The One of the most controversial and captivating figures in detective fiction, Charlie Chan has been as much a mystery as the cases he solves.

He's a charming Hawaiian police detective and family man who traveled the globe in a

popular and successful movie series. He's also a polarizing figure who arguably perpetuates negative cultural stereotypes.

But buried beneath the controversy is a character who has endured for 90 years

and who entertained mystery fans in print on screen and on radio.

Charlie Chan made his first appearance in the House Without a Key, a 1925 novel by Earl Durb Biggers.

Biggers was a playwright and author whose novel Seven Keys to Baldpate

had enjoyed success as a book, a stage play,

and later in several film adaptations.

Biggers was inspired by the real life adventures of Chang Apana,

a Hawaiian police detective whose exploits against the gamblers and drug peddlers of Honolulu had made him a legend.

Biggers strongly disapproved of the prevailing racist attitude towards the Chinese and America.

And he wanted to create a character who would be an alternative to the stereotypical

evil Asian characters so prevalent at the time.

Though the Chan character doesn't play a large part in the house without a key. He proved popular

when the novel was serialized in the Saturday evening post. Biggers was

flooded with letters from readers who were eager for more adventures of Charlie Chan.

Between 1926 and 1932, Biggers wrote five additional Chan novels, and almost immediately, Hollywood came calling.

Chan's first big screen appearances came in a pair of silent films in 1926 and

1927, both adaptations of Biggers novels. Both films are lost, but they weren't well received

and the nearly ended Chan's big screen career before it began. In 1929, behind that curtain, the first sound, Chan

picture, was released with Chan's role heavily downplayed. In that movie he's

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