unless she could secure a sponsor. Meiser promptly went out and signed up George Washington Coffee to

CD 5A: The Case of the Lucky Shilling”- January 18, 1948“The Adventure of the Empty House” is referenced in this dramatic tale as Holmes and Watson engage in a game of Whist at the Bagatelle Club with notorious card cheat Horatio “Double or Nothing” Webster. The titular coin figures in the great detective’s triumph against his adversary...as does a swarm of flies!

CD 5B: “The Adventure of the Engineer’s Thumb”- January 25, 1948Victor Hatherley needs Watson’s medical help after a harrowing accident involving his thumb. As the good doctor tends to his injury, Hatherley relates to Holmes the frightening tale of how he came to be injured…after volunteering to examine a hydraulic press at a country home owned by Colonel Lysander Stark.

CD 6A: “The Case of the Avenging Blade” - February 1, 1948Holmes is brought in to investigate a mystery involving the legendary statue of Charles I located in Charing Cross. The Duke of Buckinghurst is to lay a wreath on the pedestal of the statue, unaware that the marble figure will be utilized in an attempt on the Duke’s life!

CD 6B: “The Case of the Sanguinary Specter” - February 8, 1948Events in “The Adventure of the Musgrave Ritual” inspired this intriguing mystery of stately Hurlston Manor, where blood drips slowly out of the wainscoting in a room where an ancestral ghost prowls nightly. The current owners of Hurlston are relying on such supernatural goings-on to discourage a potential buyer.

CD 7A: “The Adventure of Shoscombe Old Place” - February 15, 1948Horse trainer John Mason approaches Holmes about his master, Sir Robert Norberton. Norberton is the owner of a Berkshire racing stable…but if he is going mad, as Mason suspects, Shoscombe Old Place may soon become the property of someone else. Charles Stark fills in for Cy Harrice as announcer.

CD 7B: “The Adventure of the Wooden Claw” - February 22, 1948A banker named Meriwether asks for Holmes’ assistance in protecting some employees. Every Saturday night for almost two months, the bank messengers have been robbed. The culprit? A mysterious “cat man” who affects his escape by climbing a sheer 12-foot wall! Charles Stark fills in for Cy Harrice as announcer.

Sir Arthur Conan Doyle

Nigel Bruce and Basil Rathbone

6 3

CD 2A: “The Cadaver in the Roman Toga” - November 9, 1947Holmes’ concern that Professor Moriarty plans to flood London with counterfeit sovereigns is interrupted by a visit from Sir George Westbrook, of the London and Wessex Archaeological Association. Westbrook and his assistant have discovered a toga-clad dead man during the excavation of the ruins of a Roman bath...a corpse that shows no sign of decomposition!

CD 2B: “The Case of the Well-Staged Murder” - November 16, 1947Dr. Jeffers was shot and killed in Tufnel Park. One bullet felled the victim...but two shots were heard. Holmes is determined to make Inspector Lestrade look the fool in his investigation, relying on the new science of ballistics to make his case.

CD 3A: “The Case of the Cradle That Rocked Itself” - November 30, 1947In this reworking of “The Adventure of the Devil’s Foot,” Holmes and Watson are enjoying a little R&R in Cornwall. A vicar drops by their rental cottage to tell them of an antique cradle belonging to the Trevining clan. Sometimes it begins to rock on its own…and a death in the family soon follows.

CD 3B: “The Case of Professor Moriarty and the Diamond Jubilee” - December 7, 1947Moriarty embarks on a crime spree, taking advantage of the sixtieth anniversary celebration of Queen Victoria’s reign: stealing famous jewels, robbing banks, extorting millionaires, etc. While “The Napoleon of Crime” runs amuck with his nefarious activities, Dr. Watson himself is accused of a jewel robbery!

CD 4A: “The Adventure of the Christmas Bride” - December 21, 1947In this Yuletide-themed adventure, the titular bride is Lady Genevra, the daughter and sole heir of Lord Robert Merrill. Merrill summons Holmes and

Watson to Pensdragon Castle just a few days before her Ladyship’s nuptials. It seems that the ghostly apparition of an ancestor bride has been spotted rising from a locked chest!

CD 4B: “The Case of the Sudden Senility” - January 11, 1948In this sequel to “The Adventure of Silver Blaze,” a valuable racehorse named Blazing Star suddenly drops dead. A diabolical plot by Professor Moriarty is at the heart of the mystery.

pay the program’s bills, and the radio adventures of Holmes and Watson were off and running. Meiser’s stint with Holmes was an on-again-off-again thing, with scribes like Denis Green, Anthony Boucher, and Leslie Charteris filling in throughout the series’ broadcast history.

