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May 2016Volume 40 • Number 10

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ECHOES OF THE WHISTLER ON WBBM • LET’S NOT BE MATTER OF FACT ABOUT RADIO • THE OTHER SHERLOCK HOLMES

2 sperdvacRADIOGRAM • MAY 2016

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• ALICE AKINS in memory of Glen Akins

• DAVE AMAREL in memory of Jim Harmon

• ARTHUR J.M. ANDERSON in memory of Orson Welles

• ERIC BAELEN

• JUDIE BARTELL in memory of Harry Bartell, Ben Wright

and Vic Perrin

• PAUL M. BENNETT

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Tilton and Lena Romay

• FRED BONDY in memory of the whole Gunsmoke gang

• GEORGE BRECKENRIDGE

• DAVID & LINDA BRENINGER

• FRANK BRESEE

• BUD BRESNAHAN dedicated to Gale Gordon

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• DENNIS B. BURK in memory of Phil Harper

• CHRIS M. BUZZARD to those who keep otr alive for a

new generation

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Chandlee

• GEROLD M. CLEMENSEN

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• JOHN COLLINS

• THOMAS W. COLLINS in memory of William Conrad

• TOMMY COOK in memory of Arch Oboler

• IVAN CURY in memory of Bob Novak

• DIX DAVIS

• LLOYD DE LLAMAS

• RICK DENNIS The memory and thanksgiving for Mason

Adams and his role on Grand Central Station’s Annual

Christmas Program

• ROSEMARY DOBBS

• JUNE FORAY DONAVAN in memory of Hobart Donavan

• WIL DUFOUR

• BOB DUNCAN, JR.

• HERB ELLIS in memory of Larry Dobkin, Harry Bartell

and Parley Baer

• JAY ELZWEIG in honor of the Long Island Radio & TV

Historical Society, the WCWP-FM Alumni Association

and Staff, John “The Movie Man” Carpenter and Eddie

“The Old Philosopher” Lawrence

• HENRY C. ENGELHARDT III in memory of Michael

Meredith

• CARMEN FINESTRA

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• ART FORSTER in memory of Gil Stratton and William

Conrad

• JACK FRANCE

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Knudsen and Laughter

• JACK GAGNE

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• RICHARD GLASBAND in honor of Bobb Lynes and Barbara

Watkins

• NICHOLAS GOODHUE

• KATHLEEN GRAMS-GIBBS in memory of Mary Grams

• FRANK GREGORY

• TOM J. GRIMSLEY in memory of Rosemary Dobbs, Art

Linkletter and Stuart Lubin

• JOHN F. HALLEY

• BARBARA HARMON in memory of Art Hern, Jack Lester

and Curley Bradley

• HELPING HANDS FOR THE BLIND

• BOB HICKS

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Hour

• SEAMAN JACOBS in memory of Fred S. Fox

• ROBERT JANOVICI

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• RALPH M. JOHNSON

• SAM KAMLER

• MRS. JAIMI L.C. KELLER in memory of Frank Lumbert and

Roy Hunter

• CASEY KASEM

• GLENDA KELLY in memory of Stuart Lubin

• NILAN L. KINCAID

• DON KING in memory of Lowell Thomas and Paul Harvey

• ALBERT J. KOPEC

• DENIS KRAY in memory of my beloved parents, Norbert

and Florence Kray, and in memory of Glenn, Ray, Marion,

Tex and all the boys in the band

• RON LANGSETH

• JEFFREY J. LEBRUN in memory of all departed voice artists

• ALFRED LUCAS

• MICHAEL MAIURI

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lin) McConnell

• ROBY & JOYCE McHONE

• ESTHER GEDDES McVEY in memory of my leading man,

Tyler McVey

• JAN MERLIN in memory of Frankie Thomas and Mona

Bruns Thomas

• MELVIN MOREHOUSE in memory of Brace Beemer

• MIKE MORITZ in appreciation for all otr preservationists

• JAMES L. MORRISON

• MILLIE MORSE in memory of Jim Harmon

• BOB MOTT to all the SFX artists when radio was still radio

• GEORGE (BOB) & VIRGINIA NEWHART in memory of Bill

Quinn

• JAN ELLIS O’HARE in loving memory of Antony Ellis

• J. PHILIP OLDHAM

• ROBERT OLSEN

• DR. WAYNE OTT

• FORREST F. OWEN

• GARRY PAPERS

• KEN PARKE

• DAVE PARKER in memory of Fred Foy

• PHIL PROCTOR

• BRIAN E. RAMSEY in memory of Ken Darby and Rod

Robinson and the King’s Men

• CHESTER RAWSKI in memory of Carrolyn Rawski

• MARIE RAYMOND

• RONALD M. REISNER, M.D.

