By the time Edith Meiser was born in 1898, Sherlock Holmes had been dead for five years (seven, if considered literarily). Sir Arthur Conan Doyle killed off the world’s greatest fictional detective in “The Final Problem” (1893). Meiser resurrected him in America like no one had before.
Edith Meiser (1898-1993) was born in Detroit but received a vastly different education than most Americans. She began her schooling at Detroit’s prestigious Liggett School (now University Liggett School), before moving overseas with her family and attending Kox Schule in Dresden, Germany. She then attended Ecole de la Cour de St. Pierre in Geneva. An education in Europe at the time came with the obvious perils due to World War I, but it appears she and her family were unscathed. She finished her schooling stateside at the all-women’s Vassar College, attending from 1917 to 1921.
A year before Europe began tearing itself apart in the summer of 1914, Meiser was introduced to a famous Londoner while cruising on the German SS Bremen ocean liner. The Londoner was Sherlock Holmes, the famous fictional detective created by Sir Arthur Conan Doyle. The introduction came by way of the ship’s purser, a chief crew member who managed the ship’s financial matters. The introduction had a lifelong impact on Meiser, and would greatly influence America’s relationship with the English detective.
Transfixed by Sir Arthur Conan Doyle's Sherlock Holmes, Edith Meiser resurrected him for radio and introduced him to thousands of American radio listeners. (Public Domain)
College and Marriage
While in college, Meiser pursued the arts and became head of the school’s drama society. She performed in several plays, including one she wrote: “Punishment.” After graduating, she stepped right into the acting scene, performing for companies like the American Shakespeare Festival Company, Detroit’s Jessie Bonstelle’s Summer Stock Company, and The Theatre Guild. Meiser was the first woman to perform with the Sock and Buskin Theater Company, which was founded in 1901 by the professor emeritus at Brown University, Thomas Crosby Jr.
During the 1920s, Meiser performed in New York City, including Broadway. Her first Broadway show was in the successful 1923 musical revue, “The Garrick Gaieties,” with music written and composed by lyricist Lorenz Hart and composer Richard Rodgers. “The Garrick Gaieties” were three separate musicals in 1925, 1926, and 1930. According to a 1930 “Vanity Fair” article, the musical revue’s performers found themselves “abruptly famous.”
In between the second and third musical revues, Meiser performed for the newly merged Keith-Albee-Orpheum Circuit, which was a “high class” vaudeville circuit. Vaudeville, however, was struggling to keep pace with the new medium of motion pictures. In 1928, Edward Albee, the owner of Keith-Albee-Orpheum Circuit, sold $4.5 million in stocks to Joseph P. Kennedy, the owner of Film Booking Offices (FBO) and father of future President John F. Kennedy. Radio Corporation of America (RCA) then purchased “a major stake-holding in KAO to complement the majority holding it already had in FBO,” which ultimately formed the film studio RKO.
While Meiser was performing for the Keith-Albee-Orpheum Circuit, and shortly before Kennedy and Albee began working toward a deal, the young actress married Thomas McKnight, a Chicago advertising executive whose company McKnight and Jordan Inc. produced radio shows.
A Sherlockian Idea
The entertainment world was in flux. Vaudeville was dying and motion pictures were on the rise, yet radio shows remained popular. Now connected by marriage to radio, she transitioned into the medium, even working as an editor for the famous crime drama, “The Shadow.” As the 1920s came to a close, she pitched the idea of another crime drama that focused specifically on a famous detective: Sherlock Holmes. The idea was met with little enthusiasm; she was told the idea was “too old fashioned.” Although the response wasn’t enthusiastic, it wasn’t a “no.”
What Meiser needed was a show sponsor. With faith in her idea, she began her search, and after a year, she finally found one in George Washington. (Not that George Washington.) George C. L. Washington, the owner of G. Washington Coffee, the producer of instant coffee. Washington was a self-professed Sherlockian, which undoubtedly helped get him on board.
Armed with a sponsor, Meiser began formulating scripts for the new radio show that would befit the modern audience. Her first script was based on Conan Doyle’s 1892 story “The Adventure of the Speckled Band.” On Oct. 20, 1930, less than four months afterArthur Conan Doyle’s death, Sherlock Holmes made his radio debut in America. William Gillette, who had conducted more than 1,000 stage performances as the detective and wrote and starred in the 1916 film “Sherlock Holmes,” was his voice. The show was an immediate success.
“Sherlock is perfect air material,” Meiser once stated. “Sherlock has excellent radio pace. It’s uncanny how smoothly it works out for radio adaptation. Conan Doyle had great vision.”
An illustration by Sidney Paget that accompanied "The Adventure of Silver Blaze," in "The Strand" magazine in 1892. (Public Domain)
Writing, Adapting, and Honoring
Mesier wrote a vast majority of the scripts for what eventually became two radio shows: “The Adventures of Sherlock Holmes” (1930 to 1936) and “The New Adventures of Sherlock Holmes” (1939 to 1950). She continued writing scripts until the show ended in 1950. The actress and writer adapted her scripts from Conan Doyle’s original tales, but after receiving permission from the Conan Doyle estate, she wrote original scripts, though always in the spirit of Conan Doyle. One of those scripts was actually an adaptation of Gillette’s adaptation. After Gillette,other voice actors played Holmes, including Richard Gordon, Louis Hector, and most famously, Basil Rathbone, known for his films as Sherlock Holmes.
As the 1930s gave way to the 1940s, Meiser moved back into showbusiness, on stage and on screen (both film and television). She created a short-lived Sherlock Holmes comic strip, and wrote a murder mystery novel called “Death Catches Up with Mr. Kluck.”
For her contributions to the world of Sherlock Holmes, Ronald De Waal, the creator of the “World Bibliography of Sherlock Holmes and Dr. Watson,” suggested Meiser should be given the title of “The Woman,” the name Holmes respectfully gave to Irene Adler in “A Scandal in Bohemia.” In 1991, two years before her death, Meiser was invested into the Baker Street Irregulars, the world’s largest Sherlockian society.
Would you like to see other kinds of arts and culture articles? Please email us your story ideas or feedback at [email protected]
Dustin Bass is an author and co-host of The Sons of History podcast. He also writes two weekly series for The Epoch Times: Profiles in History and This Week in History.
