The Welcome to Down these mean streets where today we're opening the casebook of

Gregory Hood. Mr Hood was a San Francisco importer and amateur detective, adding treasures to his collection and solving crimes usually linked to those rare antiquities.

He had a catalog of knowledge on all manners of subjects from art and history to wine and of course

crime and he was joined in his adventures by Sanderson Taylor his attorney and the

Dr Watson to Hood's Sherlock Holmes.

That Holmes comparison is especially apt as Gregory Hood sprang from the minds of the

script writers for that legendary detective of Baker Street.

Anthony Boucher and Dennis Green created the Case Book of Gregory Hood as a summer replacement

for the new adventures of Sherlock Holmes, bringing the show to radio in the summer of

1946 when Basil Rathbone and Nigel Bruce were enjoying some time off the air.

Though it began as a summer replacement, the Case Book of Gregory Hood aired from June 3rd,

1946 to May 26th, 1947 in its first run.

Gail Gordon, an actor best known to old-time radio fans as Madison High School principal Osgood-Conklin in Our Miss Brooks, was the first Gregory Hood. Gordon was perfect as the dilettante detective, a gumshoe in the vein of Fyla Vance.

He was succeeded by actor and director Elliot Lewis, another great performer whose Gregory Hood was a little less haughty than Gordons.

Interestingly, the two would trade jokes years later in supporting roles on the Phil Harris Alice Faye show.

The Case Book of Gregory Hood continued to air through 1951, with more actors stepping into the title role, including Jackson Beck, Paul McGrath, and George Petrie.

Today we'll hear a pair of stories from Gregory Hood's case book, one starring Gail Gordon and

one starring Elliot Lewis.

If you're a fan of clever mysteries with an emphasis on deduction instead of fisticuffs,

I think you'll enjoy these shows, beginning with Death from the Red Capsul, originally aired on the Mutual

Network on July 22, 1946. William Bakewell co-stars as Sandy Taylor. Then we'll hear the eloquent corpse, a story of ancient coins and

murder from October 14, 1946. Elliot Lewis's Hood with Howard McNear as Sandy.

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