• DICK RICHARDS

• DAVID RICHARDSON in honor of Herb Ellis and Peg Lynch

• D.W. RICHARDSON

• STEPHEN K. SHUTTLEWORTH

• STUART & JANIS SIMON

• CHUCK SIVERTSEN

• LOREN SLAFER

• KENNETH L. SLEEPER

• LEE SMITH

• MICKEY SMITH

• C. W. STAUFENBERG in memory of Paul Rhymer and

members of the “Vic and Sade” cast

• RICHARD STONE

• ROBERT A. SUMMERS

• JON D. SWARTZ in memory of Jim Harmon

• PATRICIA RYAN SWINDLER in memory of Stuart Lubin

• RICHARD & MADELENE TEPERSON in memory of Gil

Stratton

• JOAN TREMAYNE in memory of Les Tremayne

• EDMUND TOTMAN

• EUGENE J. WARD

• WASHINGTON OLD TIME RADIO CLUB in memory of Jim

Harmon

• EDWARD C. WEAVER

• BETSY L. WEINBERG

• LESLIE C. WEST

• JERRY & BARBARA WILLIAMS in memory of Michael Rye

• JAMES C. WORDEN

sperdvac 3MAY 2016 • RADIOGRAM

BOARD OF DIRECTORSpresident

Larry Gassman• • •

Bob Steinmetz • Barbara WilliamsJohn Gassman • Jerry Williams

Jerry Haendiges • Walden Hughes

Editor

PATRICK LUCANIORADIOGRAM is published monthly except December by sperdvac, the Society to Preserve and Encourage Radio Drama, Variety and Comedy, a California nonprofit public benefit corporation, P.O. Box 125, Oroville, California 95965. Dues are $25 for first year and $15 for renewals; $30 Ameri-can currency for Canadian members. Annual subscriptions to Radiogram only are $15 in the U.S., Canada, and Mexico, and $20 in all other countries. Editorial submissions are welcome, but the publisher assumes no responsibility for the return of unsolicited material. All editorial-related photographs and artwork received unsolicited become the property of sperdvac. Opinions expressed are not neces-sarily the opinions of sperdvac All rights to letters sent to Radiogram will be treated as unconditionally assigned for publication unless otherwise stated. The publishers make every effort to ensure the accuracy of information published in editorial and advertising material but assume no responsibility for inconveniences or damages resulting from editorial error or omissions. Publisher is not responsible for typographical errors. All photographs and illustrations are believed authorized for reproduction as set forth within. Entire contents are copyright © 2016 by the Society to Pre-serve and Encourage Radio Drama, Variety and Comedy. All rights reserved. Nothing contained in this issue may be reproduced, in whole or in part, by any means, including the Internet, without prior written permission from the publisher.

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Volume 40 • Number 10 • May 2016

OfficersVice-President ........................................... John GassmanTreasurer ..................................................... Jerry WilliamsSecretary ................................................ Barbara WilliamsActivities Chair ................................................Bobb LynesAcquisitions Chair ..................................... John GassmanMembership Chair ............................................ Steve HissElections Chair ........................................... Neil J. MitchellCatalogs .....................................................Bob SteinmetzNew Members .................................................. Rex Quinn

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The Society to Preserve and Encourage Radio Drama, Variety and Comedy Last month this column devoted its al-lotted space to telling the story of the murder of Everett Clarke, who had

played the title character in The Whistler for the Chicago production of the popular crime series. Because so little has been put forth concern-ing the Chicago run, this month’s column will try and fill in a few of the elusive details.

The original Pacific Coast production of The Whistler had been on the air for almost four years when WBBM, the CBS Chicago station, began exploring the idea of importing the series to the Midwest. They reasoned that if The Whistler was “tops in popularity” out on the West Coast, the series might well attain the same level of approval in their region. WBBM and the Pacific office of CBS negoti-ated a deal. WBBM purchased scripts and musical arrangements. WBBM would restage these original scripts using local talent. This appears to have been a 52-week commitment.

The Peter Hand Brewing Company, makers of Meister Brau Beer, signed on as sponsor. A weekly budget of $1500 was set aside to cover production costs. Everett Clarke was signed to play the title role. Weekly casts were drawn from the Chicago talent pool of radio profes-sionals. Perhaps one of the most important selections of all was Sherman Marks, who was named producer-director. Marks was one of the most creative and versatile figures in Chicago radio at the time. A WBBM staffer, Marks had a hand in innumerable programs variously as creator, writer, actor, producer or director. A Chicago native, he had also been director of the Chicago Mummers Theater.

As producer-director for The Whistler, Marks was faced with the task of trying to replicate an already existing and highly suc-cessful series and transporting it to his home turf. He started by spending hours reading scripts and listening to the transcription discs sent out from the West Coast. With a grasp of what the series was about, Marks could then turn his attention to personnel. Along with Clarke in the title role, Bob Venables was picked to serve as announcer while Hunter Taylor and his orchestra handled the music. Sound effects were the work of Ed Whitel

and Lou Weir.The Whistler was scheduled to air each

Sunday night at 9:30. The premiere broadcast, “Treasure Hunt,” took place on February 3, 1946, before a live audience in the WBBM stu-

dio. “Treasure Hunt” had originally aired on the West Coast just two weeks before. The effort to replicate the success of the Pacific Coast Whistler seems to have paid off from the start. Variety reviewed the program’s Chicago effort favorably, predicting that the series would prove as popular in the Mid-West as it was on the West Coast. Indeed, Chicago’s Whistler was soon registering a highly respect-able 17.0 Hooper rating.

