Yuku free message boards

In 1938 he was involved in a failure on the Broadway stage. This depressed him of course, but he immediately received two pieces of good news. The first being a newspaper article advising that his friends Ronald Colman and Benita Hume had just got married. He then goes on to say:
"The other ray of sunshine during this depressing interim was a telegram I received the morning after the notice of Knights of Song had been posted at the theatre. The telegram was from Basil Rathbone who said: 'Do come back to Hollywood, Willie dear boy, and play Doctor Watson to my Sherlock Holmes. We'll have great fun together.' Basil can never realise how much that telegram cheered me up, as when I received it, I was in the mood to put my head in a gas oven."

The deal was made and filming of Hound of the Baskervilles began at the end of December 1938.

I have been unable to find out why the work was never published. It seems Nigel Bruce finished it in late 1947 and he died in late 1953. So it's strange that he didn't get it published in the intervening years.

The second Sherlock Holmes radio series ran from September 1940 to March 1941.

"The Sherlock Holmes program was a God-send. I liked radio work more and more. We all got on like a house on fire and not only is Basil Rathbone a very dear friend but he is one of the most unselfish and generous actors with whom it has ever been my pleasure to act. We had a great time together on the program and spent many hours playing golf at Riviera or Bel-Air. Basil and I were evenly matched, both having handicaps of 10."

1941...

"On October 5th the third series of Sherlock Holmes went on the air - this time for another 24 weeks. Unfortunately our salaries were cut and I now only received $350.00 instead of the $500.00 a week."

"Roxie Hart finished on November 22nd and the day after this Basil and I, dressed as Holmes and Doctor Watson, drove down Hollywood Boulevard in a carriage accompanied by Sheriff Biscailuz at the annual parade of radio stars. The street were lined by thousands of cheering children."

"During 1942 Basil and I made three Sherlock Holmes pictures. They were called 'Sherlock Holmes and the Voice of Terror', 'Sherlock Holmes and the Secret Weapon' and 'Sherlock Holmes goes to Washington'. Our director was the late Roy William Neill."

Two small lapses of memory here: the third Universal film was titled 'Sherlock Holmes in Washington'; and Roy William Neill only started directing with the second picture - the first was directed by John Rawlins.

"Roy was an Englishman by birth who had become an American citizen. He was a little man, very fussy about his clothes and like myself, he always smoked a pipe. He was an extremely kind and friendly person and all his assistants and the crews who worked for him were devoted to him. Roy was an extremely able director, having a great knowledge of film technique and of the use of his camera. During the many pictures we made under his direction we found him a joy to work for. Basil and I nicknamed him 'mousey' during our first picture and the name stuck to him from then on. We both became extremely attached to Roy Neill.
Our Sherlock Holmes pictures took between 18 and 22 days to make. Often we shot out of continuity. The moment one sequence was ended, the scenery would be torn down and the same stage used for a completely new set up. We learned our entire parts before the picture commenced as one does for a stage play. This meant we had no worries if the shooting schedule were changed and if the story was told out of its continuity. Roy Neill was always open to suggestions from Basil or myself and we always accompanied him to the daily rushes in the projection room. Roy, Basil, myself and our Sherlock Holmes casts always worked together as a happy and contented team.
The stories we did were modernised but the characters of the famous detective and his biographer were kept more or less as originally written by Conan Doyle. Watson, however, in the films was made much more of a 'comic' character than he ever was in the books. This was with the object of introducing a little light relief. The doctor, as I played him, was a complete stooge for his brilliant friend and one whose intelligence was almost negligible. Many of the lovers of Conan Doyle must have been shocked, not by this caricature ofthe famous doctor but by seeing the great detective alighting from an aeroplane and the good doctor listening to his radio.
To begin with, Basil and I were much opposed to the modernising of these stories but the producer, Howard Benedict, pointed out to us that the majority of youngsters who would see out pictures were accustomed to the fast-moving action of gangsterpictures, and that expecting machine guns, police sirens, cars travelling at 80 miles an hour and dialogue such as 'Put em up bud', they would be bored with the magnifying glass, the hansom cabs, the cobblestones and the slow tempo of an era they never knew and a way of life with which they were completely unfamiliar.
During the year 1943 Basil and I made two more Sherlock Holmes pictures. They were called 'Sherlock Holmes Faces Death' and 'Sherlock Holmes and the Spider Woman'. This series had now caught on and the pictures were doing well both in America and Great Britain."

