Episode 436 – First Lady of Baker Street (New Adventures of Sherlock Holmes)

Down These Mean Streets (Old Time Radio Detectives)

Jack Mooney

Arts, Performing Arts, Tv & Film

4.5 • 1.1K Ratings

🗓️ 9 May 2021

⏱️ 102 minutes

🔗️ Recording | iTunes | RSS

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Summary

Without Edith Meiser, Sherlock Holmes might never have found enduring success and popularity in the United States. It was Meiser, a writer and Broadway actress, who persuaded a network and a sponsor that Holmes could be a viable radio property and she singlehandedly wrote his radio adventures for years. Along with faithful adaptations of classic stories by Arthur Conan Doyle, Meiser created her own original mysteries. In honor of her birthday, we'll hear three of those original Holmes adventures: "The Case of the Avenging Blade" (originally aired on Mutual on February 1, 1948); "The Adventure of the Sinister Crate of Cabbages" (originally aired on Mutual on May 2, 1948); and "The Complicated Poisoning at Eel Pie Island" (originally aired on Mutual on June 6, 1948).

Transcript

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0:00.0	Get this and get it straight. Crime is a suckers road and those who travel it'd wind up in the gut of the prison of the grave.
0:07.0	The story you were about to hear is true, only the names have been changed to protect the innocent.
0:18.0	The Adventures of Sam Spade Detective.
0:22.0	The Adventures of the Saints starring Vincent Prize
0:25.4	Bob Bailey in the exciting adventures of the man with the action-packed expense account
0:30.6	America's fabulous freelance insurance investigator.
0:33.0	Yours truly, Johnny Deller. And the Hello and welcome to down these mean streets with more old-time radio crime solvers and this week one of the women responsible for the
1:06.3	adventures of those supersoothes. We're saluting actress and writer Edith Meiser, born in Detroit on May 9, 1898.
1:18.6	You may not know her name, but she's a key figure in the history of Sherlock Holmes and his continued popularity in the United States.
1:29.0	It was Meiser who convinced American networks and sponsors that the adventures of the great detective would make for compelling radio.
1:39.0	Not only did she shepherd the launch of the Holmes radio series?
1:44.3	She penned the show single-handedly for years, adapting stories from the canon and creating
1:50.9	her own original mysteries.
1:54.0	Edith Meiser fell in love with Sherlock Holmes and Dr Watson during a sea voyage to Europe in her teens.
2:02.0	A purser on the ship she traveled on gave her a copy of a Conan Doyle book which she devoured on
2:08.0	she devoured on the trip.
2:10.0	After receiving an education in Germany and Switzerland, she attended college at Vassar, where she performed in campus plays.
2:18.0	After graduation, she appeared in theater companies across the country before she made her Broadway debut in 1923.
2:27.0	As she acted, she wrote radio plays, along with her then husband Tom McKnight.
2:35.6	Meiser, who was still a fan of the Holmes stories, was convinced the detective would be
2:40.7	a hit on radio. But she couldn't attract the interest of a network or a sponsor.
2:47.0	They weren't sure that the very English Holmes would draw an audience in the United States.
	...

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