In an odd twist of fate, reflective of the format of The Whistler itself, the program’s success may have been WBBM’s undoing. Nearly a year into its Chicago run, CBS an-nounced that it intended to take The Whistler national and that production would emanate from New York. Suddenly, the station and Sherman Marks had to scrabble to fill the hole created in their Sunday lineup. WBBM put out the call for ideas from local free-lance scriptwriters for a new mystery series to replace the departing Whistler. The final Chicago Whistler aired on February 9, 1947. The following Sunday evening, many listen-ers tuning in at 9:30 to WBBM probably thought they were hearing The Whistler. In adherence to the old adage that imitation is the sincerest form of flattery, the station was now airing The Echo, which Variety dubbed a “blatant copy of The Whistler and for excel-lent reason.” Almost nothing had changed. Everett Clarke was back interpreting the inner thoughts and conflicts of murderers only this time his presence was heralded by a peculiar echo rather than a strange whistle. Sherman Marks returned as producer-director. The Echo retained the same time slot and the same sponsor as The Whistler. The identical twist-of-fate concept was employed in each script. It was as if The Whistler had never left WBBM. The idea seemed to work briefly, but then late in March the New York production of The Whistler was ready and WBBM added the series to its Wednesday schedule.

The Echo faded out on May 25, 1947.[

Echoes of the Whistler


When i was a youngster in Copen-hagen, Denmark, my father and mother appeared in many plays

at the Royal Theatre in that city. Under the stage there was a long dark room fitted with benches. Persons from the Blind Institute were welcome to sit in that room during per-formances. In that way, they could hear the play and follow its progress almost as well as if they were out in front.

That room and its benches has a direct relationship—in my mind—with radio today.

This is my third season with CBS as Dr. Christian, the country doctor of “River’s End,” and during these three years I have seldom gone on the air without thinking about those Danish blind persons and the similarity of that stage arrangement to radio.

Back in Copenhagen, I often sat under-neath the stage with the unfortunates, and I used to think how nice it would be if it were possible for all of the blind persons in the world to be able to hear plays. By means of

radio, not only the blind, but shut-ins of every description can hear the best in entertainment by simply turning a small dial.

I know that I’m not saying something new, something that most of us don’t already realize—but I think we have all developed a matter-of-fact attitude about radio. Today we seldom stop to realize what a boon it has been to mankind, and especially to the unfortunates who cannot afford other entertainment.

That’s why I’m taking this opportunity to say what I’m saying—even at the risk of being repetitious.

Of course, radio is a two-way proposition. The public should be grateful for radio. But those in the radio industry should also be appreciative of the listening public because it is they who make the high grade of radio entertainment in this country possible.

Radio in the United States is on a much higher plane than in almost any other country, simply because such a large proportion of the population supports it. When I think that mil-

lions of persons listen to our production each week over CBS, it never ceases to amaze me.

That is probably more people than all of the stars on Broadway—before radio became popular—would play to during their entire lifetimes. This one fact alone indicates the tremendous scope of radio and should make us, who are working in the industry realize what an extremely serious responsibility we have toward our listeners.

The trend of programs in the past few years indicates that radio is aware of its responsi-bility. As merely one person in a vast field of entertainment, I know that we of Dr. Christian recognize our duty.

It is a far cry today from those blind friends of mine beneath the stage in the Copenhagen theatre. Mental sight has been brought to the many instead of the few.

As long as radio here in the United States continues to be a factor of enlightenment, we all have a strong ally working for our personal welfare.[

LET’S NOT BE MATTER OF FACT ABOUT RADIO

by Jean Hersholt

Rosemary DeCamp helps Jean Hersholt as Dr. Christian light up his pipe as they relax at rehearsal of CBS’ popular serial Dr. Christian

OLD NEWS IS GOOD NEWS. The beloved actor Jean Hersholt penned this opinion piece for the December 1940 edition of the fan publica-tion Radio Varieties. For those who love old-time radio he couldn’t have said it better.


Hi all! $CONVENTION 2017. The next sperdvac convention is now scheduled for January 2017 in Las Vegas. Make plans to be with us at the Orleans Hotel at 4500 West Tropicana Av-enue. There will be a special number to call for reservations plus a code for a discounted rate. Stay tuned!$SAD NEWS. By

now most of you know we lost our friend and honorary member Arthur Anderson at the age of 93. Arthur was a wonderful person who was known and loved throughout the radio community. He will be missed by all of us. We also lost singer Gogi Grant and writer Earl Hamner. $MONTHLY MEETINGS. We are working on a monthly meeting for Sep-tember. Stay tuned for more information. $REPS SHOWCASE. Thank you to the Radio Enthusiasts Of Puget

Sound. They just celebrated their 25th anniversary plus another suc-cessful Showcase. Many of us were privileged to be a part of the week-end. Thank you so much for making us all feel so much at home. $ OTR DOCU-M E N T A R Y . Honorary member Dave Parker, who was a part of the radio cast of The Lone Ranger, produced a fine documentary video which was shown at our March meeting. We have made arrangements to have copies of that DVD for sale. You can obtain your very own copy by sending a check for $22 to Mike Wheeler at 3259 Roxburg Drive in Lexington, KY 40503.$PRINTED MATERIALS. The Printed Materials library is now up and running on our website, www.sperdvac.com.$CONTACT THE PRESIDENT. There are a few ways to contact me with regard to items mentioned in this column: (sperdvac) phone: (877) 251-5771; e-mail [email protected] (I do check that e-mail often) or [email protected].[

From The President

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When you hear the clipped, British accent of John Stanley as Sherlock Holmes (Mutual, Sundays, 7 PM, EST) you can

almost see the fog swirling and eerie as it blankets Baker Street. It’s a cinch for actor Stanley to sound as though he was born in London because he was born in London. Not only that but during his early childhood John lived only a half-mile from the famed Baker Street, hangout of Sir Arthur Conan Doyle’s celebrated sleuth.

