Discovery 678 - Sherlock Holmes 1951 (Telesnaps)

[Paul Vanezis]

Ladies and Gents,
This evening I borrowed a couple of telesnap enlargements from the collection of the late Martin Starkie. Martin was an actor who worked in the 'golden age' of television and documented his career.

Martin Starkie in Sherlock Holmes; The Red Headed League Nov 24th 1951 by Paul Vanezis, on Flickr

The image shows one of the two John Cura telesnaps from his collection (courtesy of Michael Smallman) which feature him as the crook Vincent Spaulding in the 1951 TV adaptation. I don't think there was ever a recording of the live broadcast and, as we know, very few people had television in 1951. This is somewhat of a rarity, even for Cura images.

Martins collection is extensive and covers his entire career in photographs, film and videotape. I'll let you know more as I go through the material. The collection will remain with the current owner, Michael Smallman with copies and some original material given to the appropriate broadcasters or rights holders.

Paul

[tom rogers]

Paul,

Thanks very much for sharing the news and the telesnaps. Fascinating stuff. Early Holmes, too. Look forward to hearing more about it as you progress!

Tom

[John Green]

Spoiler alert!

[RWels]

Yes, we will never get any closer to this one.

[John Green]

Dec 30, 2016 15:15:21 GMT RWels said:

Yes, we will never get any closer to this one.

I know it's a different medium, but the Gillette Holmes turned up!

[RWels]

Television program from 1951... I don't even know of any off air audio older than 1959.

[Joe Haynes]

Amazing find ! something from a period of TV that just doesnt exist anymore

[John Green]

Dec 30, 2016 16:10:45 GMT RWels said:

Television program from 1951... I don't even know of any off air audio older than 1959.

I still find it hard to believe that no Irregulars recorded the Cushings in the 60s...

[adamjordan]

Surely this should be Discovery 221B ?

[RWels]

Nice one.

Dec 30, 2016 16:28:59 GMT John Green said:

Dec 30, 2016 16:10:45 GMT RWels said:

Television program from 1951... I don't even know of any off air audio older than 1959.

I still find it hard to believe that no Irregulars recorded the Cushings in the 60s...

You're not the only one. What with the fanclubs worldwide and everything.

However, not all other possibilities have been eliminated. One other option that remains is that it was recorded, but not saved, or was saved, but has not been brought forward. Given that all the Who audio has been found, I think the first is most likely.

[Paul Vanezis]

There are audio tapes in the collection that I have not yet seen or listened to, so who knows what is there.

Paul

[RWels]

But at a guess, those are probably from later date. If any tape reel decks were available in 1951 at all, they must have cost a fortune, as would the tapes.

[brianfretwell]

I'm sure my local library had an LP of sounds of London Trams (that last ran in 1952 possibly May) that had been made by enthusiasts with mains tape recorders and had made up battery packs/converters to power them.
1951 could have been possible for home audio recording.

[RWels]

Dec 31, 2016 14:37:40 GMT brianfretwell said:

I'm sure my local library had an LP of sounds of London Trams (that last ran in 1952 possibly May) that had been made by enthusiasts with mains tape recorders and had made up battery packs/converters to power them.
1951 could have been possible for home audio recording.

And that was definitely the way that they'd gotten those recordings? Impressive.

[George D]

Dec 30, 2016 18:23:21 GMT Paul Vanezis said:

There are audio tapes in the collection that I have not yet seen or listened to, so who knows what is there.

Paul

Any idea when you plan on checking out the audio tapes?