Meiser’s work during the 1947-48 season represents some of her best radio drama. Edith had long since proved quite adept at adapting Sir Arthur’s classic Holmes adventures for the medium. (Examples in-clude “The Adventure of the Copper Beeches” and “The Adventures of Shoscombe Old Place”—Doyle’s last official Holmes short story.) But she also proved that she had a knack for cre-ating new cases. Using her familiarity with “The Canon,” she borrowed elements from those tales to craft similar playlets. Meiser departed the program before the fall of 1948, but would later write the short-lived Sherlock Holmes newspaper comic strip (drawn by Frank Giacola) in the 1950s. Edith also continued her per-forming career with film roles and guest appearances on TV favorites (including I Love Lucy).

For the role of Sherlock Holmes, an actor named John Stanley was chosen. Though born in England, both of Stanley’s parents were American...and John journeyed to the United States at the age of 21. Once stateside, he was fortu-nate enough to find employment at WJAR, a Providence, Rhode Island radio station. The station manager was impressed with Stanley’s previous experience as an actor-director with the London Theatre…and learning that his new hire could also carry a tune was an added bonus. Stanley did a weekly quarter-hour song recital, went on to become an announcer, and then landed acting jobs on network shows like The Adventures of Father Brown, Arthur Hopkins Presents, and Words at War. What might have clinched the Holmes gig for John, however, is that his voice was a dead ringer for that of Basil Rathbone’s. Stanley would portray the detective for two seasons, until the Clipper Craft sponsorship ended in June of 1949.

No one would mistake Alfred Shirley—the actor who would now be playing Watson—for Nigel Bruce. This could be seen as either positive or negative. One of the criticisms of Bruce’s portrayal of Dr. Watson, in both movies and on radio, is that (unlike the doctor in Doyle’s stories) the character was turned into an archetypically silly Englishman…harrumphing and fumbling his way through

Edith Meiser

Alfred Shirley is heard as Dr. Watson

4 5

institution. Author Jim Cox has called the immortal sleuth “the most universally recognized fictional character in history.” Holmes’ has been present in novels, movies, comic strips/books, plays...and of course, radio programs. As of this writing, the CBS television series Elementary (starring Jonny Lee Miller as a contemporary Holmes and Lucy Liu as “Dr. Joan Watson”) has been renewed for a seventh season. Its BBC counterpart, Sherlock (with Benedict Cumberbatch [Holmes] and Martin Freeman [Watson]) has been greenlighted for a fifth series. A third outing of the Sherlock Holmes film franchise with Robert Downey, Jr. and Jude Law is in the works as well.

Radio Spirits invites you to journey back to a simpler time, when turning on your cathedral radio transported you to a fog-swirled 221-B Baker Street...and you spent a most enjoyable half-hour as “the world’s greatest detective” and the faith-ful chronicler of his adventures matched wits with the most challenging criminal elements in all of London. These sixteen vintage broadcasts are a time machine to the past, when the simple occurrence of a visitor crossing the threshold of Holmes and Watson’s lodgings meant...the game’s afoot!

The following episodes of The Adventures of Sherlock Holmes were originally broadcast over Mutual for Clipper Craft Clothes. John Stanley

stars as Holmes with Alfred Shirley as Dr. Watson. Cy Harrice is the announcer, with music by Albert Bushman and scripts/adaptations by Edith Meiser. The series is directed and produced by Basil Loughrane.

CD 1A: “The Laughing Lemur of High Tower Heath”- October 26, 1947A Halloween tale of the supernatural, this thriller focuses on a witch who’s been dead and buried for centuries in the Dartmoor countryside. Holmes and Watson embark on a “witch hunt” when they’re summoned by Sir Lionel Fennig, who fears that his infant son might be endangered by the witch’s spirit.

CD 1B: “The Adventure of the Copper Beeches”- November 2, 1947In this classic Arthur Conan Doyle tale, Violet Hunter has been offered the princely sum of £100 a year to accept a position as governess for Jephro Rucastle. When she’s told she’ll have to cut her long hair short, Violet balks...so Rucastle raises the ante to £120!

