SHERLOCK HOLMES Well Staged Murder
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CD 8A: “The Case of King Philip’s Golden Salver” - February 29, 1948 A priceless golden platter given to Queen Elizabeth SHERLOCK HOLMES by Philip of Spain has been stolen from the Tower of London. Ronald Backwater, the fiancé of Lady Well Staged Murder Cynthia St. Simons, has been accused of the crime. Holmes’ has been asked to free Ronald from the Program Guide by Ivan G. Shreve, Jr. guardhouse. Although he cemented his cinematic immortality with onscreen villainy in CD 8B: “The Adventure of the Six Napoleons” - features like David Copperfield (1935) and The Adventures of Robin Hood Bust of Napoleon March 7, 1948 (1938), portraying Arthur Conan Doyle’s Sherlock Holmes remains actor Basil Why have busts of Napoleon Bonaparte been shattered outside a shopkeeper’s Rathbone’s lasting contribution to motion pictures. Rathbone made his debut establishment and a doctor’s house? Lestrade’s theory is that it’s the work of as Doyle’s sleuth in 20th Century-Fox’s The Hound of the Baskervilles (1939) Professor Moriarty (who purportedly hates Napoleon). However, Holmes and encored that same year in The Adventures of Sherlock Holmes. Both of suspects that something more sinister is afoot…particularly when the vandalism these features co-starred Nigel Bruce as Dr. John Watson, Sherlock’s assistant, leads to a murder! 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 If you enjoyed this CD set, we recommend 1939. Both Rathbone and Bruce reprised their characters in a series for Bro- Sherlock Holmes: Elementary, available mo Quinine. In April of 1943, The (New) Adventures of Sherlock Holmes had now at www.RadioSpirits.com. 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- www.RadioSpirits.com dence occupied by the retired PO Box 1315, Little Falls, NJ 07424 Dr. Watson...and after being offered a generous glass of the © 2018 RSPT LLC. All rights reserved. sponsor’s product, would set- For home use only. Unauthorized duplication prohibited. tle in as the good doctor remi- nisced about one of Holmes’ Program Guide © 2018 Ivan G. Shreve, Jr. and RSPT LLC. All Rights Reserved. famous adventures. 48012 At the same time that Basil Rath- CD 5A: The Case of the Lucky Shilling” bone and Nigel Bruce were reading - January 18, 1948 scripts weekly before a microphone, “The Adventure of the Empty House” is referenced in this the duo continued to thrill moviego- dramatic tale as Holmes and Watson engage in a game of ers as Holmes and Watson in a series Whist at the Bagatelle Club with notorious card cheat Horatio of B-films produced by Universal. Af- “Double or Nothing” Webster. The titular coin figures in the ter twelve programmers at that studio, great detective’s triumph against his adversary...as does a Rathbone was convinced that portray- swarm of flies! ing Holmes was killing his movie ca- reer and that he was in danger of being CD 5B: “The Adventure of the Engineer’s Thumb” forever associated with the role. He - January 25, 1948 Sir Arthur Conan Doyle Nigel Bruce and Basil Rathbone wasn’t wrong on that score; though his Victor Hatherley needs Watson’s medical help after a harrowing accident performance in the stage production of The Heiress would net him a Tony Award involving his thumb. As the good doctor tends to his injury, Hatherley relates to in 1948, he was primarily relegated to spoofing his role as Holmes. 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. 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 CD 6A: “The Case of the Avenging Blade” - February 1, 1948 replacement. They didn’t have to worry about Nigel Bruce—he would continue Holmes is brought in to investigate a mystery involving the legendary statue of as Dr. Watson, with an increase in salary and top billing on the series. Actor Tom Charles I located in Charing Cross. The Duke of Buckinghurst is to lay a wreath Conway—familiar to moviegoers as “The Falcon” in a popular film franchise on the pedestal of the statue, unaware that the marble figure will be utilized in an from RKO—donned the deerstalker hat and inverness cape as Kreml Hair Tonic attempt on the Duke’s life! 