''The Three Garridebs'' is a 1937

television Television, sometimes shortened to TV, is a telecommunication medium for transmitting moving images and sound. The term can refer to a television set, or the medium of television transmission. Television is a mass medium for advertisin ...

presentation that aired on

NBC The National Broadcasting Company (NBC) is an American English-language commercial broadcast television and radio network. The flagship property of the NBC Entertainment division of NBCUniversal, a division of Comcast, its headquarters are l ...

, based on

Sir Arthur Conan Doyle Sir Arthur Ignatius Conan Doyle (22 May 1859 – 7 July 1930) was a British writer and physician. He created the character Sherlock Holmes in 1887 for '' A Study in Scarlet'', the first of four novels and fifty-six short stories about Ho ...

's 1924 story "

The Adventure of the Three Garridebs "The Adventure of the Three Garridebs" is one of the 56 Sherlock Holmes short stories written by British author Sir Arthur Conan Doyle. One of the 12 stories in the cycle collected as ''The Case-Book of Sherlock Holmes'' (1927), it was first pu ...

Louis Hector Louis Hector (March 19, 1883 – October 1968) was an American radio, theater, film, and television actor. He is best known for his roles of Sherlock Holmes in the 1937 broadcast of ''The Three Garridebs'' (the first US televised portrayal of Sir ...

played Sherlock Holmes, the first actor to do so on television.

Production

In 1937,

received permission from Conan Doyle's widow, Lady Jean Conan Doyle, to produce a live adaptation of Conan Doyle's "The Adventure of the Three Garridebs". NBC television director Thomas H. Hutchinson began scripting the teleplay, which was so faithful, with much dialogue nearly verbatim, that it was published three years later in a textbook on broadcast production. It is considered the first known

television pilot A television pilot (also known as a pilot or a pilot episode and sometimes marketed as a tele-movie), in United States television, is a standalone episode of a television series that is used to sell a show to a television network or other distr ...

. Hector, cast as Sherlock Holmes, had previously portrayed Holmes in an American radio series from 1934 to 1935. He had also played Holmes' arch-nemesis Professor Moriarty on the series.''The Three Garridebs on Radio''
Ruby, Greg D.; September 3, 2014; The Fourth Garrideb - Numismatics of Sherlock Holmes; accessed August 2019 Outside of an opening scene using previously filmed footage of the London skyline, the bulk of the action took place on studio sets of

221B Baker Street 221B Baker Street is the London address of the fictional detective Sherlock Holmes, created by author Sir Arthur Conan Doyle. In the United Kingdom, postal addresses with a number followed by a letter may indicate a separate address within a ...

and the home of Holmes' client Nathan Garrideb. Only three sets were built: 221B Baker Street, Nathan Garrideb's home and

Inspector Lestrade Detective Inspector G. Lestrade, or Mr. Lestrade ( or ), is a fictional character appearing in several of the Sherlock Holmes stories written by Arthur Conan Doyle. Lestrade's first appearance was in the first Sherlock Holmes story, the novel '' ...

's office. Previously filmed footage of Hector and Podmore riding in a

hansom cab The hansom cab is a kind of horse-drawn carriage designed and patented in 1834 by Joseph Hansom, an architect from York. The vehicle was developed and tested by Hansom in Hinckley, Leicestershire, England. Originally called the Hansom safety ca ...

was used to link the action on the sets.

Reception

The teleplay was performed live six times during the final week of November 1937. ''

The New York Times ''The New York Times'' (''the Times'', ''NYT'', or the Gray Lady) is a daily newspaper based in New York City with a worldwide readership reported in 2020 to comprise a declining 840,000 paid print subscribers, and a growing 6 million paid d ...

'' called it "...the most ambitious experiment in teleshowmanship so far attempted in the air above New York" and said "in six performances for members of The American Radio Relay League, the ingenious welding of film and television production offered an interesting glimpse into the future of a new form of dramatic art..." The cast was praised as well: "Louis Hector, in traditional cape, peaked cap, and double-breasted suit, played Holmes in the approved manner and at all times gave the impression that a manhunt was in progress ... His determined manner throughout gave convincing evidence of the ultimate outcome—that the detective would surely 'get his man'."

Cast

as Sherlock Holmes *William Podmore as

Doctor Watson John H. Watson, known as Dr. Watson, is a fictional character in the Sherlock Holmes stories by Sir Arthur Conan Doyle. Along with Sherlock Holmes, Dr. Watson first appeared in the novel '' A Study in Scarlet'' (1887). The last work by Doyle ...

*Violet Besson as Mrs. Hudson *Arthur Maitland as John Garrideb *James Spottswood as Nathan Garrideb *Eustace Wyatt as

*Selma Hall as Mrs. Saunders

References

External links

* {{DEFAULTSORT:Three Garridebs, The 1937 television films 1937 films Sherlock Holmes films based on works by Arthur Conan Doyle Films set in London American television series premieres NBC network original films Television films as pilots Crime television films 1937 in American television