The This week we're headed back to Baker Street to celebrate an anniversary of that

Master Detective Sherlock Holmes. On October 20th 1930 Holmes made his debut as a radio sleuth, and he would remain

on the air, in one form or another, for almost two decades.

But he might never have made it to the radio at all had it not been for the efforts of an

actress, script writer, and Holmes fan Edith Meiser. An admirer of Sir Arthur Conan Doyle's story since childhood, Meiser worked with her husband, Tom McNight, to sell the character to a radio sponsor.

After years of false starts, they landed with the G Washington Coffee Company.

Like Meiser, the company's executives had been raised on the original Holmes Adventures,

and they were on board with the series.

Actor William Gillette, who famously played Holmes on the stage,

starred in the series' first episode,

but he was quickly succeeded by actor Richard Gordon.

The show aired on NBC, with Meiser contributing adaptations of Doyle's stories as well

as her own original adventures until 1933. Actor Lewis Hector took over the role from

1934 until 1936 and in 1937 he became the first actor to play Holmes on television in an experimental broadcast.

Holmes was off the air until 1939 when the success of 20th century Fox's Sherlock Holmes film starring Basil Rathbone and

Nigel Bruce sparked renewed interest in the character. Rathbone and Bruce stepped

back into their screen roles of Holmes and Watson and started together in the new

Adventures of Sherlock Holmes on radio until 1946. For much of the run the duo did

double duty as Holmes and Watson on the big screen along with the radio series.

Edith Meiser's husband Tom McNight served as the technical advisor for their Universal Film Series during that time.

Basil Rathbone left the role in 1946,

and he was succeeded for one season by Tom Conway.

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