Welcome to Down These Mean Streets, bringing you the best of detectives from the Golden Age of radio. Welcome back to down these mean streets and another of old time radio's best detectives. This week it's not only one of

radio's best, it's one of the most famous characters in all of literature, Sherlock Holmes.

Of course Holmes and his friend and colleague Dr. Watson are still going

strong on TV and in the movies, but they enjoyed a long career on American

Radio. Holmes of course was created by Sir Arthur Conan Doyle, but his biggest patron on radio was an actress and writer named Edith Meiser.

Meiser grew up reading the Holmes stories, and she believed they were ideal candidates for radio adaptation.

She brought Conan Doyle's stories for Holmes earliest radio adventures in the 1930s

and she created her own stories after she'd exhausted the canon.

She wrote on multiple Holmes series throughout

the 1930s and 40s and was an original script writer for perhaps the most famous Holmes

and Watson duo, Basil Rathbone and Nigel Bruce, whose run on radio coincided with their Sherlock Holmes

feature films beginning in 1939.

And although he's the most famous of the Holmes actors, Basil Rathbone left the role in 1946.

He'd grown weary of the part and he was concerned about typecasting.

Nigel Bruce stayed on as Watson for the 1946 to 1947 season and he was joined by

Tom Conway as Holmes. A few years later Conway would replace Vincent Price as

Star of the Saint. Edith Meiser came back to the series as a script writer

for the 1947 to 1948 season. Alfred Shirley played Watson and John Stanley took on the role of Sherlock Holmes.

Stanley was a much stronger radio actor than Basil Rathbone whose own dissatisfaction with the role could be heard in his later performances.

And to some, this listener included, role could be heard in his later performances.

And to some, this listener included, John Stanley is the definitive radio Sherlock Holmes,

particularly when he's speaking dialogue written by Edith Meiser.

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