BASIL RATHBONE & NIGEL BRUCE IN 1940 AS SHERLOCK HOLMES & DR. WATSON,
THE MANY VOICES OF HOLMES & WATSON
Popular detective mystery series were interchangeable among the print, radio and film media during Network Radio’s Golden Age. GOld Time Radio’s post, Radio Goes To The Movies, cites many of them: Crime Doctor, The Saint, Boston Blackie, Bulldog Drummond, even the invisible Shadow.
Leading the pack is the most venerable detective of them all, Sherlock Holmes, who has chased his arch-enemy, Professor James Moriarity for over a century since the two first clashed in print in Sir Arthur Conan Doyle’s The Final Problem, published in 1893. (1)
Almost as impressive is Sherlock Holmes’ movie longevity. American film adaptations of Doyle’s detective date back to May, 1916 and continue today. Legendary actor William Gillette both co-wrote and starred in the 1916 two hour silent film classic, Sherlock Holmes, with longtime movie character actor Edward Fielding playing his constant companion and Boswell, Dr. John Watson. John Barrymore was next to take the role of the detective in Goldwyn‘s 1922 remake of the story again titled Sherlock Holmes, (fka Moriarity.) (2)
Holmes’ relatively "short" radio life covered a sporadic span of 20 multi-network years of American produced programs. The detective made his radio debut on October 20, 1930, first on NBC’s Red Network and then bouncing between the network’s Red and Blue chains for the next five seasons at various times for the same sponsor, American Home Products’ George Washington (Instant) Coffee. For most of this run Richard Gordon portrayed Sherlock Holmes and Leigh Lovel was Dr. Watson - with side duties of pitching George Washington Coffee with the program’s announcer/host, Joseph Bell.
This early episode from the series, dated January 18, 1933, demonstrates the crossover between program and commercial content in their conversations. (3) It also exemplifies a chronic weakness found in many of the Sherlock Holmes radio casts assembled since: the lead characters sound so much alike that it’s difficult for the listener to tell them apart.
It took another six months for Arthur Wontner and Ian Fleming to give Holmes and Watson voices on film in the 1931 British release, Sherlock Holmes’ Fatal Hour, the first in a series of four movies ending in 1937 (4) In the midst of the British series, Clive Brook and Reginald Owen appeared as Holmes & Watson in Fox Studio’s November, 1932 release, Sherlock Holmes, which had the pair chasing after Moriarity played by the menacing 6’4” character actor, Ernest Torrence, in one of his final films.
Fox Studios became 20th Century Fox in 1935 and revived the Sherlock Holmes character in March, 1939, with The Hound of The Baskervilles. This film introduced the most memorable pair as Sherlock Holmes and Dr. Watson, Basil Rathbone and Nigel Bruce. The box office success of this film set in the late 19th century, led to a sequel five months later, The Adventures of Sherlock Holmes, which Variety welcomed with this review on September 6th:
“Latest screen treatment of Sir Arthur Conan Doyle’s super sleuth is about the neatest package in several attempts to make Sherlock Holmes exciting on the screen. … Choice of Basil Rathbone as Sherlock was a wise one. Nigel Bruce as Dr. Watson is equally expert. With the two key characters thus capably handled the film has the additional asset of being well conceived and grippingly presented. … The Holmes character seems tailored for Rathbone who fits the conception of the famed book sleuth. Bruce’s Watson at times is made a bit too mouthy and absurd, but in the main is generally good.”
With that endorsement for their characterizations, the radio series starring Rathbone and Bruce began a month later - Monday, October 2, 1939 at 8:00 p.m. on Blue sponsored by Grove Laboratories‘ Bromo Quinine Cold Tablets. (5)
Variety praised it two days later: “The knowing radio writer, Edith Meiser, arranges the lines of Sherlock Holmes and Dr. Watson in such order and the astute actors, Basil Rathbone and Nigel Bruce, tend them such advanced (for radio) tight and shade readings, that it would seem more than obvious that Grove’s Bromo-Quinine will get more than its share of listeners. … Suffice that despite other renderings in radio, it appears that the Rathbone version will flourish. … It’s superior whodunnit stuff.”
