tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-17665579133480452472024-03-15T18:10:05.352-07:00MarkingsAn occasional thought-diary with thanks to Dag Hammarskjold for his own inspiring "Markings"Altamonthttp://www.blogger.com/profile/07487675562905937401noreply@blogger.comBlogger127125tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1766557913348045247.post-43907239318504002142022-06-06T18:07:00.000-07:002022-06-06T18:07:49.557-07:00Richard Gordon as Sherlock Holmes on Stage.<p> </p><table align="center" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><tbody><tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjzysVz93sNnM73F4r3EL2LACigStV7zup7EeI3qg3EtXxby_GPqN-qV4o-JWQLz8aRUp7uc7uAKE94zIRBSZmThwFK_kW9agQ1is2FitRtmp3StUf23V7DVykjwI6ZbHluxZ7PXGRci_QcYPnsK2AcldRLzWmclW_qd6-0SLB80E6gUfbvzaTXZam7/s761/RG%201931.JPG" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" data-original-height="761" data-original-width="385" height="400" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjzysVz93sNnM73F4r3EL2LACigStV7zup7EeI3qg3EtXxby_GPqN-qV4o-JWQLz8aRUp7uc7uAKE94zIRBSZmThwFK_kW9agQ1is2FitRtmp3StUf23V7DVykjwI6ZbHluxZ7PXGRci_QcYPnsK2AcldRLzWmclW_qd6-0SLB80E6gUfbvzaTXZam7/w203-h400/RG%201931.JPG" width="203" /></a></td></tr><tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">[Evening Star, Washington, October 31, 1931]</td></tr></tbody></table><br /><span style="font-family: verdana; font-size: medium;">Richard Gordon was 48 years old in 1930, the year he began to play Sherlock Holmes on radio, with another established stage actor, Leigh Lovell, as his Watson. Apart from this celebrated radio series and a screen appearance in "The Radio Murder Mystery" (1933) as 'Sherlock Holmes of the Air', it is not generally known that Gordon played the Great Detective more than once on stage.</span><p></p><p><span style="font-family: verdana; font-size: medium;"><b>"THE MAZARIN STONE" - 21 JULY, 1933.</b></span></p><p><span style="font-family: verdana; font-size: medium;"></span></p><table align="center" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><tbody><tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEg7Jq_1q1mE3sGZZZSw4ddesKMb23oPMUbnwKT1nZnJeaCY9Vx72Nt0DP7ANzXVV-hXDsFep3fCp2ry-QW-VD-TpR3pMsnLhuHj4EID8BauAbuoHFp9K39Nzst3uv2mTtjKiIEY3NaMjAy0DBTcfpj-pf7_9Xv22XRq7rs-MHw6MdgL5mi2UFIFky_E/s747/loew's%20fox.JPG" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" data-original-height="747" data-original-width="635" height="320" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEg7Jq_1q1mE3sGZZZSw4ddesKMb23oPMUbnwKT1nZnJeaCY9Vx72Nt0DP7ANzXVV-hXDsFep3fCp2ry-QW-VD-TpR3pMsnLhuHj4EID8BauAbuoHFp9K39Nzst3uv2mTtjKiIEY3NaMjAy0DBTcfpj-pf7_9Xv22XRq7rs-MHw6MdgL5mi2UFIFky_E/s320/loew's%20fox.JPG" width="272" /></a></td></tr><tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">[Evening Star, Washington, 20 July, 1933]</td></tr></tbody></table><span style="font-family: verdana; font-size: medium;"><br /><b><br /></b></span><p></p><p><span style="font-family: verdana; font-size: medium;">Loew's Fox Theatre, Washington, opened in 1927 and was renamed Loew's Capitol Theatre in 1936. On Friday, 21 July, 1933, audiences were offered both screen and live stage in a joint programme. Helen Twelvetrees 'Disgraced' herself with Bruce Cabot in the film. On stage, as part of the live entertainment, Richard Gordon appeared as Holmes with Lovell as Watson in <i>"The Mazarin Stone". </i>Washington's <i>Evening Star</i> described the performance:</span></p><p></p><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjQzqUoV23AzjlhJExscrWQN5vd3T2ikad47z5lwuour_f41-POdxqFxqzwJ2ix87KhZo22tgIqXJqwWkyqdeQUiAlKOzpfrMSX1ijA52Wxhn1mPQYDifj2oie0TR1NcKiqyBmYaljRClrlQ0lQZxmlT6Ov2vbmt8AzVDhCr6Iuc1__9u53sYm44xJ-/s640/loew's%20fox2.JPG" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="495" data-original-width="640" height="248" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjQzqUoV23AzjlhJExscrWQN5vd3T2ikad47z5lwuour_f41-POdxqFxqzwJ2ix87KhZo22tgIqXJqwWkyqdeQUiAlKOzpfrMSX1ijA52Wxhn1mPQYDifj2oie0TR1NcKiqyBmYaljRClrlQ0lQZxmlT6Ov2vbmt8AzVDhCr6Iuc1__9u53sYm44xJ-/s320/loew's%20fox2.JPG" width="320" /></a></div><br /><span style="font-family: verdana; font-size: medium;"><br /></span><p></p><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgyRPw-GuTKvyEhMWYgg1ZGm9zPiMKr4grcM0NCBpgxWYhBk9q0DXSZZKPYg5WQ1NaSirIEpOUHzWK0NacBZssdHE7fHp4TleaN1alMHnVsI3s-1qj3SdUx79YsqOaMKP5I7PUukWCNB74lWgc7IwComvXJeppoxovl-1CQunT4HnkZDIjkKHdjFtlo/s638/loew's%20fox3.JPG" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="247" data-original-width="638" height="124" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgyRPw-GuTKvyEhMWYgg1ZGm9zPiMKr4grcM0NCBpgxWYhBk9q0DXSZZKPYg5WQ1NaSirIEpOUHzWK0NacBZssdHE7fHp4TleaN1alMHnVsI3s-1qj3SdUx79YsqOaMKP5I7PUukWCNB74lWgc7IwComvXJeppoxovl-1CQunT4HnkZDIjkKHdjFtlo/s320/loew's%20fox3.JPG" width="320" /></a></div><span style="font-family: verdana; font-size: medium;">The event had been heralded on the 19th in the same newspaper with a superb sketch of Gordon as Holmes by Newman Sudduth:</span><div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEj20rtbl_BQpzocuOf2HQcLy14h5kd5UXdXVDtITduNvE6Mr4UH8iIcEPkY3nrvYDVJjY1f_VzcUEZNReB2mE4qU0pqSuKWaBd7f3DVSoLamw8b1emsHHJl3PtfJG_nrGOuHx9yvYuaRUVNV904DLMjG0vQsqV982omtedxbdbUszB_wIz9loYDY05e/s483/loew's%20fox4.JPG" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="469" data-original-width="483" height="311" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEj20rtbl_BQpzocuOf2HQcLy14h5kd5UXdXVDtITduNvE6Mr4UH8iIcEPkY3nrvYDVJjY1f_VzcUEZNReB2mE4qU0pqSuKWaBd7f3DVSoLamw8b1emsHHJl3PtfJG_nrGOuHx9yvYuaRUVNV904DLMjG0vQsqV982omtedxbdbUszB_wIz9loYDY05e/s320/loew's%20fox4.JPG" width="320" /></a></div><br /><span style="font-family: verdana; font-size: medium;"><b>"THE SIGN OF THE FOUR" JULY 8-13, 1907.</b></span></div><div><span style="font-family: verdana; font-size: medium;">Richard Gordon was 25 years old in 1907 when he performed as leading man for Sylvester Poli's Own Stock company at the Jacques Theater in Waterbury, CT. This was home country for the young actor, born 30 miles away in Bridgeport in October, 1882. His real name was George Gerbich, son of Mr. & Mrs. John G. Gerbich. Perhaps there were Gerbich family members in the audience when the local-lad-made-good took possession of 221B.</span></div><div><span style="font-family: verdana; font-size: medium;"><br /></span></div><div><span style="font-family: verdana; font-size: medium;">The <i>Waterbury evening Democrat </i>previewed SIGN on the 6th and 8th, reviewing on July 10 and 12. Here is the block advertisement:</span></div><div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjq8bW8lBul-shqRdowx4MzlUm58W2AcePJXIYC69Wnf8uSAhAyfqWhAd2QJxVO2IX9Y_0w2UQrAhL1LhyMVPRKFEO6v3ZWgw6FVe1ad6XVO2NKDEstoSdtDTnG16vdgmCr5Des2xah6eiXg5n_9C4ooDRqV66T005MpQQii4HNRkCWjjhl2GjahsFl/s402/sign.JPG" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="402" data-original-width="345" height="320" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjq8bW8lBul-shqRdowx4MzlUm58W2AcePJXIYC69Wnf8uSAhAyfqWhAd2QJxVO2IX9Y_0w2UQrAhL1LhyMVPRKFEO6v3ZWgw6FVe1ad6XVO2NKDEstoSdtDTnG16vdgmCr5Des2xah6eiXg5n_9C4ooDRqV66T005MpQQii4HNRkCWjjhl2GjahsFl/s320/sign.JPG" width="275" /></a></div><br /><span style="font-family: verdana; font-size: medium;">Here is the review of 10 July:</span></div><div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjPJLQNvqfxCOJIrCsxDtZF3TyxsmrphVqMdcoTIsqENUTFicHpb4MNKmEgh_HebBRssjyeYltu-2JLOciS-RTtkGbNSKYaE72DNaS4xOQVbNzTs7kcnqPoB4cJuXbytRxwNBHIkuAsNzi4ZiePgsWzOx9dt0AlOdn3K51yZq-RE8Q5vJoPBr7zBiLr/s755/sign2.JPG" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="755" data-original-width="326" height="640" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjPJLQNvqfxCOJIrCsxDtZF3TyxsmrphVqMdcoTIsqENUTFicHpb4MNKmEgh_HebBRssjyeYltu-2JLOciS-RTtkGbNSKYaE72DNaS4xOQVbNzTs7kcnqPoB4cJuXbytRxwNBHIkuAsNzi4ZiePgsWzOx9dt0AlOdn3K51yZq-RE8Q5vJoPBr7zBiLr/w277-h640/sign2.JPG" width="277" /></a></div><br /><span style="font-family: verdana; font-size: medium;">Unfortunately, this newspaper did not run to a photograph, but here is Richard Gordon just two months later, playing Frederick Ossian in "The Butterflies" for Poli's Own Stock company at the Bijou:</span></div><div><table align="center" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><tbody><tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgYuWJWUEoXW6Y5-lsleaLsSS2t8yz7Upl6UWsUYzt6G-O7mV6q9aEXWlGTUf6qMN1hBP_5OTP32MqITz7F6fc33lEfJajhm5jgRg9CqNuwpk7xq6i2skFot8o-nUWfk5kGWFXkxqHac43p5885gyZYnNAH3hzqEuc-yjmW7c2Yzx8Xyxv1ikhGJa8Z/s536/bijou.JPG" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" data-original-height="536" data-original-width="332" height="400" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgYuWJWUEoXW6Y5-lsleaLsSS2t8yz7Upl6UWsUYzt6G-O7mV6q9aEXWlGTUf6qMN1hBP_5OTP32MqITz7F6fc33lEfJajhm5jgRg9CqNuwpk7xq6i2skFot8o-nUWfk5kGWFXkxqHac43p5885gyZYnNAH3hzqEuc-yjmW7c2Yzx8Xyxv1ikhGJa8Z/w248-h400/bijou.JPG" width="248" /></a></td></tr><tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">[Daily Morning Journal & Courier, 21 September, 1907]</td></tr></tbody></table><br /><span style="font-family: verdana; font-size: medium;"><b>OTHER PERFORMANCES.</b></span></div><div><span style="font-family: verdana; font-size: medium;"><b><br /></b></span></div><div><span style="font-family: verdana; font-size: medium;">Late in my research of Gordon's stage career, I came across some relevant extracts on Google Books from Ian Dickerson's <i>"Sherlock Holmes and his Adventures on American Radio" (2019).</i></span></div><div><span style="font-family: verdana; font-size: medium;"><i><br /></i></span></div><div><span style="font-family: verdana; font-size: medium;">Dickerson is very informative about Gordon's early days. At 16 he worked a while reporting for the <i>Bridgeport Morning Union, </i>before enrolling at Yale Art School in New York, and thence to the American Academy of Dramatic Art, graduating in 1902. Eventually, from Owen Moore's Stock Company, he joined Poli's in 1906 as leading man. He served as First Lieutenant during the First World War and returned to the theatre, often touring with his wife, actress, Emily Ann Wellman.</span></div><div><span style="font-family: verdana; font-size: medium;"><br /></span></div><div><span style="font-family: verdana; font-size: medium;">Importantly, Dickerson remarks, having mentioned Gordon's Poli Sherlock: <i>"As his career progressed he was to play Holmes on stage another half dozen times." </i>I have not been able to track down these other productions. Most likely they are noted by Gordon himself in the Richard Gordon Diaries 1908-1940 held in the Department of Special Collections at Stanford University Libraries. There are seven, each listing theatre engagements. Perhaps Dickerson has read these.</span></div><div><span style="font-family: verdana; font-size: medium;"><br /></span></div><div><span style="font-family: verdana; font-size: medium;">In conclusion, I should be delighted to receive any further information about Richard Gordon's elusive stage appearances as Sherlock Holmes.</span></div><div><span style="font-family: verdana; font-size: medium;"><br /></span></div><div><span style="background-color: white; font-family: verdana; font-size: 13.2px;"> </span><b style="background-color: white; color: #4d5156; font-family: Arial, Tahoma, Helvetica, FreeSans, sans-serif; font-size: 14px;">©RAYWILCOCKSON 2022.</b><span style="font-family: verdana; font-size: medium;"><br /><br /></span></div><div><span style="font-family: verdana; font-size: medium;"><br /></span></div><div><span style="font-family: verdana; font-size: medium;"><br /></span></div>Altamonthttp://www.blogger.com/profile/07487675562905937401noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1766557913348045247.post-60498427078565513472022-05-13T19:02:00.002-07:002022-05-14T02:30:19.059-07:00Sherlock Holmes and the Crippen Musical.<p> </p><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgiGSh5M3QjZbVFIPDevD_Naae6uHWMt4HlfFlIhm9VP7VwK2ulSd9s7MbmOn6K-Aq9t3l9uFs31gnIIhC78Xz2TkabanbzK0PnIgqh8RgLcyqkefEd2YP_VSywPPBCmwe5yT44bWdV5KW0Y4FnG-4yHWeZIhNmwUZjSsvF_4yRxsvuKVe5kux7GNAu/s393/belle-or-the-ballad-of-dr-crippen-q0b1cdyp.uis.jpg" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="393" data-original-width="393" height="400" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgiGSh5M3QjZbVFIPDevD_Naae6uHWMt4HlfFlIhm9VP7VwK2ulSd9s7MbmOn6K-Aq9t3l9uFs31gnIIhC78Xz2TkabanbzK0PnIgqh8RgLcyqkefEd2YP_VSywPPBCmwe5yT44bWdV5KW0Y4FnG-4yHWeZIhNmwUZjSsvF_4yRxsvuKVe5kux7GNAu/w400-h400/belle-or-the-ballad-of-dr-crippen-q0b1cdyp.uis.jpg" width="400" /></a></div><br /><p></p><p> <span style="font-family: verdana;"><b><i>"When a doctor does go wrong, he is the first of criminals". </i>[Sherlock Holmes, "The Speckled Band"]</b></span></p><p><span style="font-family: verdana;"><b><br /></b></span></p><p><span style="font-family: verdana;">In 1910, three striking examples of doctors gone wrong were before the British public, two literary and one real: Drs. Jekyll, Rylott and Crippen. For the first two the Queen's and the Adelphi provided the stage; for the last, the equally dramatic arena of the Old Bailey. Half a century later, the murderer of Corrine ('Cora') Henrietta Crippen, <i>aka </i>'Belle Elmore', music hall singer, trod the boards anew in <i>"Belle; or the Ballad of Dr. Crippen",</i> Wolf Mankowitz's short-lived, controversial, oddball cocktail of a musical, that remixed the historical events with music and lyrics by Monty Norman, set it in the Bedford Music Hall of 1910, and served it with a Master of Ceremonies and a splash of Sherlock Holmes for good measure.</span></p><p><span style="font-family: verdana;"><b>Background - The Three Doctors of 1910.</b></span></p><p><span style="font-family: verdana;">Mrs. Crippen disappeared after a party at home in Hilldrop Crescent, on 31 January, 1910, five days after the opening of a new stage version of Stevenson's novel, <i>"Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde" </i>at the Queen's, with H. B. Irving (Sir Henry's son) in the title role. A resounding success, Irving was still touring the play through Crippen's October trial to the end of the year. Gilbert Holiday's drawing for <i>The Graphic </i>of 5 February, 1910, was used for the Queen's poster and best captures the public's elemental fear of a doctor's potential to commit evil. Holiday draws what is impossible on any stage but that of the imagination: <i>both </i>beings side by side.</span></p><p></p><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjZ_6QgRcoxNYRGfri3dKXlDU4PxyKC29heHfM4ZRkXrX9VWXBFGCsVrBcTjA4l37VKeyQMdq3LtHK8KmN1zhHO1-1SonVszsyjMCc6PagD2Jix6B4L7XRgSaiJKihNZn1YsrHfAcDsw_TB4oMQ2o8kW0Yrrt2LweE_vKx8SRsijj2ByaGVt82kfJAj/s1280/j%20and%20h%20queen's%20poster.jpg" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="1280" data-original-width="826" height="400" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjZ_6QgRcoxNYRGfri3dKXlDU4PxyKC29heHfM4ZRkXrX9VWXBFGCsVrBcTjA4l37VKeyQMdq3LtHK8KmN1zhHO1-1SonVszsyjMCc6PagD2Jix6B4L7XRgSaiJKihNZn1YsrHfAcDsw_TB4oMQ2o8kW0Yrrt2LweE_vKx8SRsijj2ByaGVt82kfJAj/w259-h400/j%20and%20h%20queen's%20poster.jpg" width="259" /></a></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><br /></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><br /></div><span style="font-family: verdana;">In late February, Wrench Film released a 2-reel short called <i>"The Duality of Man", </i>in cinemas from March. It is believed Irving directed it himself and likely focused on the stage's transformation scenes. </span><p></p><p><span style="font-family: verdana;">By the time Crippen and his lover were arrested on board the <i>Montrose </i>on July 31, 1910, Lyn Harding had created a defining characterisation of Conan Doyle's doctor gone wrong. Since June 4, the Adelphi's production of <i>"The Speckled Band"</i> had swelled both the bank balance of its author and Harding's reputation. Many others would play <i>Dr. Grimesby Rylott</i> with variable success, but all standing on the shoulders of Harding's barnstorming performance that ensured the role often appeared <i>above </i>that of <i>Sherlock Holmes </i>in news advertisements.</span></p><p><span style="font-family: verdana;">Again, it was <i>The Graphic </i>that caught the horrific duality, this time by pairing actor and character side by side, in its article on the 1921 revival.</span></p><p><span style="font-family: verdana;"></span></p><table align="center" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><tbody><tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEix6E3mGunvLWZ1-YxJfhN19bDA2z8LoiKYkVJM8FsLxSqckbqcOS2Q9V0Sb45OhY3gUf6uFnBoWibn8RmMFF31FALbUyH1yWiTkx4spRgKy2Fd4RiwviEvv4Aqzv0ppifP1jS2vvMq3nmp9B50TDv8mY-RwmUJBKIxxg5BzfQfgm2znsNbBQ-0NT6H/s656/The-graphic-1921-10-29-p14-producing-a-play-photo.jpg" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" data-original-height="555" data-original-width="656" height="271" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEix6E3mGunvLWZ1-YxJfhN19bDA2z8LoiKYkVJM8FsLxSqckbqcOS2Q9V0Sb45OhY3gUf6uFnBoWibn8RmMFF31FALbUyH1yWiTkx4spRgKy2Fd4RiwviEvv4Aqzv0ppifP1jS2vvMq3nmp9B50TDv8mY-RwmUJBKIxxg5BzfQfgm2znsNbBQ-0NT6H/s320/The-graphic-1921-10-29-p14-producing-a-play-photo.jpg" width="320" /></a></td></tr><tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">The Graphic 29 October 1921<br /><br /><br /></td></tr></tbody></table><span style="font-family: verdana;"><br /> By the time of the trial in October, public fascination had reached fever pitch, with newspapers vying to meet an insatiable thirst for pictures and tasty morsels about even the most peripheral figures in the saga of chase, capture and arraignment. In keeping with the victim's profession, there was a strong theatrical thread to the Crippen case. When arrested, the couple were in disguise, Le Neve as a boy.</span><p></p><p></p><table align="center" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><tbody><tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjpCfRuV-wDqUVz2nBrafasyIU7qZ5_8-B1KJAD66VKCghHUr4EyHm9DjShYs2Sj_ETmO8hEBFE9migYQiPMSIvknX4e15H3QSLrFz88-kYih4nNh16Y5vif9Cet3g_UmcNOeJb2wY_Dd4pRRO00FOJsR1_tIjra6MjP0GoUfSlZLevLJT5WU0I6j6o/s1440/all%203.jpg" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" data-original-height="1440" data-original-width="1440" height="320" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjpCfRuV-wDqUVz2nBrafasyIU7qZ5_8-B1KJAD66VKCghHUr4EyHm9DjShYs2Sj_ETmO8hEBFE9migYQiPMSIvknX4e15H3QSLrFz88-kYih4nNh16Y5vif9Cet3g_UmcNOeJb2wY_Dd4pRRO00FOJsR1_tIjra6MjP0GoUfSlZLevLJT5WU0I6j6o/s320/all%203.jpg" width="320" /></a></td></tr><tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Belle - Crippen - Le Neve</td></tr></tbody></table><br /><span style="font-family: verdana;"><br />To facilitate a quiet return to British shores, the prisoners were given pseudonyms and the arresting officer from Scotland Yard, Chief Inspector Dew, assumed the name <i>'Doyle' </i>(modestly <i><b>not </b>'Sherlock'</i>). Speaking of whom...</span><div><span style="font-family: verdana;"><br /></span></div><div><span style="font-family: verdana;">Passes for the public gallery of the Central Criminal Court were like gold dust in October, 1910. Sir Arthur Conan Doyle got one courtesy one of the lawyers; and H. B. Irving attended every day, both listening with rapt attention to the proceedings. Along with Doyle, Irving was a founder member of <i>Our Society </i>(1903), whose members met (still meet) to discuss all matters criminal. Irving had a professional interest, not so much as an actor but as a trained barrister called to the bar at the Inner Temple in 1894. While he eventually opted for the stage, upon retirement during the Great War, he settled to writing about crime with legal expertise. </span></div><div><span style="font-family: verdana;"><br /></span></div><div><span style="font-family: verdana;">Our cast is assembled: author, performer and perpetrator of doctors' crimes. Not surprising reports of the trial sometimes sounded like theatrical reviews. Witness this <i>Tit-Bit of the Week </i>in the Bradford Weekly Telegraph:</span></div><div><span style="font-family: verdana;"><br /></span></div><div><span style="font-family: verdana;"><table align="center" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><tbody><tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEj-659ZKopOJdikYy1Pxjsev_mPZNMdUbdm466OCFkLS9Hy1yTa4pGTsaIujvsd3u_49H4dv--unDK70LOHuufHBH3IXduiNrbYz8oI1G4bzA7yRpCIahQguPz2NbYLBZxtT77SBJBva7TFyNAQZTS4ylL9SGn1HEKJ4Wbahk6VXXgVdWQhNsnJI23M/s573/dew.JPG" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" data-original-height="573" data-original-width="499" height="400" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEj-659ZKopOJdikYy1Pxjsev_mPZNMdUbdm466OCFkLS9Hy1yTa4pGTsaIujvsd3u_49H4dv--unDK70LOHuufHBH3IXduiNrbYz8oI1G4bzA7yRpCIahQguPz2NbYLBZxtT77SBJBva7TFyNAQZTS4ylL9SGn1HEKJ4Wbahk6VXXgVdWQhNsnJI23M/w349-h400/dew.JPG" width="349" /></a></td></tr><tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Bradford Weekly Telegraph 21 October, 1910<br /><br /></td></tr></tbody></table><b><br /></b></span></div><div><span style="font-family: verdana;"><b>Sherlock Holmes and the Crippen Musical 1961.</b></span></div><div><span style="font-family: verdana;"><b><br /></b></span></div><div><span style="font-family: verdana;">The musical in two acts that opened at the Strand Theatre, London, on 4 May, 1961, was originally a play script by Beverley Cross intended for Nottingham Playhouse. Wolf Mankowitz transmuted it into something too large for that stage and it premiered in a week-long run at the King's, Southsea (April 10), moved to Brighton's Theatre Royal (April 17 for a fortnight) and so to the Strand. It was withdrawn on June 10 after 44 performances. See <a href="http://www.guidetomusicaltheatre.com/shows_b/belle.htm" target="_blank"><span style="color: #3d85c6;">The Guide to Musical Theatre</span></a> for <i>dramatis personae </i>and music numbers. <i>The Stage </i>listed the first night cast on 13 April:</span></div><div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEin-YPu1A65LXMBMOduMeslyyTlIpauQJp1_EY3uSldNOyNjrlGOg4TQmP6mtdooFouSHvQn-C3Lz9xXpowGlU50j3_xDny0Mk6j4iYh39_dmlFj5CuWtrSGP3l4DKtxPpojkEQxNxScHI00MGq8y_ptaVz3aZ3ZfRCkHVvUrgXAvRBqvESCDJfCLnW/s666/cast.JPG" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="666" data-original-width="386" height="400" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEin-YPu1A65LXMBMOduMeslyyTlIpauQJp1_EY3uSldNOyNjrlGOg4TQmP6mtdooFouSHvQn-C3Lz9xXpowGlU50j3_xDny0Mk6j4iYh39_dmlFj5CuWtrSGP3l4DKtxPpojkEQxNxScHI00MGq8y_ptaVz3aZ3ZfRCkHVvUrgXAvRBqvESCDJfCLnW/w231-h400/cast.JPG" width="231" /></a></div><br /><span style="font-family: verdana;">Of relevance here are the characters <i>'George Lasher'</i> and <i>'Mighty Mick', </i>played respectively by Jerry Desmonde and Davy Kaye. Desmonde parodies the elegance of the real-life Edwardian singer and comedian, George Lashwood, acting as MC and narrator throughout, as well as appearing in a variety of guises, including Sherlock Holmes. Kaye's Mighty Mick is resident comedian at the show's internal theatre, the Bedford Music Hall, chosen because Belle Elmore often performed there. He too flits from costume to costume, including Sherlock Holmes. Jeff Vickers photographed them for <i>The Tatler </i>on 24 May, 1961 (Desmonde behind the diminutive Kaye):</span></div><div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgyxur_bNcJJMPaUB4yV73-excmqEXPFiHc7GpkHNQDpWcejcbyudruzE8r-_aJ8MmIxT6eyytzAkhJc2OZ2mW4q5F2zhFDZWsXTklugms-hIw2yf__IyIHrQeoYe7BMShz9tflb6Tf6kcoJsmsrr52SXP7asQTbxIiHf5tTgOvtdA_mHaq3zIfzpm0/s596/two%20sherlocks.JPG" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="596" data-original-width="539" height="400" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgyxur_bNcJJMPaUB4yV73-excmqEXPFiHc7GpkHNQDpWcejcbyudruzE8r-_aJ8MmIxT6eyytzAkhJc2OZ2mW4q5F2zhFDZWsXTklugms-hIw2yf__IyIHrQeoYe7BMShz9tflb6Tf6kcoJsmsrr52SXP7asQTbxIiHf5tTgOvtdA_mHaq3zIfzpm0/w361-h400/two%20sherlocks.JPG" width="361" /></a></div><br /><span style="font-family: verdana;">On 11 May, 1961, <i>The Stage</i> published R. B. Marriott's favourable review, including a close-up of Davy Kaye, clipped from the Vickers photo and this paragraph on our two Holmeses:</span></div><div><span style="font-family: verdana;"><br /></span></div><div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEijjGdV3xX3f7xYEPWvLhBtQwxl4PgsdjgwSU3gQXI_U3fMFxOhZrA2doB4NsbTSl4F625PyecErT20ZhqW0cQkiLz6xe4dSspCBdVqiqlWB_Ej5kUSRuwEaXsjqpu9ctG3AB6llNU71-noXxPprdlPq0Z3dzrLSu3Y2N8eCSmdg7hbacLQjLY6Ciwd/s593/review.JPG" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="321" data-original-width="593" height="216" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEijjGdV3xX3f7xYEPWvLhBtQwxl4PgsdjgwSU3gQXI_U3fMFxOhZrA2doB4NsbTSl4F625PyecErT20ZhqW0cQkiLz6xe4dSspCBdVqiqlWB_Ej5kUSRuwEaXsjqpu9ctG3AB6llNU71-noXxPprdlPq0Z3dzrLSu3Y2N8eCSmdg7hbacLQjLY6Ciwd/w400-h216/review.JPG" width="400" /></a></div><br /><span style="font-family: verdana;">By contrast, writing in the <i>Birmingham Post </i>on 5 May, J. C. Trewin slammed the production, taking issue with the inappropriate subject for musical comedy and noting a bit of detective business:</span></div><div><span style="font-family: verdana;"><br /></span></div><div><span style="font-family: verdana;"><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEg1egnfdCSP6AAFtscxs-kr-zfYgq1XLwfa1hRVePT6iPtOMdVSpeCjhHFzakdLgziHPL3e43kveZTARILwg7FPAyzPh78k6Q2Sq1frZhNSVhmu8raj8KIuwjL_P44F3_Vf_E9tOYlGCo5SeIZPVbwjyl_K7t833EG2Ax1DAvjM4FD6bsi2GFuAbixk/s746/trewin.JPG" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="470" data-original-width="746" height="253" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEg1egnfdCSP6AAFtscxs-kr-zfYgq1XLwfa1hRVePT6iPtOMdVSpeCjhHFzakdLgziHPL3e43kveZTARILwg7FPAyzPh78k6Q2Sq1frZhNSVhmu8raj8KIuwjL_P44F3_Vf_E9tOYlGCo5SeIZPVbwjyl_K7t833EG2Ax1DAvjM4FD6bsi2GFuAbixk/w400-h253/trewin.JPG" width="400" /></a></div><br /> Reviewing the Brighton try-out on 21 April, the <i>Sussex Agricultural Review</i> was more enthusiastic and praised the two comedians:</span></div><div><span style="font-family: verdana;"><i><br /></i></span></div><div><span style="font-family: verdana;"><i><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhSPyMeVhwmIHRGq1XosVh70sfTWsVVUdquyY6zOhLY4TGB5LxvC_Axf8sskROw3EbkOVT1AusNOLhM7lL6t2GBXGFlczrG8al9tmEzNdayQSJX9nYQDrGJajww57V4mRiVP2EnZqV97quyPPoPQ6pDU9SN06l-A5oRCwqHXk9ZYv08f0YIvtFOyjPc/s561/review2.JPG" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="561" data-original-width="545" height="400" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhSPyMeVhwmIHRGq1XosVh70sfTWsVVUdquyY6zOhLY4TGB5LxvC_Axf8sskROw3EbkOVT1AusNOLhM7lL6t2GBXGFlczrG8al9tmEzNdayQSJX9nYQDrGJajww57V4mRiVP2EnZqV97quyPPoPQ6pDU9SN06l-A5oRCwqHXk9ZYv08f0YIvtFOyjPc/w389-h400/review2.JPG" width="389" /></a></div><br /> </i></span></div><div><span style="font-family: verdana;"> With regard to the extent of Sherlockian content, I detect no overt reference to the detective in the songs which may be listened to on Youtube here: <a href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=dT0WHzKM2Us&list=PLhx2akBFqci1XDQ-Ha444f6bKsBrNpRSR&index=2" target="_blank"><span style="color: #3d85c6;">The Songs</span></a> </span></div><div><span style="font-family: verdana;">though the libretto must surely invoke Sherlock Holmes.