Although Stanley was born in England, he was an American the moment he came into the world. John’s father was Professor Henry W. S. Stanley and John was born while his parent was teaching diction at St. Mark’s College, London.

The wife of Professor Stanley was also an American and all of their four children were raised in England. John graduated from Malvern College.

“When I was twenty-one years old,” he explains, “the urge to come to my own country suddenly began to eat away at me. My father had told me so much about his native New England that I decided I just had to see it.”

It was quite a decision to make because young Stanley had two successful seasons behind him as an actor-director in the London theatre. But he sailed for Providence, RI, a stranger in his own country.

“I didn’t have time to feel lost or lonely,” the actor recalled, smiling. “I went to work two weeks after the boat docked. I got a job on station WJAR in Providence. What got me the job was not the fact that I had played Shakespeare but the station manager’s discovery that I could sing a little.”

Stanley’s radio debut was made as a singer. He did a weekly, 15-minute song recital. It didn’t last too long as listeners were confused by his English accent as he rendered popular ballads. He was switched to announcing, then did script writing, broadcast special events and did spot acting jobs.

When John Stanley replaced Basil Rathbone as Sherlock Holmes many listeners could not tell the difference in the quality of their voices. Stanley likes playing the role although the sound of British voices all around him in the studio sometimes makes him nostalgic for London.

John is married, lives in Rye, NY, and is the father of two sons, Johnny 10 and David 7. He is calm, pleasant, reserved man, who likes to play the cello, which he does quite well, and, now and then, engage in a rousing game of bridge.[

Meet John Stanley

OLD NEWS IS GOOD NEWS. A March 1948 MBS bio of John Stanley, the actor who had replaced Tom Conway (who had replaced Basil Rathbone) as Sherlock Holmes in the late 1940s Mutual series. Stanley played opposite Alfred Shirley as Watson until 1949 when yet another new series was produced, this time for ABC and featuring Ben Wright and Eric Snowden as Holmes and Watson.


It was 1930 and Edith Meiser had a prob-lem. The actress and writer had been a ardent fan of Sherlock Holmes since being introduced to the Holmes Canon at the age of 11, during a sea voyage to Europe with her family. Confined to her cabin by a persistent case of seasickness, Edith consumed Conan Doyle’s detective stories as palliative for her illness. From that time forward, for the remainder of her 95 years, Edith was a con-formed devotée and student of the Dean of Baker Street. Intent on sharing her fondness for Holmes, Meiser was convinced that the Sherlock Holmes stories would make fascinat-ing radio fare. Accordingly, she prepared two prospective radio scripts showcasing Holmes and demonstrating the possibilities of a radio series built around the great detective. She pitched her idea to NBC where the proposal was favorably received but declined because the network was unable to come up with a sponsor for the prospective program. Unwill-ing to drop the idea, Edith began her own search for a likely sponsor.

The G. Washington Coffee Refining Com-pany had problems of its own in 1930. First, G. Washington Coffee was not “regular” cof-fee in the minds of many consumers. It was “instant” coffee, the first to enter the Ameri-

can market. Many coffee drinkers seemed to regard the product with suspicion, judging it as inferior to other brands. The company had won a contract to supply coffee to American doughboys during the Great War, but some-how that fact didn’t translate into much of a selling point with the civilian population. Radio might conceivably be the answer to G. Washington’s dilemma, but it would require the right program to make an impact with a skeptical public.

G. Washington Coffee seemed a viable sponsor for Edith Meiser’s Sherlock Holmes if the company could be persuaded. Edith was extraordinarily thorough in the prepara-tion and research of her Sherlock Holmes scripts, and she now carried that thoroughness over to the wooing of G. Washington Cof-fee. Working through an ad agency, Meiser pointed out to the potential sponsor that her research proved Sherlock Holmes was him-self an inveterate coffee drinker, sometimes consuming as many as seven cups a day, and G. Washington acquiesced.

After G. Washington signed on as sponsor, casting quickly got under way with Meiser having strong involvement in the selection process as well. But more important than even Sherlock Holmes, from the standpoint

ICHARD GORDON was billed as “Sherlock Holmes of the

Air” from the moment he assumed the weekly radio role in the early

1930s. It was a descriptor that by design was meant to differentiate

Gordon from Sherlockian actors of stage and screen. But by the time

Richard Gordon came to the role, the general public and professional

critics alike had already held fixed views on the character and behavior

expected of Sherlock Holmes, a figure that had taken on a virtual life of

its own. Playing such a towering figure as Sherlock Holmes, however,

is seldom without its controversies and risks, as Dick Gordon would

discover.

