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.
Adaptations of Sherlock Holmes
In the 1930s, writer, actress, and producer Edith Meiser was largely responsible for first bringing Holmes to American radio listeners. Meiser, loved the Holmes stories, helped sell the show to the NBC radio network and found a sponsor. She wrote the show by herself for 12 years [1930–1942], both adapting Doyle's classic tales as well as writing new adventures in the Holmesian style. The first show she adapted was "The Adventure of the Speckled Band." It was broadcast on October 20, 1930, and featured William Gillette in the lead role. Various actors played the Holmes and Watson parts in the series until October 2, 1939, when Basil Rathbone and Nigel Bruce were cast after appearing in the 1939 film “The Hound of the Baskervilles”.
NBC’s Red and Blue networks carried the series until 1942. After that the shows were then written by the team of Dennis Green and Anthony Boucher. Then the Mutual Broadcasting System picked up the series which it ran until 1947 [Rathbone left in 1946 and was replaced by Tom Conway, Nigel Bruce remained] with the proviso that Meiser continue to contribute “new adventures”. Meiser's adaptations and original stories won praise from Conan Doyle's family for their faithful adherence to the original characterization.