Holmes’ cases as comic relief. Doyle’s original Watson was of notably sharper intellect, and had a bit more moxie —providing Holmes with a more capable sounding board during his investigations. Bruce’s Watson characterization had its antecedents in many of his movie roles. He was the epitome of foggy bewil-derment, and rarely did Nigel play a loathsome sort. (An exception to that rule was his turn in 1939’s The Rains Came.) As Rathbone acknowledged in his 1961 autobiography In and Out of Character, “There was an endearing quality to his performance that to a very large extent, I believe, humanized the relationship between Dr. Watson and Mr. Holmes.”

Contrary to the geniality between Rathbone and Bruce, there was an edginess in the relationship between Stanley’s Sherlock Holmes and Shirley’s Dr. Watson. Stanley’s Holmes frequently shows contempt for his friend, perhaps owing to the fact that (despite the replacing of Bruce) Watson still seems not-too-swift on the uptake. But Shirley gives as good as he gets, often telling his companion to “Go to blazes!” (In one broadcast, he memorably instructs the detective: “Go tell your mother to suck eggs.”) In the fall of 1948, Ian Martin replaced Shirley as Watson (though he also went by the pseudonym “George Spelvin”) and made for a slightly more youthful (though still astonishingly dim) sidekick.

The Adventures of Sherlock Holmes would last one more season, beginning in the fall of 1949. The program returned (this time on ABC) for Petri Wines, with Ben Wright portraying Sherlock and Eric Snowden as Watson. Although the great detective’s run on American radio appeared to have gone the same direction as the fictional sleuth’s Sussex retirement, his adventures would once again be

presented before a microphone in the form of a well-received BBC series in 1954. This featured the powerhouse duo of Sirs John Gielgud and Ralph Richardson as Holmes and Watson, with Orson Welles as Sherlock’s nemesis Professor

Moriarty! A more ambitious radio at-tempt was presented between 1989 and 1998 on the BBC – with every entry in Sir Arthur Conan Doyle’s “canon” dra-matized by Clive Merrison (Holmes) and Michael Williams (Watson).

Since his introduction in “A Study in Scarlet” in 1887, the character of Sher-lock Holmes has become a pop culture

Sirs John Gielgud and RalphRichardson

Clive Merrision and Michael Williams John Stanley stars as Sherlock Holmes

4 5

institution. Author Jim Cox has called the immortal sleuth “the most universally recognized fictional character in history.” Holmes’ has been present in novels, movies, comic strips/books, plays...and of course, radio programs. As of this writing, the CBS television series Elementary (starring Jonny Lee Miller as a contemporary Holmes and Lucy Liu as “Dr. Joan Watson”) has been renewed for a seventh season. Its BBC counterpart, Sherlock (with Benedict Cumberbatch [Holmes] and Martin Freeman [Watson]) has been greenlighted for a fifth series. A third outing of the Sherlock Holmes film franchise with Robert Downey, Jr. and Jude Law is in the works as well.

Radio Spirits invites you to journey back to a simpler time, when turning on your cathedral radio transported you to a fog-swirled 221-B Baker Street...and you spent a most enjoyable half-hour as “the world’s greatest detective” and the faith-ful chronicler of his adventures matched wits with the most challenging criminal elements in all of London. These sixteen vintage broadcasts are a time machine to the past, when the simple occurrence of a visitor crossing the threshold of Holmes and Watson’s lodgings meant...the game’s afoot!

The following episodes of The Adventures of Sherlock Holmes were originally broadcast over Mutual for Clipper Craft Clothes. John Stanley

stars as Holmes with Alfred Shirley as Dr. Watson. Cy Harrice is the announcer, with music by Albert Bushman and scripts/adaptations by Edith Meiser. The series is directed and produced by Basil Loughrane.

CD 1A: “The Laughing Lemur of High Tower Heath”- October 26, 1947A Halloween tale of the supernatural, this thriller focuses on a witch who’s been dead and buried for centuries in the Dartmoor countryside. Holmes and Watson embark on a “witch hunt” when they’re summoned by Sir Lionel Fennig, who fears that his infant son might be endangered by the witch’s spirit.

CD 1B: “The Adventure of the Copper Beeches”- November 2, 1947In this classic Arthur Conan Doyle tale, Violet Hunter has been offered the princely sum of £100 a year to accept a position as governess for Jephro Rucastle. When she’s told she’ll have to cut her long hair short, Violet balks...so Rucastle raises the ante to £120!