</span></div><div><span style="font-family: verdana;"><br /></span></div><div><span style="font-family: verdana;">Mankowitz was convinced unwarranted adverse criticism had driven the production off stage, losing him £20,000, and immediately proceeded to prepare a 55-minute version (filmed on stage) for ITV which was broadcast as the <i>Big Night Out </i>attraction on 12 August, 1961. Both Desmonde and Kaye featured.</span></div><div><span style="font-family: verdana;"><br /></span></div><div><span style="font-family: verdana;"><b>Intermission - 1967</b>.</span></div><div><span style="font-family: verdana;"><br /></span></div><div><table align="center" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><tbody><tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgw-z8EBTd9DjO0j1zocVjN9-AQJ2OxnJegHlQGLvElfGep4Bkrbd9jwT2y-lAqHXTPt29adwTbwvpNmL3f0-pAEm2gZVREyQ1TlQvb_-04hjzWCcMfBK8lvP1JBV4zBqtRRYB5wA1ukzYkOhEPH8TggJWXu33ipllO9kF_P8xOzjmEYUr7i-XJ1ipC/s594/bedford-music-hall-in-1949.jpg" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" data-original-height="594" data-original-width="478" height="400" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgw-z8EBTd9DjO0j1zocVjN9-AQJ2OxnJegHlQGLvElfGep4Bkrbd9jwT2y-lAqHXTPt29adwTbwvpNmL3f0-pAEm2gZVREyQ1TlQvb_-04hjzWCcMfBK8lvP1JBV4zBqtRRYB5wA1ukzYkOhEPH8TggJWXu33ipllO9kF_P8xOzjmEYUr7i-XJ1ipC/w323-h400/bedford-music-hall-in-1949.jpg" width="323" /></a></td></tr><tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">The Bedford Theatre in 1949</td></tr></tbody></table><br /><span style="font-family: verdana;"><br /></span></div><div><span style="font-family: verdana;">Following the televised version (and failed attempts by Mankowitz to interest Broadway producers), <i>Belle; or the Ballad of Dr. Crippen </i>slipped into obscurity, mirroring the dark stage that was the old Bedford Music Hall. Having closed in 1959 it fell into disrepair and was finally demolished a decade later. But not before future John Watson, James Mason, paid a nostalgic visit (shod in impeccably shiny shoes) in the 60's cult classic <i>The London Nobody Knows </i>(1967). Mason makes no mention of the Mankowitz musical, though Belle Elmore is fleetingly referenced with grim humour as a possible theatre ghost. This atmospheric film may be viewed on Dailymotion here: <a href="https://www.dailymotion.com/video/x5h8w0m" target="_blank"><span style="color: #3d85c6;">The London Nobody Knows</span></a></span></div><div><span style="font-family: verdana;"><br /></span></div><div><span style="font-family: verdana;"><b>Three Revivals.</b></span></div><div><span style="font-family: verdana;"><b><br /></b></span></div><div><span style="font-family: verdana;">On 12-19 September, 1964, the Erith Playhouse, Erith, Kent, presented the musical with Harold Bull as George Lasher and Louis Cox as Mighty Mick:</span></div><div><table align="center" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><tbody><tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgra0vWnA3W66MMQydbAKKQQBu2OeojT4kHKHn5MOk2JN9OUhQCmIjEGN1TUbDqPg9QTHUQw6cR6z30jnglyylt-5p0T5vb6BDf6xZ9mLwnhT7OyMw6SrOj3Nr4a4FROFMgtbaqdMmOtofOcQjxMDyG3XADqdwdmJcNP5IxtAKkFZR4Oio4RvIv9VcZ/s880/belle1.jpg" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" data-original-height="880" data-original-width="587" height="400" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgra0vWnA3W66MMQydbAKKQQBu2OeojT4kHKHn5MOk2JN9OUhQCmIjEGN1TUbDqPg9QTHUQw6cR6z30jnglyylt-5p0T5vb6BDf6xZ9mLwnhT7OyMw6SrOj3Nr4a4FROFMgtbaqdMmOtofOcQjxMDyG3XADqdwdmJcNP5IxtAKkFZR4Oio4RvIv9VcZ/w266-h400/belle1.jpg" width="266" /></a></td></tr><tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Erith Playhouse 1964</td></tr></tbody></table><br /><span style="font-family: verdana;">From June 27 to July 12, 1980, the Tower Theatre, Canonbury, presented the musical with Dennis Adams as Lasher and Harry Lupino as Mick. Here is the record of production with just two cast photos:<span style="color: #3d85c6;"> <a href="https://www.archive.towertheatre.org.uk/plays/1980/p8012.htm" target="_blank"><span style="color: #3d85c6;">Tower Theatre</span></a></span><br /></span><p></p><p><span style="font-family: verdana;">As late as 2016, we find the Vale Royal Musical Theatre performing a few nights (16-18 March) with David 'Cantona' Lee and Garry Wallis as our comedians - though I am not sure which is Lasher or Mick. see the photo record on Facebook here: <a href="https://www.facebook.com/page/455866717917858/search/?q=crippen" target="_blank"><span style="color: #3d85c6;">Vale Production Photos</span></a></span></p><table align="center" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><tbody><tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjvH7aA68KxIbWTxLiLswTJt3N7jXpF4gCkju1p96i64nlvsUBS6jUWQFowORbtomlgKBkJmELO9xa2uiVLXynZgpWI-uBSeaDzeypHA0eQsZMgMLWNuDwBV5vt4kiZA8QhXyymt20y2NmSD6ES5pSGv0gK_2SXpz1o8B3AIleeATqFRLLUQRWVUiCt/s720/vale.jpg" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" data-original-height="540" data-original-width="720" height="300" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjvH7aA68KxIbWTxLiLswTJt3N7jXpF4gCkju1p96i64nlvsUBS6jUWQFowORbtomlgKBkJmELO9xa2uiVLXynZgpWI-uBSeaDzeypHA0eQsZMgMLWNuDwBV5vt4kiZA8QhXyymt20y2NmSD6ES5pSGv0gK_2SXpz1o8B3AIleeATqFRLLUQRWVUiCt/w400-h300/vale.jpg" width="400" /></a></td></tr><tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Vale Royal Musical Theatre 2016</td></tr></tbody></table><br /><p><span style="font-family: verdana;"><b>A Permanent Record 2022.</b></span></p><p><span style="font-family: verdana;">I timed this post to coincide with a remarkable milestone. The unique <i>A-Z of Sherlock Holmes Performers</i>, curated by Sherlock Holmes media expert, Howard Ostrom of Florida, is currently gliding past 8000 total entries. I've been delighted over the years to contribute to this ongoing <i>Magnum Opus </i>and, hopefully, Howard will find more grist in this post for his Sherlockian mill. The value of this collection is incalculable: with the help of ever-expanding, searchable news archives from around the world, the A-Z documents (usually with photographs) many a performance of the Great Detective that would otherwise (like those in <i>Belle</i>) languish in obscurity.</span></p><p><span style="font-family: verdana;"> </span><b style="color: #4d5156; font-size: 14px;">©RAYWILCOCKSON 2022.</b></p><p><span style="font-family: verdana;"><b><br /></b></span></p><p><span style="font-family: verdana;"><br /></span></p></div>Altamonthttp://www.blogger.com/profile/07487675562905937401noreply@blogger.com2tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1766557913348045247.post-41056946457826632012021-12-25T03:14:00.001-08:002021-12-25T03:14:28.911-08:00'Disjecta Membra' and "The Blue Carbuncle".<p> </p><table align="center" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><tbody><tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/a/AVvXsEgTVIxrtNSOY7HFzp8CsT15aRrkV3Hb51Op15RfwcZIeFfTnVE-hkYplK1vyNURenvlbS-e26NNKyPO2YBD0VLu_7STM_PGSjN3mbB45yx2FRRI-kuqYmiM1NpqV_cc-1OdDJ6piU2AJU853VmDOKFvEaXGeB_K9yKKUEdMymfV1dx1D6S23ZZJMXWy=s869" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" data-original-height="484" data-original-width="869" height="223" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/a/AVvXsEgTVIxrtNSOY7HFzp8CsT15aRrkV3Hb51Op15RfwcZIeFfTnVE-hkYplK1vyNURenvlbS-e26NNKyPO2YBD0VLu_7STM_PGSjN3mbB45yx2FRRI-kuqYmiM1NpqV_cc-1OdDJ6piU2AJU853VmDOKFvEaXGeB_K9yKKUEdMymfV1dx1D6S23ZZJMXWy=w400-h223" width="400" /></a></td></tr><tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">[4 am Christmas Day on the corner of Goodge Street & Tottenham Court Road]</td></tr></tbody></table><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><br /></div> <span style="font-family: verdana; font-size: medium;"><b>Christmas Morning, 1889.</b></span><div><br /></div><div> <span style="font-family: verdana;"><span style="font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">Had he not earlier encountered </span><span style="font-style: italic; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">“a little knot of roughs”</span><span style="font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"> on the way home from the Alpha Inn, Henry Baker and his wife would surely have been rendered speechless to find a blue diamond as she prepared their Christmas goose for the oven. Instead, having abandoned the goose with his hat in panic during the fracas, we must imagine a miserable household (with Henry likely in the doghouse) even as Commissionaire Peterson, his saviour, brings them to Sherlock Holmes </span><span style="font-style: italic; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">“knowing that even the smallest problems are of interest to me”</span><span style="font-size: 11pt; font-style: italic; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">.</span></span><p></p></div><div><span style="font-family: verdana;"><table align="center" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><tbody><tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/a/AVvXsEhJv7GHHbX9M1wdrj8aem9zH2oyTI4KvYXTRVCtrE_XLmrK_oSHl77cMYZDW43-QHrx2VEzGujwEzY-e-spFs4mkuP01k7JIywHaSb6xLaJLHfERRfVA_iW9b2DgmFpbXfp8oCiWslJEfXnVNohmynkgmsq3268zr-4TnA5cUaOSyyhL6xvVsoolv3n=s763" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" data-original-height="483" data-original-width="763" height="254" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/a/AVvXsEhJv7GHHbX9M1wdrj8aem9zH2oyTI4KvYXTRVCtrE_XLmrK_oSHl77cMYZDW43-QHrx2VEzGujwEzY-e-spFs4mkuP01k7JIywHaSb6xLaJLHfERRfVA_iW9b2DgmFpbXfp8oCiWslJEfXnVNohmynkgmsq3268zr-4TnA5cUaOSyyhL6xvVsoolv3n=w400-h254" width="400" /></a></td></tr><tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">[Christmas Morning "Presents" for Sherlock Holmes]</td></tr></tbody></table><br /></span></div><div><span id="docs-internal-guid-1123ba6a-7fff-9ae2-ec02-752cd5b4d8c2"><p dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.38; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;"><span style="font-family: verdana;"><span style="font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">The detective proceeds to occupy himself throughout Christmas and Boxing Day in deducing what he can of the anonymous owner, ironically in possession of the Countess of Morcar’s stolen Blue Carbuncle without knowing it.</span><span style="font-size: 11pt; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"> </span></span></p><br /><p dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.38; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;"><span style="font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"><span style="font-family: verdana; font-size: medium;"><b>Morning, 27 December, 1889.</b></span></span></p><br /><span style="font-family: verdana;"><span style="font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">By the time Dr. Watson calls on his friend two days after Christmas to wish him the compliments of the season, Holmes has, that morning, already returned the goose to its finder to eat before it goes off. Naturally enough, the hat repays close examination. By contrast, beyond noting a tag reading </span><span style="font-style: italic; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">“For Mrs. Henry Baker”</span><span style="font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">, attached to the bird’s left leg, Holmes gives the bird scant attention. Until Peterson bursts in on the pair with news of his wife’s discovery, the goose has provided only a name, a marital status, and (along with deductions from the hat), the notion of the bird as a peace-offering to a cold wife.</span></span></span></div><div><span><span style="font-family: verdana;"><span style="font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"><br /></span></span></span></div><div><span id="docs-internal-guid-31586dd1-7fff-18f5-3c92-1633cc5483cd"><p dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.38; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;"><span style="font-family: verdana;"><span style="font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">Galvanised into action, now in his element, Holmes is wryly amused to realise what lay undetected within such easy reach. Inviting Watson to dine at 7 pm, he comments </span><span style="font-style: italic; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">“There is a woodcock, I believe, By the way, in view of recent occurrences, perhaps I ought to ask Mrs. Hudson to examine its crop.”</span></span></p><br /><p dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.38; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;"><span style="font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; font-weight: 700; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"><span style="font-family: verdana; font-size: medium;">Disjecta Membra.</span></span></p><br /><span style="font-family: verdana;"><span style="font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">By the time Watson returns to Baker Street, Henry Baker has seen Holmes’ advert in the evening papers and the pair are shown up together. In the ensuing interview which serves to establish Baker knew nothing of the diamond, this </span><span style="font-style: italic; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">“man of learning and letters” </span><span style="font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">employs the quaint phrase </span><span style="font-style: italic; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">“disjecta membra” </span><span style="font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">to describe </span><span style="font-style: italic; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">“the feathers, legs, crop and so on” </span><span style="font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">Holmes says were retained,after eating the goose. This Latinate allusion is entirely appropriate from the lips of one who spends his days amid old books and manuscripts in the British Museum.</span></span><span style="font-family: Arial; font-size: 11pt; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"> </span><span style="font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"><span style="font-family: verdana;"> </span></span></span><span style="white-space: pre-wrap;"><span style="font-family: verdana;">It is essentially an academic joke from a man much relieved to know he has a fresh goose to take home that night.</span></span></div><div><span style="white-space: pre-wrap;"><span style="font-family: verdana;"><br /></span></span></div><span id="docs-internal-guid-4a9e011b-7fff-8669-ff9a-4ad796de3067"><table align="center" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><tbody><tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/a/AVvXsEh0S45-lBo6iZRbv21uI_5QTt1gFoydZRTJ8VJcQ0XwUcMGJNd6CFiyZKxCHf9cuTZ8igmJklOD8JYzhtwnw68p4ywp-trOV44JlZ3Mr7MCv6Z3f4E5yXwwhtC_kFGrX4uiwImjqUnyYATZ_93AJuDS_zeihWYyVYRTp1elLkGf4QZGbGd1sl7JvDDe=s1434" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" data-original-height="1078" data-original-width="1434" height="301" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/a/AVvXsEh0S45-lBo6iZRbv21uI_5QTt1gFoydZRTJ8VJcQ0XwUcMGJNd6CFiyZKxCHf9cuTZ8igmJklOD8JYzhtwnw68p4ywp-trOV44JlZ3Mr7MCv6Z3f4E5yXwwhtC_kFGrX4uiwImjqUnyYATZ_93AJuDS_zeihWYyVYRTp1elLkGf4QZGbGd1sl7JvDDe=w400-h301" width="400" /></a></td></tr><tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">[An Absolutely Innocent Man]</td></tr></tbody></table><br /><span style="font-family: verdana;"><div><br /></div></span><p dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.38; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;"><span style="font-family: verdana;"><span style="font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">Beyond economically characterising its speaker, this arresting, italicised phrase, aptly relates to the process of deduction and art of detection. Generally, we find it in two contexts: literature and pottery. Deriving from one of Horace’s satires, where he refers to scattered limbs, members, or remains, </span><span style="font-style: italic; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"> disjecta membra </span><span style="font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">has come to signify fragments of literary works which may be scattered to far-flung libraries and, with expertise, pieced back together to reconstruct the original manuscript. Much the same approach is applied in the study of (especially) ancient shards of vases and the like. </span></span></p><span style="font-family: verdana;"><br /></span><p dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.38; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;"><span style="font-family: verdana;"><span style="font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">The phrase would be familiar to the detective who was well versed in the study of Miracle Plays, 15th Century palimpsests, early English charters and medieval pottery, all of which provided practice in his chosen profession. He deduces Henry Baker from the clue-shards on his hat, pieces together the whole history of the Blue Carbuncle’s progress from Countess to crop, and reconstructs, from scattered remains, in every Canon case. And the reward for success? </span><span style="font-style: italic; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">The Blue Carbuncle of Solution</span><span style="font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"> hidden amid the </span><span style="font-style: italic; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">disjecta membra </span><span style="font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">he must ever ponder and re-unite.</span></span></p><p dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.38; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;"><span style="font-family: verdana;"><span style="font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"><br /></span></span></p><p dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.38; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;"><span style="font-family: verdana;"><table align="center" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><tbody><tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/a/AVvXsEjm-3HO-B7rGvAzbt_jfhYHeqM9acSqdwUS4ElPDURuheJomj_2N6CdENH7aCPZtbJlSQZ45LrntAQkkNMUk7PQx85kOx5H8smaVHgwXOtmHnqhYuV9rkZHBBFqUv0LrUJrRyaGyj3yKJ75Q5YLpUs82j14ixXuWOTFgbTfKkmFAJh5i5d_Yk5Ysum3=s711" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" data-original-height="711" data-original-width="550" height="400" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/a/AVvXsEjm-3HO-B7rGvAzbt_jfhYHeqM9acSqdwUS4ElPDURuheJomj_2N6CdENH7aCPZtbJlSQZ45LrntAQkkNMUk7PQx85kOx5H8smaVHgwXOtmHnqhYuV9rkZHBBFqUv0LrUJrRyaGyj3yKJ75Q5YLpUs82j14ixXuWOTFgbTfKkmFAJh5i5d_Yk5Ysum3=w310-h400" width="310" /></a></td></tr><tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">[The Blue Carbuncle of Solution]</td></tr></tbody></table><br /><span style="font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"><br /></span></span></p><p dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.38; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;"><span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 700; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"><span style="font-family: verdana; font-size: medium;">Mr. and Mrs. Baker.</span></span></p><p dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.38; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;"><b id="docs-internal-guid-3c923fc2-7fff-3e18-e81b-8515ddc799d9" style="font-weight: normal;"><br /></b></p><p dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.38; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;"><span style="font-family: verdana;"><span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 400; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">Apart from suggesting Henry Baker as a literary type, the notion of something disintegrating that was once whole and flourishing expands to include the man’s career and marriage. From inspection of his hat, Holmes conjures up an accurate portrait of one who </span><span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-style: italic; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 400; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">“has fallen upon evil days”</span><span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 400; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">, who used to be well-to-do, suffered a </span><span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-style: italic; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 400; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">“moral retrogression” </span><span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 400; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">and </span><span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-style: italic; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 400; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">“decline in fortunes”, </span><span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 400; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">possibly through drink, but has </span><span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-style: italic; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 400; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">“retained some degree of self respect”, </span><span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 400; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">though his wife has ceased to love him. Watson confirms as much describing the Baker he meets as giving </span><span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-style: italic; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 400; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">“the impression generally of a man of learning and letters who had had ill-usage at the hands of fortune.” </span><span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 400; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"> </span></span></p><p dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.38; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;"><b style="font-weight: normal;"><span style="font-family: verdana;"><br /></span></b></p><p dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.38; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;"><span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 400; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"><span style="font-family: verdana;">We do not directly meet Mrs. Baker in the story, but Holmes paints a picture extrapolated from knowledge of the husband. Just as Henry has come adrift from his former status, so has a marriage begun to crumble.