Literary adaptation
Works of literature have been adapted for film from the dawn of the industry. Some of the earliest examples come from the work of Georges Méliès, who pioneered many film techniques. In 1899, he released two adaptations — "Cinderella" based on the Brothers Grimm story of the same name and "King John", the first known film to be based on the works of Shakespeare. The 1900 film "Sherlock Holmes Baffled", directed by Arthur Marvin featured Arthur Conan Doyle's detective character Sherlock Holmes intruding upon a pseudo-supernatural burglary. The film, considered the first detective movie, ran for only 30 seconds and was originally intended to be shown in hand-cranked Mutoscope machines.
Louis Hector
Hector worked regularly as a radio performer in the 1930s, often portraying Sir Arthur Conan Doyle's protagonist, Sherlock Holmes. Hector was chosen to play Holmes in an early NBC experimental television broadcast of "The Three Garridebs" on November 27, 1937. This is the first televised adaptation of the Sherlock Holmes character. The show ran for 30 minutes, and was processed in B&W.