Holmes’ cases as comic relief. Doyle’s original Watson was of notably sharper intellect, and had a bit more moxie —providing Holmes with a more capable sounding board during his investigations. Bruce’s Watson characterization had its antecedents in many of his movie roles. He was the epitome of foggy bewil-derment, and rarely did Nigel play a loathsome sort. (An exception to that rule was his turn in 1939’s The Rains Came.) As Rathbone acknowledged in his 1961 autobiography In and Out of Character, “There was an endearing quality to his performance that to a very large extent, I believe, humanized the relationship between Dr. Watson and Mr. Holmes.”

Contrary to the geniality between Rathbone and Bruce, there was an edginess in the relationship between Stanley’s Sherlock Holmes and Shirley’s Dr. Watson. Stanley’s Holmes frequently shows contempt for his friend, perhaps owing to the fact that (despite the replacing of Bruce) Watson still seems not-too-swift on the uptake. But Shirley gives as good as he gets, often telling his companion to “Go to blazes!” (In one broadcast, he memorably instructs the detective: “Go tell your mother to suck eggs.”) In the fall of 1948, Ian Martin replaced Shirley as Watson (though he also went by the pseudonym “George Spelvin”) and made for a slightly more youthful (though still astonishingly dim) sidekick.

The Adventures of Sherlock Holmes would last one more season, beginning in the fall of 1949. The program returned (this time on ABC) for Petri Wines, with Ben Wright portraying Sherlock and Eric Snowden as Watson. Although the great detective’s run on American radio appeared to have gone the same direction as the fictional sleuth’s Sussex retirement, his adventures would once again be

presented before a microphone in the form of a well-received BBC series in 1954. This featured the powerhouse duo of Sirs John Gielgud and Ralph Richardson as Holmes and Watson, with Orson Welles as Sherlock’s nemesis Professor

Moriarty! A more ambitious radio at-tempt was presented between 1989 and 1998 on the BBC – with every entry in Sir Arthur Conan Doyle’s “canon” dra-matized by Clive Merrison (Holmes) and Michael Williams (Watson).

Since his introduction in “A Study in Scarlet” in 1887, the character of Sher-lock Holmes has become a pop culture

Sirs John Gielgud and RalphRichardson

Clive Merrision and Michael Williams John Stanley stars as Sherlock Holmes

6 3

CD 2A: “The Cadaver in the Roman Toga” - November 9, 1947Holmes’ concern that Professor Moriarty plans to flood London with counterfeit sovereigns is interrupted by a visit from Sir George Westbrook, of the London and Wessex Archaeological Association. Westbrook and his assistant have discovered a toga-clad dead man during the excavation of the ruins of a Roman bath...a corpse that shows no sign of decomposition!

CD 2B: “The Case of the Well-Staged Murder” - November 16, 1947Dr. Jeffers was shot and killed in Tufnel Park. One bullet felled the victim...but two shots were heard. Holmes is determined to make Inspector Lestrade look the fool in his investigation, relying on the new science of ballistics to make his case.

CD 3A: “The Case of the Cradle That Rocked Itself” - November 30, 1947In this reworking of “The Adventure of the Devil’s Foot,” Holmes and Watson are enjoying a little R&R in Cornwall. A vicar drops by their rental cottage to tell them of an antique cradle belonging to the Trevining clan. Sometimes it begins to rock on its own…and a death in the family soon follows.

CD 3B: “The Case of Professor Moriarty and the Diamond Jubilee” - December 7, 1947Moriarty embarks on a crime spree, taking advantage of the sixtieth anniversary celebration of Queen Victoria’s reign: stealing famous jewels, robbing banks, extorting millionaires, etc. While “The Napoleon of Crime” runs amuck with his nefarious activities, Dr. Watson himself is accused of a jewel robbery!

CD 4A: “The Adventure of the Christmas Bride” - December 21, 1947In this Yuletide-themed adventure, the titular bride is Lady Genevra, the daughter and sole heir of Lord Robert Merrill. Merrill summons Holmes and

Watson to Pensdragon Castle just a few days before her Ladyship’s nuptials. It seems that the ghostly apparition of an ancestor bride has been spotted rising from a locked chest!

CD 4B: “The Case of the Sudden Senility” - January 11, 1948In this sequel to “The Adventure of Silver Blaze,” a valuable racehorse named Blazing Star suddenly drops dead. A diabolical plot by Professor Moriarty is at the heart of the mystery.

pay the program’s bills, and the radio adventures of Holmes and Watson were off and running. Meiser’s stint with Holmes was an on-again-off-again thing, with scribes like Denis Green, Anthony Boucher, and Leslie Charteris filling in throughout the series’ broadcast history.

