SHERLOCK HOLMES Well Staged Murder

Home , Basil Rathbone, Clive Merrison, Edith Meiser, Nigel Bruce

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 announcer 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 career 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). Moriarty embarks on a crime spree, taking advantage of the sixtieth anniversary celebration of Queen Victoria’s reign: stealing famous jewels, robbing banks, For the role of Sherlock Holmes, an actor named John Stanley was chosen. extorting millionaires, etc. While “The Napoleon of Crime” runs amuck with his Though born in England, both of Stanley’s parents were American...and John nefarious activities, Dr. Watson himself is accused of a jewel robbery! 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 CD 4A: “The Adventure of the Christmas Bride” - December 21, 1947 station. The station manager was impressed with Stanley’s previous experience In this Yuletide-themed adventure, the titular bride is Lady Genevra, the as an actor-director with the London Theatre…and learning that his new hire daughter and sole heir of Lord Robert Merrill. Merrill summons Holmes and could also carry a tune was an added bonus. Stanley did a weekly quarter-hour Watson to Pensdragon Castle just a few days before song recital, went on to become an announcer, and then landed acting jobs on her Ladyship’s nuptials. It seems that the ghostly network shows like The Adventures of Father Brown, Arthur Hopkins Presents, apparition of an ancestor bride has been spotted rising and Words at War. What might have clinched the Holmes gig for John, however, from a locked chest! 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 CD 4B: “The Case of the Sudden Senility” - in June of 1949. January 11, 1948 In this sequel to “The Adventure of Silver Blaze,” No one would mistake Alfred Shirley—the actor who would now be playing a valuable racehorse named Blazing Star suddenly Watson—for Nigel Bruce. This could be seen as either positive or negative. One drops dead. A diabolical plot by Professor Moriarty of the criticisms of Bruce’s portrayal of Dr. Watson, in both movies and on radio, is at the heart of the mystery. is that (unlike the doctor in Doyle’s stories) the character was turned into an archetypically silly Englishman…harrumphing and fumbling his way through Alfred Shirley is heard as Dr. Watson 6 3 Holmes’ cases as comic relief. Doyle’s original Watson was of notably sharper institution. Author Jim Cox has called the immortal sleuth “the most universally intellect, and had a bit more moxie —providing Holmes with a more capable recognized fictional character in history.” Holmes’ has been present in novels, sounding board during his investigations. Bruce’s Watson characterization had movies, comic strips/books, plays...and of course, radio programs. As of this its antecedents in many of his movie roles. He was the epitome of foggy bewil- writing, the CBS television series Elementary (starring Jonny Lee Miller as a derment, and rarely did Nigel play a loathsome sort. (An exception to that rule contemporary Holmes and Lucy Liu as “Dr. Joan Watson”) has been renewed for was his turn in 1939’s The Rains Came.) As Rathbone acknowledged in his 1961 a seventh season. Its BBC counterpart, Sherlock (with Benedict Cumberbatch autobiography In and Out of Character, “There was an endearing quality to his [Holmes] and Martin Freeman [Watson]) has been greenlighted for a fifth series. performance that to a very large extent, I believe, humanized the relationship A third outing of the Sherlock Holmes film franchise with Robert Downey, Jr. between Dr. Watson and Mr. Holmes.” and Jude Law is in the works as well.