An early episode from this series on November 6. 1939, is posted which features announcer Knox Manning as both the host of the program in his interchanges with Bruce as Dr. Watson, and the conveyer of Bromo-Quinine’s blunt sales messages. The Adventures of Sherlock Holmes finished the 1939-40 season with an 11.2 rating, good enough for 42nd place in the Annual Top 50 against musical comedy opposition of The Quaker Variety Show starring Tommy Riggs & his falsetto voiced Betty Lou on NBC and Tune Up Time with Kay Thompson, Tony Martin and the Andre Kostelanetz orchestra on CBS. Then Holmes abruptly left the air this broadcast on March 11, 1940, only to return to Blue on Sunday September 29, at 8:30 for its 1940-41 season. (6)
Variety hadn’t lost its admiration for the program as seen in this review from October 2, 1940: “ Acting, producing and conducting combination on this series is exactly the same as it was last season. Producer Tom McKnight hasn’t veered the least from the narrative technique that marked the series back in the early 30’s but that’s no reflection on either McKnight or the program. The technique just belongs and credit is due McKnight for not fooling around with fads or new gimmicks. … Basil Rathbone’s close acquaintance with the role of Sherlock Holmes, what with it 26 weeks of it last season, was quite apparent. He didn’t stumble over a single line. Rathbone’s clipped speaking style proves quite an asset when it comes to suggesting mounting suspense and excitement while Nigel Bruce still does a deft and full bodied concept of Doctor Watson.”
This 26 week series left Blue on March 9, 1941, finishing at 47th place against One Man’s Family on NBC and Crime Doctor on CBS. NBC couldn’t let a program with such a track record of ratings and reviews go unrewarded, so it gave Grove Laboratories an offer matching Blue’s for Sherlock Holmes’ 1941-42 broadcast season, commencing on Sunday, October 5 at 10:30 p.m. This posted episode is from October 18, 1941. With little competition at that late hour, the series jumped to 27th place in the Annual Top 50 with a 14.1 rating. Then, true to its marketing discipline, Grove Laboratories cancelled the program on March 1, 1942 with no indication of renewal.
Meanwhile, Hollywood - specifically, series-minded Universal Pictures - had noticed the strong radio popularity of Arthur Conan Doyle’s detective and his potential as a movie hero, especially if updated from the 19th Century to the present day of wartime and given a new foe with whom to match wits, the underground forces of Nazi Germany.
The first of Universal’s films starring Basil Rathbone and Nigel Bruce, Sherlock Holmes & The Voice of Terror was released on September 18, 1942. The surprisingly strong box office appeal of Rathbone & Bruce as Holmes & Watson in their new wartime setting prompted Universal to rush into production of a sequel, Sherlock Holmes & The Secret Weapon, released in February, 1943. And that was immediately followed in April by Sherlock Holmes In Washington. (7)
The news of Sherlock Holmes’ movie popularity finally reached Madison Avenue. Young & Rubicam Advertising and its client, Petri Wines agreed to pay the heirs of Arthur Conan Doyle $41,600 for two years of radio rights to the Sherlock Holmes characters and stories. The fee was in addition to the reported $2,500 weekly talent and production costs of the program beginning on Mutual at 8:30, Friday, April 30, 1943 starring Basil Rathbone and Nigel Bruce.
Its late arrival in the season against the established Adventures of The Thin Man, a Top 25 show on CBS, resulted in a mediocre 4.3 rating for Holmes & Watson’s first five-month season on Mutual which ended on Friday, October 1st.
Then the muscle of Petri’s Young & Rubicam agency pushed Mutual to move the program to a more reasonable spot on its schedule, Mondays at 8:30 beginning three days later on October 4, 1943. The Monday timeslot pitted The Adventures of Sherlock Holmes against musical competition: The Voice of Firestone on NBC, The Gay Nineties Review on CBS and The Johnny Morgan Show on Blue. This Holmes episode is from December 6, 1943.
