Nigel Bruce

Basil Rathbone and Nigel Bruce

William Nigel Ernle Bruce was born on 4 February 1895, usually known as Nigel Bruce, was a British stage and film, radio actor who gained fame as Doctor Watson in a series of films and radio plays with Basil Rathbone as Sherlock Holmes.

His father was Sir William Waller Bruce, 10th Baronet (1856 – 1912), by his wife Angelica Selby (d. 1917), daughter of General George Selby, and he was born in Ensenada, Mexico during a holiday with his parents. He was educated at The Grange, Stevenage, and at Abingdon School, Berkshire. He served in France from 1914 as a Lieutenant in the 10th Service Battalion - Somerset Light Infantry, and in the Honourable Artillery Company, but was seriously wounded the following year, spending the rest of the First World War in a wheelchair.

His first stage appearance was on 12 May 1920 at the Comedy Theatre as a footman in Why Marry?. In October of that year he went to Canada as stage manager for Henry V. Esmond and Eva Moore, as well as playing Montague Jordan in Eliza Comes to Stay. He appeared constantly on stage thereafter, and eight years later began working in silent films. In 1934 he moved to Hollywood, settling in Beverly Hills.

During his film career he appeared in 78 films, including Treasure Island (1934), The Scarlet Pimpernel, Lassie Come Home, The Corn is Green, and Bwana Devil. He also appeared in Alfred Hitchcock's films Rebecca (1940) and Suspicion (1941).

He often played buffoonish, clueless gentlemen, and his main role was as Dr. Watson in the Sherlock Holmes series that began in 1939 with his good friend Basil Rathbone. Holmesian purists objected that in the books Watson was intelligent and capable, while Bruce's portrayal made him dumber and more clumsy. To millions of fans, however, Bruce was the definitive Watson. He starred in 14 films and more than 200 radio shows as Dr. Watson. Although Watson often appears as the older of the two characters, Bruce was actually three years younger than Rathbone. Unlike Rathbone, Bruce never tired of his role, and would even have liked to play it more often.

Unlike some of his contemporaries, he never renounced his British citizenship, despite his long residence in the United States, and retained his membership of the London clubs Garrick Club and Bucks Club until his death.

Bruce died on 8 October 1953 of an acute myocardial infarction in Santa Monica, California, in 1953, aged 58. He was cremated, and his ashes were kept at the Chapel of the Pines Crematorium in Los Angeles.

His last film, World for Ransom, was released posthumously in 1954.

Basil Rathbone

Basil Rathbone was born in Johannesburg, 13 June 1892 and died in New York on 21 July 1967. He was a British actor who became famous for his portrayals of Sherlock Holmes and elegant villains in swashbuckler films such as The Mark of Zorro (1940) and Robin Hood (1938).

His real name was Philip St. John Basil Rathbone. He was born to English parents Edgar Philip Rathbone and Anna Barbara. He had a sister and a brother, Beatrice and John. The family went to England when Basil was three years old, because of the Boer accusation against his father of spying for the British at the start of the Second Boer War.

Basil was educated at Repton School. In 1916 he enlisted to serve during the First World War in the London Scottish Regiment as a private and later as a lieutenant in the Liverpool Scottish. In the London Scottish, he served alongside actors Claude Rains, Herbert Marshall and Ronald Colman. In September 1918 he was awarded the Military Cross. Rathbone developed early as an outstanding foil fencer, reaching Olympic level.

He made his first stage appearance at the Theatre Royal, Ipswich, on 22 April 1911, in the role of Hortensio in The Taming of the Shrew, with Sir Frank Benson's company, under the direction of Henry Herbert. In October 1912 he travelled to America with the same company, appearing as Paris in Romeo and Juliet, Fenton in The Merry Wives of Windsor, in As You Like It, etc. Returning to England he appeared in London at the Savoy Theatre on 9 July 1914, in the role of Finch in The Sin of David. In December of that year he appeared at the Shaftesbury Theatre, playing the Dauphin in Shakespeare's Henry V. During 1915 he toured with Benson and appeared with him at the Court Theatre, London, in December, in the role of Lysander in A Midsummer Night's Dream.