</span></span></p><p dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.38; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;"><span style="font-family: verdana;"><br /></span></p><p dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.38; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;"><span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 400; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"><span style="font-family: verdana;">Yet, however miserable the couple’s Christmas must have been, there are signs all may not be lost. We doubt she will have sympathised with her husband; perhaps even questioned the veracity of his excuses. But he leaves Baker Street in good humour, and we know there’s still a wife to welcome the belated goose.</span></span></p><p dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.38; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;"><span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 400; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"><span style="font-family: verdana;"><br /></span></span></p><p dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.38; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;"><span style="font-family: verdana;"><span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 400; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">In securing the original bird through the Alpha Inn Goose Club, Henry has also tried to do the right thing </span><span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 700; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">and </span><span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 400; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">succeeded. Though </span><span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-style: italic; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 400; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">“shillings have not been so plentiful with me as they once were”, </span><span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 400; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">he had duly paid his few pence each week to Mr. Windigate, qualifying him for a goose. As the contemporary article below indicates, this was not always a foregone conclusion; some men missed payments and suffered the consequence.</span></span></p><p dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.38; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;"><span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 400; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"><span style="font-family: verdana;"><br /></span></span></p><p dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.38; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;"><span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 400; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"><span style="font-family: verdana;">That Henry Baker kept on the straight and narrow, despite his propensity for drink, attests to the man’s residual self-respect and good intentions. The tag on the bird’s left leg may also offer a little more than Holmes reads into it</span></span><span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: Arial; font-size: 11pt; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 400; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap; white-space: pre;">.</span></p><p dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.38; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;"><span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: Arial; font-size: 11pt; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 400; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap; white-space: pre;"><br /></span></p><p dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.38; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;"><span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: Arial; font-size: 11pt; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 400; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap; white-space: pre;"><span id="docs-internal-guid-c550835b-7fff-b3db-46ac-9ac3d600d592"></span></span></p><p dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.38; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;"><span style="font-family: verdana;"><span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 400; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"> At no point does the detective consider who wrote the tag or why it names the wife. Henry had no need to attach it; if he had, not even he would address a present: </span><span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-style: italic; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 400; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">“for Mrs. Henry Baker”. </span><span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 400; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">Good</span><span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 400; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"> host, Windigate, had every reason to tag each of the 24 destined for customers on the Goose Club list who had paid in full. Most straightforwardly the wife’s name was copied from that list, which implies the bird was ordered either by her or in her name. Either way, Windigate knew, as Henry knew, that a wife’s happiness was at stake.Her name in the book stood as a reminder to both on every visit to the inn that this was money he should not drink away.</span></span></p><p dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.38; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;"><span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 400; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"><span style="font-family: verdana;"><br /></span></span></p><p dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.38; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;"><span style="font-family: verdana; font-size: medium;"><span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 700; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">A Final </span><span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-style: italic; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 700; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">‘Disjectus Membrum’ - A Clipping from the Bristol Mercury.</span></span></p><p dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.38; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;"><span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 400; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"><b id="docs-internal-guid-6a5cd61e-7fff-9bab-e5af-8c9c207f9430" style="font-weight: normal;"><br /></b></span></p><p dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.38; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;"><span style="font-family: verdana;"><span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 400; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">In 1889, geese were pretty well as expensive as they are now. The prices revealed by Breckinridge of Covent Garden were realistic. He bought (from Mrs. Oakshott) </span><span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-style: italic; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 400; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">“Twenty-four geese at 7s 6d” </span><span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 400; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">and sold them to the Alpha Inn </span><span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-style: italic; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 400; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">“at 12s”. </span><span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 400; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">The day after Holmes concluded his investigation with the Ryder confession, the </span><span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-style: italic; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 400; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">Bristol Mercury</span><span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 400; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"> described the usual procedure and risks associated with goose clubs run by London inns. I leave you with that this Christmas Day.</span></span></p><p dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.38; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;"><span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 400; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"><b style="font-weight: normal;"><span style="font-family: verdana;"><br /></span></b></span></p><p dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.38; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;"><span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 400; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"><span style="font-family: verdana;"> A toast to Henry Bakers everywhere - may they all take home the goose to a happy house!</span></span></p><p dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.38; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;"><span style="font-family: verdana;"><span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 400; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"></span></span></p><p dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.38; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;"><span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 400; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"><span style="font-family: verdana;">And a toast to Mrs. Hudsons, here and abroad, who, today, religiously check the crop of their chosen Christmas bird. Just in case</span></span><span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: Arial; font-size: 11pt; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 400; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap; white-space: pre;">.</span></p><p dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.38; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;"><span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: Arial; font-size: 11pt; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 400; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap; white-space: pre;"><br /></span></p><p dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.38; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;"><table align="center" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><tbody><tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/a/AVvXsEjiRNacqqTC-ZNOajup59QWfdcKAl7UUBBcCjE7NiL5bI4MxD9NWhclt6xeYi09_bjBUMpeTsekrOcZf-288rvLScjoTMbWOSygqEE-ZtoS8GMP9ETFlORu-u_2AhiFOKhpRw9nI4SOLfQOToW9XnPNettzv9LdwUHsw8m9ZgcHu4xGJkiXYB4hi68T=s630" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" data-original-height="630" data-original-width="494" height="400" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/a/AVvXsEjiRNacqqTC-ZNOajup59QWfdcKAl7UUBBcCjE7NiL5bI4MxD9NWhclt6xeYi09_bjBUMpeTsekrOcZf-288rvLScjoTMbWOSygqEE-ZtoS8GMP9ETFlORu-u_2AhiFOKhpRw9nI4SOLfQOToW9XnPNettzv9LdwUHsw8m9ZgcHu4xGJkiXYB4hi68T=w314-h400" width="314" /></a></td></tr><tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">[from the Bristol Mercury for 28 December, 1889]<br /><br /><br /><br /></td></tr></tbody></table><span style="font-family: verdana;"><b>NB</b>: The photographs above are all stills from Granada TV's <i>"The Blue Carbuncle"</i> (1984) starring Jeremy Brett as Holmes, David Burke as Watson, Frank Mills as Peterson and Frank Middlemass as Henry Baker.</span></p><p dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.38; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;"><span style="font-family: verdana;"><br /></span></p><p dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.38; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;"><span style="font-family: verdana;"><b>Further Reading:</b></span></p><p dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.38; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;"><span style="font-family: verdana;">Over Christmas and New Year, 2012/13, I wrote a trio of posts on the artistry of <i>"The Blue Carbuncle", </i>taking (as here) 1889 as the generally accepted date of this case<i>. </i>To read them in sequence, click on each title link below. You'll come across a few outdated references to the film's existence on YouTube. May I redirect you to dailymotion which currently offers the full episode.</span></p><p dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.38; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;"><span style="color: #3d85c6; font-family: verdana;"><br /></span></p><p dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.38; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;"><span style="font-family: verdana;"><a href="http://altamarkings.blogspot.com/2012/12/follow-that-goose-blue-carbuncle-1.html" target="_blank"><span style="color: #3d85c6;">1. Follow That Goose! - A Timeline</span></a><br /></span></p><p dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.38; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;"><span style="color: #6fa8dc; font-family: verdana;"><br /></span></p><p dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.38; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;"><span style="font-family: verdana;"><a href="http://altamarkings.blogspot.com/2012/12/christmas-day-post-blue-carbuncle-2-gem.html" target="_blank"><span style="color: #6fa8dc;">2. A Gem of a Short Story</span></a><br /></span></p><p dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.38; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;"><br /></p><p dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.38; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;"><a href="http://altamarkings.blogspot.com/2013/01/how-to-write-like-doctor-watson-blue.html" target="_blank"><span style="color: #6fa8dc;">3. How to Write like Doctor Watson</span></a><br /></p><p dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.38; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;"><span style="font-family: verdana;"><br /></span></p><p dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.38; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;"><span style="font-family: verdana;"><a href="https://www.dailymotion.com/video/x6hulpt" target="_blank"><span style="color: #6fa8dc;">Dailymotion BLUE</span></a><br /></span><span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: Arial; font-size: 11pt; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 400; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap; white-space: pre;"><br /></span></p><p dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.38; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;"><span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: Arial; font-size: 11pt; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 400; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap; white-space: pre;"><br /></span></p><div><span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: Arial; font-size: 11pt; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 400; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap; white-space: pre;"><b style="color: #4d5156; font-family: Arial, Tahoma, Helvetica, FreeSans, sans-serif; font-size: 14px; white-space: normal;">©RAYWILCOCKSON 2021</b></span></div><p dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.38; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;"><span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 400; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"><span style="font-family: verdana;"><br /></span></span></p><p dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.38; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;"><span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 400; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"><span style="font-family: verdana;"><br /></span></span></p><div><span style="font-family: Arial; font-size: 11pt; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"><br /></span></div></span>Altamonthttp://www.blogger.com/profile/07487675562905937401noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1766557913348045247.post-28075729928582616692021-10-30T22:29:00.000-07:002021-10-30T22:29:38.655-07:00Conan Doyle's Spooks Tour with The Rolling Stones (1920-22).<p> </p><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEi-SBMHyiQ9wvrFtbduUfyVT_8POXV8H4TbjvuPXu5sOfA4lNXhQ_u9cD1pMgBiTRzh08wlVaIwzyOJL39JQli3KvlRkhxruXmgsPEiB9JyMQPhbfBOal5X5Z5Di2TZGFa9mbpvSb-np-8/s608/ACD+NYTRIB.JPG" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="608" data-original-width="568" height="400" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEi-SBMHyiQ9wvrFtbduUfyVT_8POXV8H4TbjvuPXu5sOfA4lNXhQ_u9cD1pMgBiTRzh08wlVaIwzyOJL39JQli3KvlRkhxruXmgsPEiB9JyMQPhbfBOal5X5Z5Di2TZGFa9mbpvSb-np-8/w374-h400/ACD+NYTRIB.JPG" width="374" /></a></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><span style="text-align: left;"> [Conan Doyle lecturing on spiritualism as visualised by the New York Tribune 19 April, 1922]</span></div><p></p><p><span style="color: #cc0000; font-family: verdana; font-size: medium;">As Sir Arthur Conan Doyle entered what would prove to be his last decade on earth, he devoted ever more time and energy to promoting spiritualism at home and abroad through lecture tours and debates. In London, the lost Queen's Hall on Langham Place was a favoured venue and, ironically, the very stage occupied by The Rolling Stones over New Year, 1922, performing a burlesque on the author of Sherlock Holmes called "Spooks" that had been played up and down the country in theatres (including the Stoll circuit) and pier pavilions since its premier at the Strollers' Pavilion, Derby, on 1 March, 1920.</span></p><p><span style="color: #cc0000; font-family: verdana; font-size: medium;">Long before Jagger/Richards <i>et al, </i>producer, Richard Jerome, rechristened a concert party called "Originality" and sent "The Rolling Stones" on tour with a new entertainment called <i>"The Pierrots' Carnival"</i>, written by Jerome and Dick Henty and directed by its star actors, Dick Francis and Doreen Season. </span></p><p></p><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiBi4DzBP4qCHbwyJ8PsjM4LZhyfFE02Pq1GJFNCr1LXWUK8OL05olIJR_xRc7sqrxsWIhQWwSdgLXnJUq000IIk_Y4E5qjCREUJNeYBAPnM0HE6wi9UxDH2RJWOpxdO559JRtHO5TAIR8/s900/dick-hentys-first-concert-party-album-from-the-repertoire-of-richard.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="900" data-original-width="708" height="400" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiBi4DzBP4qCHbwyJ8PsjM4LZhyfFE02Pq1GJFNCr1LXWUK8OL05olIJR_xRc7sqrxsWIhQWwSdgLXnJUq000IIk_Y4E5qjCREUJNeYBAPnM0HE6wi9UxDH2RJWOpxdO559JRtHO5TAIR8/w315-h400/dick-hentys-first-concert-party-album-from-the-repertoire-of-richard.jpg" width="315" /></a></div><br /><span style="color: #cc0000; font-family: verdana; font-size: medium;"><br /></span><p></p><p><span style="color: #cc0000; font-family: verdana; font-size: medium;">According to the <i>Derby Daily Telegraph</i> for 2 March, 1920,<i> "The Pierrots' Carnival" wa</i>s a concert party entertainment, comprising musical numbers and burlesque scenes, framed by a novel idea. The company are supposed to be a set of art students in the Latin Quartier of Paris, and owing to their penniless condition are deprived of a visit to the carnival. As they are bemoaning their penurious state, Pierrot (Dick Francis) bursts in, and they decide to hold high revels among themselves. The Arts are personified as follows: Music - Doreen Season; Drama- Dorothy Clifford; Dance- Marie Studley; Painting- Guy Reeve; Sculpture- Alec Hardisty and Literature- Dick Henty. </span></p><p><span style="color: #cc0000; font-family: verdana; font-size: medium;">This first review mentions in passing a burlesque of "Spiritism", in which Adam and Eve, Antony and Cleopatra, and Napoleon and the Kaiser are "materialised". More detail on this comes from a variety of news articles.</span></p><p><span style="color: #cc0000; font-family: verdana; font-size: medium;"><i>The Cheshire Observer</i> for 20 March, 1920, tells us <i>"Spooks, a skit on the modern seance, and introducing historic characters, was remarkably humorous".</i></span></p><p><span style="color: #cc0000; font-family: verdana; font-size: medium;">From the <i>Staffordshire Advertiser </i>for 29 May, 1920, we learn<i> "in a concerted number, entitled 'Spooks', Sir Arthur Conan Doyle appears and at a seance he produces Adam and Eve. Then Sherlock Holmes comes on and proves that spiritualism is all a farce. To do this he calls Napoleon and the Kaiser, whom he unmasks".</i></span></p><p><span style="color: #cc0000; font-family: verdana; font-size: medium;">On 3 June, 1920, <i>The Stage </i>noted <i>"Among the best things done </i>(was) '<i>Spooks', in which Sir Arthur Conan Doyle is shown at a seance producing Adam and Eve".</i></span></p><p><span style="color: #cc0000; font-family: verdana; font-size: medium;">We are indebted to <i>The Era </i>for 8 June, 1921, for details of <i>"Spooks" </i>cast:</span></p><p></p><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjPLAH7jn8GDx5jEPTENPp5XEjYBD-J4ocsZmugdfBWf9UA31d4D7OHEaH-MA5vv8044FUOAhueGZjDekl2CHcOsGXTrReclELbBPrFuSAgkAiM49vF7ugMsnAd338G4z8Ytrd2vMicBsc/s1078/era+8+june+1921.JPG" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="372" data-original-width="1078" height="138" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjPLAH7jn8GDx5jEPTENPp5XEjYBD-J4ocsZmugdfBWf9UA31d4D7OHEaH-MA5vv8044FUOAhueGZjDekl2CHcOsGXTrReclELbBPrFuSAgkAiM49vF7ugMsnAd338G4z8Ytrd2vMicBsc/w400-h138/era+8+june+1921.JPG" width="400" /></a></div><br /><span style="color: #cc0000; font-family: verdana; font-size: medium;">None of the 28 references to the production found in the British Newspaper Archive is illustrated by production or artist images. </span><p></p><p><span style="color: #cc0000; font-family: verdana; font-size: medium;">Young Dick Henty, who played Sherlock Holmes, was primarily known as a talented composer of songs and often advertises himself as the brother of the famous novelist, Maurice Hewlett. Some of Henty's surviving sheet music , such as <i>"I'm a Cornish Man" (1926) </i>names the librettist as <i>"William Hewlett". </i>I think this is Henty himself: Maurice's family tree lists Henry William Hewlett as a brother.</span></p><p><span style="color: #cc0000; font-family: verdana; font-size: medium;">He had previously been with </span><span style="color: #cc0000;"><span style="background-color: white;"><span style="font-family: verdana; font-size: medium;">Pélissier</span></span><span style="background-color: white; font-family: arial, sans-serif; font-size: 14px;"> </span></span><span style="color: #cc0000; font-family: verdana; font-size: large;">'s original "Follies" and "The Quaints"for whom he wrote the music featured in </span><i style="color: #cc0000; font-family: verdana; font-size: large;">"The Pedlar of Dreams", </i><span style="color: #cc0000; font-family: verdana; font-size: large;">a 1915 revue-fantasy that had also featured Pierrot as the central character. </span></p><p><span style="color: #cc0000; font-family: verdana; font-size: medium;">Henty is one of the troupe in this blurred illustration to the Rolling Stones 1924 sheet music:</span></p><p><span style="color: #cc0000; font-family: verdana; font-size: medium;"> </span></p><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><span style="color: #cc0000; font-family: verdana; font-size: medium;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEitdCpTy_Y_747emaeqocmwuF3xZTMFdzNADfKCUV3WZJTWAFPmgnYjhNmhkDleI4t84Co9Z5j6XubpkMl7YEn90B72fu6XU7mgsu-LAQE4chtILyIU0h5_xfQ95X9bEcSFe_-tC9pCr0w/s248/rolling+stones.