Newsletter May 2023

Carl’s Corner

by Carl Amari

Sir Arthur Conan Doyle’s detective genius, Sherlock Holmes, came to NBC radio in 1930 starring Richard Gordon. By 1939, Basil Rathbone was heard as Holmes with Nigel Bruce as Doctor Watson. The duo was simultaneously starring in a popular series of Sherlock Holmes features for Fox, and later for Universal.

By the end of the feature run in the mid 1940’s, Rathbone was eager to separate himself from the radio show to avoid being typecast, and even though the show’s sponsor (Petri Wines) offered him generous pay to continue, he decided to move on. Tom Conway took over with Nigel Bruce continuing as Watson (in this paring Nigel Bruce received top billing). Tom Conway and Nigel Bruce were replaced in 1947 by John Stanley and Alfred Shirley.

Others to portray Holmes and Watson over the radio run were George Shelton and Ian Martin and Ben Wright and Eric Snowden. In 1955, NBC signed heavyweights Sir John Gielgud and Sir Ralph Richardson to star as Holmes and Watson, but with radio fast giving way to television, it only lasted one season.

LEND ME YOUR EARS | THIS MONTH’S SONG: ANGIE, The Rolling Stones
RELEASED: 1973

by Lisa Wolf

Click here to watch on YouTube. 

“While I was in the clinic, Anita was down the road having our daughter, Angela… Once I came out of the usual trauma, I had a guitar with me and I wrote ‘Angie’ in an afternoon, sitting in bed because I could finally move my fingers and put them in the right place again… The name of the song came out of nowhere. I just went, ‘Angie, Angie.” ~ Keith Richards

The 1973 acoustic-guitar ballad “Angie” written by Mick Jagger and Keith Richards, climbed to the top of the charts when it was released on their album, Goats Head Soup. Keith Richards wrote this song in Switzerland after the ‘Exile on Main St.’ album had been approved by the record company, but before it was released. Angieis The Rolling Stones’ only ballad to hit #1 in the United States. Part of the appeal of the song was the mystery question… who was Angie? There are various theories that attempt to answer that question. 

 Many believe that the song Angie is dedicated to the first wife of David Bowie, whose name is Angela, or Keith Richards’ newborn daughter, Dandelion Angela. Others suggest Angie refers to actress Angie Dickinson or even designer Andy Warhol. On the other hand, in English slang, the word “angie” refers to various hard drugs. In his autobiography, Keith wrote that what he meant was to say goodbye to heroin. As there is no definitive answer, you can decide who or what the song Angie is about. 

“All the dreams we held so close seemed to all go up in smoke.”