Tales of Fatima
Encyclopedia
Old-time radio
Old-Time Radio and the Golden Age of Radio refer to a period of radio programming in the United States lasting from the proliferation of radio broadcasting in the early 1920s until television's replacement of radio as the primary home entertainment medium in the 1950s...
show from 1949 starring Basil Rathbone
Basil Rathbone
Sir Basil Rathbone, KBE, MC, Kt was an English actor. He rose to prominence in England as a Shakespearean stage actor and went on to appear in over 70 films, primarily costume dramas, swashbucklers, and, occasionally, horror films...
, who had by that time become famous for his long run portraying the world's most famous sleuth in The New Adventures of Sherlock Holmes
The New Adventures of Sherlock Holmes
The New Adventures of Sherlock Holmes was an old-time radio show which aired in the USA from October 2, 1939 to July 7, 1947. Most episodes were written by the team of Dennis Green and Anthony Boucher....
.
In Tales of Fatima, Rathbone portrayed himself in adventurous situations played for broad comedy, quite a departure for the actor from the stalwart Holmes
Sherlock Holmes
Sherlock Holmes is a fictional detective created by Scottish author and physician Sir Arthur Conan Doyle. The fantastic London-based "consulting detective", Holmes is famous for his astute logical reasoning, his ability to take almost any disguise, and his use of forensic science skills to solve...
. References to the sponsor, Fatima Cigarettes, were embedded in the storylines, and Rathbone also delivered the commercials. In further tie-ins, Rathbone also endorsed the product for a series of magazine ads.
The series aired Saturday evenings at 9:30pm on CBS in 1949 from January 8 to October 1, ending after 39 episodes. In the supporting cast, Francis DeSales played Lieutenant Farrell. Michael Fitzmaurice was the program's announcer. Harry Ingram directed, and Jack Miller was the series' music supervisor.
Only two shows in the series have survived:
- "A Much Expected Murder", episode 20 from May 21, 1949
- "Time to Kill", episode 21 from May 28, 1949