Contrary to the geniality between Rathbone and Bruce, there was an edginess in Radio Spirits invites you to journey back to a simpler time, when turning on your the relationship between Stanley’s Sherlock Holmes and Shirley’s Dr. Watson. cathedral radio transported you to a fog-swirled 221-B Baker Street...and you Stanley’s Holmes frequently shows contempt for his friend, perhaps owing to spent a most enjoyable half-hour as “the world’s greatest detective” and the faith- the fact that (despite the replacing of Bruce) Watson still seems not-too-swift on ful chronicler of his adventures matched wits with the most challenging criminal the uptake. But Shirley gives as good as he gets, often telling his companion to elements in all of London. These sixteen vintage broadcasts are a time machine “Go to blazes!” (In one broadcast, he memorably instructs the detective: “Go tell to the past, when the simple occurrence of a visitor crossing the threshold of your mother to suck eggs.”) In the fall of 1948, Ian Martin replaced Shirley as Holmes and Watson’s lodgings meant...the game’s afoot! Watson (though he also went by the pseudonym “George Spelvin”) and made for a slightly more youthful (though still astonishingly dim) sidekick. The following episodes of The Adventures of Sherlock Holmes were originally broadcast over Mutual for Clipper Craft Clothes. John Stanley The Adventures of Sherlock Holmes would last one more season, beginning in the stars as Holmes with Alfred Shirley as Dr. Watson. Cy Harrice is the fall of 1949. The program returned (this time on ABC) for Petri Wines, with Ben announcer, with music by Albert Bushman and scripts/adaptations by Wright portraying Sherlock and Eric Snowden as Watson. Although the great Edith Meiser. The series is directed and produced by Basil Loughrane. 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 CD 1A: “The Laughing Lemur of High Tower Heath” presented before a microphone in the form of a - October 26, 1947 well-received BBC series in 1954. This featured A Halloween tale of the supernatural, this thriller the powerhouse duo of Sirs John Gielgud and focuses on a witch who’s been dead and buried for Ralph Richardson as Holmes and Watson, with centuries in the Dartmoor countryside. Holmes and Orson Welles as Sherlock’s nemesis Professor Watson embark on a “witch hunt” when they’re Moriarty! A more ambitious radio at- summoned by Sir Lionel Fennig, who fears that his tempt was presented between 1989 and infant son might be endangered by the witch’s spirit. Sirs John Gielgud 1998 on the BBC – with every entry in and Ralph Sir Arthur Conan Doyle’s “canon” dra- CD 1B: “The Adventure of the Copper Beeches” Richardson matized by Clive Merrison (Holmes) - November 2, 1947 and Michael Williams (Watson). In this classic Arthur Conan Doyle tale, Violet Hunter has been offered the princely sum of £100 a year to Since his introduction in “A Study in accept a position as governess for Jephro Rucastle. Scarlet” in 1887, the character of Sher- When she’s told she’ll have to cut her long hair short, Clive Merrision and Michael Williams lock Holmes has become a pop culture Violet balks...so Rucastle raises the ante to £120! John Stanley stars as Sherlock Holmes 4 5 Holmes’ cases as comic relief. Doyle’s original Watson was of notably sharper institution. Author Jim Cox has called the immortal sleuth “the most universally intellect, and had a bit more moxie —providing Holmes with a more capable recognized fictional character in history.” Holmes’ has been present in novels, sounding board during his investigations. Bruce’s Watson characterization had movies, comic strips/books, plays...and of course, radio programs. As of this its antecedents in many of his movie roles. He was the epitome of foggy bewil- writing, the CBS television series Elementary (starring Jonny Lee Miller as a derment, and rarely did Nigel play a loathsome sort. (An exception to that rule contemporary Holmes and Lucy Liu as “Dr. Joan Watson”) has been renewed for was his turn in 1939’s The Rains Came.) As Rathbone acknowledged in his 1961 a seventh season. Its BBC counterpart, Sherlock (with Benedict Cumberbatch autobiography In and Out of Character, “There was an endearing quality to his [Holmes] and Martin Freeman [Watson]) has been greenlighted for a fifth series. performance that to a very large extent, I believe, humanized the relationship A third outing of the Sherlock Holmes film franchise with Robert Downey, Jr. between Dr. Watson and Mr. Holmes.” and Jude Law is in the works as well.