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- CD 6B: “The Case of the Sanguinary Specter” - February 8, 1948 bone and Bruce was lacking. Furthermore, the rumored tension between Holmes’ Events in “The Adventure of the Musgrave Ritual” inspired this intriguing mystery producer and writers made for a rather unpleasant experience for Nigel, and he of stately Hurlston Manor, where blood drips slowly out of the wainscoting in a elected to bow out as Watson (as did Conway as Holmes) at the end of the 1946- room where an ancestral ghost prowls nightly. The current owners of Hurlston 47 season when the program relocated to New York. are relying on such supernatural goings-on to discourage a potential buyer. A new sponsor -- Clipper Craft Clothes (also known as the Trimount Cloth- CD 7A: “The Adventure of Shoscombe Old Place” - February 15, 1948 ing Company) -- was one of the many changes brought to The Adventures of Horse trainer John Mason approaches Holmes about his master, Sir Robert Sherlock Holmes when it returned in the fall of 1947. Basil Loughrane was now Norberton. Norberton is the owner of a Berkshire racing stable…but if he is the director-producer, and returning to pen the escapades of the world’s greatest going mad, as Mason suspects, Shoscombe Old Place may soon become the consulting detective was Edith Meiser. It was Meiser -- an actress-playwright property of someone else. Charles Stark fills in for Cy Harrice as announcer. (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). CD 7B: “The Adventure of the Wooden Claw” - February 22, 1948 In 1930, Meiser took the initiative of crafting several scripts based on adven- A banker named Meriwether asks for Holmes’ assistance in protecting some tures from the Holmes “canon” (the fifty-six stories written by Arthur Conan employees. Every Saturday night for almost two months, the bank messengers Doyle himself)…and then she pitched them to NBC. NBC was interested, but have been robbed. The culprit? A mysterious “cat man” who affects his escape by told Edith that they wouldn’t put the show on the air unless she could secure a climbing a sheer 12-foot wall! Charles Stark fills in for Cy Harrice as announcer. sponsor. Meiser promptly went out and signed up George Washington Coffee to 2 7 CD 2A: “The Cadaver in the Roman Toga” - November 9, 1947 pay the program’s bills, and the radio adventures of Holmes’ concern that Professor Moriarty plans to flood London with counterfeit Holmes and Watson were off and running. Meiser’s sovereigns is interrupted by a visit from Sir George Westbrook, of the London stint with Holmes was an on-again-off-again thing, and Wessex Archaeological Association. Westbrook and his assistant have with scribes like Denis Green, Anthony Boucher, discovered a toga-clad dead man during the excavation of the ruins of a Roman and Leslie Charteris filling in throughout the series’ bath...a corpse that shows no sign of decomposition! broadcast history. CD 2B: “The Case of the Well-Staged Murder” - November 16, 1947 Meiser’s work during the 1947-48 season represents Dr. Jeffers was shot and killed in Tufnel Park. One bullet felled the victim...but some of her best radio drama. Edith had long since two shots were heard. Holmes is determined to make Inspector Lestrade look the proved quite adept at adapting Sir Arthur’s classic fool in his investigation, relying on the new science of ballistics to make his case. Holmes adventures for the medium. (Examples in- clude “The Adventure of the Copper Beeches” and CD 3A: “The Case of the Cradle That Rocked Itself” - November 30, 1947 “The Adventures of Shoscombe Old Place”—Doyle’s Edith Meiser In this reworking of “The Adventure of the Devil’s Foot,” Holmes and Watson last official Holmes short story.) But she also proved that she had a knack for cre- are enjoying a little R&R in Cornwall. A vicar drops by their rental cottage to tell ating new cases. Using her familiarity with “The Canon,” she borrowed elements them of an antique cradle belonging to the Trevining clan. Sometimes it begins from those tales to craft similar playlets. Meiser departed the program before the to rock on its own…and a death in the family soon follows. 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- CD 3B: “The Case of Professor Moriarty and the Diamond Jubilee” - forming career with film roles and guest appearances on TV favorites (including December 7, 1947 I Love Lucy).