Meiser’s work during the 1947-48 season represents some of her best radio drama. Edith had long since proved quite adept at adapting Sir Arthur’s classic Holmes adventures for the medium. (Examples in-clude “The Adventure of the Copper Beeches” and “The Adventures of Shoscombe Old Place”—Doyle’s last official Holmes short story.) But she also proved that she had a knack for cre-ating new cases. Using her familiarity with “The Canon,” she borrowed elements from those tales to craft similar playlets. Meiser departed the program before the fall of 1948, but would later write the short-lived Sherlock Holmes newspaper comic strip (drawn by Frank Giacola) in the 1950s. Edith also continued her per-forming career with film roles and guest appearances on TV favorites (including I Love Lucy).

For the role of Sherlock Holmes, an actor named John Stanley was chosen. Though born in England, both of Stanley’s parents were American...and John journeyed to the United States at the age of 21. Once stateside, he was fortu-nate enough to find employment at WJAR, a Providence, Rhode Island radio station. The station manager was impressed with Stanley’s previous experience as an actor-director with the London Theatre…and learning that his new hire could also carry a tune was an added bonus. Stanley did a weekly quarter-hour song recital, went on to become an announcer, and then landed acting jobs on network shows like The Adventures of Father Brown, Arthur Hopkins Presents, and Words at War. What might have clinched the Holmes gig for John, however, is that his voice was a dead ringer for that of Basil Rathbone’s. Stanley would portray the detective for two seasons, until the Clipper Craft sponsorship ended in June of 1949.

No one would mistake Alfred Shirley—the actor who would now be playing Watson—for Nigel Bruce. This could be seen as either positive or negative. One of the criticisms of Bruce’s portrayal of Dr. Watson, in both movies and on radio, is that (unlike the doctor in Doyle’s stories) the character was turned into an archetypically silly Englishman…harrumphing and fumbling his way through

Edith Meiser

Alfred Shirley is heard as Dr. Watson

2 7

At the same time that Basil Rath-bone and Nigel Bruce were reading scripts weekly before a microphone, the duo continued to thrill moviego-ers as Holmes and Watson in a series of B-films produced by Universal. Af-ter twelve programmers at that studio, Rathbone was convinced that portray-ing Holmes was killing his movie ca-reer and that he was in danger of being forever associated with the role. He wasn’t wrong on that score; though his

performance in the stage production of The Heiress would net him a Tony Award in 1948, he was primarily relegated to spoofing his role as Holmes.

Rathbone’s decision to stop making Holmes pictures after 1946’s Dressed to Kill meant that the creative minds behind the radio Holmes would have to locate a replacement. They didn’t have to worry about Nigel Bruce—he would continue as Dr. Watson, with an increase in salary and top billing on the series. Actor Tom Conway—familiar to moviegoers as “The Falcon” in a popular film franchise from RKO—donned the deerstalker hat and inverness cape as Kreml Hair Tonic and Shampoo took over as the program’s sponsor. Conway was serviceable as Holmes...but there was no denying that the beloved chemistry defined by Rath-bone and Bruce was lacking. Furthermore, the rumored tension between Holmes’ producer and writers made for a rather unpleasant experience for Nigel, and he elected to bow out as Watson (as did Conway as Holmes) at the end of the 1946-47 season when the program relocated to New York.

A new sponsor -- Clipper Craft Clothes (also known as the Trimount Cloth-ing Company) -- was one of the many changes brought to The Adventures of Sherlock Holmes when it returned in the fall of 1947. Basil Loughrane was now the director-producer, and returning to pen the escapades of the world’s greatest consulting detective was Edith Meiser. It was Meiser -- an actress-playwright (and a confessed “Baker Street Irregular” -- who should receive the lion’s share of the credit for even getting a Holmes radio program on the air in the first place). In 1930, Meiser took the initiative of crafting several scripts based on adven-tures from the Holmes “canon” (the fifty-six stories written by Arthur Conan Doyle himself)…and then she pitched them to NBC. NBC was interested, but told Edith that they wouldn’t put the show on the air unless she could secure a sponsor. Meiser promptly went out and signed up George Washington Coffee to

CD 5A: The Case of the Lucky Shilling”- January 18, 1948“The Adventure of the Empty House” is referenced in this dramatic tale as Holmes and Watson engage in a game of Whist at the Bagatelle Club with notorious card cheat Horatio “Double or Nothing” Webster. The titular coin figures in the great detective’s triumph against his adversary...as does a swarm of flies!

