October 24, 1920: Agatha Christie Introduces Hercule Poirot

David Suchet in the role

October 24, 1920: The Mysterious Affair at Styles, by Agatha Christie, is published. It introduces the character of Hercule Poirot, who might be the most famous private detective in literature behind Sherlock Holmes -- unless, of course, one were to count Batman.

The story begins on July 16, 1916, during World War I, at a time when thousands of refugees from Belgium had fled to England. Poirot would be one of them. According to the man who becomes his best friend, British Army Captain Arthur Hastings:

He was hardly more than five feet four inches but carried himself with great dignity. His head was exactly the shape of an egg, and he always perched it a little on one side. His moustache was very stiff and military. Even if everything on his face was covered, the tips of moustache and the pink-tipped nose would be visible. The neatness of his attire was almost incredible; I believe a speck of dust would have caused him more pain than a bullet wound. Yet this quaint dandified little man who, I was sorry to see, now limped badly, had been in his time one of the most celebrated members of the Belgian police.

Both David Suchet, who played Poirot in 13 TV-movies for ITV (broadcast on PBS in America) from 1989 to 2013, and Kenneth Branagh, who has played him film versions of Murder On the Orient Express and Death on the Nile, have understood the obsessive-compulsive nature of the character, and played this trait up.

By 1930, Christie had told an interviewer that she found Poirot "insufferable." By 1960, she felt that he was a "detestable, bombastic, tiresome, ego-centric little creep." Despite this, Poirot remained an exceedingly popular character with the general public. Christie later stated that she refused to kill him off, claiming that it was her duty to produce what the public liked. Finally, in 1975, she killed him off in Curtain: Poirot's Last Case. She died herself the following year.

The 1st actor to play Poirot was Charles Laughton, on the London stage in 1928, in Alibi, adapted from The Murder of Roger Ackroyd. This play would become the 1st film based on the character, in 1931, played by Austin Trevor. Trevor said he was cast because he could do a French accent; nevertheless, his Poirot didn't have the character's best-known feature, the mustache.

Murder On the Orient Express, the best-known Poirot story, was first filmed in 1974, with Albert Finney. It was filmed again in 2001, with Alfred Molina; 2017, with Branagh. Peter Ustinov played him 6 times between 1978 and 1988. In 1976, Neil Simon's sendup of mystery novels Murder By Death features James Coco as "Milo Perrier," along with Elsa Lanchester as "Miss Marbles," a takeoff on Christie's other great detective, Miss Marple.

"Orient" doesn't necessarily mean "East Asian." It merely means "Eastern," and the Orient Express, which ran from 1883 to 2009, is now in private hands, but still runs from Paris to Istanbul and back.

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October 24, 1920 was a Sunday. Baseball season was over. The NBA hadn't been founded yet. The NHL season had yet to begun. But it was the 1st season of the American Professional Football Association, which became the NFL in 1922, and these games were played:

* The Rochester Jeffersons beat the Syracuse Stars, 21-7 at the Bay Street Ball Grounds in Rochester, New York.

* The Buffalo All-Americans beat the Toledo Maroons, 38-0 at Olympic Park in Buffalo.

* The Akron Pros beat the Cleveland Tigers, 7-0 at League Park in Akron, Ohio.

* The Dayton Triangles and the Canton Bulldogs played to a tie, 20-20 at Triangle Park in Dayton, Ohio.

* The Detroit Heralds beat the Columbus Panhandles, 6-0 at Navin Field in Detroit. That ballpark was renamed Briggs Stadium in 1938 and Tiger Stadium in 1961.

* The Decatur Staleys beat the Chicago Tigers, 10-0 at Cubs Park in Chicago. That ballpark was renamed Wrigley Field in 1926.

* The Rock Island Independents beat the Chicago Cardinals, 7-0 at Douglas Park in Rock Island, Illinois.

Of all these teams, only 2 are still in existence: The Decatur Staleys became the Chicago Staleys in 1921, and the Chicago Bears in 1922; while the Chicago Cardinals became the St. Louis Cardinals in 1960, the Phoenix Cardinals in 1988, and the Arizona Cardinals in 1994.