The move paid off when the series more than doubled its earlier rating, finishing the 1943-44 season with 8.7. It was far from the show’s three seasons in the Top 50 at 82nd place, but it was a start. The series moved up to 71st place and double digits - a 10.0 rating - during the 1944-45 season with little change in format as heard in this broadcast from November 6, 1944.
Rathbone and Bruce climaxed their years on Mutual with a 10.1 rating and 62nd place in 1945-46. More importantly, they finished in Monday night’s Top Ten. This posted program is from September 10, 1945. And with that minor ratings triumph, Basil Rathbone retired from the radio role of Sherlock Holmes on May 27, 1946. His final screen appearance as the detective, in Universal’s Dressed to Kill, was released the following week on June 7. (8)
The Mutual series was over and Basil Rathbone was gone, but Kreml Hair Tonic revived the series on ABC at a weekly production cost of $4,500. The New Adventures of Sherlock Holmes was placed on ABC’s Saturday night schedule at 9:30 against the Can You Top This? jokesters on NBC, and the climactic final quarter hour of Your Hit Parade on CBS. beginning on October 12, 1946. Nigel Bruce was elevated to the star of the show as Dr. Watson, Joseph Bell was brought back as announcer/host, Tom McKnight was recalled as producer, and a newcomer to radio from films, Tom Conway took the title role. (9)
Variety’s admiration for the series paled in this review of the premiere broadcast four days later: “Moved over from Mutual to ABC, and selling hair tonic instead of wine the Conan Doyle perennial is back on the air. But as heard on the preem, something was missing. Perhaps it was Basil Rathbone, now appearing in the Broadway legiter, ‘Obsession’, Or maybe it was opening night jitters. But somehow, Nigel Bruce as Dr. Watson didn’t come through with his usual ingratiating quality. … Holmes, for some reader’s and listener’s money, has always been a dog wagged by Watson’s tail. …Tom Conway was somewhat irreverent with his Holmes - almost a caricature, (and a caricature of a caricature is piling it a bit thick)”.
Aside from the program’s weakness, as heard in this example from March 10, 1947, its ratings lagged in single digits as the tail end of ABC’s Saturday night crime block against the comedy and music competition from NBC and CBS. A time change on January 13, 1947, to its familiar spot of Monday at 8:30 didn’t help much. Nigel Bruce and Tom Conway as Watson & Holmes left the air on July 7, 1947 with a season average rating of 6.8.
Surprisingly, the low-rated Sherlock Holmes returned to Mutual for another season in 1947 for Clipper Craft clothes. In what could arguably be called the week’s most difficult time slot, John Stanley and Alfred Shirley were faced with Jack Benny on NBC, Gene Autry on CBS as competition when they debuted as Holmes and Watson in this 7:00 p.m. broadcast from Sunday, September 28.
Variety responded with this back-handed review on October 1st: “Sherlock Holmes is back at his old haunt on Mutual after a summer layoff with everything in its precise place. Even the fact that Basil Rathbone and Nigel Bruce have disappeared from the scene has been covered up by a perfect crime, or rather, a pair of perfect mimes, John Stanley and Alfred Shirley who play Holmes and Dr. Watson in styles and voices undistinguishable from their predecessors. And if it’s easy for one actor to sound like another, it’s still easier for writers to grind out carbons of a basic script that sets the atmosphere for each crime and detective show on the air. This program, like others of the genre, has its listening points. It has pace and some wit. … Stanley registers without disappointment, consistently playing the part as if A. Conan Doyle had tailored his stories for Rathbone. Rest of the cast likewise performed competently with all production details clicking neatly.”