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="248" data-original-width="203" height="400" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEitdCpTy_Y_747emaeqocmwuF3xZTMFdzNADfKCUV3WZJTWAFPmgnYjhNmhkDleI4t84Co9Z5j6XubpkMl7YEn90B72fu6XU7mgsu-LAQE4chtILyIU0h5_xfQ95X9bEcSFe_-tC9pCr0w/w327-h400/rolling+stones.jpg" width="327" /></a></span></div><span style="color: #cc0000; font-family: verdana; font-size: medium;"><br /></span><p></p><p><span style="color: #cc0000; font-family: verdana; font-size: medium;"><i>"The Tatler" </i>included a caricature of Dick Henty composing for a Windmill production in 1935:</span></p><p></p><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgb8Wy_ZCtOSZzwF8VUj8jLRem3Y3tXW-Npnhmu5ZAY8s9V4SQdd6srWVHj2tfDryI62u5ao6teODkNfKmzo2-77TNnqYz00SqrI3gG6Xr9STSxSz6m3JQIWkrqhrfhR_ohC8u3P6Ptvng/s565/DH.JPG" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="565" data-original-width="334" height="400" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgb8Wy_ZCtOSZzwF8VUj8jLRem3Y3tXW-Npnhmu5ZAY8s9V4SQdd6srWVHj2tfDryI62u5ao6teODkNfKmzo2-77TNnqYz00SqrI3gG6Xr9STSxSz6m3JQIWkrqhrfhR_ohC8u3P6Ptvng/w236-h400/DH.JPG" width="236" /></a></div><br /><span style="color: #cc0000; font-family: verdana; font-size: medium;">Dick Francis would presumably have burlesqued Conan Doyle wearing the costume of Pierrot. Here are images of him from other productions:</span><p></p><p></p><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgg0jKH02j5wSUMvyNOw0FNHRlasy7TdKsP0kdzNFX9806WPkuwpbyT64K4HPFql-Nrp-99uhkq3V08_1JrLXz50wCymTVtSha3rhK8II-qaz_RWAu4aKupKdeXfdZMqVRkoYKTj3bnw-A/s445/dick+f.JPG" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="445" data-original-width="361" height="320" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgg0jKH02j5wSUMvyNOw0FNHRlasy7TdKsP0kdzNFX9806WPkuwpbyT64K4HPFql-Nrp-99uhkq3V08_1JrLXz50wCymTVtSha3rhK8II-qaz_RWAu4aKupKdeXfdZMqVRkoYKTj3bnw-A/s320/dick+f.JPG" width="260" /></a></div> [Illustrated Sporting & Dramatic News, 8 October, 1937]<p></p><p><br /></p><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEj_ILF6a-w6yBwODVt4MH0D9XaOYFSmorakDIlKVYyonHffIDVkmPxAgt2acKE0j-0o043QmOYJq4meobYfbiG5yjAC0zOiGQ02gZHBrdYem2oJbzBC3CHaNdKAie_94N0d1AOEVQktls8/s492/dick+f2.JPG" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="492" data-original-width="323" height="400" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEj_ILF6a-w6yBwODVt4MH0D9XaOYFSmorakDIlKVYyonHffIDVkmPxAgt2acKE0j-0o043QmOYJq4meobYfbiG5yjAC0zOiGQ02gZHBrdYem2oJbzBC3CHaNdKAie_94N0d1AOEVQktls8/w263-h400/dick+f2.JPG" width="263" /></a></div> [The Sphere 14 February, 1931]<div><br /></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEg0pD3hITAc7jAmrS3lXw8lnFGjCxfJjE9nK7xx_vlugrdXnh2PiqG7wniwyTM7Uz6k5NntnF4BdnHQKWo_Uo33KuYG-qCmcIYMpLNUZ0RllUMbWok1DWX4G_Vphcq7o62fvY8Uf1l_EdM/s613/dick+f3.JPG" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="613" data-original-width="486" height="400" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEg0pD3hITAc7jAmrS3lXw8lnFGjCxfJjE9nK7xx_vlugrdXnh2PiqG7wniwyTM7Uz6k5NntnF4BdnHQKWo_Uo33KuYG-qCmcIYMpLNUZ0RllUMbWok1DWX4G_Vphcq7o62fvY8Uf1l_EdM/w318-h400/dick+f3.JPG" width="318" /></a></div> [The Sphere 6 November, 1926]<div><br /></div><div><b><br /></b><div><span style="color: #cc0000; font-family: verdana; font-size: medium;"><b>Epilogue - Conan Doyle's Last Decade.</b></span></div><div><span style="color: #cc0000; font-family: verdana; font-size: medium;">There is a long history of burlesque representations of Sherlock Holmes stretching back to 1893's <i>"Under the Clock". </i>Doyle himself was the occasional butt for ridicule before the war but his very public championing of spiritualism rendered him especially vulnerable in later years. The Rolling Stones skit is symptomatic of a general shift. ACD was still submitting the stories that made up the Casebook from 1921 to 1927, yet his preoccupation with the next world seemed at odds with the detective for whom he composed the following observation in <i>The Sussex Vampire </i>(1924):</span></div><div><span style="color: #cc0000; font-family: verdana; font-size: medium;"> <i>"This agency stands flat-footed upon the ground, and there it must remain. The world is big enough for us. No ghosts need apply."</i></span></div><div><span style="color: #cc0000; font-family: verdana; font-size: medium;"><i><br /></i></span></div><div><span style="color: #cc0000; font-family: verdana; font-size: medium;">It's significant that the fictional character is tasked with debunking spiritism in <i>"Spooks". </i>Holmes has morphed into a repository for common sense and the rational (in contrast to Doyle's embrace of all things supernatural), aided, I would suggest, by the signal success of Eille Norwood's Stoll series. Americans viewed Norwood's Holmes as <b><i>the</i></b> authentic, serious incarnation, as opposed to the contemporary interesting, but star-led, Barrymore blockbuster. </span></div><div><span style="color: #cc0000; font-family: verdana; font-size: medium;"><br /></span></div><div><span style="color: #cc0000; font-family: verdana; font-size: medium;">In this final decade, Conan Doyle seems marooned between the substantiality of his fictional creation and an anarchic Puckish spirit abroad that cannot resist poking fun at spooks and fairies.</span></div><div><span style="color: #cc0000; font-family: verdana; font-size: medium;"><br /></span></div><div><span style="color: #cc0000; font-family: verdana; font-size: medium;">On this Halloween Eve in 2021, in the absence of a script or photographs of The Rolling Stones' <i>"Spooks" </i>burlesque, I recommend a film from 1920 that, I think, possesses the same Pierrot-inspired fun at the expense of all ghosts who may apply: Max Fleischer's <i>"Out of the Inkwell: the Ouija Board".</i></span></div><div><span style="color: #cc0000; font-family: verdana; font-size: medium;"><i> <div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><iframe allowfullscreen="" class="BLOG_video_class" height="266" src="https://www.youtube.com/embed/ZoCuXDVi3Mk" width="320" youtube-src-id="ZoCuXDVi3Mk"></iframe></div><br /><br /></i></span><p><span style="background-color: white; color: #4d5156; font-size: 14px;"><b>©RAYWILCOCKSON 2021</b></span><br /><span style="color: #cc0000; font-family: verdana; font-size: medium;"><br /></span></p><p><span style="color: #cc0000; font-family: verdana; font-size: medium;"> . </span></p></div></div>Altamonthttp://www.blogger.com/profile/07487675562905937401noreply@blogger.com2tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1766557913348045247.post-57107054280100300452021-07-07T01:27:00.001-07:002021-07-07T01:27:22.805-07:00Portsmouth's Lost Conan Doyle Room (A Song of Action).<p> <span style="color: #990000; font-family: verdana;">"Now blesse thy selfe: thou met'st with things dying, I with things new borne."</span></p><p><span style="color: #990000; font-family: verdana;"> [<i>The Winter's Tale</i> Act 3, scene 3]</span></p><p><span style="color: #990000; font-family: verdana;"><br /></span></p><p><span style="color: #990000; font-family: verdana;">On the morning of July 7th, 1930, the day Sir Arthur Conan Doyle died, four boys woke up in the unfamiliar surroundings of 84, Kingston Crescent, Portsmouth. They were the initial intake of the city's first hostel for boys, set up under the presidency of the Lord Bishop, to be run on diocesan lines by a committee, backed by the council, navy and subscriptions. The story of its ten years in existence may be followed in local newspapers, especially the supportive <i>Portsmouth Evening News</i>. I shall focus on the author's posthumous connection with the hostel.</span></p><p><span style="color: #990000; font-family: verdana;"> </span></p><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><span style="color: #990000; font-family: verdana;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhjK7Zi9HixEeS6vl7BZlMyn-OUrqJYT5fmXiB2WVdsXSfTHvUqc0QShWVW81DC99IavYMV565B9f8Rt3iWXhrdjFT2VlvKcOIgw4TlGWHcEWbzbZ77Cizw3Mf8o9YS1-QA9xcDZz5aBB0/s889/proposed.JPG" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="725" data-original-width="889" height="326" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhjK7Zi9HixEeS6vl7BZlMyn-OUrqJYT5fmXiB2WVdsXSfTHvUqc0QShWVW81DC99IavYMV565B9f8Rt3iWXhrdjFT2VlvKcOIgw4TlGWHcEWbzbZ77Cizw3Mf8o9YS1-QA9xcDZz5aBB0/w400-h326/proposed.JPG" width="400" /></a></span></div><span style="color: #990000; font-family: verdana;"><br /></span><p></p><p><span style="color: #990000; font-family: verdana;"> From the beginning the scheme was beset by debt and it is testament to the dedication of its fundraisers and staff that, despite the economic hardship that typified the 1930's, all was running on an even keel, in credit, by 1935. Enough had been raised to pay for major internal works required to secure Home Office recognition and grants. An extension was added that meant the hostel could house its projected full complement of 24 boys at any one time. In practice, it was almost always full, with a few beds kept vacant for emergencies. Had the war not intervened it would likely have given many more years of service, but closure came with evacuation measures. The facility became a daytime boys' club about the time Conan Doyle's widow died. It is to her we now turn.</span></p><p><span style="color: #990000; font-family: verdana;"><br /></span></p><p><span style="color: #990000; font-family: verdana;"><b>Lady Conan Doyle and the Conan Doyle Room.</b></span></p><p><span style="color: #990000; font-family: verdana;"></span></p><table cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="float: left;"><tbody><tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgtN4WXneUuMB-vmnmc-zRR6Ma7q1Yew8KtbA8I-X7Jl1YFcB7QYqU57H5nwb7H8Y7QalYNgzlLZZwHLeTo9CaCfQfu3zBL3i8rDgSArjp8-Dbm97BzacSjaVYNdUD_mThS3JwtoCkCdeo/s506/lady+doyle.JPG" style="clear: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" data-original-height="506" data-original-width="367" height="320" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgtN4WXneUuMB-vmnmc-zRR6Ma7q1Yew8KtbA8I-X7Jl1YFcB7QYqU57H5nwb7H8Y7QalYNgzlLZZwHLeTo9CaCfQfu3zBL3i8rDgSArjp8-Dbm97BzacSjaVYNdUD_mThS3JwtoCkCdeo/s320/lady+doyle.JPG" /></a></td></tr><tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Lady Conan Doyle in 1931</td></tr></tbody></table><span style="color: #990000; font-family: verdana;"> </span><p></p><p><span style="color: #990000; font-family: verdana;"> As his second wife, Conan Doyle's widow had not </span></p><p><span style="color: #990000; font-family: verdana;"> shared her husband's formative years in Southsea,</span></p><p><span style="color: #990000; font-family: verdana;"> but she clearly appreciated the mutual bond of</span></p><p><span style="color: #990000; font-family: verdana;"> the doctor-writer and his beloved city.</span></p><p><span style="color: #990000; font-family: verdana;"><br /></span></p><p><span style="color: #990000; font-family: verdana;"> Moreover, the thought she took over the nature of</span></p><p><span style="color: #990000; font-family: verdana;"> contributions to the hostel in his memory shows</span></p><p><span style="color: #990000; font-family: verdana;"> she knew what he represented to young people.<br /><b><br /></b></span></p><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgVEi8Q6obYlIKniFeVHVGp89_fGbNQ86nkbDCDKhlJLV39HxPslhTJnW90w3-1eePNPV1ROa1526ZxG5Uw5D7eDGR0loG1c8nOBKulMOW5_qGmWhJzhHkrAkl5vZ8p5RFG3fpZwbS3RW0/s544/room1.JPG" style="clear: right; float: right; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="500" data-original-width="544" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgVEi8Q6obYlIKniFeVHVGp89_fGbNQ86nkbDCDKhlJLV39HxPslhTJnW90w3-1eePNPV1ROa1526ZxG5Uw5D7eDGR0loG1c8nOBKulMOW5_qGmWhJzhHkrAkl5vZ8p5RFG3fpZwbS3RW0/s320/room1.JPG" width="320" /></a></div><br /><p></p><p><br /></p><p><span style="color: #990000; font-family: verdana;"><br /></span></p><p><span style="color: #990000; font-family: verdana;">On August 20th, 1930, this report</span></p><p><span style="color: #990000; font-family: verdana;">appeared in <i>Portsmouth Evening News.</i></span></p><p><span style="color: #990000; font-family: verdana;"><br /></span></p><p><span style="color: #990000; font-family: verdana;"><br /></span></p><p><span style="color: #990000; font-family: verdana;"><br /></span></p><p><span style="color: #990000; font-family: verdana;"><br /></span></p><p><span style="color: #990000; font-family: verdana;">Here is the record of Lady Conan Doyle's £20 contribution:</span></p><p></p><table align="center" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><tbody><tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEi-puGfWJ0WIdw4y7qDJdnD5_oduGzo-Vn4iROYWHdc0f5O9h18CfQtrFzxdF4mZ1aXqoEWUHIlYO3YEjdvwNjsrZC3mrlOVavidCUl1LA3I4G4oM-uVLnG0FBbplXla70XeDc9O-Wiy6s/s737/room2.JPG" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" data-original-height="737" data-original-width="534" height="400" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEi-puGfWJ0WIdw4y7qDJdnD5_oduGzo-Vn4iROYWHdc0f5O9h18CfQtrFzxdF4mZ1aXqoEWUHIlYO3YEjdvwNjsrZC3mrlOVavidCUl1LA3I4G4oM-uVLnG0FBbplXla70XeDc9O-Wiy6s/w290-h400/room2.JPG" width="290" /></a></td></tr><tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Hampshire Telegraph 17 October, 1930,</td></tr></tbody></table><br /><span style="color: #990000; font-family: verdana;">On September 16, the <i>Portsmouth Evening News</i> looked forward to the hostel's opening ceremony on October 14, noting that Lady Conan Doyle and family were expected to attend. They do not appear to have done so, having no presence in reports or photographs of the event. I suspect she was already ill with the ailment that prevented her from travelling to Philadelphia, in County Durham, the following Saturday. The <i>Hull Daily Mail </i>reported on 20th October that son, Dennis, had opened the new Christian Spiritual Church, <i>"deputising for his mother, Lady Doyle, who is ill." </i>This would not be the end of the story.</span><p></p><p><span style="color: #990000; font-family: verdana;"><br /></span></p><p><span style="color: #990000; font-family: verdana;"><b>A Song of Action.</b></span></p><p><span style="color: #990000; font-family: verdana;"><b><br /></b></span></p><p><span style="color: #990000; font-family: verdana;">It may be wondered whether the proposed room got off the ground. Evidence that it did is provided in a <i>Hampshire Telegraph </i>article of 8th May, 1931.</span></p><p></p><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhIAobEHOteF0s0Ku9Pvzbcf9FWa-JuLo9JOW6Ayr5SBau5HVzu0zEC1CY5SKjhCbN43qRTSIY0k5kaAFi0sZJah1XAMyVP476XhyphenhyphencDLMbB62habJW-vvrFVc2mKC0OhqX2iUfpJivxd7Q/s592/room4.JPG" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="592" data-original-width="519" height="400" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhIAobEHOteF0s0Ku9Pvzbcf9FWa-JuLo9JOW6Ayr5SBau5HVzu0zEC1CY5SKjhCbN43qRTSIY0k5kaAFi0sZJah1XAMyVP476XhyphenhyphencDLMbB62habJW-vvrFVc2mKC0OhqX2iUfpJivxd7Q/w351-h400/room4.JPG" width="351" /></a></div><br /><span style="color: #990000; font-family: verdana;">Here is finance for re-decoration <b>and </b>the gift of a significant artefact, the plaque from the author's bedroom. Lady Conan Doyle has chosen weil.</span><div><span style="color: #990000; font-family: verdana;"><br /></span></div><div><span style="color: #990000; font-family: verdana;">The verse adorning the plaque quotes the first half of the 17th stanza in Conan Doyle's own work, <i>The Farnshire Cup", </i>published in the collection, <i>"Songs of Action" </i>(1898). The poem may be read <a href="https://www.arthur-conan-doyle.com/index.php?title=The_Farnshire_Cup">HERE</a></span></div><div><span style="color: #990000; font-family: verdana;"><br /></span></div><div><span style="color: #990000; font-family: verdana;">A fictional tale of the turf, the poem is imbued with the author's life-long love of action and captures well the thrilling physicality of a horse race. It's a moral tale: little Joe Chauncy is riding Spider, a rank outsider, and beats the field, including the favourite, because <i>"he'd make a wooden horse go" </i>and exemplifies the moral made explicit in the plaque's verse.</span></div><div><span style="color: #990000; font-family: verdana;"><br /></span></div><div><span style="color: #990000; font-family: verdana;">Without long searching, I found multiple examples in newspapers of the early 20th century, in which these very lines are quoted in isolation (often without authorial attribution) as sterling advice to young men. They are the only section of the poem shorn of specific racing detail and are, thus, readily detached as general moral sayings. History has treated Polonius in the same way.</span></div><div><span style="color: #990000; font-family: verdana;"><br /></span></div><div><span style="color: #990000; font-family: verdana;"><b>The Irregulars of Kingston Crescent.</b></span></div><div><span style="color: #990000; font-family: verdana;"><b><br /></b></span></div><div><span style="color: #990000; font-family: verdana;"><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgvqTeyoZ1Q2BjPy-1hLu2Jot4v6kEb9H6T2YcwN7K1tFI1OJsCUvYq_WM_W_bwxWa8xxSExLoLL4xTFo8lGM15estL4zycjsdWdoRu9rlCrnK3z5W3BiHTDhyphenhyphenJ6Uq1xCB20LIWNxTOgGk/s2048/BSI.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: left; float: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="2048" data-original-width="1342" height="320" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgvqTeyoZ1Q2BjPy-1hLu2Jot4v6kEb9H6T2YcwN7K1tFI1OJsCUvYq_WM_W_bwxWa8xxSExLoLL4xTFo8lGM15estL4zycjsdWdoRu9rlCrnK3z5W3BiHTDhyphenhyphenJ6Uq1xCB20LIWNxTOgGk/s320/BSI.jpg" /></a></div><br /><b><br /></b></span></div><div><span style="color: #990000; font-family: verdana;"><br /></span></div><div><span style="color: #990000; font-family: verdana;">This is Richard Gutschmidt's 1902 illustration of</span></div><div><span style="color: #990000; font-family: verdana;">Sherlock Holmes with the Baker Street Irregulars.</span></div><div><span style="color: #990000; font-family: verdana;"><br /></span></div><div><span style="color: #990000; font-family: verdana;">He may not have housed these children of the streets </span></div><div><span style="color: #990000; font-family: verdana;">but he employed them for the ultimate good of society, gave purpose and valued their skills.</span></div><div><span style="color: #990000; font-family: verdana;"><br /></span></div><div><span style="color: #990000; font-family: verdana;"><br /></span></div><div><span style="color: #990000; font-family: verdana;"><br /></span></div><div><span style="color: #990000; font-family: verdana;"><br /></span></div><div><span style="color: #990000; font-family: verdana;"><br /></span></div><div><span style="color: #990000; font-family: verdana;"><br /></span></div><div><span style="color: #990000; font-family: verdana;"><br /></span></div><div><span style="color: #990000; font-family: verdana;"><br /></span></div><div><span style="color: #990000; font-family: verdana;"><br /></span></div><div><span style="color: #990000; font-family: verdana;">The clear objective of the Kingston Crescent Hostel for Boys was to provide a temporary home for any boy aged 14-19 who was, for one reason or another, without shelter. While Toc H would assist in finding employment, the provision of a wholesome, homely atmosphere was paramount, and a female presence on the staff considered essential. Boys typically stayed for months at a time and often repaid the charity with their own donations long after leaving. Orphans, runaways, petty criminals and those estranged from families: these were Portsmouth's own "Irregulars". </span></div><div><span style="color: #990000; font-family: verdana;"><br /></span></div><div><span style="color: #990000; font-family: verdana;"><b>A Song of Action.</b></span></div><div><span style="color: #990000; font-family: verdana;"><b><br /></b></span></div><div><span style="color: #990000; font-family: verdana;"><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiDtD9MmpntK7SrmLzgss4xlqLE7QV2fILndSYzY3ZZKnfLhd-eDkyf77xI846cFnnhcGK4IV68h_1rwLanNsz2KTGZ23UE14AqkiMKxpU25g7g-ldAEfQHFNhlXJgEB4RhyS40jZ3igco/s660/HQ.JPG" imageanchor="1" style="clear: left; float: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="660" data-original-width="501" height="320" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiDtD9MmpntK7SrmLzgss4xlqLE7QV2fILndSYzY3ZZKnfLhd-eDkyf77xI846cFnnhcGK4IV68h_1rwLanNsz2KTGZ23UE14AqkiMKxpU25g7g-ldAEfQHFNhlXJgEB4RhyS40jZ3igco/s320/HQ.JPG" /></a></div><div><span style="color: #990000; font-family: verdana;"><br /></span></div><div><span style="color: #990000; font-family: verdana;"><br /></span></div> </span></div><div><span style="color: #990000; font-family: verdana;"> On the left: a vice-admiral's headquarters</span></div><div><span style="color: #990000; font-family: verdana;"> from the <i>Hampshire Telegraph </i>4 March, 1932.<br /><b><br /></b></span><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEittc6uLQ03XLvJ4sM-KzQRiiM3n8KAZasZIeD4tA3dmuNkmwF7nP553uxzpxnGrB5XIQeNRDpjPgc2i01f1CxCKccAuP7l7_T0SAksZwkfhY5xKXn2fBkkz9GCuFLGt0uf__awej5GqNM/s723/new+wing.JPG" imageanchor="1" style="clear: right; float: right; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="723" data-original-width="438" height="320" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEittc6uLQ03XLvJ4sM-KzQRiiM3n8KAZasZIeD4tA3dmuNkmwF7nP553uxzpxnGrB5XIQeNRDpjPgc2i01f1CxCKccAuP7l7_T0SAksZwkfhY5xKXn2fBkkz9GCuFLGt0uf__awej5GqNM/s320/new+wing.JPG" /></a></div><br /></div><div><span style="color: #990000; font-family: verdana;"><br /></span></div><div><span style="color: #990000; font-family: verdana;"><br /></span></div><div><span style="color: #990000; font-family: verdana;"> On the right: the hostel with its new wing,</span></div><div><span style="color: #990000; font-family: verdana;"> built with the help of a vice-admiral.</span></div><div><span style="color: #990000; font-family: verdana;"> Photo from <i>Portsmouth Evening News</i></span></div><div><span style="color: #990000; font-family: verdana;"><i> </i>for 15 November, 1932.</span></div><div><span style="color: #990000; font-family: verdana;"><br /></span></div><div><span style="color: #990000; font-family: verdana;"><br /></span></div><div><span style="color: #990000; font-family: verdana;"><br /></span></div><div><span style="color: #990000; font-family: verdana;"><br /></span></div><div><span style="color: #990000; font-family: verdana;"><br /></span></div><div><span style="color: #990000; font-family: verdana;"><br /></span></div><div><span style="color: #990000; font-family: verdana;"><br /></span></div><div><span style="color: #990000; font-family: verdana;"><br /></span></div><div><span style="color: #990000; font-family: verdana;"><br /></span></div><div><span style="color: #990000; font-family: verdana;"><br /></span></div><div><span style="color: #990000; font-family: verdana;"><br /></span></div><div><span style="color: #990000; font-family: verdana;">There is a final connection of interest to Sherlockians. On April 1, 1930, Henry Edgar Grace CB was promoted vice-admiral and put on the Retired List the following day. He was the son of famous cricketer, W. G. Grace and, at 53, keen to find new matters to occupy an active, methodical mind that revelled in organization.</span></div><div><span style="color: #990000; font-family: verdana;"> <div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgiJs0L-Zxgc1bJCgJphqDkEtlOiy18TJT_cmLgZLWUANOFkWNPYYkJYXeYI6VBxNYG9fk8tJk1WZjO5LP-RSrpIt9eraW5_5PTzMXa4_MhUlHtr9Kl3nSOb7YokdIAy5W86LSmGt8YACg/s359/Henry_Edgar_Grace_1919.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="359" data-original-width="270" height="320" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgiJs0L-Zxgc1bJCgJphqDkEtlOiy18TJT_cmLgZLWUANOFkWNPYYkJYXeYI6VBxNYG9fk8tJk1WZjO5LP-RSrpIt9eraW5_5PTzMXa4_MhUlHtr9Kl3nSOb7YokdIAy5W86LSmGt8YACg/s320/Henry_Edgar_Grace_1919.jpg" /></a></div><br /></span></div><div><span style="color: #990000; font-family: verdana;">At the beginning of 1931, the hostel was in dire financial straits. Taking over as chairman, Grace declared: <i>"The Committee had either to get on or get out."</i></span></div><div><span style="color: #990000; font-family: verdana;"><i><br /></i></span></div><div><span style="color: #990000; font-family: verdana;">The retired sailor set out on a truly remarkable fundraising marathon in person.</span></div><div><span style="color: #990000; font-family: verdana;">From March 1st to the middle of August, when his doctor advised rest, Grace made some 18.000 door-to-door visits asking for donations. He was a skilful salesman: using a cricket analogy to market the campaign, he spoke of making a 1000 hits in the manner of his batsman father. Locals became used to seeing his specially modified vehicle about town: he had slots fitted with chutes into which you could slide coins.</span></div><div><span style="color: #990000; font-family: verdana;"> </span></div><div><table align="center" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><tbody><tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiTHE_dOVNV5FAVo4v05X2C9oSN0tYRZ560AkINW2Sr2SDhK1gNfc0pBVgGjYYxJin6HbxHRgBZQs_oYPLd3P78H5506JChfsQpOQ5a44dqyNy-bPuadU4uSFqHZBztP3CuNFEUyAVPQn4/s807/van.JPG" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" data-original-height="706" data-original-width="807" height="350" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiTHE_dOVNV5FAVo4v05X2C9oSN0tYRZ560AkINW2Sr2SDhK1gNfc0pBVgGjYYxJin6HbxHRgBZQs_oYPLd3P78H5506JChfsQpOQ5a44dqyNy-bPuadU4uSFqHZBztP3CuNFEUyAVPQn4/w400-h350/van.JPG" width="400" /></a></td></tr><tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">from Portsmouth Evening News March 1, 1932.</td></tr></tbody></table><br /><span style="color: #990000; font-family: verdana;"><br /></span></div><div><span style="color: #990000; font-family: verdana;">His illness notwithstanding, Vice-Admiral Grace, through giving his mind to it and knowing how to do it, raised close on £1500 by the end of that year, saving the hostel. Conan Doyle would have acclaimed him.</span></div><div><span style="color: #990000; font-family: verdana;"><br /></span></div><div><span style="color: #990000; font-family: verdana;"><b>Lost?</b></span></div><div><span style="color: #990000; font-family: verdana;"><b><br /></b></span></div><div><span style="color: #990000; font-family: verdana;">So much effort for one decade of operation. But well worth it. The legacy lived on, not in the bricks and mortar of 84, Kingston Crescent ( long-demolished, I think) but in the lives of those who benefited and their descendants. </span></div><div><span style="color: #990000; font-family: verdana;"><br /></span></div><div><span style="color: #990000; font-family: verdana;">The Sherlockian is left wondering what happened to the contents of that lost Conan Doyle Room. Especially the plaque from his last bedroom. Perchance Mrs. Watson, the matron (yes!), moved by her canonical namesake, spirited his verse to safety in 1940. Maybe it was returned to the family and lies, uncatalogued, in Portsmouth's Lancelyn Green collection. </span></div><div><span style="color: #990000; font-family: verdana;"><br /></span></div><div><span style="color: #990000; font-family: verdana;">Who knows? But if you're in the Hampshire area, at a car boot, antique centre, auction or charity shop, and spot this verse in an early 20th century frame...snap it up!</span></div><div><span style="color: #990000; font-family: verdana;"><br /></span></div><div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiDfIAcEYptUVqXLQIp7Z2YZoVQeSCeP7rNbQoe0eFjA3COnPAMwNNzpC3c3RQCDHio9hav7l2iqkNUvPx-Os1mYgmihyphenhyphenlNcffXWMShUMAceBf7Ot7v2EaqX9Lidf8qiPBs0i2dBzRZqds/s604/verse.JPG" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="428" data-original-width="604" height="284" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiDfIAcEYptUVqXLQIp7Z2YZoVQeSCeP7rNbQoe0eFjA3COnPAMwNNzpC3c3RQCDHio9hav7l2iqkNUvPx-Os1mYgmihyphenhyphenlNcffXWMShUMAceBf7Ot7v2EaqX9Lidf8qiPBs0i2dBzRZqds/w400-h284/verse.JPG" width="400" /></a></div><br /><span style="background-color: white; color: #4d5156; font-family: arial, sans-serif; font-size: 14px;"> ©RAYWILCOCKSON 2021</span></div><div><span style="color: #990000; font-family: verdana;"><br /></span><p></p><p><span style="color: #990000; font-family: verdana;"><i><br /></i></span></p></div>Altamonthttp://www.blogger.com/profile/07487675562905937401noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1766557913348045247.post-92123481699452414102020-06-14T22:23:00.000-07:002020-06-14T22:23:23.212-07:00Mycroft and Sherlock Holmes in the Dublin Steamer Passenger Lists. <br />