During the 1919 Summer Festival he appeared at Stratford-upon-Avon with the New Shakespeare Company as Romeo, Cassius, Ferdinando in The Tempest, Florizel in The Winter's Tale, etc.; in October he was at the Queen's Theatre in London as Aide-de-Camp in Napoleon, and in February 1920 he appeared at the Savoy Theatre in the title role of Peter Ibbetson with great success.

During the 1920s Rathbone regularly performed plays by William Shakespeare as well as other English stage roles. He began touring and appeared at the Cort Theatre in New York in October 1923, and toured the United States in 1925, making his debut in San Francisco (May) and at the Lyceum Theatre in New York (October). He returned to the United States again in 1927, 1930, and 1931, when he appeared on stage with Ethel Barrymore. He continued his stage career in England, returning to the U.S. in 1934, where he starred opposite Katharine Cornell in several plays.

He also began his film career in 1925 in The Masked Bride, appeared in a few silent films, and was Detective Philo Vance in the 1929 film The Bishop Murder Case. Rathbone made his name playing dapper villains in costumbrista dramas and swashbuckler films of the 1930s, including David Copperfield (1935), Anna Karenina (1935) (he played Anna's husband), The Last Days of Pompeii (1935), Captain Blood (1935), A Tale of Two Cities (1935), Robin Hood (1938), Tower of London (1939), and as Captain Esteban Pasquale in the film The Mark of Zorro (1940), famous for its grand fencing feint with foils. Son of Frankenstein is the third film in Universal Studios' Frankenstein series and the last to star Boris Karloff as the monster. Released in 1939, it is often cited as among the best of that year. Rathbone played Dr. Frankenstein's son, Dr. Wolf Frankenstein.

He was admired for his mastery of the foil sword in his films (he acknowledged fencing as one of his favorite pastimes, and became an Olympic fencer), particularly in the beach duel in Captain Blood and as Sir Guy of Gisbourne in the lengthy fight scene in Robin of the Woods. Other notable sword fights appear in Tower of London, The Mark of Zorro, and The Court Jester (1956). Despite his real-life prowess, Rathbone only won one film sword fight, in Romeo and Juliet (1936). Rathbone earned Academy Award nominations for supporting roles as Tybalt in Romeo and Juliet (1936) and as King Louis XI in If I Were King (1938).
Despite his film successes, Rathbone insisted that he wished to be remembered for his stage career, which was also legendary, and he regarded his favorite role as Romeo.
In the 1950s, Rathbone starred in two parodies of his earlier swashbuckling villains, Casanova's Big Night (1954) opposite Bob Hope and The Court Jester (1956) with Danny Kaye. He appeared frequently on television shows, and had a major role in John Ford's political drama The Last Hurrah (1958).

Rathbone also acted on Broadway in a number of plays. In 1948, he won a Tony Award for Best Actor for his role as the hard-nosed Dr. Austin Sloper in the play The Heiress, which also starred Wendy Hiller as his shy, unmarried daughter. The role of Dr. Sloper was later reprised by Ralph Richardson in the 1949 film version of The Heiress. He was also praised for his performance in Archibald Macleish's J.B., an update of the biblical figure of Job.
During the 1950s and 1960s, he continued to appear in various television shows.

Unfortunately, to pay off debts, he had to work in low-quality films, such as The Black Sleep (1956), Queen of Blood (1966), Ghost in the Invisible Bikini (1966), Hillbillies in a Haunted House (1967, opposite Lon Chaney Jr.), and his last film, a Mexican horror film called Autopsy of a Ghost (1968). Meanwhile, his portrayal of Sherlock Holmes became iconic for younger generations thanks to the frequent reruns of his older films on television.

He is also known for his readings of Edgar Allan Poe's stories and poems, which have been collected together with readings by Vincent Price. Price and Rathbone appeared, along with Boris Karloff, in Tower of London (1939) and The Comedy of Horrors (1964). Rathbone and Price also appeared in the final segment of Roger Corman's 1962 film Tales of Terror.
Basil Rathbone has three stars on the Hollywood Walk of Fame. One is dedicated to his film career at 6549 Hollywood Boulevard; another for his radio work at 6300 Hollywood Boulevard; and a final one for his television work at 6915 Hollywood Boulevard.

Rathbone married actress Ethel Marion Foreman in 1914, divorcing her in 1926. During his first marriage he had a brief affair with actress Eva Le Gallienne. He married a second time in 1927 to writer Ouida Bergère.