Remarkably, the Mutual program turned in double digit Nielsen ratings for most of the season, peaking at 12.6 in February and finished the 1947-48 season with a 9.9 average . Sherlock Holmes returned for a second season against Benny and Autry in September and again scored a 10.9 rating by December, only to be moved once again to its familiar Monday night slot at 8:30 on January 3, 1949.
By coincidence, the first weekend of 1949 was also when Jack Benny moved from NBC to CBS, Gene Autry’s Melody Ranch was moved to the CBS Saturday schedule and NBC covered the loss of Benny with Horace Heidt’s Youth Opportunity Program. With its competition in disarray, Sherlock Holmes would probably have benefited by staying put on Sunday nights. Instead, it was moved into Monday night competition with the hot CBS Top Five show, Arthur Godfrey’s Talent Scouts, NBC’s perennial Voice of Firestone and the final quarter hour of The Railroad Hour on ABC. The detective’s average rating for the final six months of the 1948-49 season was a dismal 5.2 and Clipper Craft cancelled with this final broadcast on June 6, 1949. (10)
Petri Wine returned for another season of sponsoring The New Adventures of Sherlock Holmes on September 21, 1949 on ABC starring veteran radio actor Ben Wright as the detective and Eric Snowden as Dr, Watson. It was typical Holmes deduction fare as heard in this episode from March 22,1950.
The 39 week series was first introduced at 8:30 p.m. against two established Top 50 favorites, Dr. Christian on CBS and NBC’s sitcom, The Great Gildersleeve. The Holmes series struggled against this competition until mid January with a low single digit rating. The program was finally pushed up to 9:00 on the ABC schedule on January 25, 1950, but that didn’t help. The last American radio adaptation of Sherlock Holmes closed out the 1949-50 season on June 14, 1950 with a sad 4.6 average rating.
Looking back, (and listening), to these different takes over the 20 year strain of Sherlock Holmes presentations on Network Radio, their similarity in format is striking; The announcer/host visiting Dr, Watson for the narrative of each week’s story. Also present is the comfort in knowing that each episode’s mystery will be solved within the allotted time. Each cast expertly delivered these points.
But when it comes to determining the best of the lot - can there be any question of which pair of actors portrayed Sherlock Holmes & Dr. Watson to the most satisfaction of movie and radio audiences - either then or since?
In the words of you know who, the answer is elementary.
(1) Professor Moriarity drowned in this story but his character was too appealing a menace and challenge to Holmes’ intellect to let him disappear.
(2) This silent film is remembered for introducing Roland Young to motion pictures as Dr. Watson and William Powell in a supporting role.
(3) The date of this program is suspect are many episodes of the Sherlock Holmes series from the early 1930’s.
(4) Arthur Wontner is considered by some to be the best of all the Sherlock Holmes in films. His co-star, actor Ian Fleming, is not to be confused with author Ian Fleming, creator of James Bond, Agent 007.
(5) Grove Laboratories also sponsored recordings of the Blue Network broadcasts of Sherlock Holmes on WOR/Newark Wednesday nights at 8:30.
(6) The short 26 week broadcast schedule was dictated by the marketing cycle of Bromo-Quinine Cold Tablets. Budget minded Grove Laboratories wasn’t about to advertise outside of the “cold season.” The product itself was cited for causing bromism and ordered off the market by the FDA in 1985.
(7) A third Sherlock Holmes wartime adventure would follow in 1943, Sherlock Holmes Faces Death, then another three in 1944, The Spider Woman, The Scarlet Claw and The Pearl of Death. Universal released three more Holmes films in 1945: The House of Fear, The Woman In Green and Pursuit To Algiers, plus two in 1946: Terror By Night and Dressed To Kill, for a total of twelve over the five year span between 1942 and 1946.
(8) Basil Rathbone’s career in film, radio, television and stage work continued until his death in 1967 at the age of 75.
(9) Tom Conway followed his (two years) younger brother, George Sanders, from London to Hollywood in 1940. Active in “B” movies and television during the 1940’s and 50’s, he is most noted for his lead role in ten films as The Falcon.