Contrary to the geniality between Rathbone and Bruce, there was an edginess in Radio Spirits invites you to journey back to a simpler time, when turning on your the relationship between Stanley’s Sherlock Holmes and Shirley’s Dr. Watson. cathedral radio transported you to a fog-swirled 221-B Baker Street...and you Stanley’s Holmes frequently shows contempt for his friend, perhaps owing to spent a most enjoyable half-hour as “the world’s greatest detective” and the faith- the fact that (despite the replacing of Bruce) Watson still seems not-too-swift on ful chronicler of his adventures matched wits with the most challenging criminal the uptake. But Shirley gives as good as he gets, often telling his companion to elements in all of London. These sixteen vintage broadcasts are a time machine “Go to blazes!” (In one broadcast, he memorably instructs the detective: “Go tell to the past, when the simple occurrence of a visitor crossing the threshold of your mother to suck eggs.”) In the fall of 1948, Ian Martin replaced Shirley as Holmes and Watson’s lodgings meant...the game’s afoot! Watson (though he also went by the pseudonym “George Spelvin”) and made for a slightly more youthful (though still astonishingly dim) sidekick. The following episodes of The Adventures of Sherlock Holmes were originally broadcast over Mutual for Clipper Craft Clothes. John Stanley The Adventures of Sherlock Holmes would last one more season, beginning in the stars as Holmes with Alfred Shirley as Dr. Watson. Cy Harrice is the fall of 1949. The program returned (this time on ABC) for Petri Wines, with Ben announcer, with music by Albert Bushman and scripts/adaptations by Wright portraying Sherlock and Eric Snowden as Watson. Although the great Edith Meiser. The series is directed and produced by Basil Loughrane. 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 CD 1A: “The Laughing Lemur of High Tower Heath” presented before a microphone in the form of a - October 26, 1947 well-received BBC series in 1954. This featured A Halloween tale of the supernatural, this thriller the powerhouse duo of Sirs John Gielgud and focuses on a witch who’s been dead and buried for Ralph Richardson as Holmes and Watson, with centuries in the Dartmoor countryside. Holmes and Orson Welles as Sherlock’s nemesis Professor Watson embark on a “witch hunt” when they’re Moriarty! A more ambitious radio at- summoned by Sir Lionel Fennig, who fears that his tempt was presented between 1989 and infant son might be endangered by the witch’s spirit. Sirs John Gielgud 1998 on the BBC – with every entry in and Ralph Sir Arthur Conan Doyle’s “canon” dra- CD 1B: “The Adventure of the Copper Beeches” Richardson matized by Clive Merrison (Holmes) - November 2, 1947 and Michael Williams (Watson). In this classic Arthur Conan Doyle tale, Violet Hunter has been offered the princely sum of £100 a year to Since his introduction in “A Study in accept a position as governess for Jephro Rucastle. Scarlet” in 1887, the character of Sher- When she’s told she’ll have to cut her long hair short, Clive Merrision and Michael Williams lock Holmes has become a pop culture Violet balks...so Rucastle raises the ante to £120! John Stanley stars as Sherlock Holmes 4 5 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). Moriarty embarks on a crime spree, taking advantage of the sixtieth anniversary celebration of Queen Victoria’s reign: stealing famous jewels, robbing banks, For the role of Sherlock Holmes, an actor named John Stanley was chosen. extorting millionaires, etc. While “The Napoleon of Crime” runs amuck with his Though born in England, both of Stanley’s parents were American...and John nefarious activities, Dr. Watson himself is accused of a jewel robbery! 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 CD 4A: “The Adventure of the Christmas Bride” - December 21, 1947 station. The station manager was impressed with Stanley’s previous experience In this Yuletide-themed adventure, the titular bride is Lady Genevra, the as an actor-director with the London Theatre…and learning that his new hire daughter and sole heir of Lord Robert Merrill. Merrill summons Holmes and could also carry a tune was an added bonus. Stanley did a weekly quarter-hour Watson to Pensdragon Castle just a few days before song recital, went on to become an announcer, and then landed acting jobs on her Ladyship’s nuptials. It seems that the ghostly network shows like The Adventures of Father Brown, Arthur Hopkins Presents, apparition of an ancestor bride has been spotted rising and Words at War. What might have clinched the Holmes gig for John, however, from a locked chest! 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 CD 4B: “The Case of the Sudden Senility” - in June of 1949. January 11, 1948 In this sequel to “The Adventure of Silver Blaze,” No one would mistake Alfred Shirley—the actor who would now be playing a valuable racehorse named Blazing Star suddenly Watson—for Nigel Bruce. This could be seen as either positive or negative. One drops dead. A diabolical plot by Professor Moriarty of the criticisms of Bruce’s portrayal of Dr. Watson, in both movies and on radio, is at the heart of the mystery. is that (unlike the doctor in Doyle’s stories) the character was turned into an archetypically silly Englishman…harrumphing and fumbling his way through Alfred Shirley is heard as Dr. Watson 6 3 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 career 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.

2 7 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.

48012