He had one son with his first wife, Rodion Rathbone (1915-1996), who briefly had a Hollywood career under the name John Rodion. Basil and his second wife adopted a daughter, Cynthia Rathbone (1939-1969). Like Charlie Chaplin and unlike some contemporary British actors in Hollywood and Broadway, Rathbone never renounced his British citizenship.
Basil Rathbone died of heart disease in New York in 1967, aged 75. His body was buried in a crypt at the Shrine of Memories Mausoleum at Ferncliff Cemetery in Hartsdale, New York.

The New Adventures of Sherlock Holmes

The New Adventures of Sherlock Holmes was an old time radio show aired in the USA from October 2, 1939 to July 7, 1947. The show starred Basil Rathbone as Sherlock Holmes and Nigel Bruce as Dr. Watson. Together, they starred in 374 episodes which aired weekly on Mondays from 8:30 to 9:00pm. Bromo Quinine sponsored some of the earlier programs on the NBC Blue Network and for a period Parker Pen was the sponsor. The show first aired on the Blue Network but later moved to the Mutual Broadcasting System.

Basil Rathbone's last episode as the famous detective was "The Singular Affair of the Baconian Cipher". He was eager to separate himself from the cast type of Holmes, and even though the show's sponsor Petri Wine offered him generous pay to continue, he decided to move on. Once he did, the sponsor did as well, and Tom Conway took the starring role, though Nigel Bruce got top billing and was always announced first. The new sponsor was Kreml Hair Tonic for Men, and the new series only lasted 39 episodes.

From 1939 until 1943, episodes were adapted or written by Edith Meiser who had written the earlier series The Adventures of Sherlock Holmes which aired from 1930 to 1935. Meiser left the show after disagreements with a sponsor over the amount of violence in the program. It is also reported that Meiser left the show to focus on other projects. From 1943 onward, most episodes were written by the team of Denis Green and Anthony Boucher with some early episodes written by Green and Leslie Charteris.^[Edith Meiser returned to write for the show for its seventh season. Max Ehrlich and Howard Merrill wrote the episodes of season 8. Denis Green returned as a writer for the last season.

The show moved to Mutual in 1943 at the start of its fourth season. The series was originally broadcast from Hollywood. During World War II, the show was also broadcast overseas through the Armed Forces Radio Service. The program aired on ABC instead of Mutual for its sixth and ninth seasons.

With Rathbone and Bruce, the show exhibited an interesting introduction. The sponsor's spokesman would show up weekly at Dr. Watson's house (then retired and living in California), and share a story about Sherlock Holmes and his adventures over a glass of Petri wine. This offered them the chance to sometimes bring in other characters to contribute to the story, and also gave Watson a chance to summarize or add additional tidbits at the end. Another interesting thing about this radio shows introductions was Watson's anecdotes and comments about his dogs usually referred to as the "Puppies".

Boston Blackie

Boston Blackie is a fictional character created by author Jack Boyle (1881–1928). Blackie, a jewel thief and safecracker in Boyle's stories, became a detective in adaptations for films, radio and television—an "enemy to those who make him an enemy, friend to those who have no friend."

Actor Chester Morris played the character in 14 Columbia Pictures films (1941–1949) and in a 1944 NBC radio series. Prowling the underworld as a detective in adaptations for films, radio, and television, the detective Boston Blackie was "an enemy to those who make him an enemy, friend to those who have no friend".

The Boston Blackie radio series, starring Chester Morris, began June 23, 1944, on NBC as a summer replacement for The Amos 'n' Andy Show. Sponsored by Rinso, the series continued until September 15 of that year. Unlike the concurrent films, Blackie had a steady romantic interest in the radio show -- Lesley Woods appeared as Blackie's girlfriend Mary Wesley. Harlow Wilcox was the show's announcer.

On April 11, 1945, Richard Kollmar took over the title role in a radio series syndicated by Frederic W. Ziv to Mutual and other network outlets. Over 200 episodes of this series were produced between 1944 and October 25, 1950. Other sponsors included Lifebuoy Soap, Champagne Velvet beer, and R&H beer. While investigating mysteries, Blackie invaribly encountered harebrained Police Inspector Farraday (Maurice Tarplin) and always solved the mystery to Farraday's amazement.