(10) Ian Martin replaced Alfred Stanley as radio’s Dr. Watson in September, 1948.
Popular detective mystery series were interchangeable among the print, radio and film media during Network Radio’s Golden Age. GOld Time Radio’s post, Radio Goes To The Movies, cites many of them: Crime Doctor, The Saint, Boston Blackie, Bulldog Drummond, even the invisible Shadow.
Leading the pack is the most venerable detective of them all, Sherlock Holmes, who has chased his arch-enemy, Professor James Moriarity for over a century since the two first clashed in print in Sir Arthur Conan Doyle’s The Final Problem, published in 1893. (1)
Almost as impressive is Sherlock Holmes’ movie longevity. American film adaptations of Doyle’s detective date back to May, 1916 and continue today. Legendary actor William Gillette both co-wrote and starred in the 1916 two hour silent film classic, Sherlock Holmes, with longtime movie character actor Edward Fielding playing his constant companion and Boswell, Dr. John Watson. John Barrymore was next to take the role of the detective in Goldwyn‘s 1922 remake of the story again titled Sherlock Holmes, (fka Moriarity.) (2)
Holmes’ relatively "short" radio life covered a sporadic span of 20 multi-network years of American produced programs. The detective made his radio debut on October 20, 1930, first on NBC’s Red Network and then bouncing between the network’s Red and Blue chains for the next five seasons at various times for the same sponsor, American Home Products’ George Washington (Instant) Coffee. For most of this run Richard Gordon portrayed Sherlock Holmes and Leigh Lovel was Dr. Watson - with side duties of pitching George Washington Coffee with the program’s announcer/host, Joseph Bell.
This early episode from the series, dated January 18, 1933, demonstrates the crossover between program and commercial content in their conversations. (3) It also exemplifies a chronic weakness found in many of the Sherlock Holmes radio casts assembled since: the lead characters sound so much alike that it’s difficult for the listener to tell them apart.
It took another six months for Arthur Wontner and Ian Fleming to give Holmes and Watson voices on film in the 1931 British release, Sherlock Holmes’ Fatal Hour, the first in a series of four movies ending in 1937 (4) In the midst of the British series, Clive Brook and Reginald Owen appeared as Holmes & Watson in Fox Studio’s November, 1932 release, Sherlock Holmes, which had the pair chasing after Moriarity played by the menacing 6’4” character actor, Ernest Torrence, in one of his final films.
Fox Studios became 20th Century Fox in 1935 and revived the Sherlock Holmes character in March, 1939, with The Hound of The Baskervilles. This film introduced the most memorable pair as Sherlock Holmes and Dr. Watson, Basil Rathbone and Nigel Bruce. The box office success of this film set in the late 19th century, led to a sequel five months later, The Adventures of Sherlock Holmes, which Variety welcomed with this review on September 6th:
“Latest screen treatment of Sir Arthur Conan Doyle’s super sleuth is about the neatest package in several attempts to make Sherlock Holmes exciting on the screen. … Choice of Basil Rathbone as Sherlock was a wise one. Nigel Bruce as Dr. Watson is equally expert. With the two key characters thus capably handled the film has the additional asset of being well conceived and grippingly presented. … The Holmes character seems tailored for Rathbone who fits the conception of the famed book sleuth. Bruce’s Watson at times is made a bit too mouthy and absurd, but in the main is generally good.”
With that endorsement for their characterizations, the radio series starring Rathbone and Bruce began a month later - Monday, October 2, 1939 at 8:00 p.m. on Blue sponsored by Grove Laboratories‘ Bromo Quinine Cold Tablets. (5)
Variety praised it two days later: “The knowing radio writer, Edith Meiser, arranges the lines of Sherlock Holmes and Dr. Watson in such order and the astute actors, Basil Rathbone and Nigel Bruce, tend them such advanced (for radio) tight and shade readings, that it would seem more than obvious that Grove’s Bromo-Quinine will get more than its share of listeners. … Suffice that despite other renderings in radio, it appears that the Rathbone version will flourish. … It’s superior whodunnit stuff.”