Richard Gordon in line-art illustration from William Moyes’ radio column in the Portland Oregonian (September 14, 1931). Moyes wrote: “With ‘The Adventure of the Speckled Band,’ which inaugurated the earlier series, Sherlock Holmes will return to the air tonight at 8:15 o’clock. . . . After tonight, instead of giving a sepa-rate adventure each time, the producers will select longer stories and present them as serials of varying lengths. The first of these will be ‘The Hound of the Baskervilles.’ The cast is the same as last year—Richard Gordon as Sherlock Holmes, Leigh Lovell as Dr. Watson and Edith Meiser, who is adapting the stories for radio, in the leading feminine roles.” Gordon once observed that Sherlock Holmes was like an old wine. “Each time you play it you find something different. . . . There’s nothing obvious about Holmes, you get a new meaning every time.”

by Gary Coville


of the sponsor, would be the announcer and commercial spokesman for the series. To fill that all-important role, Meiser suggested an old friend, Joseph Bell, and G. Washington agreed. Bell and Meiser had worked together in the Theater Guild, and he would not only function as announcer but would fill various other roles behind the scenes including direc-tor, production manager and trusted advisor to Edith.

For the role of Sher-lock Homes, Edith and Bell were in agreement that another theatre ac-quaintance with radio experience would be perfect in the part, and thus not only did Rich-ard Gordon arrive with considerable and impres-sive stage credentials but Gordon’s resume actually included prior experience with the role of Sherlock Holmes. Gordon later outlined that experience in a 1933 guest column for the Pittsburgh Press: “I played Holmes for the first time in 1906 when I was the leading man of the Poli Stock Company in New Haven, Connecticut. And I think I’ve played him in four or five different companies since then.” Gordon also pointed out that he had also appeared as Holmes in approximately fifteen broadcasts for a series called Retold Tales, just prior to his own Sher-

lock Holmes series.Tapped to play

Dr. Watson was Leigh Lovel (whose surname is alter-nately spelled Lovell in various recorded media), another performer known to Edith Meiser and Joe Bell from the Theater Guild and elsewhere. Lovel

had the added distinction of actually being British and having played Dr. Watson for several months on the London stage. Add to this mix, Tom McKnight, Edith’s husband, who would fill a number of credited and uncredited roles including advisor, producer and director. The heart of the cast and crew for Sherlock Holmes was now in place.

The inaugural broadcast was set for Oc-

tober 20, 1930, with an adaptation of “The Speckled Band,” which Edith would later begin referring to as her lucky play. Richard Gordon, however, would have to wait to make his series debut. Instead, to kick off the new program, the undisputed grand master of Holmes impersonators, William Gillette, was persuaded to take to the microphone. Richard Gordon would find his microphone stint as “Sherlock Holmes of the Air” often plagued by the looming shadow of Gillette. William Gillette was 77-years-old when he performed “The Speckled Band.” He had first appeared as Holmes in 1899 in a play he had written himself with the approval of Ar-thur Conan Doyle. Gillette’s Sherlock Holmes had been fine-tuning the public’s visual image of Sherlock Holmes as far back as the play’s first Broadway performance on November 6, 1899, at New York’s Garrick Theater. It is estimated that Gillette appeared some 1300 times as Holmes, both in America and in Britain. Additionally, the play was performed countless times around the world with other actors starring as Holmes. When Richard Gordon and Leigh Lovel both alluded to having had earlier stage experience as Holmes and Watson, respectively, it was to the Gillette play that they were referring.

Gillette was in the middle of an extensive farewell tour of when he was persuaded to appear as Holmes on radio. Unfortunately, the Gillette broadcast is counted among the many lost Sherlock Holmes episodes from the early years of the series. A New York Times review (October 26, 1930) does provide something of a detailed description of the proceedings as witnessed by the studio audi-ence that Monday night.

Broadcast from NBC’s WEAF Times Square studio, the program seems to have

inspired the Times reporter to comment pri-marily on what he could see rather than what he was able to hear, the opposite experience of the radio listener. The reporter admitted to being puzzled by the difference between a radio presentation and a stage presentation. Most of his time was spent chronicling ap-pearance and movement rather than in criti-cally reviewing the performance in terms of dramatic effectiveness. We learn that Gillette was dressed formally in a tuxedo and read his script from a stand in front of the micro-phone. Gillette “stood erect and unbending as a stoic” whose voice was “clear, concise, vibrant, but still just a voice.”

That night was a one-off for Gillette’s ap-pearance in the series. For the following two weeks, the lead role was given over to Clive Brook, the ac-tor who had re-cently starred in the first all-talking Holmes film, The Re-turn of Sherlock

Holmes (Paramount, 1929). Critical reviews of Brook’s film may have been lackluster but filmgoers seem to have applauded Brook’s performance. With that public focus, Brook was asked to follow Gillette in episodes two and three of Sherlock Holmes. Brook would appear in “A Scandal in Bohemia” (October 27, 1930) and in “The Red-Headed League” (November 3, 1930).

Finally, with episode four, Meiser’s adapta-tion of “The Copper Beeches,” Richard Gor-don made his entrance as Sherlock Holmes.

For the inaugural broadcast of Sherlock Holmes, the grand master of Sherlock Holmes impersonators, William Gillette, was brought to the microphone. Gillette had adapted and starred in the first and most famous of all Sherlock Holmes dra-matizations.