In the beginning, friction surfaced in the relationship between Blackie and Farraday, but as the series continued, Farraday recognized Blackie's talents and requested assistance. Blackie dated Mary Wesley (Jan Miner), and for the first half of the series, his best pal Shorty was always on hand. The humorless Farraday was on the receiving end of Blackie's bad puns and word play.

Jim Jordan

Jim Jordan (November 16, 1896 – April 1, 1988) was an American radio actor and voice actor, best known for portraying Fibber McGee on Fibber McGee and Molly and voicing the albatross Orville in The Walt Disney Company film The Rescuers (1977).

His full name was James Edward Jordan, and he was born on a farm in Illinois near Peoria. He attended St. John's Church in Peoria, before his family eventually moved there after selling the farm.

Jordan met his future wife, Marian Driscoll Jordan, while in the church choir. The two were married on August 31, 1918.

Jim Jordan initially performed on the vaudeville circuit as a solo act, but later worked with Marian on several occasions until 1924. In 1923 the couple was broke, so their parents had to send them money so they could return to Peoria from Lincoln, Illinois.

Jim and Marian Jordan got their big break in radio while performing in Chicago in 1924. They were booked to perform for 26 weeks under the name The O'Henry Twins, sponsored by Oh Henry! Chocolate Bars.

Jim said he could give a better performance than the singers they were listening to on the radio, and his brother Byron bet $10 that Jim couldn't do it. By the end of the evening, Jim and Marian had their first radio contract, at $10 per show for 26 weeks as The O'Henry Twins, sponsored by Oh Henry! candy.

The Jordans would work as a double act for the remainder of their careers, Seldom appearing separately from each other, with Jim as the comic foil and Marian as the stooge. From 1931 to 1935, they produced the low-budget sitcom Smackout, in which they portrayed most of the characters (including semi-fictional versions of themselves). In 1935, the couple, along with head writer Don Quinn, teamed up to create Fibber McGee and Molly, a weekly sitcom that was given a larger budget and an ensemble cast.

Marian Jordan died in April 1961 of cancer. Jim Jordan remarried in 1962, to Gretchen Stewart (1909-1998). The couple remained together until his death. After Marian's death, Jordan went into semi-retirement.

Jim Jordan died in 1988, at the age of 91, at the Beverly Hills Medical Center, due to a cerebral embolism caused by a fall at home. He was buried next to Marian Jordan in the Holy Cross Cemetery, in Culver City.

Fibber McGee and Molly

Fibber McGee and Molly is an American radio program from the Golden Age of radio, and one of the longest-running sitcoms on radio. The series premiered on NBC Radio on April 16, 1935, and remained popular until its demise in 1959, long after radio had ceased to be the dominant form of entertainment in American popular culture.

The show's stars were James "Jim" Jordan (November 16, 1896 – April 1, 1988) and his wife Marian Driscoll (April 15, 1898 – April 7, 1961), both of whom were natives of Peoria, Illinois.
Jordan was the seventh of eight children born to James Edward Jordan and Maria (née Tighe) Jordan, while Driscoll was the seventh and last child born to Daniel P. and Anna (née Carroll) Driscoll. The son of a farmer, Jim, wanted to be a singer; Marian, the daughter of a coal miner, wanted to be a music teacher. They both attended the same Catholic Church, where they joined in choir practice. Marian's parents had tried to discourage her from any aspirations of becoming a professional actress or singer. When she began seeing young Jim Jordan, the Driscolls were far from approving of Jim and his ideas. Jim's voice teacher gave him a recommendation to work as a professional in Chicago, and he followed. He was able to hold steady work, but soon grew tired of life on the road. In less than a year, Jim returned to Peoria and went to work for the Post Office. His profession was now acceptable to Marian's parents, and they ceased to oppose the couple's marriage plans. The couple married in Peoria, Illinois on August 31, 1918.