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<span style="font-family: Georgia, Times New Roman, serif;"><span style="white-space: pre-wrap;">Every literary landscape has its pleasant vales, inspirational heights, sparse scrubland and downright treacherous ground for study. The Shakespearean scholar treads with special caution over the tricky terrain of the dramatist's life. It is a brave Sherlockian who ventures upon the Grimpen Mire of chronology with regard to the detective's cases.</span></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Georgia, Times New Roman, serif;"><span style="white-space: pre-wrap;">While the simple order of publication is unquestionable, such is the characteristic narrative approach in Watson's chronicles that Chinese boxes of time are constructed of Milvertonian complexity. The reader is rarely sure just when the good doctor has sat down to write or how long had elapsed since the events narrated took place. Typically also, clients and others recount at length events (and third person accounts) compounding a generic timeline uncertainty arising from the unreliable memories of Watson and his literary agent, Conan Doyle. Rare are the moments of temporal clarity: it comes as a relief to know precisely where Sherlock Holmes was on the 2nd of August, 1914.</span></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Georgia, Times New Roman, serif;"><span style="white-space: pre-wrap;">Hitherto, the canon has been the sole source of information about the activities of Sherlock Holmes. Now, however, (much as public records of obscure legal cases have shed light on Shakespeare) Victorian bureaucratic thoroughness may be thanked for references in Irish newspapers that confirm the presence of the Holmes brothers in Dublin on two occasions in the late 1890's. </span></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Georgia, Times New Roman, serif;"><span style="white-space: pre-wrap;">To read more please click<span style="color: blue;"> <a href="https://drive.google.com/file/d/1_pxFtG7yR7ycpgRNB7v-U9ycTt3hweYb/view?usp=sharing" target="_blank"><span style="color: blue;">HERE</span></a></span> to open pdf. </span></span></div>
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Altamonthttp://www.blogger.com/profile/07487675562905937401noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1766557913348045247.post-58600310364205715992019-05-05T05:32:00.000-07:002019-05-05T05:32:11.093-07:00The Adventure of the Abbey Troupe - some Devon Amateurs & their 1922 Sherlock Holmes Play.<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
<img border="0" data-original-height="343" data-original-width="613" height="179" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEh07yrqzC7VrE8NgbScI4B8iuzPTbkP9c1rVdmpDroM0RYrIuYQMvH-ZgrygBZO-h_SHDE6c0FOQLuf7Qa76YoJlPRHmsdqUDhbbJaQhNi9yHndJ00UOdvfTs7PdhJRN6E-hHkWOe5Ie5M/s320/hartland-3.jpg" width="320" /></div>
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[Hartland Abbey, North Devon]</div>
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<span style="font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif;">This is a post in celebration of Howard Ostrom's "A-Z of Sherlock Holmes Performers", Baker Street Babes (<span style="color: blue;"><a href="https://bakerstreetbabes.com/" target="_blank"><span style="color: blue;">SEE</span></a>)</span> of all Sherlockian ages, and amateurs everywhere.</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif;">Poised to hit 5000 entries, the A-Z hosted by Ross. K Foad (<a href="https://www.nplh.co.uk/a-z-index.html" target="_blank"><span style="color: blue;">HERE</span></a>) chronicles many an amateur rubbing shoulders with professional interpretations of Conan Doyle's detective worldwide, on stage and in all media, ancient and modern. Too often, performances are lost to history, save for an inch or two of newsprint. Sometimes, even when that is all we have (as here), a little research can be surprisingly revealing. Not only do we find a new "Original Baker Street Babe" playing Sherlock Holmes, but a cast unexpectedly illustrious, acting for charity one September night in 1922.</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif;">[Hartland & West Country Chronicle 27 Sept 1922]</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif;">[North Devon Journal 21 Sept 1922]</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif;">The venue for the entertainment was not the spacious 1,100 seat Exeter cinema of that name but Bideford's tiny namesake, little more than a hall, converted in 1919 from the stables of the Heavitree Arms. Today, it is the Palladium Club, holding 150 people. Throughout the 1920's it was in regular use for concerts, whist drives, dances and the like, with occasional travelling cinema shows. On Thursday 14 September, 1922, the Abbey Troupe presented an evening of entertainment and dancing here in aid of Hartland Nursing Association.</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif;"><u><b>THE ABBEY TROUPE. </b></u></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif;">Members of two families composed the core of this troupe that appears to have come together, suitably named, for this unique occasion, and it will pay to identify them before commenting on the centrepiece of that evening, their Sherlock Holmes play.</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif;"><b>The Stucleys.</b></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif;">The participation of four Stucleys explains the troupe's name. Mrs. H. Stucley, who appears in two tableaux vivants, is the wife of Sir Hugh Nicholas Granville Stucley (1873-1956) of Alfreton Castle, Moreton & Hartland Abbey. (<a href="https://www.geni.com/people/Hugh-Nicholas-Granville-Stucley/6000000015530190951" target="_blank"><span style="color: blue;">SEE</span></a>). Little Bo-Peep is her 11 year old daughter, Priscilla (1911-1999) (<a href="https://www.geni.com/people/Priscilla-Stucley/6000000015530177411" target="_blank"><span style="color: blue;">SEE</span></a>), joined in the Nut Tree item by her cousin, Lewis, who performs in the play alongside his brother, Peter. The boys were 12 and 13, sons of the (deceased) brother of Sir Hugh, Major Humphrey St. Leger Stucley (1877-1914) (<a href="https://www.britishempire.co.uk/forces/armyunits/britishinfantry/grenadierstlegerstucley.htm" target="_blank"><span style="color: blue;">SEE</span></a>). </span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif;">Today, the 6th Baronet (also a Hugh Stucley) continues a Hartland tradition of hosting film and theatre arts at the Abbey. Summer theatre performances outdoors (<a href="https://www.hartlandabbey.com/events-exhibitions/" target="_blank"><span style="color: blue;">SEE</span></a>) hark back to Stucleys who staged Milton's <i>"Comus"</i> by searchlight in the grounds of Moreton Hall in 1932 and his <i>"Paradise Lost"</i> with a massive cast in Hartland's old church of St. Nectan three years later. The Abbey Estate has featured as a location for several films (<a href="https://www.hartlandabbey.com/film-photo-location/" target="_blank"><span style="color: blue;">SEE</span></a>) most notably the BBC's <i>"Sense and SensibilIty".</i></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif;"><b>The Dashwoods & Family.</b></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif;">Where Austen's novel told of fictional Dashwoods, the Abbey Troupe offered real ones. The gentleman who regaled the audience between scene and costume changes with tales of East Africa was Major Arthur Paul Dashwood, OBE, of the Royal Engineers (1882-1964), the third son of the 6th Baronet Dashwood.</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjUlhjXmBrPUfQq3gSVqd7hlInxUF_jhIpiUfaGYsy1LpgmXe3LNZ30N_c728412Q7C_6W7djMlcgpFvHJXzfvOVCa-2uhvi57Tso8V3D3Pmz4t8G4rmsfJKvLcH0UTasW2ZqaG22BTFts/s1600/major+dashwood.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: left; float: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="188" data-original-width="148" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjUlhjXmBrPUfQq3gSVqd7hlInxUF_jhIpiUfaGYsy1LpgmXe3LNZ30N_c728412Q7C_6W7djMlcgpFvHJXzfvOVCa-2uhvi57Tso8V3D3Pmz4t8G4rmsfJKvLcH0UTasW2ZqaG22BTFts/s1600/major+dashwood.jpg" /></a></span></div>
<span style="font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif;"> A seasoned traveller, he built the naval docks in Hong Kong Harbour and met the lady he married in July, 1919, after making the acquaintance of her mother and younger daughter on a return visit to England.</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif;">Like the Major and the Stucleys, Mrs. Dashwood was of aristocratic stock but her fame rests on her literary reputation, because Mrs. Paul Dashwood was the author often dubbed <i>'the second Jane Austen', </i>whose pen name was E.M.Delafield (1890-1943). Her classic <i>"Diary of a Provincial Lady"</i> (1930) has never been out of print. Emil Otto Hoppé photographed her in 1922:</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif;"> This is the face of '<i>Violet Stonin' </i></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif;">It is thought her publisher suggested '<i>Delafield' </i>for her publications to avoid confusion with her mother. In a reverse of Hardy's <i>Tess Durbeyfield/D'Urbervilles, </i>Edmeé Elizabeth Monica de la Pasture was anglicised.</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif;">The Dashwoods had gone out to the Malay States soon after their marriage but were back living in mid-Devon by January, 1922, largely at the behest of the budding novelist</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif;"><br /></span><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhp0jJX6V_cnlbO7OU9VUsT_g74Z4tNlzSLFfosFml4rI31HzRZiA0Sp7sFWGn1PmLqVWjR7luu5izA2PSHfHsl40mgkAMYGaMg7tCm4PLnVTlvgAQbSNu9ZcvTtdGNRWJqZDcIkG0wp9A/s1600/count_h.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="95" data-original-width="98" height="193" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhp0jJX6V_cnlbO7OU9VUsT_g74Z4tNlzSLFfosFml4rI31HzRZiA0Sp7sFWGn1PmLqVWjR7luu5izA2PSHfHsl40mgkAMYGaMg7tCm4PLnVTlvgAQbSNu9ZcvTtdGNRWJqZDcIkG0wp9A/s200/count_h.jpg" width="200" /></a><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgfyDpNXNdZtP-ukwh6liY8K4JeZ8xKCKIPMD1TdN4PhMaGkoCBulsNhR1_yyO1BneWplPWmQzO7-t8xDdgEriYDQ1XoWrP5jIkxCTLQYdyGIFPnA_Shb62QJ2OHymDktotP6hjJ5355Do/s1600/Mrs_Henry_de_la_Pasture.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="450" data-original-width="600" height="240" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgfyDpNXNdZtP-ukwh6liY8K4JeZ8xKCKIPMD1TdN4PhMaGkoCBulsNhR1_yyO1BneWplPWmQzO7-t8xDdgEriYDQ1XoWrP5jIkxCTLQYdyGIFPnA_Shb62QJ2OHymDktotP6hjJ5355Do/s320/Mrs_Henry_de_la_Pasture.jpg" width="320" /></a></div>
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<span style="font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif;"> [E. M. Delafield's Parents]</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif;">Delafield's mother was Mrs. Henry de la Pasture (1866-1945), the famous novelist and dramatist (<a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mrs_Henry_de_la_Pasture" target="_blank"><span style="color: blue;">SEE</span></a>). She married Comte Henri Philip Ducarel de la Pasture, who died in 1908. They had two daughters who appeared together in the Abbey Troupe as <i>'Violet Stonin' </i>and <i>'Sherlock Holmes'. </i>In 1910, their mother remarried into the Clifford family. Sir Hugh Charles Clifford (1866-1941) was a colonial administrator (<a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hugh_Clifford" target="_blank"><span style="color: blue;">SEE</span></a>), whose first wife died in 1907. In 1915 he was photographed with his second wife. The sitters include all three children from the first marriage AND the younger de la Pasture daughter, seven years before she played Sherlock Holmes (<i>back row</i> behind her father).</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif;"> [Photo courtesy National Portrait Gallery]</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif;"> <b>An Original Baker Street Babe.</b></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif;">Bettine Marie Yolande de la Pasture (1892-1976), known in the family as <i>Yoé, </i>was a medical student at Bristol University in 1922. There are news reports of her acting in several university drama club productions in the early twenties. Little is known of her ensuing life except that she became a doctor and married an Austrian called Friedl in Vienna in 1936.</span></div>
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<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhdfvTXSvIXhMZsfmEeiWutrfmFfX61DZmvcRzvUO6bGDO8jNjoIwxiC3L4AX9Y8zjCx50-w8iMijzXYkGWeHNZka6W_RCS3mARq1DrwUE64nDBp8LqHZihtOzgwVPM9VTrz2x0wEMKZFY/s1600/FAMILY.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="149" data-original-width="140" height="400" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhdfvTXSvIXhMZsfmEeiWutrfmFfX61DZmvcRzvUO6bGDO8jNjoIwxiC3L4AX9Y8zjCx50-w8iMijzXYkGWeHNZka6W_RCS3mARq1DrwUE64nDBp8LqHZihtOzgwVPM9VTrz2x0wEMKZFY/s400/FAMILY.jpg" width="375" /></a></div>
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<span style="font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif;"><i> </i> [This is the face of <i>Sherlock Holmes</i>]</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif;"><b><u>"THE DEATH WHISTLE"</u></b></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif;">There are, as Holmes would say, some points of interest regarding the play that September evening, clearly a version of <i>The Speckled Band</i>. Given the limited cast, time and staging it seems likely the two '<i>acts</i>' correspond to portions of Conan Doyle's play: 1) the Baker Street visits of Enid and her stepfather in Doyle's Act 2, scene 2 AND 2) the climactic Act 3, scene 2, in Enid's bedroom.</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif;">Doyle himself changed some of the short story's names for the stage version. Helen Stoner became Enid Stonor; the deceased Julia was re-christened Violet; Dr. Roylott re-emerges as Rylott. Deliberately or not (or a news reporter's error?), the Abbey Troupe field yet another variant cast:<i> Mr. Raylett</i> and <i>Violet Stonin </i>(for Helen/Enid). It may be suspected such name changes, along with the play's masking title, are made to minimize the attention of copyright holders. But I think it just as feasible the names are merely misremembered and the title aptly chosen, arising from Helen's account in the short story:</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif;"><i>"I suddenly heard in the silence of the night the low whistle which had been the herald of her </i>[Julia's]<i> own death." </i>[SPEC]</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif;">In 1922 the phrase "Death Whistle" had two additional connotations. Richard Marsh (1857-1915) (<a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Richard_Marsh_(author)" target="_blank"><span style="color: blue;">SEE</span></a>) published a very popular thriller with that title in 1903. The literary de la Pastures would very likely have read it.</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif;">More darkly, the phrase conjured memories of a rumour rife during the recent war which alleged that German doctors carried a single-shot pistol, disguised as a working whistle on the battlefield with which they murdered their own wounded. Here is, for example, the Rugby Advertiser on 29 June, 1915:</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif;">Delafield would know this barbarous tale of a whistle sounding as prelude to the death of one's own kind, having been a voluntary aid nurse in Exeter from 1914.</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif;">There remains the unanswered question : who wrote the script for <i>"The Death Whistle"</i>? My money is on a combined sisterly act of creation. Perhaps somewhere in the archive of the Stucley family or that of E. M. Delafield there's a well-thumbed, unpublished MS of an amateur Sherlock Holmes play.</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif;">[FOR MORE on E. M. Delafield I recommend the starcourse website <a href="http://www.starcourse.org/emd/index.htm" target="_blank"><span style="color: blue;">HERE</span></a>]</span></div>
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Altamonthttp://www.blogger.com/profile/07487675562905937401noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1766557913348045247.post-5406519616479063372019-01-17T08:48:00.001-08:002021-07-20T08:54:55.444-07:00Charles Augustus Milverton - the Wrath of Athene.<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
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<span face=""verdana" , sans-serif"><i>["Opposite (Milverton's desk) was a large bookcase, with a marble bust of Athene on the top"] </i>Charles Augustus Milverton.</span><br />
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<span face=""verdana" , sans-serif">I have long cautioned myself that it is a capital mistake to read every Sherlock Holmes story through the same literary lens. Not all by any means may securely be pigeon-holed in the <i>detective </i>genre. To do so is to undervalue the work and limit response. These are the <i>Adventures </i>of a detective and, as such, varied and the more interesting for it. Search <i>"The Adventure of the Engineer's Thumb" </i>in vain for classic passages of brilliant deduction, impressive action and triumphant solution. Holmes is, throughout, more akin to the dog who did nothing in the night. </span><br />
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<span face=""verdana" , sans-serif">Watson and Holmes are fully aware of this. The former prefaces the tale with what amounts to a signpost indicating how it should be read:</span><br />
<span face=""verdana" , sans-serif"> (The problem of Mr. Hatherley's thumb) <i>"was so strange in its inception and so dramatic in its details that it may be ... worthy of being placed upon record, even if it gave my friend fewer openings for those deductive methods of reasoning by which he achieved such remarkable results." </i> </span><br />
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<span face=""verdana" , sans-serif">Almost the entire narrative is taken up with Victor Hatherley's retrospective account of his ordeal and escape. The counterfeiters escape scot-free. Watson does not trouble to detail, still less dramatise, the detective's (failed) "<i>ingenuity"</i> in belated attempts to track down Stark & co. Why? Because this is not the central focus of the story. </span><br />
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<span face=""verdana" , sans-serif">That we have read a <i>cautionary </i>tale (rather than a detective case) is patent in the story's final exchange. In reply to Hatherley's rueful comment: <i>"I have lost my thumb and I have lost a fifty-guinea fee, and what have I gained?" </i>Holmes, in a word, points the moral: <i>"Experience". </i>He can afford to make light of the matter, suggesting the hydraulic engineer may dine out on this story, because, in truth, it has been a lucky escape. The severed thumb haunts the imagination, symbolic of a far more gruesome outcome, fortuitously escaped. Thus, often, is the way with our apparently 'ordinary' lives. </span><br />
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<span face=""verdana" , sans-serif"> - 0 -</span><br />
<span face=""verdana" , sans-serif"><i>"Charles Augustus Milverton" </i>is another adventure in which pure detection plays second violin to a more compelling theme. The treatment, however, could not be more different. The inaction of <i>ENGR</i> is replaced by near-comic hyperactivity on the part of Holmes & Watson - to the same vain end as they are rendered bystanders to a main event. </span><br />
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<span face=""verdana" , sans-serif">Herein lies what I value in a recent essay on CHAS by Lyndsay Faye, whose interpretation rightly highlights what I below describe as <i>The Wrath of Athene". </i>Please read Faye's commentary <a href="http://bakerstreetbabes.com/charles-augustus-milvertoon-post-metoo-era/?fbclid=IwAR3x2_MGjdW3Fk92Tvm460DPTjbuvvWHGX0Ac7-abei9ivJffOPw5Ms5f8o" target="_blank"><span style="color: blue;">HERE</span></a> as I'll proceed to draw attention to complementary, supportive details in Doyle's text.</span><br />
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<span face=""verdana" , sans-serif">I would draw the reader's attention to three matters: the serio-comic nature of our heroes' exertions with regard to Milverton, the theme of fate, and the creation that is the anonymous, female <i>deus ex machina </i>who kills <i>"the worst man in London."</i></span><br />
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<span face=""verdana" , sans-serif"> <b>1.</b> <b><i>"a creeping, shrinking sensation".</i></b></span><br />
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<span face=""verdana" , sans-serif">A trait central to Conan Doyle's chosen profession is his utter seriousness with regard to the craft of writing, whatever the genre. By virtue of this he is ready and able to re-calibrate Sherlock Holmes, his iconic recurrent character, in the service of a good story. If Holmes can 'fail' in 1891's <i>"A Scandal in Bohemia", </i>there is certainly no artistic risk in the spring of 1904: the<i>"Return"</i> stories are flying off the magazine stands, feeding a readership fresh from <i>"The Hound of the Baskervilles" </i>and William Gillette's stage success.</span><span face=""verdana" , sans-serif">Thus it is that the reader of </span><i style="font-family: verdana, sans-serif;">CHAS </i><span face=""verdana" , sans-serif">is presented with a series of incidents and descriptions that subtly diminish the Great Detective.</span><br />
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<span face=""verdana" , sans-serif">The brushwork is melodramatic, with Dickensian echoes, throughout the opening scene, from Holmes' florid expressions of revulsion to a Milverton who looks like Mr. Pickwick but is all Quilp. And, as often with Dickens, we find ourselves in surreal, fairy tale country (as, more to the point, does an unusually emotional Holmes) where this <i>"serpent",</i> <i>"The Evil One" </i>threatens the Lady Eva, <i>the most beautiful debutante of last season". </i>We shall later recall wryly (as does Ms. Faye)</span><span face=""verdana" , sans-serif"> condemnation here of <i>"genteel ruffians who have gained the confidence and affection of trusting women" </i>(Think Escott).</span><span face=""verdana" , sans-serif"> </span><br />
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<span face=""verdana" , sans-serif">There's no doubt that Milverton wins Round One. Holmes is discountenanced: <i>"grey with anger and mortification". </i>The encounter ends with a lame ploy to corner the blackmailer who is more than ready to resist.</span><br />