"During 1944 we did the Sherlock Holmes broadcasts for 52 weeks and on several occasions we broadcast the program from various theatres in aid of the war bond drive. In June, through this means, we raised over $220,000.00 at the Hawaii Theatre in Hollywood."

This was the 4th radio series, which actually ran from October 4th 1943 to May 28th 1945. A total of 87 programmes.

" In December we took our radio program to Santa Barbara where we raised $190,000.00 for the war bond drive. From there we travelled to San Francisco for the 6th War Loan Drive. We spoke at numerous bond rallies, signed autographs and sold bonds in two of the city's largest shops, met with popular Mayor Lapham of San Francisco and with him visited the police headquarters where we sold a bond to Chief of Police, Charles Dullea. Here we were also shown many interesting relics of crime, and Basil caused a lot of laughter when he told the chief that he was sorry to hear that they still had some unsolved crimes in San Francisco as he and I solved every case we handled with the greatest of ease once every week on Friday nights, and each case only look us half an hour!!"

Nigel Bruce then describes visting the Psychiatric Ward at the Naval Hospital at the Park Presidio in San Francisco. He ended his description of the visit by saying...."I think that mental cases are one of the worst tragedies brought to humanity as the result of war. When Basil and I left that hospital we both felt depressed and exhausted. The night before we left San Francisco we gave our program at the Warfield Theatre to a packed audience which raised $487,000 for the war fund drive."

"The direction of our radio program changed several times during the year. Ned Tollinger was succeeded by Glenhall Taylor - a most efficient and delightful director who later handed it over to Edna Best who, although new to this type of work, soon became helpful and brilliant at her job. Edith Meiser was replaced and the stories were now written by Denis Green and Anthony Boucher. Denis Green was not only a good writer but an actor of no mean ability. His Horatio to Leslie Howard's Hamlet had been a fine piece of acting. Boucher was a San Franciscan who had a sound knowledge of Conan Doyle and a great affection for the two characters of Holmes and Watson."

"On November 26th Basil and I gave what was our last broadcast in aid of war bonds at the Paramount Theatre in Hollywood, and on the last day of November we rode once again down Santa Claus Lane to the accompaniment of the shrieks and cheers of thousands of children. Just before Christmas, David Niven arrived back in Hollywood and came to stay with us in Alpine Drive. He looked thinner and tired but he was well and it was grand to see him again. His wife and two little boys were to join him as soon as he was able to get passages for them.
During 1945, besides 'The Two Mrs Carrols', we made three Sherlock Holmes pictures called 'The Woman in Green', 'Pursuit to Algiers' and 'Terror by Night'. As before all of them were made in under 23 days.
At the beginning of 1946 we made what proved to be our last Sherlock Holmes picture. It was called 'Dressed to Kill', on its completion I was notified by the studio that the series was to be discontinued and that my term contract was at an end. Basil and I, however, were on the air from January 7th to May 29th (actually May 27th). For this I again received $500.00 a week. At the end of this series Basil left Hollywood to act in a play which went on an extended tour before opening later in New York. For some time Basil had not been happy in the film city; he is a fine actor and he had felt that he was not getting good enough parts and that he was always typed either as Sherlock Holmes or as a villain in costume pictures. Very wisely he therefore decided to return to the stage, which he always preferred and on which he could play parts of his own choosing. My association with Basil had been a very long one. We had acted together in 14 Sherlock Holmes pictures, in the film of 'Frenchman's Creek' and on the radio in countless programs since October 2nd, 1939. Ours had been a very happy association and one which had brought me much publicity and a lot of money. During our long time together Basil and I never had a row or any unpleasantness of any sort."

"When I started this book in October 1944, I had no idea it would end up by being nearly as long as Gibbon's Decline and Fall. I have written it in my spare time between pictures; I have written every word of it myself and I have enjoyed the writing of it greatly. Whilst doing so, I have lived again many of the happy hours which I have spent.
I am in no way a distinguished man, but if I died tomorrow, I can honestly claim to have been what few men can call themselves - a really happy one. For 26 years I have been blessed with the love and friendship of a very wonderful woman. I have two attractive and splendid daughters of whom I am very proud, and my two sons-in-law I respect and like enormously. Except for a groggy leg I have been given excellent health, and all through my life I have had the friendship of many attractive and worthwhile people, for all this I am very grateful. I have made a few enemies and for their opinions I care not a fig. I may be broke or ill again, but as long as I have Bunny beside me I shall be happy, and I can only hope that our two daughters will enjoy their lives as much as their father has enjoyed every minute of his."