One of the problems Gordon faced as Holmes was the ever-present shadow of William Gil-lette. With just two Sherlock Holmes episodes to Gordon’s credit, the influential radio critic for the Pittsburgh Press, Si Steinhauser, hit Gordon with an unforgiving review:

If Richard Gordon has the audacity to continue his “Sherlock Holmes” presenta-tion, then the NBC or someone should tell him he is the worst offender of a listening public’s confidence ever to get on the air. To think such foul portrayals should follow in the footsteps of a Gillette!In spite of such criticism, radio listeners

seemed ready and even eager to accept this latest Sherlock Holmes. Sales of G. Wash-ington Coffee were on the upswing and the sponsor was pleased. The coffee company had found a means of reaching a skeptical audience, which involved commercials, built around actual coffee making at the micro-phone accompanied by glowing praise from Joe Bell and Leigh Lovel. There was even an early advertising effort to spark national interest in “Sherlock Holmes” parties. The idea was for guests to be invited to an evening of bridge or backgammon, or some such diver-sion on evenings when Sherlock Holmes was being broadcast. At the appropriate hour, lights would be extinguished and guests would listen in the darkness while Holmes solved an-other baffling crime. When the show was over the lights would be turned on again and cups of G. Washington Coffee would be served to soothe ragged nerves.

Little more than two years into its run, a nationwide poll of radio editors voted Sher-lock Holmes the best dramatic series on the air. The CAB service (Cooperative Analysis of Broadcasting) backed up the radio editors’ judgment and indicated that Sherlock Holmes was drawing an average 21.4 rating, highest in its category. Such widespread approval allowed Gordon to shake off the verdict of critics like Si Steinhauser.

Richard Gordon, nonetheless, could never quite escape from persistent comparisons with Gillette. Part of the problem was the circumstance of geography. Both men had been born and raised in Connecticut, Gillette in Hartford in 1853 and Gordon in Bridgeport in 1882. The two actors continued to live in rather close proximity. Gillette lived in East Haddam, in Gillette Castle, an imposing edi-fice he built largely on proceeds earned from his stage work as Sherlock Holmes. Gordon lived some eighty miles away in Stamford. The locals knew both men and comparisons

were inevitable.The listening public had not only embraced

Richard Gordon as Sherlock Holmes but sometimes had accepted him too well in the part, actually blurring the lines between the real Richard Gordon and the mythical Sherlock Holmes. A certain segment of the listening public actually came to see the two as virtually one and the same. To their way of thinking, Richard Gordon was Holmes or at, least, a criminologist of equal skill. Following a major crime, Gordon would routinely re-ceive letters asking him to investigate the case. When he wasn’t being requested to investigate a major crime, Gordon was frequently asked by listeners to look into matters of a more personal nature. At one point, Gordon ad-dressed this rather astonishing behavior:

The most amazing thing to me is how everyone seems to connect me personally with the character. You’d be surprised at the number of letters I got begging me to find the Lindbergh baby. There’s hardly a major crime committed but what someone will ask me to solve the mystery and catch the criminal.

This tendency on the part of many listen-ers, and in some cases even on the part of law enforcement officials, to consider Rich-ard Gordon as some sort of real-life super criminologist was ongoing during the series. Gordon, on the other hand, seems to have kept the distinction clear in his own head in the early years. The blurring of lines for some listeners was more acute that for others. At the beginning of the series, Holmes’ cocaine addiction was occasionally referenced. These references were dispensed with in time but some listeners took notice. Gordon report-edly received letters from drug addicts seeking the “cure” he had employed to kick the habit.

Gordon was starting to settle into his ver-sion of the role. Sherlock Holmes was being broadcast three times a week. NBC was airing the program on both the Red and Blue net-works and a third broadcast went out to the west coast. By the time Dick Gordon was so firmly entrenched as Sherlock Holmes in the public consciousness, he felt secure enough to address the issue of his portrayal of Holmes vs. that of Gillette. The perfect opportunity presented itself when Si Steinhauser, the ra-dio critic, went on vacation in the summer of 1933. It was Steinhauser who had unfavorably compared Gordon with Gillette back in 1930 at the beginning of the series. Steinhauser’s column was turned over to various radio stars to comment on their work. When Gordon was offered the opportunity to contribute a

column he used the occasion to address his experience as Sherlock Holmes both prior to and during the radio series:

I have never seen William Gillette play the part but formed my own characteriza-tion from studying the part in the play and reading the stories written by Conan Doyle. Many radio critics have said that I give an uncanny imitation of Gillette but how could I when I have never seen Gillette play Holmes and heard him for the first time when he gave the one opening broadcast of my series? . . . Doyle describes him so minutely and perfectly that any actor who is able to characterize would simply have to play him that way.Back home in Connecticut, Gordon was

actually appointed Honorary Deputy Sheriff in Fairfield County and carried a gold badge to prove his status. “If I ever had to help figure out a crime, you’d see a very rattled deputy sheriff,” he confided to one reporter.

People who knew Dick Gordon understood that he was the polar opposite of the intense and idiosyncratic Sherlock Holmes. A thief once broke into Gordon’s car while it was parked in the NBC lot and stole a suitcase containing several items of clothing. When Gordon reported the theft to the police the desk sergeant told Gordon, “you’re a hell of a Sherlock Holmes.” On another occasion, Gordon arrived for a rehearsal of Sherlock Holmes and was told the rehearsal was to take place in Studio D. Characteristically, Gordon had forgotten the location of Studio D and had to ask a page for directions. After telling Gordon how to locate the studio, the page scratched his head and commented, “Gosh, can you imagine that? Sherlock Holmes and he can’t find a big studio.”