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<span face=""verdana" , sans-serif">We move now to <i>"a wild, tempestuous evening, when the rain screamed and rattled against the windows". </i>On such a Gothic night, Holmes seems back in his comfort zone (himself, if you will) as he gleefully regales his comrade-in-arms with the first example we shall encounter of his going to extraordinary lengths which will ultimately prove utterly irrelevant. The twin motives are clearly stated: the chivalrous defence of a lady by a gentleman and the restoration of Holmes' self-respect and reputation after Milverton <i>"had, as you saw,the best of the first exchanges". </i>Above all, it's a sporting duel <i>mano a mano.</i></span><br />
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<span face=""verdana" , sans-serif">There is too, in this conversation, a ribbon of moral ambivalence (concerning the 'engagement' and breaking the law) that feels as surreal in its justifications as does the all-too professional burglary kit Holmes purrs over. The black silk masks they don to assault the towers of Appledore are as flimsily theatrical as any Hereditary King of Bohemia ever wore. And (let us not forget) 'Agatha' (the duped maid) means 'good woman' and Holmes did her wrong.</span><br />
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<span face=""verdana" , sans-serif">Even as Holmes is being consciously undermined, Conan Doyle ensures there's plenty of suspenseful action to hold attention. Witness the expert 'entry', the hushed narration as our knights penetrate to the inner sanctum. All is as planned. Clockwork. Doyle deliberately prolongs and minutely details, lays on Watson's reflections on chivalry with a trowel. </span><br />
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<span face=""verdana" , sans-serif">All this will be undercut just as surely as von Bork's smugness in <i>"His Last Bow". Twice </i>the unexpected will yank the carpet from under this mock-heroic scene. The lesser, first, is, of course, the surprise apparition of a very awake Milverton. The pair take refuge behind the curtain and, effectively, for the rest of the story, are reduced to helpless spectators. That Holmes eventually manages to burn the stash of letters does not amount here to a redeemed reputation. That is, in this story, an irrelevance. </span><br />
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<span face=""verdana" , sans-serif">For me, there is some comedy in the whisperings and hand-holding of our heroes, preparatory, I'd say (in much the way one finds in Shakespeare) for the contrasting, ultra-serious realism of the ensuing murder; a comedy resumed in the pair's flight and subsequent conversation with Lestrade. </span><br />
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<span face=""verdana" , sans-serif"><b>2. The Theme of Fate.</b></span><br />
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<span face=""verdana" , sans-serif">Superficially, the story's late twist parallels that of <i>"A Scandal in Bohemia"</i>: in both, a woman acts independently beyond Holmes' knowledge or foresight. The difference with <i>CHAS </i>lies in its underlying notions of destiny. Holmes believes Lady Eva's destiny to be in his hands alone: <i>"I must therefore abandon my client to her fate or I must play this last card." </i>Moreover, the detective insists to Watson: <i>"I can't get out of doing business with him."</i> This belief informs and justifies every action taken henceforth. Thus playing fast and loose with Agatha's affections was <i>"a necessary step"</i>, <i>"You must play your cards as best you can". </i></span><br />
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<span face=""verdana" , sans-serif">There's irony and wryness as Watson talks himself into abetting his friend's crime. Holmes may need the Doctor as <i>"You can't tell what may happen"</i>. Meanwhile Holmes seems blithely resigned to this apparent path of destiny, welcoming <i>"the chance of my lifetime" </i>to flaunt his criminal efficiency. Most forebodingly (and comically) is Watson's involuntary reaction to the notion of burgling Milverton's house:</span><br />
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<span face=""verdana" , sans-serif"><i>"As a flash of lightning in the night shows up in an instant every detail of a wide landscape, so at one glance I seemed to see every possible result of such an action - the detection, the capture, the honoured career ending in irreparable failure and disgrace, my friend himself lying at the mercy of the odious Milverton." </i></span><br />
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<span face=""verdana" , sans-serif">Thus do we mortals so blindly imagine we see. Both Holmes and Watson are caught in illusions of their own making. Meanwhile, fate waits patiently.</span><br />
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<span face=""verdana" , sans-serif">One wonders for how long the bust of Athene has sat atop Milverton's bookcase and, indeed, why he placed it there. As it is, Athene is mute witness to all the blackmailer's secrets and all that unfolds this night. The goddess of Wisdom, of War, Courage, Inspiration and Justice (most relevantly) is located by Conan Doyle directly opposite Milverton's desk and <i>"turning chair of shining red leather".</i> It is a marble bust, with (therefore) as marble a heart as that Holmes attributes to Milverton. Implacable fate, I'd say. Biding time.</span><br />
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<span face=""verdana" , sans-serif">Let me be clear. It seems to me that Conan Doyle has spun false notions of destiny in the three men who dominate the narrative. Milverton thinks himself invulnerable; Holmes and Watson believe themselves to be the last court of chivalrous appeal. All place themselves, as a direct consequence, outside the law. Their respective illusions blind them even to imagine other worlds. We are in a Human Comedy. </span><br />
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<span face=""verdana" , sans-serif"><b>3. The Wrath of Athene.</b></span><br />
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<span face=""verdana" , sans-serif"><i>"No interference on our part could have saved the man from his fate."</i></span><br />
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<span face=""verdana" , sans-serif">Watson's observation directly after <i>"the avenger was gone" </i>makes explicit the limitations both of Holmes' expert exertions and Milverton's cunning machinations. The Gordian knot of their macho entanglement is summarily cut by a woman wronged, with a righteous, implacable directness stunning in its awesome, blunt reality. In a moment, he is cut down to size: no longer <i>"Augustus"</i> she names him <i>"Charles Milverton" </i>in prelude to a death deserved. The narrator's language is now sober and unflinchingly realistic: <i>"She...emptied barrel after barrel into Milverton's body". </i>One last shot to finish him and then:</span><br />
<span face=""verdana" , sans-serif"><i>The woman looked at him intently and ground her heel into his upturned face".</i></span><br />
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<span face=""verdana" , sans-serif">This is <i>not </i>Lady Eva. Holmes would recognise her. The epilogue would be superfluous. No, at the time, the nemesis of Charles Augustus Milverton is an anonymous woman who gains entrance in disguise. That anonymity frees this literary creation to be as representative of womankind as the goddess Athene. She attests to this in the words Watson records:</span><br />
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<span face=""verdana" , sans-serif"><i>"You will ruin no more lives as you ruined mine. You will wring no more hearts as you wrung mine. I will free the world of a poisonous thing. Take that, you hound, and that! - and that! - and that!"</i></span><br />
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<span face=""verdana" , sans-serif">As narrator, Watson knows the description he is to record in the concluding scene at a shop window but avoids any reference to the woman's regality as he chronicles her appearance in Milverton's study. She is <i>"veiled" </i>with <i>"a mantle over her chin". "Every lithe inch" of t</i>his <i>"tall, slim, dark woman" </i>is <i>"quivering with emotion". </i>The veil removed, <i>"It was a dark, handsome, clear-cut face...with a curved nose, strong, dark eyebrows shading hard, glittering eyes, and a straight, thin-lipped mouth set in a dangerous smile."</i></span><br />
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<span face=""verdana" , sans-serif">Athene personified. The bust come to life. <i>Dea ex machina</i>. And all wronged womankind behind the gathered resolve that pulls the trigger.</span><br />
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<span face=""verdana" , sans-serif">To Holmes and Watson some credit: their subsequent silence on the matter. As in some other cases, the great detective and the good doctor conspire to allow the guilty to go free, deemed more sinned against than sinning. Neither, furthermore, considers murdering Milverton even as a last card. Perhaps in time these naively chivalrous gentlemen would realise the logic here and learn from this experience that,if push comes to shove, Athene can, will and has the right to take care of herself. As Watson put it in the story's first paragraph: <i>"the principal person concerned is now beyond the reach of human law". </i>Such righteous wrath always is.</span><br />
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<span face=""verdana" , sans-serif"><b>4. In Conclusion.</b></span><br />
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<span face=""verdana" , sans-serif">I like this illustration drawn by Sidney Paget for The Strand printing of <i>CHAS.</i></span><br />
<span face=""verdana" , sans-serif">The artist perceptively mirrors the reality I have noted above: that Holmes and Watson, despite all their good (<b>and</b> questionable) intentions, feverous activity, and moral ruminations, have in fact stood on the outside looking in.</span><br />
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<span face=""verdana" , sans-serif">I like to fancy that through those grimy panes they see not just one <i>regal and stately lady </i>but a vibrant gallery of past and future women standing tall.</span><br />
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<span face=""verdana" , sans-serif">[My sincere gratitude to Lyndsay Faye for an inspiring essay and to the Baker Street Babes for sharing it through their website.] </span><br />
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<span face=""verdana" , sans-serif"><br /><br /><b>July 2021 Addition: Conan Doyle's Nod to Edgar Allan Poe in CHAS.</b></span><div><b><br /></b></div><div>Behind Doyle's prose story lies a poem: Poe's <i>"The Raven". </i>Both scenarios are acted out under the implacable gaze of Pallas Athene, goddess of Wisdom, Warfare, Justice and Fate. The poem's climactic, indelible image is of her and the inescapable raven - a composite, horrifying sculpture:</div><div><br /></div><div> <i>"And the Raven, never flitting, still is sitting, <b>still </b>is sitting</i></div><div><i> On the pallid bust of Pallas just above my chamber door."</i></div><div><i><br /></i></div><div>Here is <span style="background-color: white; color: #4d5156; font-family: arial, sans-serif; font-size: 14px;">Édouard </span><span style="background-color: white; font-family: arial, sans-serif; font-size: 14px;"><span style="color: #5f6368;">Manet's illustration for </span></span><span style="background-color: white; color: #5f6368; font-family: arial, sans-serif; font-size: 14px;">Mallarmé</span><span style="background-color: white; font-family: arial, sans-serif; font-size: 14px;"><span style="color: #4d5156;">'s 1875 French translation:</span></span></div><div><span style="background-color: white; font-family: arial, sans-serif; font-size: 14px;"><span style="color: #4d5156;"> <div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgHQaqEt0whwqAFNfIuHN8bV3zvwY1wXW24Vd82ORPalXjtgrWBHBkTEf-3o_qXnEhnLevlAPsVO_3kpBIOazWr2F97GFlQLPas2E7bfVy1kv_Qu87D4Ixvf5J3QA3xt556ZwUT63GgW8M/s1214/Raven_Manet_D2.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="1214" data-original-width="800" height="400" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgHQaqEt0whwqAFNfIuHN8bV3zvwY1wXW24Vd82ORPalXjtgrWBHBkTEf-3o_qXnEhnLevlAPsVO_3kpBIOazWr2F97GFlQLPas2E7bfVy1kv_Qu87D4Ixvf5J3QA3xt556ZwUT63GgW8M/w264-h400/Raven_Manet_D2.jpg" width="264" /></a></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><br /></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><br /></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><br /></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><br /></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><span style="text-align: left;">Illustrating precisely the same moment in the text for their respective 1904 magazine publications, it is, perhaps, understandable that the American, Frederic Dorr Steele, was more readily attuned to the presence of Poe and made sure to incorporate the bust quite overlooked by Sidney Paget.</span></div></span></span></div><div><span style="background-color: white; font-family: arial, sans-serif; font-size: 14px;"><span style="color: #4d5156;"><br /></span></span></div><div><span style="background-color: white; font-family: arial, sans-serif; font-size: 14px;"><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjstM6PMeBpxoh261xWpZAuCigWTumCdjqX2mkZ3hfWc7T1qIBsZMWITm9tezaHeadOyC79PjWsc1QUHUAhNoLLdvcvz6nu4BI1P-Nwj2oaST1nV8oW9RQai4j8y0wrhn_c5BiSn4RHslY/s659/CHAS+pair.JPG" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="372" data-original-width="659" height="226" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjstM6PMeBpxoh261xWpZAuCigWTumCdjqX2mkZ3hfWc7T1qIBsZMWITm9tezaHeadOyC79PjWsc1QUHUAhNoLLdvcvz6nu4BI1P-Nwj2oaST1nV8oW9RQai4j8y0wrhn_c5BiSn4RHslY/w400-h226/CHAS+pair.JPG" width="400" /></a></div><br /><span style="color: #4d5156;"><br /></span></span></div><div><span style="background-color: white; color: #222222; font-family: "arial"; font-size: 14px; font-weight: 700; white-space: pre;">ⒸRAYWILCOCKSON2021</span><br /><div><span face=""verdana" , sans-serif"><b><br /></b></span></div><div><span face=""verdana" , sans-serif"><b><br /></b></span>
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<span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">For Rathbone it was his first outing (aged 47) as Sherlock Holmes. The film's titular star was 20th Century Fox's newest matinee idol (aged 20), Richard Marius Joseph Greene. The rest is history - almost.</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;"><b>[To read the full blog post please click <a href="https://drive.google.com/file/d/1rkjVe7FrYXc-jtEQqy8GP5T1baAs3SHU/view?usp=sharing" target="_blank">HERE</a> to open pdf]</b></span><br />
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Altamonthttp://www.blogger.com/profile/07487675562905937401noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1766557913348045247.post-31968220278530802112018-08-04T12:50:00.000-07:002018-08-04T12:50:28.445-07:00A Case for Sherlock Holmes: In the Footsteps of John Webb [Spring, 1894].<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiB8kEdHYY_S5xudUBLTVfePguV3mERhd-hI7NQ9bPhwbV8xuI0oH-2WB3AS96AMWHLqBuW23s5b4kLQeqsYWWNln8MjzvtW7Tkv4m1-TtKebAWIz4cTZqZyrLkEGvaiu5i6vOKrnK94rk/s1600/holmes+prints.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="491" data-original-width="873" height="223" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiB8kEdHYY_S5xudUBLTVfePguV3mERhd-hI7NQ9bPhwbV8xuI0oH-2WB3AS96AMWHLqBuW23s5b4kLQeqsYWWNln8MjzvtW7Tkv4m1-TtKebAWIz4cTZqZyrLkEGvaiu5i6vOKrnK94rk/s400/holmes+prints.jpg" width="400" /></a></div>
<span style="font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif;">This is the second of four posts about the actor who played Sherlock Holmes at Glasgow's Theatre Royal in 1894. The first (<a href="http://altamarkings.blogspot.com/2018/07/a-case-for-sherlock-holmes-introduction.html" target="_blank"><span style="color: blue;">HERE</span></a>) introduced John Webb (1864-1913), a noted member of George Conquest's company at the Surrey theatre, and indicated there is reason to identify him as the John Webb named in reviews of the Glasgow production. For reference, please see <a href="https://drive.google.com/file/d/1zNmSYu_xidOm3CTifGqY4acIsSpuVzUx/view?usp=sharing" target="_blank"><span style="color: blue;">HERE</span></a> for all reviews and notices, none of which make a connection that, nevertheless, may be inferred from the existence of a clear timeline for the Surrey Webb and absence of any trace of another professional of that name active in the period.</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif;">The annotated timeline below begins, with reason, on Easter Saturday, March 24, 1894, and charts all activities definitely attributable to the Surrey Webb until late July. It begins and ends with the same play and role.</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif;"><b>MARCH 24 - APRIL 7 Arthur Shirley's <i>"The Lightning's Flash" </i>at the Surrey in the role of villain, Gordon Garville.</b></span><br />
<span style="font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif;">[April 9 George I. Hale heads north with a company to tour this play and will reach Glasgow the week before the Sherlock Holmes play. No one from the Surrey is in the new cast and Hale plays Gordon Garville until the end of a week's run at the Royal Princess, Glasgow: May 21-26.]</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif;"><b>APRIL 9 - MAY 5 Harris & Pettitt's <i>"A Life of Pleasure" </i>at the Surrey in the role of evil genius, Captain Chandos.</b></span><br />
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<span style="font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif;"><b>On May 3 John Webb posts (for the second week) the following Professional Card in <i>The Stage:</i></b></span><br />
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<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhc9CFJSVIRapcHZ0wWAhLIrh9pSkEVQyHwmUWab2bM0EVcAO-4h3DjTLmEzVqmrKMc6vKDo4Jv8fhsALbr4nL9C38ggSEJNItMbfJ0k2DKtpy8p8b2ZdTfC9WI78cao2D7hey7H-8fGO4/s1600/stage+3+may+1894star.JPG" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="89" data-original-width="702" height="50" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhc9CFJSVIRapcHZ0wWAhLIrh9pSkEVQyHwmUWab2bM0EVcAO-4h3DjTLmEzVqmrKMc6vKDo4Jv8fhsALbr4nL9C38ggSEJNItMbfJ0k2DKtpy8p8b2ZdTfC9WI78cao2D7hey7H-8fGO4/s400/stage+3+may+1894star.JPG" width="400" /></a></div>
<span style="font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif;">Webb is drawing the attention of managers. He seeks employment after the traditional close of the resident company's season at the Surrey on May 19 after Whitsuntide. He does not advertise again.</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif;"><b>MAY 7 - MAY 12 Harold Whyte's <i>"Fettered Lives" </i>at the Surrey in the role of virtuous Joe Hazleton.</b></span><br />
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<span style="font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif;"><b>MAY 14 (Whit Monday) - MAY 19 Meritt & Conquest's <i>"The Crimes of Paris"</i> at the Surrey in the role that gave Webb his nickname <i>'the Surrey Villain'</i>: the Vicomte de Vismes.</b></span><br />
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<span style="font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif;"><b> </b>[<i>The Stage, 10 May, 1894</i>]</span><br />
<span style="font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif;">I imagine Webb then took a break before journeying to Scotland for rehearsal of the new play. However:</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif;">Setting aside the 'John Webb' named in reviews of the Glasgow Holmes play (May 28-June 2), the newspapers are silent on the Surrey Webb until:</span><br />
<span style="font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif;"><b>JUNE 4 - JUNE 9 Arthur Shirley's <i>"The Lightning's Flash" </i>at Theatre Royal, Jarrow. </b>This is the Hale tour, now heading back south with some cast changes. Hale is now the blinded hero, Stephen Merrick, John Webb is back as the villain, Gordon Garville and his wife, Nellie V. Warden has assumed the role of Selina Snack. This cast proceeds the following week to the <b>Theatre Royal, North Shields </b>and remains together until tour's end in late July.</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif;">On <b>Thursday May 31</b>, during the week of <i>"Sherlock Holmes"</i> in Glasgow, <i>The Stage </i>published the following Professional Card:</span><br />
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<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjPbbkOuQea9xTHWEiJ9lga2Ibwfyu7veO5WUS-gbtRLjaA8Y_IkKgxFjiXPFdVYoKgJMrOuLcaGZPqVZq1EDjKjCWjEzOL550j5a-JlwJXbaOHyqOwFIqoXm8sS-_FKWoFPTjLSTcGxdg/s1600/stage+31+may+1894+star.JPG" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="91" data-original-width="734" height="48" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjPbbkOuQea9xTHWEiJ9lga2Ibwfyu7veO5WUS-gbtRLjaA8Y_IkKgxFjiXPFdVYoKgJMrOuLcaGZPqVZq1EDjKjCWjEzOL550j5a-JlwJXbaOHyqOwFIqoXm8sS-_FKWoFPTjLSTcGxdg/s400/stage+31+may+1894+star.JPG" width="400" /></a></div>
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<span style="font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif;">This professional communication to managers was inserted either by the Surrey's John Webb or by another actor with the same name. To accept the latter explanation would be to dismiss the rich circumstantial evidence in favour of the former, a known, reliable, respected and available actor in great demand. This trifle of an advertisement places the Surrey actor on stage as Holmes: for any manager reading it, there was only one John Webb, needing no further description. in addition, had Holmes been played by a local Scot, I'd expect mention of other roles in the <i>Glasgow Herald </i>and he'd likely have taken part on stage in the June 11 bumper benefit for F. C. Cowlard, acting manager of the Theatre Royal (he does not).</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif;">Webb knew the theatre was scheduled to close from June 4-10 to prepare the benefit. He needed work. It may well have been unnecessary to place the Professional Card as Hale was arguably still in Glasgow and Webb, surely, was already in rehearsal the previous week of Hale's play. </span><br />
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<span style="font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif;">Whichever, I'd say that at the end of May (Hale) and the beginning of May (Cordyce & Rogers) there were two theatrical managements who, realising John Webb of the Surrey was free, were doing a passable imitation of <i>Moonraker</i>'s Hugo Drax savouring the thought of employing Jaws:</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif;"><b><i>"Oh, yes, well, if you can get HIM, of course!"</i></b></span><br />
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<span style="font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif;">In my next post I shall examine both the Glasgow production and its previous copyright performance in Hanley from the stand point of Charles Rogers and Henry Cordyce to illustrate why it was timely and wise for them to engage John Webb.</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif;"><b><i><br /></i></b></span>Altamonthttp://www.blogger.com/profile/07487675562905937401noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1766557913348045247.post-62663937086053096702018-07-28T16:00:00.000-07:002018-07-31T14:13:25.526-07:00A Case for Sherlock Holmes [Introduction]: John Webb, "the Surrey Villain".<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
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<span style="font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif;"><span style="white-space: pre-wrap;">In November, 1893, Charles Brookfield made well-documented history as the world's first actor to play Sherlock Holmes in the hour-long revue, <i>"Under the Clock". </i>By contrast, next to nothing is known of the first Holmes to feature in a full length play. Written by Charles Rogers, <i>"Sherlock Holmes: A Psychological Drama in Five Acts", </i>starred John Webb in six performances at Glasgow's Theatre Royal in the spring of 1894. Hitherto, less than a handful of contemporary reviews have provided a cast list and tantalisingly brief comments on performance, but no clue as to the lead actor or what he looked like.</span></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif;"><span style="white-space: pre-wrap;">An accidental find, the image above and the obituary it illustrates prompted new lines of fruitful research. This introduction heralds three forthcoming posts that present the argument and evidence that lead me to conclude John Webb , <i>"the Surrey Villain", </i>was also <i>'the Glasgow Hero'. </i>Sherlock Holmes.</span></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif;"><span style="white-space: pre-wrap;"><b>Read the full post which will open as a pdf: <a href="https://drive.google.com/file/d/1Xai47XY_0AgKglUL_1dTjOYu3bny6WK_/view?usp=sharing" target="_blank">Click here</a> </b></span></span></div>