Five days after the wedding, Jim received his draft communication. He was sent to France and became part of a military troupe that entertained the armed forces after World War I. When Jim came home from France, he and Marian decided to try their hand at vaudeville. They had two children, Kathryn Teresa Jordan (1920–2007) and James Carroll Jordan (1923–1998), both born in Peoria. Marian returned home for Kathryn's birth, but returned to performing with Jim, leaving her daughter with Jim's parents. After Jim Jr. was born in 1923, Marian stayed with the children for a time while Jim performed as a solo act. Marian and the children joined him on the road for a short time, but the couple had to admit defeat when they found themselves in Lincoln, Illinois in 1923, with two small children and a lack of funds. The couple's parents had to send money for their return to Peoria. Jim went to work at a local store, but still felt the lure of being in show business. He and Marian re-entered vaudeville.
While visiting with Jim's brother in Chicago in 1924, the family was listening to the radio; Jim said that he and Marian could do better than the musical act currently on the air. Jim's brother bet him $10 that they couldn't. To win the bet, Jim and Marian went to WIBO,6​ where they were immediately put on the air. At the end of the performance, the station offered the couple a contract for a weekly program that paid $10 per week. The show's sponsor was the manufacturer of Oh Henry! candy and they appeared for six months on The Oh Henry! Twins Program, switching to radio station WENR in 1927.

Fibber McGee and Molly originated when the couple entered their third year as vaudeville performers on radio in Chicago. Two of the shows they performed on for WENR beginning in 1927, both written by Harry Lawrence, bore traces of what was to come and now rank as early forms of situation comedy. On their farm report show Luke and Mirandy, Jim played a farmer who told tales and lies for comic effect. On a weekly sitcom, The Smith Family, the character of Marian was an Irish wife of an American police officer. These characterizations, like the Jordans' shift from singer/musicians to comic actors, pointed toward their future; It was here that Marian developed and perfected the radio character "Teeny." It was also at WENR that the Jordans teamed up with Donald Quinn, a cartoonist then working in radio, and the pair hired him as their writer in 1931. They considered Quinn's contribution to be so important and brought him on as a full partner, the salary of Smackout and Fibber McGee and Molly being split between the Jordans and Quinn.

While working on WENR's farm report, Jim Jordan heard a true story about a Missouri merchant whose store was stocked with valuables; however, he claimed to be "smack out" of anything the customer asked for. The story reached the halls of nearby Columbia College Chicago, and students began visiting the store, which they called "Smackout," to hear the incredible stories of its owner.

For Chicago's WMAQ, beginning in April 1931, the trio created Smackout, a daily 15-minute program that centered on a convenience store and its owner, Luke Grey (Jim Jordan), a shopkeeper with a penchant for tall tales and a perpetual shortage of everything his customers wanted: He always seemed "just out of it." Marian Jordan played both a woman named Marian and a little girl named Teeny, as well as playing the musical accompaniment on the piano. During the show's run, Marian Jordan voiced a total of 69 different characters on it. Smackout was picked up by NBC in April 1933 and broadcast nationally until August 1935.

A member of the S. C. Johnson & Son ownership firm, Henrietta Johnson Lewis, married to the advertising executive who handled the Johnson's Wax account, recommended that her husband, John, should give the show a chance as a national program for the company. Part of the terms of the agreement between the Jordans and Johnson's Wax gave the company ownership of the names Fibber McGee and Molly.

When it seemed to the couple that they were financially successful, they built a house in Chicago, which was a replica of their rented house, to complete construction on the lot next door. For their move to the West Coast in 1939, the Jordans selected an inconspicuous home in Encino. Some of Jim Jordan's investments included the Hires Root Beer bottling plant in Kansas City.

The Amazing Mr. Malone

Murder and Mr. Malone, starring Frank Lovejoy as Chicago’s mystery-solving lawyer John J. Malone, debuted on January 11, 1947 over ABC. 

One of the lesser known radio shows also known as The Amazing Mr. Malone.

Based on the John Malone series of mystery novels by Craig Rice, and on the radio series of the same name. John J. Malone, socialite and ladies man, is a brilliant criminal lawyer taking up a new case in every episode.

Sponsored by Guild Wines through the Honig-Cooper agency, week after week Mr. Malone found himself involved in trying to solve a wide variety of killings that often involved blackmail, mistaken identities, and gambling. In the spring of 1948 the sponsor announced they were cutting ties with Mr. Malone, while at the same time changing the title of the series from Murder and Mr. Malone to The Amazing Mr. Malone as of April 24, 1948. At the time of the change the series was being carried over 63 stations of the ABC network. As The Amazing Mr. Malone, Lovejoy’s series ran for almost another year until March 1949.

This series had a brief television run from September 24, 1951 to March 10, 1952 on ABC, with Lee Tracy in the title role.