An early episode from this series on November 6. 1939, is posted which features announcer Knox Manning as both the host of the program in his interchanges with Bruce as Dr. Watson, and the conveyer of Bromo-Quinine’s blunt sales messages. The Adventures of Sherlock Holmes finished the 1939-40 season with an 11.2 rating, good enough for 42nd place in the Annual Top 50 against musical comedy opposition of The Quaker Variety Show starring Tommy Riggs & his falsetto voiced Betty Lou on NBC and Tune Up Time with Kay Thompson, Tony Martin and the Andre Kostelanetz orchestra on CBS. Then Holmes abruptly left the air this broadcast on March 11, 1940, only to return to Blue on Sunday September 29, at 8:30 for its 1940-41 season. (6)
Variety hadn’t lost its admiration for the program as seen in this review from October 2, 1940: “ Acting, producing and conducting combination on this series is exactly the same as it was last season. Producer Tom McKnight hasn’t veered the least from the narrative technique that marked the series back in the early 30’s but that’s no reflection on either McKnight or the program. The technique just belongs and credit is due McKnight for not fooling around with fads or new gimmicks. … Basil Rathbone’s close acquaintance with the role of Sherlock Holmes, what with it 26 weeks of it last season, was quite apparent. He didn’t stumble over a single line. Rathbone’s clipped speaking style proves quite an asset when it comes to suggesting mounting suspense and excitement while Nigel Bruce still does a deft and full bodied concept of Doctor Watson.”
This 26 week series left Blue on March 9, 1941, finishing at 47th place against One Man’s Family on NBC and Crime Doctor on CBS. NBC couldn’t let a program with such a track record of ratings and reviews go unrewarded, so it gave Grove Laboratories an offer matching Blue’s for Sherlock Holmes’ 1941-42 broadcast season, commencing on Sunday, October 5 at 10:30 p.m. This posted episode is from October 18, 1941. With little competition at that late hour, the series jumped to 27th place in the Annual Top 50 with a 14.1 rating. Then, true to its marketing discipline, Grove Laboratories cancelled the program on March 1, 1942 with no indication of renewal.
Meanwhile, Hollywood - specifically, series-minded Universal Pictures - had noticed the strong radio popularity of Arthur Conan Doyle’s detective and his potential as a movie hero, especially if updated from the 19th Century to the present day of wartime and given a new foe with whom to match wits, the underground forces of Nazi Germany.
The first of Universal’s films starring Basil Rathbone and Nigel Bruce, Sherlock Holmes & The Voice of Terror was released on September 18, 1942. The surprisingly strong box office appeal of Rathbone & Bruce as Holmes & Watson in their new wartime setting prompted Universal to rush into production of a sequel, Sherlock Holmes & The Secret Weapon, released in February, 1943. And that was immediately followed in April by Sherlock Holmes In Washington. (7)
The news of Sherlock Holmes’ movie popularity finally reached Madison Avenue. Young & Rubicam Advertising and its client, Petri Wines agreed to pay the heirs of Arthur Conan Doyle $41,600 for two years of radio rights to the Sherlock Holmes characters and stories. The fee was in addition to the reported $2,500 weekly talent and production costs of the program beginning on Mutual at 8:30, Friday, April 30, 1943 starring Basil Rathbone and Nigel Bruce.
Its late arrival in the season against the established Adventures of The Thin Man, a Top 25 show on CBS, resulted in a mediocre 4.3 rating for Holmes & Watson’s first five-month season on Mutual which ended on Friday, October 1st.
Then the muscle of Petri’s Young & Rubicam agency pushed Mutual to move the program to a more reasonable spot on its schedule, Mondays at 8:30 beginning three days later on October 4, 1943. The Monday timeslot pitted The Adventures of Sherlock Holmes against musical competition: The Voice of Firestone on NBC, The Gay Nineties Review on CBS and The Johnny Morgan Show on Blue. This Holmes episode is from December 6, 1943.
