Philo Vance is a fictional character featured in numerous crime novels written by S. S. Van Dine published in the 1920s and 1930s, and who was later revived on radio and in film and television. During that time, Vance was immensely popular. He was portrayed as a stylish, even foppish, dandy, a New York bon vivant with a highly intellectual bent—America's Sherlock Holmes. He worked closely with his secretary and right-hand woman, Ellen Deering, and his pal John Markham, New York County district attorney—not that Vance needed any help solving a crime.