The New Adventures of Sherlock Holmes

The New Adventures of Sherlock Holmes is an old-time radio show which aired in the USA from 1939 to 1950.[1] Most episodes were written by the team of Dennis Green and Anthony Boucher; some early episodes were written by Green and Leslie Charteris.[2][3]

Originally, the show starred Basil Rathbone as Sherlock Holmes and Nigel Bruce as Doctor Watson.[4][5] Together, they starred in 220 episodes which aired weekly on Mondays from 8:30 to 9:00pm. Bromo Quinine sponsored some of the earlier programs on the NBC Blue Network and for a period Parker Pen was the sponsor. The show first aired on the Blue Network but later moved to the Mutual Broadcasting System.[6] It was originally broadcast from Hollywood. During World War II, the show was also broadcast overseas through the Armed Forces Radio Service.

Basil Rathbone's last episode as the famous Detective was "The Singular Affair of the Baconian Cipher." He was eager to separate himself from the show to avoid being typecast in the role, and even though the show's sponsor Petri Wine[7] offered him generous pay to continue, he decided to move on. Once he did, the sponsor did as well, and Tom Conway took the starring role, though Nigel Bruce got top billing and was always announced first. The new sponsor was Kreml Hair Tonic for Men, and the new series lasted only 39 episodes. Bruce and Conway then left the series. From then until 1950 the series continued as "Sherlock Holmes" with various actors playing the two principal parts.

With Rathbone and Bruce, the show exhibited an interesting introduction. The sponsor's spokesman, usually Knox Manning or Harry Bartell, or, during the show's initial season and again in the final season, Joseph Bell, would show up weekly at Dr. Watson's house (then retired and living in California), and share a story about Holmes and his adventures over a glass of Petri wine. This offered them the chance to sometimes bring in other characters to contribute to the story, and also gave Watson a chance to summarize or add additional titbits at the end. Another interesting thing about this radio show's introductions was Dr. Watson's anecdotes and comments about his dogs usually referred to as the "Puppies."

List of Holmes and Watson actors on the program:

Holmes

Watson

References

  1. ↑ Bertel, Dick; Corcoran; Ed (February 1972). "Radio Shows of 1947". The Golden Age of Radio. Season 2. Episode 11. Broadcast Plaza, Inc.. WTIC Hartford, Conn.
  2. ↑ Ken Greenwald (1989). THE LOST ADVENTURES OF SHERLOCK HOLMES. Mallard Press. p. 205. ISBN 978-0-7924-5107-5.
  3. ↑ Jeffrey Marks (1 February 2008). Anthony Boucher: A Biobibliography. McFarland. pp. 24–. ISBN 978-0-7864-8388-4.
  4. ↑ Portico (6 November 2014). The Elementary Sherlock Holmes. Pavilion Books. pp. 63–. ISBN 978-1-910232-14-9.
  5. ↑ Anthony Boucher; Denis Green; Basil Rathbone; Nigel Bruce (February 2002). New Adventures of Sherlock Holmes. Simon & Schuster, Limited. ISBN 978-0-7435-0114-9. Cite uses deprecated parameter |coauthors= (help)
  6. ↑ Aubrey J. Sher, Ph.D. (15 August 2013). Those Great Old-Time Radio Years. Xlibris Corporation. pp. 29–. ISBN 978-1-4836-7909-9.
  7. ↑ Vincent Terrace (3 October 2003). Radio Program Openings and Closings, 1931-1972. McFarland. pp. 213–. ISBN 978-1-4766-1223-2.
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