The move paid off when the series more than doubled its earlier rating, finishing the 1943-44 season with 8.7. It was far from the show’s three seasons in the Top 50 at 82nd place, but it was a start. The series moved up to 71st place and double digits - a 10.0 rating - during the 1944-45 season with little change in format as heard in this broadcast from November 6, 1944.
Rathbone and Bruce climaxed their years on Mutual with a 10.1 rating and 62nd place in 1945-46. More importantly, they finished in Monday night’s Top Ten. This posted program is from September 10, 1945. And with that minor ratings triumph, Basil Rathbone retired from the radio role of Sherlock Holmes on May 27, 1946. His final screen appearance as the detective, in Universal’s Dressed to Kill, was released the following week on June 7. (8)
The Mutual series was over and Basil Rathbone was gone, but Kreml Hair Tonic revived the series on ABC at a weekly production cost of $4,500. The New Adventures of Sherlock Holmes was placed on ABC’s Saturday night schedule at 9:30 against the Can You Top This? jokesters on NBC, and the climactic final quarter hour of Your Hit Parade on CBS. beginning on October 12, 1946. Nigel Bruce was elevated to the star of the show as Dr. Watson, Joseph Bell was brought back as announcer/host, Tom McKnight was recalled as producer, and a newcomer to radio from films, Tom Conway took the title role. (9)
Variety’s admiration for the series paled in this review of the premiere broadcast four days later: “Moved over from Mutual to ABC, and selling hair tonic instead of wine the Conan Doyle perennial is back on the air. But as heard on the preem, something was missing. Perhaps it was Basil Rathbone, now appearing in the Broadway legiter, ‘Obsession’, Or maybe it was opening night jitters. But somehow, Nigel Bruce as Dr. Watson didn’t come through with his usual ingratiating quality. … Holmes, for some reader’s and listener’s money, has always been a dog wagged by Watson’s tail. …Tom Conway was somewhat irreverent with his Holmes - almost a caricature, (and a caricature of a caricature is piling it a bit thick)”.
Aside from the program’s weakness, as heard in this example from March 10, 1947, its ratings lagged in single digits as the tail end of ABC’s Saturday night crime block against the comedy and music competition from NBC and CBS. A time change on January 13, 1947, to its familiar spot of Monday at 8:30 didn’t help much. Nigel Bruce and Tom Conway as Watson & Holmes left the air on July 7, 1947 with a season average rating of 6.8.
Surprisingly, the low-rated Sherlock Holmes returned to Mutual for another season in 1947 for Clipper Craft clothes. In what could arguably be called the week’s most difficult time slot, John Stanley and Alfred Shirley were faced with Jack Benny on NBC, Gene Autry on CBS as competition when they debuted as Holmes and Watson in this 7:00 p.m. broadcast from Sunday, September 28.
Variety responded with this back-handed review on October 1st: “Sherlock Holmes is back at his old haunt on Mutual after a summer layoff with everything in its precise place. Even the fact that Basil Rathbone and Nigel Bruce have disappeared from the scene has been covered up by a perfect crime, or rather, a pair of perfect mimes, John Stanley and Alfred Shirley who play Holmes and Dr. Watson in styles and voices undistinguishable from their predecessors. And if it’s easy for one actor to sound like another, it’s still easier for writers to grind out carbons of a basic script that sets the atmosphere for each crime and detective show on the air. This program, like others of the genre, has its listening points. It has pace and some wit. … Stanley registers without disappointment, consistently playing the part as if A. Conan Doyle had tailored his stories for Rathbone. Rest of the cast likewise performed competently with all production details clicking neatly.”
Remarkably, the Mutual program turned in double digit Nielsen ratings for most of the season, peaking at 12.6 in February and finished the 1947-48 season with a 9.9 average . Sherlock Holmes returned for a second season against Benny and Autry in September and again scored a 10.9 rating by December, only to be moved once again to its familiar Monday night slot at 8:30 on January 3, 1949.
