Mystery’s History 006: The Butler Did It!

Watch Mystery’s History 006: The Butler Did It! and follow along with the transcript below.

Transcript:

Welcome to Mystery’s History, Interesting Facts Behind Intriguing Stories.

In this episode, we’re traveling back to 1930 in search of the origin of the well-known phrase, “The butler did it!”

The phrase is commonly attributed to author Mary Roberts Rinehart because, in her 1930 novel, The Door, the butler actually did it! The butler was the villain.

Combine that with the fact that suspicion was often cast on the butler or other household servants during the Golden Age of Mystery, and the phrase went viral before “going viral” was even a thing, even though the butler is rarely the culprit.

Although Rinehart’s first mystery novel, The Circular Staircase, was published in book form in 1908, some twelve years before Agatha Christie’s The Murderous Affair at Styles, Rinehart was considered by many to be America’s Agatha Christie.

One of her plays, titled The Bat, revolved around a group of people being murdered by a character that may have inspired Bob Kane’s Batman.

Oh, and, spoiler alert, the phrase, “The butler did it!” never appears in Mary Roberts Rinehart’s The Door.

For Mystery’s History, until next time, I’m Donald Jay.

Credits:

Photo Credit (Mary Roberts Rinehart): Public Domain
Photo Credit (Batman Comic): Batman.Fandom.com