Of course, none of this ever reached the radio listeners. As the popularity of the Shadow grew, Street & Smith decided to give the narrator his own show by loaning the character to Blue Coal Anthracite to create a series starring the Shadow character. On September 26, 1937, a new series premiered called The Shadow and starred a young up and coming actor named Orson Welles. Welles had yet to create a stir with his "War of the Worlds" broadcast, but his cosmopolitan air fitted the role of Cranston perfectly and equally as well as the sinister Shadow.

"The Weed of Crime..."

Another mystery-detective program that premiered in 1930 showed a much more sophisticated writing style. The show was Sherlock Holmes and the stories were based upon the writings of Arthur Conan Doyle. The author died the same year the series premiered. The Conan Doyle estate had entrusted the development of the radio series to Edith Meiser and NBC. Miss Meiser (who was story editor for the Shadow series) was able to maintain the integrity of the characters as she adapted the stories. Premiering on October 20, 1930 with "The Speckled Band," the series starred William Gillette. Gillette, now into his seventies by this time, had introduced the Holmes character to New Yorkers in 1899 at the Garrick Theatre. This first run on radio was sponsored by G. Washington coffee and as with the later series, Dr. Watson and the announcer enjoyed the sponsor's product while Watson introduced the story.

Probably the most famous of the Holmes' interpreters was Basil Rathbone. One cannot think of the actor as anyone but Holmes. Rathbone took over the Holmes character in radio and film in 1939. Nigel Bruce appeared as Dr. Watson. Edith Meiser continued to adapt the stories, though this time with some help. Both Leslie Charteris, creator of the The Saint, and Anthony Boucher, a mystery writer in his own right, wrote some of the scripts under pen names.

"Elementary..."

Continued