Dick Gordon may not have been any kind of true criminologist but he was an accomplished actor and the public’s fascination with the Sherlock Holmes radio show seems to have been as enthusiastic as it was with the print,

Edith Meiser, the force behind radio’s Sherlock Holmes, in a 1926 portrait. The actress and writer had been a ardent fan of Sherlock Holmes since the age of 11, and from that time forward, for the remainder of her 95 years, Meiser was a conformed devotée and considered the story “The Speckled Band” as her lucky play.


stage and cinematic versions. Take for example this 1931 personal diary entry by a young female fan, Hedvig Samuelson:

October 6 – Just 15-minutes of leisure before Sherlock Holmes (a radio broadcast.) All doors locked and all windows barred in anticipation of exciting time. Then we douse the lights and get deliciously frightened. Isn’t it silly – two grown women with the mentality of children? When it’s over we’re too frightened to go to bed.Ten days after penning this homage to Sherlock Holmes, Hedvig

“Sammy” Samuelson and her roommate, Agnes Anne LeRoi, became victims in a murder mystery worthy of Sherlock Holmes himself. Samuelson and LeRoi were shot to death, their bodies dismembered and stuffed inside travel trunks. A week later, Win-nie Ruth Judd, “The Trunk Murderess,” was arrested and eventu-ally convicted of the killings. Based on earlier experience, it was probably fortunate for Gordon that the police were able to make a quick arrest otherwise his listening public would likely have started clamoring for “Sherlock Holmes of the Air” to solve the crime..

Richard Gordon’s popular appeal with the public prompted Uni-versal Pictures to produce a 20-minute short built around Gordon’s portrayal of Holmes titled The Radio Murder Mystery (February 1933). The film proved as notable for what it lacked as for what was featured. The story was by H.O. Kussell, not Edith Meiser. Leigh Lovel was absent as was, indeed, the character of Dr. Watson. Likewise, Joseph Bell was absent; Jimmy Wallington stood in as the program’s announcer. At least, Richard Gordon was present in the dual capacity as himself and Sherlock Holmes.

The film begins in the office of Broadway columnist Louis Sobol. Sobol is awaiting the arrival of Richard Gordon. Sobol explains to his secretary that Richard Gordon is “an ace criminologist on and off the air” and someone who has “worked with the police on a number of swell cases.” Gordon then arrives, accompanied by announcer Jimmy Wallington and the two radio veterans, and proceeds to supply Sobol with a story for his next newspaper col-umn. Gordon, with help from Wallington, recounts the murder of wealthy Theodore Anson and how the police consulted Gordon in an effort to crack the puzzling case. Gordon solves the case back in the radio studio during one of his Sherlock Holmes broadcasts by the old ruse of having the lights extinguished just as Gordon is about to expose the killer. The murderer reveals his identity through a failed attempt to kill Gordon.

The value of The Radio Murder Mystery for anyone interested in radio history lies in Gordon’s on-screen transformation into Holmes at the microphone. Viewers have the opportunity to com-pare Richard Gordon’s calm and rather soothing speech with the quite different voice he had perfected for Sherlock Holmes: older, impatient, imperious, high pitched. Despite Dick Gordon’s ongoing protestations his Sherlock Holmes did sound a good deal like that of William Gillette. Both characterizations were originally conceived in an earlier more melodramatic age.

After three seasons of Sherlock Holms, a vague sense was develop-ing in some quarters that perhaps the series was beginning to falter. The June 1933 issue of Radio Fan-Fare voiced this sentiment:

We think that the program is slipping. In its strength is its weak-ness. That is, the sponsors have undoubtedly thought they had something so uniquely good that they couldn’t afford to change. . . . The program now seems to be another case of a fine idea that has worked too long.That same month, June 1933, Sherlock Holmes completed its third

season and left the air, its future unclear. During the summer, vari-ous hints surfaced in the media that the series might not return for a fourth season. In order to give the series some continuing public exposure during that summer, the radio cast agreed to make a few public appearances. The William Morris Agency signed Gordon


and Lovel along with three other radio actors to appear in a handful of selected Eastern cit-ies, including Washington and Baltimore, to perform a stage version of the Conan Doyle story “The Mazarin Stone.” Edith Meiser handled the story and Tom McKnight staged the show. During this period, Variety was reporting plans for Sherlock Holmes to return to the air on September 28, again under the aegis of G. Washington Coffee.

September 28 came and went and neither Richard Gordon nor Sherlock Holmes put in an appearance. Not until more than a year later, November 11, 1934, did the series return to the air. By this time the series had migrated to the Mutual Network. Edith Meiser was still in charge of scripting and Joseph Bell was still in his primary capacity as announcer. Leigh Lovel was back as Dr. Watson and G. Washington Coffee retained sponsorship.

Richard Gordon, at the sponsor’s insistence, but a g a i n s t E d i t h Meiser’s counsel, had been sacked and replaced with Louis Hector . Hector was an ac-complished stage actor both on the London stage and on Broadway, and

aside from the fact that Hector actually was British and his accent genuine the casting switch added nothing of substance to the now struggling series.

In the opening episode of the new series, “The Jewish Breastplate,” the only episode that seems to have survived in audio form, Holmes investigates theft and murder in a museum.