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Altamonthttp://www.blogger.com/profile/07487675562905937401noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1766557913348045247.post-23050282810070195232016-11-29T12:53:00.001-08:002016-11-29T12:53:22.866-08:00The A-Z of Sherlock Holmes Performers - A Special Tribute & Contribution.<table align="center" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto; text-align: center;"><tbody>
<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjiB6oDUuNfr9Jym0W_Gdpjk5GUqfzzHl4GnAQktssQrkw_v7mRdWKZjoe9UJUl8Kl3NCaoVUWi3Mm4zY73BqVW881muzMp-AK4Zq3tdX3_0F_LCcp4vWYXZ7O68zRrY8l2oyWudOUoip8/s1600/blaze+snip3.JPG" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" height="287" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjiB6oDUuNfr9Jym0W_Gdpjk5GUqfzzHl4GnAQktssQrkw_v7mRdWKZjoe9UJUl8Kl3NCaoVUWi3Mm4zY73BqVW881muzMp-AK4Zq3tdX3_0F_LCcp4vWYXZ7O68zRrY8l2oyWudOUoip8/s400/blaze+snip3.JPG" width="400" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">"Silver Blaze" Granada TV.</td></tr>
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<span style="font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif;"><b><i>Horse-whisperer: "Three thousand, you say?"</i></b></span><br />
<span style="font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif;"><b><i>Silver Blaze: (with a wink) "From the horse's mouth, Mr Holmes."</i></b></span><br />
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<span style="font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif;">In this case, the horse's mouth is Sherlockian media expert, Howard Ostrom of Florida, whose alphabetical index of the world's Sherlock Holmes performers since 1893 recently passed a milestone: 3000 entries. The A-Z may be viewed <a href="http://www.nplh.co.uk/a-z-index.html" target="_blank"><span style="color: blue;">HERE</span></a> on the "No Place Like Holmes" website hosted by Ross K. Foad and this special post is by way of tribute to an admirable endeavour. </span><br />
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<span style="font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif;">I am delighted to see both these gentlemen in the record. Ross has the distinction of being the first to play Sherlock Holmes in a web series and he has just returned from a self-imposed hiatus to trail NPLH series 6. In the stories, Holmes is, to my mind, revealed as more than a detective in his love of music and Ross comes across as a man of more (creative) parts too in the personal statement that introduces his trailer. I think this a salutary lesson for all Sherlockians. See his 27/11/2016 post <a href="http://www.nplh.co.uk/news" target="_blank"><span style="color: blue;">HERE</span></a> .</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif;">It's been a researcher's delight to play a minor role in the project. Behind every find is a tale that educates the detective in unpredictable ways and you come away with far more than another name. It's just like the pattern of most Sherlock Holmes stories: revelation of the solution never matches (for Holmes, Watson or the reader) the thrill of the chase.</span><br />
<span style="font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif;"><br /></span><span style="font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif;"><b>Sherlock Holmes on the New World Stage: First Landfall.</b></span><br />
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<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">1893 poster for the Chicago World's Columbian Exposition.</td></tr>
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<span style="font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif;">Just 29 years had elapsed since the end of the American Civil War when Arthur Conan Doyle embarked on his first lecture tour of a United States. In the first week he encountered two reminders of that conflict in the person of veteran Major James B Pond - a recipient of the Medal of Honor for heroism at Baxter Springs, organizer of the author's itinerary - and Bronson Howard's stage drama, </span><i style="font-family: verdana, sans-serif;">"Shenandoah"</i><span style="font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif;">. </span><br />
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<span style="font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif;">Under the management of a young Charles Frohman, General Philip Sheridan's 1864 Shenandoah Valley Campaign was brought to astonishingly realistic life on the cavernous stage of New York's Academy of Music, deploying 300 soldiers, sundry cannon and 40 horses to spectacular effect. The Sacramento Daily Union for 29 September carried a full description (scroll down column 1 <a href="http://cdnc.ucr.edu/cgi-bin/cdnc?a=d&d=SDU18940929.2.43" target="_blank"><span style="color: blue;">HERE</span></a> ). Conan Doyle saw it on October 2 and would unwittingly cross Frohman's path again in Chicago on the 14th when his future associate (with the Gillette<i> "Sherlock</i> <i>Holmes"</i>) happened also to attend the Opera House to see a very different spectacle, the extravaganza <i>"Aladdin Jr" </i>with Sophie Harris in the title role. The production had premiered in June but elsewhere that October (in Elizabeth NJ and Providence RI) another, much more successful extravaganza was touring that, in a later incarnation, would, for the first time, bring Sherlock Holmes to the New World stage: <i>"Hendrick Hudson; or, The Discovery of Columbus".</i></span><br />
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<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Alhambra, Chicago c 1907.</td></tr>
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<span style="font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif;">Chicago's Columbian Exposition opened belatedly the year after the quatercentenary it marked and was over by Doyle's arrival. Had he travelled there in the summer of '93 apart from visiting the strangely modest British pavilion, he may well have seized the opportunity to see the Houdini Brothers who performed in the Curio Hall that August (see <a href="http://www.wildabouthoudini.com/2014/02/the-modern-monarchs-of-mystery.html" target="_blank">HERE</a> ). </span><br />
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<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEixxrDiQ7SFCxQF0geUDgO3001dq9_vAxBNaAe0T-NCW3m40aiHemF-i7awp3Izq92bTlXtogZBLDD2fXX6n4f_nL4vaFYCMErSMZCoQPd9Ytx3Z4yih8OWVfjYAGD9OitwU76fHnRnYhU/s1600/8169752005_a9e652f78e_b.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" height="253" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEixxrDiQ7SFCxQF0geUDgO3001dq9_vAxBNaAe0T-NCW3m40aiHemF-i7awp3Izq92bTlXtogZBLDD2fXX6n4f_nL4vaFYCMErSMZCoQPd9Ytx3Z4yih8OWVfjYAGD9OitwU76fHnRnYhU/s320/8169752005_a9e652f78e_b.jpg" width="320" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">British Pavilion 1893</td></tr>
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<span style="font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif;">For entertainment he may well have been directed beyond the White City to the most popular show in town: <i>"Hendrick Hudson" </i>at the Alhambra, starring Corinne <i>aka </i>Little Corinne, the girl with the mandoline, in the extravaganza's title role.</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif;"><b>Hendrick Hudson 1890-97.</b></span><br />
<span style="font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif;">The evolution of this historically impossible fantasy (Henry Hudson meets Christopher Columbus) is only one story in the <i>Naked City</i> of 19th century theatre but exemplifies survival through canny adaptation. For the Sherlockian it also illustrates elegantly the gradual assimilation of Holmes into American hearts and minds. Four distinct phases are apparent.</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif;"><b>1890 (The failed Mark 1)</b></span><br />
<span style="font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif;">In an attempt to cash in on the current taste for females in 'trouser roles', Fay Templeton starred in the new musical burlesque by Robert Frazer and William Gill. It premiered at the 14th Street Theatre, New York on August 18, lasting just 16 performances. Panned as <i>"merely twaddle and tights", </i>the show went on the road, returning after some tinkering to the Park Theatre. Irretrievably poor, a fortnight that October saw its deserved demise.</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif;"><b>1893-4 (The successful Mark 2)</b></span><br />
<span style="font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif;">By contrast, <i>"Hendrick Hudson",</i> newly and expertly adapted, hit the ground running during the World's Fair, arriving at The Academy in September after 75 performances in H R Jacobs' Chicago theatres, the Alhambra and Clark St. In early November it went on tour, playing essentially the Alhambra version for the next twelve months. The happily detailed 1893 programme for a November 3 performance at London, Ontario's Grand Opera House survives. Please view it <a href="https://archive.org/details/cihm_56877" target="_blank"><span style="color: blue;">HERE</span></a> . There are features of special interest. In describing the Acts it is clear the original burlesque was revamped wholesale as an occasional celebration, site-specific to the World's Fair, accounting in part for the show's success. Just as apparent is the care taken to incorporate its star in a way that played to her strengths and confirmed her as the centrepiece. In this most lavishly extravagent of extravaganzas (think English pantomime on steroids), Corinne is at the fictional focal point as actress/singer and the main attraction as renowned mandolin player amid a miscellany of support vaudeville acts.</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif;">This was the work of one of the most astute businesswomen of the era, retired actress, Jennie Kimball, foster mother and business manager to Corinne.</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif;"> </span><br />
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<span style="font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif;"><b> </b>I shall tell their story in greater detail at a later date (such is its drama), restricting reference here to matters in hand - <i>"Hendrick Hudson"</i> ... and, in the fullness of time, Sherlock Holmes. </span><br />
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<span style="font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif;">Corinne, a child star like Fay Templeton, was 19 and much more established than the 25 year old Fay had been in 1890. Under the guiding hand of Jennie Kimball, 'Little Corinne' had captured the nation's heart. She often performed decked in a spangle of jewels, expensively dressed. The mandolin was the instrument of the day and she was groomed to great profit as its ultimate poster-girl. </span><br />
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<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhfkXJ4gy720_V9eDNhwBtkDwN77FZQy6tZijslbkVNy6QY4Q7I75W4odIJHxd8v5QYvlbj-F8MhOa7xPyy87ZXixgwFbqEOjcxdkM33BGWZ4xfAnSiSrJfv5jGLbUFXyIGvoxIW5lElKs/s1600/corinne+mandolin.JPG" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="320" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhfkXJ4gy720_V9eDNhwBtkDwN77FZQy6tZijslbkVNy6QY4Q7I75W4odIJHxd8v5QYvlbj-F8MhOa7xPyy87ZXixgwFbqEOjcxdkM33BGWZ4xfAnSiSrJfv5jGLbUFXyIGvoxIW5lElKs/s320/corinne+mandolin.JPG" width="202" /></a></div>
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<span style="font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif;"> </span><br />
<span style="font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif;">While her 'mother' lived, the pair grew ever more wealthy. Corinne was worked hard (without resentment) and shielded from frivolous distraction. So successful was <i>"Hendrick Hudson"</i> that Jennie bought for her daughter at Christmas the special high class $1,500 mandolin that had been displayed at the World's Fair (see column 1 <a href="http://mtr.arcade-museum.com/MTR-1894-18-25/MTR-1894-18-25-04.pdf" target="_blank"><span style="color: blue;">HERE</span></a> ). </span><br />
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<span style="font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif;">And there the trail might have ended for, when the show closed in November, 1894, Corinne's attention was turned to Paris. </span><br />
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<span style="font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif;"><b>1896 (Hendrick Hudson Jr)</b></span><br />
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<span style="font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif;">However, in January 1896 after a summer of mandolin and dance tuition in France, Corinne was back on the Los Angeles stage in <i>"Hendrick Hudson Jr". </i>The Los Angeles Herald details her European adventure and the revised show in column 2 <a href="http://cdnc.ucr.edu/cgi-bin/cdnc?a=d&d=LAH18960120.2.19#" target="_blank"><span style="color: blue;">HERE</span></a> . Seemingly happier and more accomplished than ever 'Peerless Corinne' is lauded by the Sacramento Daily Union in February before and during the staging of <i>"Hendrick Hudson Jr" </i>at the Metropolitan. See <a href="http://cdnc.ucr.edu/cgi-bin/cdnc?a=d&d=SDU18960215.2.37&srpos=5&e=------189-en--20-SDU-1--txt-txIN-hendrick+hudson+-ARTICLE-----#" target="_blank"><span style="color: blue;">HERE</span></a> and <a href="http://cdnc.ucr.edu/cgi-bin/cdnc?a=d&d=SDU18960219.2.62&srpos=6&e=------189-en--20-SDU-1--txt-txIN-hendrick+hudson+-ARTICLE-----" target="_blank"><span style="color: blue;">HERE</span></a> ).</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif;">Tragically, as the New York Times reported the very next day, Jennie died of pneumonia at 7 am on March 23, alone, in her special company box car in the Union Station of St Paul, Minn. She left Corinne an estate estimated at $600,000 and the thriving Kimball Opera Bouffe Company. I find no more performances of the revived show until the end of October, by which time it has again undergone significant change.</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif;"><b>1896-7 (Hendrick Hudson Jr and Sherlock Holmes)</b></span><br />
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<span style="font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif;">Now in sole charge of her own company, Corinne makes what I think is a tactical error, forgivable in one new to management and doubly so as her action brings Sherlock Holmes onto the American stage.</span><br />
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<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Hendrick Hudson cast 1893.</td></tr>
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<span style="font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif;"> The dramatis personae listed in the London Ontario programme included two deputy sheriffs, McCann and McFarlan. Autumn 1896 discarded these to make room for two of the three outstanding vaudeville comedians engaged by Corinne. By May 1897 when she quit a new show <i>"Excelsior Jr" </i>featuring the same trio, Corinne appears to have realised belatedly her stardom was effectively paled, eclipsed by greater comedic talents. Joe Cawthorne, John Page and Neil McNeil would not, I think, have been engaged by her late mother. Even as deputy sheriffs. Let alone (as if to underline their thespian dominance) endow <b>John Page</b> with the name <b><i>'</i></b><i style="font-weight: bold;">Sherlock'</i>, <b>Neil McNeil </b>with <b><i>'</i></b><i style="font-weight: bold;">Holmes' </i>and give them the stage.</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif;"><b>Chronology of performances (including casting evidence) October 1896-February 1897 with links:</b></span><br />
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<span style="font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif;">Oct 29-31 Denver Broadway: <a href="http://www.operaoldcolo.info/performances.pt1.html" target="_blank"><span style="color: blue;">HERE</span></a></span><br />
<span style="font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif;">Nov 6-7 Sacramento Metropolitan: column 3 <a href="http://chroniclingamerica.loc.gov/lccn/sn82015104/1896-11-04/ed-1/seq-4/" target="_blank"><span style="color: blue;">HERE</span></a> and <a href="http://cdnc.ucr.edu/cgi-bin/cdnc?a=d&d=SDU18961107.2.53#" target="_blank"><span style="color: blue;">HERE</span></a></span><br />
<span style="font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif;">Nov 9-16 San Francisco Columbia: block ad far right <a href="http://chroniclingamerica.loc.gov/lccn/sn85066387/1896-11-08/ed-1/seq-26/#date1=1836&index=0&rows=20&words=Cawthorn+Joe+McNeil+Neil&searchType=basic&sequence=0&state=&date2=1922&proxtext=joe+cawthorn+neil+mcneil&y=19&x=23&dateFilterType=yearRange&page=1" target="_blank"><span style="color: blue;">HERE</span></a> and page foot<span style="color: blue;"> <a href="http://cdnc.ucr.edu/cgi-bin/cdnc?a=d&d=SFC18961110.2.100" target="_blank"><span style="color: blue;">HERE</span></a></span></span><br />
<span style="font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif;">Nov 27-8 Los Angeles Theatre:<span style="color: blue;"> <a href="http://chroniclingamerica.loc.gov/lccn/sn85042461/1896-11-22/ed-1/seq-14/#date1=1896&index=2&rows=20&words=Cawthorn+Joe+John+Page&searchType=basic&sequence=0&state=&date2=1898&proxtext=joe+cawthorne+john+page&y=16&x=23&dateFilterType=yearRange&page=1" target="_blank"><span style="color: blue;">HERE</span></a></span> & <a href="http://cdnc.ucr.edu/cgi-bin/cdnc?a=d&d=LAH18961127.2.25" target="_blank"><span style="color: blue;">HERE</span></a> & <a href="http://chroniclingamerica.loc.gov/lccn/sn85042461/1896-11-25/ed-1/seq-3/#date1=1895&index=1&rows=20&words=Corinne+Paris&searchType=basic&sequence=0&state=&date2=1896&proxtext=corinne+paris&y=23&x=17&dateFilterType=yearRange&page=1" target="_blank"><span style="color: blue;">HERE</span></a></span><br />
<span style="font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif;">Dec 4 Roseburg Opera House: <a href="http://oregonnews.uoregon.edu/lccn/sn84022679/1896-11-30/ed-1/seq-3/#index=3&rows=20&words=HENDRICK+Hendrick+Hudson+HUDSON&sequence=0&proxtext=hendrick+hudson&y=5&x=14&dateFilterType=range&page=1" target="_blank"><span style="color: blue;">HERE</span></a> and <a href="http://oregonnews.uoregon.edu/lccn/sn84022679/1896-12-03/ed-1/seq-2/#index=19&rows=20&words=Hendrick+Hudson&sequence=0&proxtext=hendrick+hudson&y=5&x=14&dateFilterType=range&page=1" target="_blank"><span style="color: blue;">HERE</span></a> </span><br />
<span style="font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif;">Dec 10 New Columbia Opera House: <a href="http://oregonnews.uoregon.edu/lccn/sn96061150/1896-12-11/ed-1/seq-1/#sort=date&index=0&rows=20&words=detectives+Holmes+Sherlock&sequence=0&proxtext=sherlock+holmes+detective&y=16&x=14&dateFilterType=range&page=1" target="_blank"><span style="color: blue;">HERE</span></a> </span><br />
<span style="font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif;">Dec 18-20 Seattle: <a href="http://chroniclingamerica.loc.gov/lccn/sn83045604/1896-12-17/ed-1/seq-8/#date1=1896&sort=relevance&rows=20&words=Hendrick+Hudson+Jr&searchType=basic&sequence=0&index=3&state=&date2=1897&proxtext=hendrick+hudson+jr&y=17&x=12&dateFilterType=yearRange&page=5" target="_blank"><span style="color: blue;">HERE</span></a> and<span style="color: blue;"> <a href="http://chroniclingamerica.loc.gov/lccn/sn83045604/1896-12-19/ed-1/seq-3/#date1=1896&index=8&rows=20&words=Hendrick+Hudson+Jr&searchType=basic&sequence=0&state=&date2=1897&proxtext=hendrick+hudson+jr&y=17&x=12&dateFilterType=yearRange&page=1" target="_blank"><span style="color: blue;">HERE</span></a></span></span><br />
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<table align="center" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto; text-align: center;"><tbody>
<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhUg2BcJ5LpEy-I_yghWmlSKs-MbYirTLCB9twycIWK0XPPUgCT6Up-isJVMGrduM9K7y5DSrQmR5zaZXqHxlOOAFynwFWLbXTJ1urQPxYhlLV10EZv17XBje5hDoJZ2MqVg_0H5lRx4io/s1600/PAGE+MCNEIL.JPG" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" height="266" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhUg2BcJ5LpEy-I_yghWmlSKs-MbYirTLCB9twycIWK0XPPUgCT6Up-isJVMGrduM9K7y5DSrQmR5zaZXqHxlOOAFynwFWLbXTJ1urQPxYhlLV10EZv17XBje5hDoJZ2MqVg_0H5lRx4io/s400/PAGE+MCNEIL.JPG" width="400" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">from the Seattle Post-Intelligencer, Dec 19, 1896.</td></tr>
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<span style="font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif;"> Christmas 1896 Anaconda Opera House: <a href="http://chroniclingamerica.loc.gov/lccn/sn84036012/1896-12-24/ed-1/seq-6/#date1=1836&index=2&rows=20&words=Cawthorn+Joe+McNeil&searchType=basic&sequence=0&state=&date2=1922&proxtext=joe+cawthorn+neil+mcneil&y=19&x=23&dateFilterType=yearRange&page=1" target="_blank"><span style="color: blue;">HERE</span></a></span><br />
<span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">February 7 1897 Ninth St Theatre, Kansas City:<span style="color: blue;"> <a href="http://chroniclingamerica.loc.gov/lccn/sn86063624/1897-01-31/ed-1/seq-11/#date1=1836&index=1&rows=20&words=Cawthorne+Joe+McNeil+Neil&searchType=basic&sequence=0&state=&date2=1922&proxtext=joe+cawthorn+neil+mcneil&y=19&x=23&dateFilterType=yearRange&page=1" target="_blank"><span style="color: blue;">HERE</span></a></span></span><br />
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<span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;"><b>John Page, Neil McNeil and Sherlock Holmes.</b></span><br />
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<span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">The reader will have learned something of these half-forgotten comedians from the newspapers cited. I shall return to this post in a few days to add a pdf file listing other productions in which they figured. As yet I have found no image of any production of <i>"Hendrick Hudson" </i>nor of <b>John (<i>aka Johnnie) </i>Page.</b></span><br />
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<span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;"><b>Neil McNeil </b>(sometimes <b>McNeill</b>) is the better documented. Here he is in the title role of <i>"Simple Simon Simple" (1905):</i></span><br />
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<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEicgn4Qyt-hbEGm-uCl82xhZja9Yt_yTa5bgF7L8ppAoLn4hQ8kRM7U65URZPaNRfzsC95sVpID_p3TSnHEynur0KBcr-AOOx4TltBiYVeY0HklKlKdpeLGKQxXl4UT4Ua4_RRIJBtk5u8/s1600/simple.JPG" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="297" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEicgn4Qyt-hbEGm-uCl82xhZja9Yt_yTa5bgF7L8ppAoLn4hQ8kRM7U65URZPaNRfzsC95sVpID_p3TSnHEynur0KBcr-AOOx4TltBiYVeY0HklKlKdpeLGKQxXl4UT4Ua4_RRIJBtk5u8/s320/simple.JPG" width="320" /></a></div>
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<span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">AND (on the left of the photograph) as <i>April Fool </i>in 1910's <i>"The Land of Nod" :</i></span><br />
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<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjl1pL-6fPh5mwUnhyjGbEMJNoChiEiCQH-EDRRFOPMUdvTkLlnPzLm9Ov-6UnmPBpicIa5VWPN_yUCBeFF-K5l5_f9PWfe2NsxnbPxMCaw81UXhD5Uea7Qcg0soRGkrbRMVsexhcAR9rs/s1600/nod.JPG" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="198" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjl1pL-6fPh5mwUnhyjGbEMJNoChiEiCQH-EDRRFOPMUdvTkLlnPzLm9Ov-6UnmPBpicIa5VWPN_yUCBeFF-K5l5_f9PWfe2NsxnbPxMCaw81UXhD5Uea7Qcg0soRGkrbRMVsexhcAR9rs/s320/nod.JPG" width="320" /></a></div>
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<span style="font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif;"> <b>Neil McNeil </b>already appears in the A-Z as <i>Kid Connor </i>(Watson) in <i>"The Red Mill" </i>(1909) with <b>Walter S Wills </b>as <i>Con Kidder </i>(Holmes). The article <a href="http://cdnc.ucr.edu/cgi-bin/cdnc?a=d&d=LAH19090210.2.66" target="_blank"><span style="color: blue;">HERE</span></a> refers to <i>"the Sherlock Holmes business" </i>AND, ironically, precedes a piece about <b>Ferris Hartman</b>, also listed in the A-Z for <i>"The Man in the Moon" </i>(1899). </span><br />
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<span style="font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif;">Hitherto, Hartman was thought to be the first American actor to play Sherlock Holmes. That honour is surely shared equally by Page and McNeil, with the latter additionally America's first Holmes AND Watson performer.</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif;">I began this post with a poster. Take a closer look. At the man holding the Union Jack. Is he meant to be Sherlock Holmes? Or a typical Englishman? It hardly matters; they are soon indistinguishable. Holmes has made his first landfall.</span><br />
