12/29/39 John Dickson Carr breaks into radio

December 29 1939.  Listeners to the BBC on this evening caught the first work in the medium by that most British of American mystery writers, John Dickson Carr.  "Who Killed Matthew Corbin?" appeared in three parts, running into January. It starred Gordon McLeod as Carr's sleuth Dr Gideon Fell.

Nu recordings are known to survive but Carr recycled the plot for "The Clock Strikes Eight," which you can listen to here.

6/13/1953 Carr does Holmes

June 13, 1953.  Collier's Magazine, with this cover date, featured "The Adventure of the Sealed Room" by Adrian Conan Doyle and John Dickson Carr.  It was part of a series of stories about the Master all co-written by the original author's son and the master of locked room mysteries.  They were collected under the title The Exploits of Sherlock Holmes, which always made me wonder: did they know that one meaning of exploit is "use selfishly for one's own end?"

4/8/1992 John D. Carr's Treacherous Crossing

April 8, 1992.  On this day the USA Network showed a made-for-TV movie, Treacherous Crossing. It was based on Cabin B-13, a radio play written by John D. Carr (1943). Lindsay Wagner starred as the woman who claimed her husband disappeared on an ocean liner - but was he ever there at all?

The story had appeared on TV twice before under its original title, on the series Suspense (1949) and Climax! (1958). Oh, and it was a movie in 1953 as Dangerous Crossing.

And remember the original radio play was Cabin B-13? In 1948 that became the name of  a radio anthology show.  The titular cabin became the home of the ship;'s doctor who, each week introduced a strange tale from his various travels.  John D. Carr did find a lot of ways to use one idea.

11/29/1945 John Dickson Carr is a no-show

November 29, 1945.  On this date John Dickson Carr was supposed to be the guest of honor at one of the first dinner meetings of the Mystery Writers of America, but Carr, who had problems with crowds, didn't show up.

Carr was an American by birth but set most of his books in England.  He was considered one of the great "Golden Age" authors, and the master of the locked room mystery.  His main detectives were Dr. Gideon Fell and (under the name Carter Dickson) Sir Henry Merrivale.

MWA apparently didn't hold a grudge about his absence.  They gave him two Edgar Awards and, in 1963, named him a Grand Master.

Source: Douglas Greene's John Dickson Carr, the Man who Explained Miracles.

9/20/1950 Carr on Doyle wins Edgar

September 20, 1950.  On this date John Dickson Carr, mystery writer and future Grand Master, won a Special Edgar Award from the Mystery Writers of America for his biography on an earlier master, The Life of Arthur Conan Doyle.

5/26/1953 The Black Baronet gets suspenseful

May 26, 1953.  On this night the CBS TV show Suspense featured Basil Rathbone as Sherlock Holmes in "The Adventure of the Black Baronet."  This was based on a story by Doyle, sort of, but not that Doyle.

Arthur Conan Doyle's son Adrian had decided to expand the family empire by co-writing a set of new Holmes stories with the great American mystery writer John Dickson Carr.  Each took its starting point from some case mentioned in passing in the Canon, as Holmes fans call the original tales.  The stories were published under the name The Exploits of Sherlock Holmes, which causes me to raise an eyebrow.  Did they know that one meaning of "exploit" is to use selfishly for one's own advantage?

Nigel Bruce was not part of this particular adventure, having passed away two years earlier.  Instead the faithful Dr. Watson was played by Martyn Green, who is considered by many Savoyards to be to Gilbert and Sullivan what Rathbone was to Holmes: he was the greatest performer of the principal comedian parts in the light operas.

No copies of the show are known to survive, which is particularly unfortunate because it was apparently Rathbone's last filmed performance as the Master.