CD 5B: “The Adventure of the Engineer’s Thumb”- January 25, 1948Victor Hatherley needs Watson’s medical help after a harrowing accident involving his thumb. As the good doctor tends to his injury, Hatherley relates to Holmes the frightening tale of how he came to be injured…after volunteering to examine a hydraulic press at a country home owned by Colonel Lysander Stark.

CD 6A: “The Case of the Avenging Blade” - February 1, 1948Holmes is brought in to investigate a mystery involving the legendary statue of Charles I located in Charing Cross. The Duke of Buckinghurst is to lay a wreath on the pedestal of the statue, unaware that the marble figure will be utilized in an attempt on the Duke’s life!

CD 6B: “The Case of the Sanguinary Specter” - February 8, 1948Events in “The Adventure of the Musgrave Ritual” inspired this intriguing mystery of stately Hurlston Manor, where blood drips slowly out of the wainscoting in a room where an ancestral ghost prowls nightly. The current owners of Hurlston are relying on such supernatural goings-on to discourage a potential buyer.

CD 7A: “The Adventure of Shoscombe Old Place” - February 15, 1948Horse trainer John Mason approaches Holmes about his master, Sir Robert Norberton. Norberton is the owner of a Berkshire racing stable…but if he is going mad, as Mason suspects, Shoscombe Old Place may soon become the property of someone else. Charles Stark fills in for Cy Harrice as announcer.

CD 7B: “The Adventure of the Wooden Claw” - February 22, 1948A banker named Meriwether asks for Holmes’ assistance in protecting some employees. Every Saturday night for almost two months, the bank messengers have been robbed. The culprit? A mysterious “cat man” who affects his escape by climbing a sheer 12-foot wall! Charles Stark fills in for Cy Harrice as announcer.

Sir Arthur Conan Doyle

Nigel Bruce and Basil Rathbone

SHERLOCK HOLMESWell Staged Murder

Program Guide by Ivan G. Shreve, Jr.

Although he cemented his cinematic immortality with onscreen villainy in features like David Copperfield (1935) and The Adventures of Robin Hood (1938), portraying Arthur Conan Doyle’s Sherlock Holmes remains actor Basil Rathbone’s lasting contribution to motion pictures. Rathbone made his debut as Doyle’s sleuth in 20th Century-Fox’s The Hound of the Baskervilles (1939) and encored that same year in The Adventures of Sherlock Holmes. Both of these features co-starred Nigel Bruce as Dr. John Watson, Sherlock’s assistant, companion…and biographer.

The success of those two films prompted NBC Blue to resurrect the Sherlock Holmes radio program (which had been on a three-year hiatus) in the fall of 1939. Both Rathbone and Bruce reprised their characters in a series for Bro-mo Quinine. In April of 1943, The (New) Adventures of Sherlock Holmes had

moved to Mutual with Petri Wines paying the bills. It’s this version of the long-running program that’s perhaps most familiar to old-time radio fans, owing to the large number of broadcast transcriptions that survived. Each week, the an-nouncer would make his way to the California beach resi-dence occupied by the retired Dr. Watson...and after being offered a generous glass of the sponsor’s product, would set-tle in as the good doctor remi-nisced about one of Holmes’ famous adventures.

CD 8A: “The Case of King Philip’s Golden Salver” - February 29, 1948A priceless golden platter given to Queen Elizabeth by Philip of Spain has been stolen from the Tower of London. Ronald Backwater, the fiancé of Lady Cynthia St. Simons, has been accused of the crime. Holmes’ has been asked to free Ronald from the guardhouse.

CD 8B: “The Adventure of the Six Napoleons” - March 7, 1948Why have busts of Napoleon Bonaparte been shattered outside a shopkeeper’s establishment and a doctor’s house? Lestrade’s theory is that it’s the work of Professor Moriarty (who purportedly hates Napoleon). However, Holmes suspects that something more sinister is afoot…particularly when the vandalism leads to a murder!

If you enjoyed this CD set, we recommendSherlock Holmes: Elementary, available

now at www.RadioSpirits.com.

www.RadioSpirits.comPO Box 1315, Little Falls, NJ 07424

© 2018 RSPT LLC. All rights reserved. For home use only. Unauthorized duplication prohibited.

Program Guide © 2018 Ivan G. Shreve, Jr. and RSPT LLC. All Rights Reserved.

48012

Bust of Napoleon