Mike Gracia

 
First episode

 
William Hooker Gillette

Based on the popular characters created by Sir Arthur Conan Doyle,
The Adventures of Sherlock Holmes aired on coast-to-coast radio 
beginning Monday October 20, 1930 and ran until June 5, 1955. Over 
time, there were 574 broadcasts on the NBC, Mutual and ABC network 
stations.

The original cast featured William Gillette as Holmes and Leigh Lovell
as Dr. Watson. The first sponsor was George Washington Coffee. The
announcer was Joseph Bell.

Claire Trevor and Edward G. Robinson

Big Town is a popular radio drama series that was broadcast until
1952. Edward Robinson played Steve Wilson, the managing editor 
for Illustrated Press until 1942 when Edward J.Pawley took over for
most of the remaining episodes. Claire Trevor portrayed Lorelei
Kilbourne, a society editor and Wilson’s  sidekick. She was replaced
by Ona Munson in 1940.

Big Town was rated No-one among all of the reporter-type drama
series on radio. It was also rated in the top 15 among all radio
programs broadcast and had a listening audience rated between
10 and 20 million people. The program was later adapted to both
film and television and a comic book published by DC Comics. 

   
        Tim Maguire

        Mike Gracia

John (Cougar) Mellencamp is 62 today