By coincidence, the first weekend of 1949 was also when Jack Benny moved from NBC to CBS, Gene Autry’s Melody Ranch was moved to the CBS Saturday schedule and NBC covered the loss of Benny with Horace Heidt’s Youth Opportunity Program. With its competition in disarray, Sherlock Holmes would probably have benefited by staying put on Sunday nights. Instead, it was moved into Monday night competition with the hot CBS Top Five show, Arthur Godfrey’s Talent Scouts, NBC’s perennial Voice of Firestone and the final quarter hour of The Railroad Hour on ABC. The detective’s average rating for the final six months of the 1948-49 season was a dismal 5.2 and Clipper Craft cancelled with this final broadcast on June 6, 1949. (10)
Petri Wine returned for another season of sponsoring The New Adventures of Sherlock Holmes on September 21, 1949 on ABC starring veteran radio actor Ben Wright as the detective and Eric Snowden as Dr, Watson. It was typical Holmes deduction fare as heard in this episode from March 22,1950.
The 39 week series was first introduced at 8:30 p.m. against two established Top 50 favorites, Dr. Christian on CBS and NBC’s sitcom, The Great Gildersleeve. The Holmes series struggled against this competition until mid January with a low single digit rating. The program was finally pushed up to 9:00 on the ABC schedule on January 25, 1950, but that didn’t help. The last American radio adaptation of Sherlock Holmes closed out the 1949-50 season on June 14, 1950 with a sad 4.6 average rating.
Looking back, (and listening), to these different takes over the 20 year strain of Sherlock Holmes presentations on Network Radio, their similarity in format is striking; The announcer/host visiting Dr, Watson for the narrative of each week’s story. Also present is the comfort in knowing that each episode’s mystery will be solved within the allotted time. Each cast expertly delivered these points.
But when it comes to determining the best of the lot - can there be any question of which pair of actors portrayed Sherlock Holmes & Dr. Watson to the most satisfaction of movie and radio audiences - either then or since?
In the words of you know who, the answer is elementary.
(1) Professor Moriarity drowned in this story but his character was too appealing a menace and challenge to Holmes’ intellect to let him disappear.
(2) This silent film is remembered for introducing Roland Young to motion pictures as Dr. Watson and William Powell in a supporting role.
(3) The date of this program is suspect are many episodes of the Sherlock Holmes series from the early 1930’s.
(4) Arthur Wontner is considered by some to be the best of all the Sherlock Holmes in films. His co-star, actor Ian Fleming, is not to be confused with author Ian Fleming, creator of James Bond, Agent 007.
(5) Grove Laboratories also sponsored recordings of the Blue Network broadcasts of Sherlock Holmes on WOR/Newark Wednesday nights at 8:30.
(6) The short 26 week broadcast schedule was dictated by the marketing cycle of Bromo-Quinine Cold Tablets. Budget minded Grove Laboratories wasn’t about to advertise outside of the “cold season.” The product itself was cited for causing bromism and ordered off the market by the FDA in 1985.
(7) A third Sherlock Holmes wartime adventure would follow in 1943, Sherlock Holmes Faces Death, then another three in 1944, The Spider Woman, The Scarlet Claw and The Pearl of Death. Universal released three more Holmes films in 1945: The House of Fear, The Woman In Green and Pursuit To Algiers, plus two in 1946: Terror By Night and Dressed To Kill, for a total of twelve over the five year span between 1942 and 1946.
(8) Basil Rathbone’s career in film, radio, television and stage work continued until his death in 1967 at the age of 75.
(9) Tom Conway followed his (two years) younger brother, George Sanders, from London to Hollywood in 1940. Active in “B” movies and television during the 1940’s and 50’s, he is most noted for his lead role in ten films as The Falcon.
(10) Ian Martin replaced Alfred Stanley as radio’s Dr. Watson in September, 1948.