This attempt at reviving the series ran just 13 weeks and concluded on February 3, 1935. Its ratings stood at an anemic 7.4, a mere one-third the number reached two years earlier with Dick Gordon at the helm.

Edith Meiser’s disappointment with the collapse of this latest Sherlock Holmes series, and in particular her frustration with the pro-gram’s erstwhile sponsor, was likely summed up in a novel Edith wrote during this same time period. Death Catches Up With Mr. Kluck (Doubleday 1935) was published under the pseudonym, Xantippe. The novel features a detestable radio sponsor, Caesar Kluck, who is murdered in the sponsor’s room while lis-tening to his own program. Caesar Kluck was

a soft drink manufacturer rather than a pur-veyor of instant coffee but inferred parallels are understandable for anyone familiar with the real-life circumstances. Death Catches Up With Mr. Kluck would serve as the basis for the film Danger on the Air (Universal 1938) with Donald Woods and Nan Grey and Burton Churchill as the despicable Caesar Kluck.

Despite the failure of this latest Holmes series, Edith Meiser remained resolute in her belief that Sherlock Holmes belonged on the airwaves. An important boost to her efforts to resurrect the series came in late 1935 when William Gillette agreed to an offer from Lux Radio Theatre to reprise his signature role as Sherlock Holmes. Gillette, now 80, appeared before the Lux microphone on November 18, 1935, in an adaptation of his 1899 stage play. It was Edith Meiser who landed the assign-ment to prepare the radio adaptation.

Edith’s efforts were about to pay off once again. Gillette’s Lux Radio Theatre appear-ance seems to once again have paved the way for a full-blown Edith Meiser inspired series of Sherlock Holmes adventures. On February 1, 1936, the next Sherlock Holmes series came to the airwaves under Edith’s watchful eye. This series, like its immediate predecessor, was carried over Mutual. Household Finance was now the sponsor. Richard Gordon agreed

to return as Sherlock Holmes, apparently after a good deal of persuasion by Edith. Harry West replaced Leigh Lovel, who had died during the interval. Joseph Bell was back in his customary role of announcer and pitchman. The ensemble was now complete. The

new series opened with Edith’s favorite, “The Speckled Band.”

For Dick Gordon, something of a re-evaluation of his relationship to Sherlock Holmes seems to have taken place during his time away from the role. Previously, Gordon had maintained something of a bemused distance between himself and the character he played even though many of his listeners

seemed disinclined to acknowledge any such difference. Radio Digest (December 1931) neatly described Gordon’s original mind set when it came to Sherlock Holmes:

When Gordon is Sherlock Holmes the per-son known as Gordon is a myth. The body is that of Holmes, lives, breathes, thinks, acts the character that you hear. But with the wave of a hand that signifies the program is ended and the mike is off then Sherlock Holmes is mysteriously dispersed into the shadows of the dimly lighted studio to hide there until the next broadcast the following week.By 1936,

Gordon’s at-titude towards Holmes had turned much more propri-etary. He had been called back to the microphone to resurrect a series that for three seasons, whether he unders tood it at the time or not, had b e c o m e a n integral part of Dick Gor-don’s daily ex-istence. Upon his return as Holmes, Gor-don began expressing an attitude of personal kinship with his character that had not been present during the original run of the series. Many actors fear becoming typecast in a particular role. Basil Rathbone, who would follow in Gordon’s footsteps to the micro-phone, would eventually come to rebel against being typecast as Holmes. But now, back in the familiar role, Gordon was consciously

Edith Meiser, writing as Xantippe, gets even with radio sponsors in her novel Death Catches Up with Mr. Kluck in 1935.

“I’m not like Gillette. Whereas Holmes be-came William Gillette, I became Sherlo ck Holmes.”

Continued Page 14


McGee’s Closet is a free service to our members and honor-ary members. Send your wants in OTR-related material to [email protected] (the preferred method) or write to McGee’s Closet, P.O. Box 125, Oroville, CA 95965. Please specify desired taping format (cassette, open reel, recordable CD, or DAT). Also, please include your membership number with your advertisement.

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CORRECTIONIn last month’s article on Gale Gordon, the caption on page 8 misidentified the writer as Phil Quinn; it should read Don Quinn. Such errors are those of copy-editing and do not reflect upon the schol-arship or writing of the article’s author.

setting out to wrap himself up in the mantle of Sherlock Holmes.

In a highly revealing interview with Lester Gottlieb for Radio Stars (August 1936) Gor-don explained his return to the part. “I just had to go on playing Holmes, for I have sub-merged my own personality, my own thoughts, my very life into Sherlock. I am Sherlock Holmes!” And when the subject of William Gillette was broached Gordon displayed some uncharacteristic anger. “I’m not like Gillette. Whereas Holmes became William Gillette, I became Sherlock Holmes.”

Richard Gordon’s second chance at Sher-lock Holmes ended on Christmas Eve 1936 with the sixth and final installment of a serial-ized version of The Hound of the Baskervilles. Four months later, William Gillette died at the age of 82 in Hartford, not so far from Gordon’s own Connecticut home. A myriad Sherlocks have come and gone since. Only a few, Gillette and Gordon among them, could legitimately claim to have influenced public perception and sentiment to the degree that they actually became Sherlock Holmes.[

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Sherlock Holmes of the Air

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