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<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEj8G1sNwH2IY1f_1lLdyru7-iP8_GEO2uqXPUj1iw3ptiR28Y07P9On8om6vM9VRQPukHMGyQstiKFjifl2WsDvcavc0867KvYz8mr6sF8QiGIb8P6O-EfL5-Tku2wHuGxkBW7QD18PNmo/s1600/16cd2862c8f6c88f5d65bfa81f9efcf9.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="320" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEj8G1sNwH2IY1f_1lLdyru7-iP8_GEO2uqXPUj1iw3ptiR28Y07P9On8om6vM9VRQPukHMGyQstiKFjifl2WsDvcavc0867KvYz8mr6sF8QiGIb8P6O-EfL5-Tku2wHuGxkBW7QD18PNmo/s320/16cd2862c8f6c88f5d65bfa81f9efcf9.jpg" width="256" /></a></div>
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<span style="font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif;"><span style="background-color: white; color: #222222; font-family: arial; font-size: 14px; font-weight: bold; white-space: pre-wrap;">ⒸRAYWILCOCKSON2016</span></span>Altamonthttp://www.blogger.com/profile/07487675562905937401noreply@blogger.com4tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1766557913348045247.post-26444735075030900012016-10-25T15:42:00.000-07:002016-10-26T03:18:50.726-07:00An East Wind - Part One: Sherlock Holmes and the Internees, 1916.<table align="center" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto; text-align: center;"><tbody>
<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhA4UlKyrfLnq9NmEHQqNuXi6fcGZamd9ACvHsv2zVKgWerj25pSqbGGlmiBU7VNus6j869mj9HiMkGqLSRuSNZgJYTFWc5PZ-nPdu8Q_TQM2P_b4OkeQtIxohPAa9HgCjLfbVam0GwL-s/s1600/dorr+steele+lion%2527s+mane.Jpeg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" height="400" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhA4UlKyrfLnq9NmEHQqNuXi6fcGZamd9ACvHsv2zVKgWerj25pSqbGGlmiBU7VNus6j869mj9HiMkGqLSRuSNZgJYTFWc5PZ-nPdu8Q_TQM2P_b4OkeQtIxohPAa9HgCjLfbVam0GwL-s/s400/dorr+steele+lion%2527s+mane.Jpeg" width="290" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">A Sombre Sherlock Holmes </td></tr>
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<span style="font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif;"><i>"There's an east wind coming, Watson" </i>["His Last Bow" 1917]</span><br />
<span style="font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif;"><br /></span><span style="font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif;">I have noted <a href="http://altamarkings.blogspot.co.uk/2014/08/his-last-bow-cometh-hour-cometh-man.html" target="_blank"><span style="color: blue;">elsewhere</span></a> how the bitter experience of three hellish years informs and enriches the 1917 chronicle of 1914 subtitled 'The War Service of Sherlock Holmes'. It is, I think, to his credit as an illustrator that Frederic Dorr Steele achieves comparable profundity in the image above, published with LION in 1926. Internally dating to 1907 and recounted by Holmes of the Sussex Downs four years into retirement, LION should stand as coda, an Indian Summer to a glittering career. It was not to be: 'all changed, changed utterly'.</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif;">From his vantage point in 1926, Dorr Steele movingly incorporates through the aging detective's brooding, ominous disquiet the sad poetry that will create Altamont within five years and a war to end all wars in the fullness of time.</span><br />
<span style="font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif;"><br /></span><span style="font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif;">Ironically, the years 1906-07 were vintage ones for European stage productions of Sherlock Holmes, coinciding, especially, with brief, golden ages in Russian, Ukrainian, Polish and German theatre - the theatrical equivalent of 1895 in the detective's career. Of special relevance here are the Berliner Theater's premiers of Ferdinand Bonn's "Sherlock Holmes" and "Der Hund von Baskerville" in July '06 and January '07, respectively.</span><br />
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<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjFVd0_aaUUgATWU74W_2tJWLiW9llX-bzAI2YtI-N4KS5SvFmCtIgjSR4CQEp6l53SBTO8w9xvDPHOgkc53LUdHOVScHwyt5NYG1grbu3JsIwkdgtrXBUT5-r_SaLDHkyxrIXNhoUIo1k/s1600/Ferdinand_Bonn_-_Sherlock_Holmes_Detektiv-Kom%25C3%25B6die_%2528BerlLeben_1906-09_RSiegert%2529.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" height="193" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjFVd0_aaUUgATWU74W_2tJWLiW9llX-bzAI2YtI-N4KS5SvFmCtIgjSR4CQEp6l53SBTO8w9xvDPHOgkc53LUdHOVScHwyt5NYG1grbu3JsIwkdgtrXBUT5-r_SaLDHkyxrIXNhoUIo1k/s400/Ferdinand_Bonn_-_Sherlock_Holmes_Detektiv-Kom%25C3%25B6die_%2528BerlLeben_1906-09_RSiegert%2529.jpg" width="400" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Bonn's "Sherlock Holmes" 1906 (Wikimedia Commons)</td></tr>
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<span style="font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif;">[ "Footprints of a Gigantic Hund" by Michael Ross is excellent on German versions of HOUN on stage and screen: pdf <a href="http://www.bakerstreetjournal.com/images/Ross_Footprints_of_a_Hund.pdf" target="_blank"><span style="color: blue;">HERE</span></a> ]</span><br />
<span style="font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif;"><br /></span><span style="font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif;">By contrast, just as Germany enthusiastically embraced the British detective that country's Deutsches Theater in London was on the wane. Since leasing Great Queen Street Theatre in 1902, Hans Andresen and the German Theatre Company had performed classics in German but audiences had lost interest by 1907 (see <a href="https://books.google.co.uk/books?id=o56_CwAAQBAJ&pg=PA266&lpg=PA266&dq=german+theatre+great+queen+street&source=bl&ots=Fa1WfrxupI&sig=xEbJYQc3RWE_fjn_6Eo2x-NzJfA&hl=en&sa=X&ved=0ahUKEwjToZ7n7uzPAhWMCcAKHTEHCKs4ChDoAQgrMAM#v=onepage&q=german%20theatre%20great%20queen%20street&f=false" target="_blank"><span style="color: blue;">HERE</span></a> for further details and, from p 276, a complete list of plays performed).</span><br />
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<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEj6ef8LSnLHXrF2Qds8iH_yf4Rj7UnXRgvUI2h7F0qYZaxoTSokNg5R2VC5LMRSlHX4e69dU17aXfkX-Z0o65gBUVCkmqobAEpgRnltHLaxCif46xmXw2VJc-uCV0lmAr1ZBDQKJ19Jyq8/s1600/NoveltyTheatreExterior.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" height="320" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEj6ef8LSnLHXrF2Qds8iH_yf4Rj7UnXRgvUI2h7F0qYZaxoTSokNg5R2VC5LMRSlHX4e69dU17aXfkX-Z0o65gBUVCkmqobAEpgRnltHLaxCif46xmXw2VJc-uCV0lmAr1ZBDQKJ19Jyq8/s320/NoveltyTheatreExterior.jpg" width="258" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">The Novelty (1882) renamed Great Queen Street 1900-7</td></tr>
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<span style="font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif;"><br /></span><span style="font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif;"> Nicholas Decker traces the rise and fall of the company: pages 35-41<span style="color: blue;"> <a href="https://etd.ohiolink.edu/rws_etd/document/get/osu1180431503/inline" target="_blank"><span style="color: blue;">HERE</span></a> </span>. After the Great Queen Street years (the theatre was renamed "The Kingsway" in 1907), some members returned to Berlin and Hanover while others stayed on, including Andreson, performing sporadically until 1912. </span><span style="font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif;"> Paul Wind, whom I can trace in productions from 1905 to 1909 was one such. He would find himself stranded, interned on the Isle of Man when hostilities commenced. </span><br />
<span style="font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif;"><br /></span>
<span style="font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif;">And i wonder if Herr Paul Wind felt that chill, Holmesian foreboding but could not believe it presaged so arctic an eastern wind.</span><br />
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<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhd-dVmf1oyRuUZ-3LQqHGkrTUtlM_sFj6VCMabl0hGqd6vRfFcZkHeFSlzEDKoi_GTluI6HjMVLyPBni0WaDBfg3dTAt4DEM8GnD_Wf7IUiIB36oumfgLaX3U6VFXHxqP2Bg_faUwMAr8/s1600/hardy+robert+brough+plough.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" height="248" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhd-dVmf1oyRuUZ-3LQqHGkrTUtlM_sFj6VCMabl0hGqd6vRfFcZkHeFSlzEDKoi_GTluI6HjMVLyPBni0WaDBfg3dTAt4DEM8GnD_Wf7IUiIB36oumfgLaX3U6VFXHxqP2Bg_faUwMAr8/s400/hardy+robert+brough+plough.jpg" width="400" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">"Man Ploughing" by Robert Brough (Aberdeen Art Gallery & Museums)</td></tr>
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<span style="font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif;">In his painting, "Man Ploughing", Scottish colourist, Robert Brough seems to prefigure the future as strikingly as Dorr Steele evokes the past. He did not live to see the Great War, suffering his own premature tragedy dying from burns aged 32 after a rail crash in 1905. Yet, I know no other image that so sensitively mirrors the poem Thomas Hardy submitted to the Saturday Review in January, 1916, to help raise the nation's faltering morale.</span><br />
<span style="font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif;"><br /></span>
<span style="font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif;"><b>In Time of "The Breaking of Nations" 1916</b></span><br />
<span style="font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif;"><b><br /></b></span>
<span style="font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif;">It's the simple, famous one that begins: "Only a man harrowing clods". Read it <a href="https://movehimintothesun.wordpress.com/2010/07/20/thomas-hardy-in-time-of-the-breaking-of-nations/" target="_blank">HERE</a> . And whenever I re-read it, I have to remind myself that no one in 1916 knew when or how war would end. If you were at Verdun you could be forgiven for thinking it would last till Doomsday.</span><br />
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<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjCwQSMB1eGX1Od_9_0X_IvZPJ2jEaaYb-L1BKvLoDivRBUDJoqTJXfM9mdWql-6XGRW05H_85LDExBjYuDwql8QMrqY7xF4lOL29u6wLMo05_tNyG2UZgQlIJB8Cgxzl8EIYAMJDrPGNQ/s1600/verdun+horse+1916.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" height="400" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjCwQSMB1eGX1Od_9_0X_IvZPJ2jEaaYb-L1BKvLoDivRBUDJoqTJXfM9mdWql-6XGRW05H_85LDExBjYuDwql8QMrqY7xF4lOL29u6wLMo05_tNyG2UZgQlIJB8Cgxzl8EIYAMJDrPGNQ/s400/verdun+horse+1916.jpg" width="257" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Verdun 1916 - Man & Horse in Gas Masks (anon French photographer)</td></tr>
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<span style="font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif;"><br /></span>
<span style="font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif;"><b>Apocalyptic.</b></span><br />
<span style="font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif;"><br /></span>
<span style="font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif;"><b>Verdun.</b> The longest battle of World War I. February to December, 1916.</span><br />
<span style="font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif;"><br /></span>
<span style="font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif;">Beneath that dark umbrella what else was happening that dreadful year?</span><br />
<span style="font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif;"><br /></span>
<span style="font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif;">April: The Easter Rebellion.</span><br />
<span style="font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif;">May/June: The Battle of Jutland.</span><br />
<span style="font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif;">May 15: "Sherlock Holmes" starring William Gillette is released on film.</span><br />
<span style="font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif;">June 11: "The Mystery of the Leaping Fish" with Douglas Fairbanks as Coke Ennyday is released on film.</span><br />
<span style="font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif;">July 1 to November 18: Battle of the Somme.</span><br />
<span style="font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif;">In May and June Sir Arthur Conan Doyle was visiting the Western Front.</span><br />
<span style="font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif;">In July, Doyle's son, Kingsley, was seriously wounded on the Somme and would succumb to pneumonia in 1918.</span><br />
<span style="font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif;">In October, Paul Wind was one of two German internees known to have played Sherlock Holmes that month on the Isle of Man.</span><br />
<span style="font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif;"><br /></span>
<span style="font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif;">Some year.</span><br />
<span style="font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif;"><br /></span><span style="font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif;"><b>Barbed-wire Disease.</b></span><br />
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<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgL74lpJY_63sIyHX9u-DfBvFCBJqywOz5Ce3C04O0nTapzkVARQJ9ZTPULf2yMx4P06Yp1NL28Slt_RWOe-9juTXgK8Fd95anly0_JZbNQ5n5qfl_oqLDnc1PfxGv3RBYOiuWVymT86cI/s1600/dope.JPG" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" height="250" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgL74lpJY_63sIyHX9u-DfBvFCBJqywOz5Ce3C04O0nTapzkVARQJ9ZTPULf2yMx4P06Yp1NL28Slt_RWOe-9juTXgK8Fd95anly0_JZbNQ5n5qfl_oqLDnc1PfxGv3RBYOiuWVymT86cI/s320/dope.JPG" width="320" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Coke Ennyday's Clock</td></tr>
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<span style="font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif;">"The Mystery of the Leaping Fish", penned by Tod Browning while recovering from a horrific car crash, is a fevered, bizarre, blithely non-pc, psychedelic comic fantasy that re-imagines Sherlock Holmes as the utterly addicted (to cocaine) 'Coke Ennyday'. It is the cinematic equivalent of reading only the opening and closing sentences of "The Sign of the Four". </span><br />
<span style="font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif;"><br /></span>
<span style="font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif;">Coke's is not Sherlock's clock. For him, rather, it is 'Dope' only when he is denied his 'proper atmosphere': work. For the mind.</span><br />
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<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiNUPpjjc_G-K2SJXaDnBpIpwJJU4WC1_mUYX5avtAnLovUn3elSh5Vs5whoVtdim8MLCMLIWnCmPSOhfBJqv3_b9kR6lcNnyi2eXCjndyOBHOzS5RQeFQcqF5AjYbY55_gc8hpAERaZgU/s1600/crave.JPG" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" height="303" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiNUPpjjc_G-K2SJXaDnBpIpwJJU4WC1_mUYX5avtAnLovUn3elSh5Vs5whoVtdim8MLCMLIWnCmPSOhfBJqv3_b9kR6lcNnyi2eXCjndyOBHOzS5RQeFQcqF5AjYbY55_gc8hpAERaZgU/s400/crave.JPG" width="400" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">William Gillette in "Sherlock Holmes" 1916</td></tr>
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<span style="font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif;"><i><b>"My mind", he said, "rebels at stagnation...I abhor the dull routine of existence. I crave for mental exaltation." (SIGN chapter 1).</b></i></span><br />
<span style="font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif;"><i><b><br /></b></i></span>
<span style="font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif;">While time on the Somme, at Verdun and elsewhere ticked to the most surreal clock of all, those confined to concentration and internee camps experienced something akin to Holmes's state in what's termed "barbed-wire disease".</span><br />
<span style="font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif;"><br /></span>
<span style="font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif;">For a fuller appreciation of the context in which interned aliens performed plays on the Isle of Man please take a moment to read, especially, 'Life Behind Barbed Wire' <a href="http://encyclopedia.1914-1918-online.net/article/prisoners_of_war_and_internees_great_britain" target="_blank"><span style="color: blue;">HERE</span></a> and the October 1916 report by journalists who visited the Manx camps <a href="http://www.isle-of-man.com/manxnotebook/mquart/mq17071.htm" target="_blank"><span style="color: blue;">HERE</span></a> .</span><br />
<span style="font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif;"><br /></span><span style="font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif;"><b>Sherlock Holmes and the Internees.</b></span><br />
<span style="font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif;"><b><br /></b></span>
<span style="font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif;">We should not know of the performances I shall now document without the survival of camp newspapers such as Die Lager Laterne written and published by the internees themselves. Nor would these by so readily accessible without the initiative of the Manx National Heritage iMuseum archive. So, in presenting what detail is available on the October 1916 Sherlock Holmes plays, I shall let the internees speak largely for themselves. Beyond the 'barbed wire' below are links to the evidence held in the archive. In each case just click on the short title to view. I credit all such images to Manx National Heritage with grateful thanks.</span><br />
<span style="font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif;"><br /></span>
<span style="font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif;">Two distinct productions are recorded:</span><br />
<span style="font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif;"><br /></span>
<span style="font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif;">1) Lager Zeitung (newspaper of Knockaloe Camp 4) for 22 October, 1916 carries a review of "Der Hund von Baskerville" performed by Compound 1 with <b>Paul</b> <b>Wind</b> as Sherlock Holmes in what is explicitly the play by Ferdinand Bonn.</span><br />
<span style="font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif;"><br /></span>
<span style="font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif;">2) Lager Laterne (newspaper of Douglas Camp) for Sunday 29 October reviewed 'last Sunday's' "Sherlock Holmes" with <b>Willy Schmieder</b> in the title role. Given that Dr Mor is named as a character, this would seem to be Bonn's 1906 play.</span><br />
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<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjKI7MtcvITGyeZNZp8_8JW_oPTFDBkHVjde6KY739L45yRNoAyelN8c_1Jfh2S9GolukK7b8Mct8bay2qE0YKHQ_tCuFzx5qxdYgU_NarGZGxZlwnUGhbDm0DN1Jqbp4co-_HYC2pjHQo/s1600/barbed+wire+length.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="75" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjKI7MtcvITGyeZNZp8_8JW_oPTFDBkHVjde6KY739L45yRNoAyelN8c_1Jfh2S9GolukK7b8Mct8bay2qE0YKHQ_tCuFzx5qxdYgU_NarGZGxZlwnUGhbDm0DN1Jqbp4co-_HYC2pjHQo/s400/barbed+wire+length.jpg" width="400" /></a></div>
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<span style="font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif;"><br /></span><span style="font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif;"> <span style="font-size: large;"> <b>PAUL WIND IN HUND</b></span></span>
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<span style="font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif;"> <a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEitu54SZ5qXAYLqOH1dxChI3treEYVqFvzM4YwJStQxEjR0Bh36gk6YcvRyQyk1mHIkSoCQo-b3VnAQgM0eUFKw49pnt3Fh9hZNJdoN9WADmgCJ5X5QUgwgFnMS7EHVQbcophNi8Qd1n9w/s1600/houn+paget.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em; text-align: center;"><img border="0" height="320" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEitu54SZ5qXAYLqOH1dxChI3treEYVqFvzM4YwJStQxEjR0Bh36gk6YcvRyQyk1mHIkSoCQo-b3VnAQgM0eUFKw49pnt3Fh9hZNJdoN9WADmgCJ5X5QUgwgFnMS7EHVQbcophNi8Qd1n9w/s320/houn+paget.jpg" width="232" /></a></span><br />
<span style="font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif;">[Thus far Paul Wind remains faceless: just 'the figure of a man upon the tor'.]</span><br />
<span style="font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif;"><br /></span>
<span style="font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif;">1) <a href="http://imuseum.im/search/agent_record/view?id=mnh-agent-1159387&type=agent&tab=all&from=0&term=sherlock+holmes&size=20&sort=&filter=&view=&images=&ttmgp=0&rfname=&rlname=&machine=&race=&raceyear=&linked=0&pos=3" target="_blank">Internee record </a></span><br />
<span style="font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif;">2) <span style="color: blue;"> <a href="http://www.newspapers.gov.im/Repository/ml.asp?Ref=TEFaLzE5MTYvMTIvMjIjQXIwMDMwMw%3D%3D&Mode=Gif&Locale=english-skin-eu" target="_blank"><span style="color: blue;">Lager Zeitung HUND review in German</span></a></span></span><br />
<span style="font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif;">3) <a href="http://www.newspapers.gov.im/Repository/ml.asp?Ref=TEFaLzE5MTYvMTIvMjIjQXIwMDMwMQ%3D%3D&Mode=Gif&Locale=english-skin-eu" target="_blank"><span style="color: blue;">Lager Zeitung HUND review in English</span></a></span><br />
<span style="font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif;">4) <a href="http://imuseum.im/search/agent_record/view?id=mnh-agent-1159389&type=agent&tab=all&from=0&term=bruno+paul+wind&size=20&sort=&filter=&view=&images=&ttmgp=0&rfname=&rlname=&machine=&race=&raceyear=&linked=0&pos=0" target="_blank"><span style="color: blue;">Possibly Bruno Paul Wind</span></a></span><br />
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<b><span style="font-size: large;">WILHELM SCHMIEDER </span>IN <span style="font-size: large;">SHERLOCK HOLMES</span></b><br />
<b><span style="font-size: large;"><br /></span></b>
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<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEifrOp0tsecMhK4QvlpSXSHkS8tl5yYx8-sJz9H28um9ti5VcbcC299WYajn-Xburw6tfajY38PoJtlYpLa2yWLGkt8Q3sSf5jsBU6fAjFRLVrzQG3XkM4pjcv5EemcVhMfUTzq4Y5UM8s/s1600/WILHELM.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="252" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEifrOp0tsecMhK4QvlpSXSHkS8tl5yYx8-sJz9H28um9ti5VcbcC299WYajn-Xburw6tfajY38PoJtlYpLa2yWLGkt8Q3sSf5jsBU6fAjFRLVrzQG3XkM4pjcv5EemcVhMfUTzq4Y5UM8s/s400/WILHELM.jpg" width="400" /></a></div>
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<span style="font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif;">Willy Schmieder is elsewhere spelled 'Schmeider'. I have chosen the spelling favoured in 'Quoesque Tandem', a short-lived camp magazine he edited. His photograph (above) appears in the issue for October 1, 1915. His name & title 'Director of Camp Theatres' clipped separately - see <a href="http://www.newspapers.gov.im/Repository/ml.asp?Ref=UVVULzE5MTUvMTAvMDEjQXIwMTAwMA%3D%3D&Mode=Gif&Locale=english-skin-eu" target="_blank"><span style="color: blue;">HERE</span></a> .</span><br />
<span style="font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif;"><br /></span>
<span style="font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif;">1) <a href="http://imuseum.im/search/agent_record/view?id=mnh-agent-1180709&type=agent&tab=all&from=0&term=wilhelm+schmeider&size=20&sort=&filter=&view=&images=&ttmgp=0&rfname=&rlname=&machine=&race=&raceyear=&linked=0&pos=0" target="_blank"><span style="color: blue;">Internee record</span></a></span><br />
<span style="font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif;">2) <span style="color: blue;"> <a href="http://www.newspapers.gov.im/Repository/ml.asp?Ref=RExBLzE5MTYvMTAvMjkjQXIwMDUwNw%3D%3D&Mode=Gif&Locale=english-skin-eu" target="_blank"><span style="color: blue;">Lager Laterne Sherlock Holmes review</span></a></span></span><br />
<span style="font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif;">3) <a href="http://www.newspapers.gov.im/Repository/ml.asp?Ref=RExBLzE5MTYvMTAvMjkjQXIwMDQwMg%3D%3D&Mode=Gif&Locale=english-skin-eu" target="_blank"><span style="color: blue;">Quarter of an hour with Willy Schmieder</span></a></span><br />
<span style="font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif;">4) <a href="http://www.newspapers.gov.im/Repository/ml.asp?Ref=UVVULzE5MTUvMTAvMDEjUGMwMTAwNA%3D%3D&Mode=Gif&Locale=english-skin-eu" target="_blank"><span style="color: blue;">Original Photo cutting</span></a></span><br />
<span style="font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif;">5) <a href="http://www.newspapers.gov.im/Repository/ml.asp?Ref=UVVULzE5MTUvMTAvMDEjQXIwMDMwMA%3D%3D&Mode=Gif&Locale=english-skin-eu" target="_blank"><span style="color: blue;">Quousque Tandem editor</span></a></span><br />
<span style="font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif;">6) <a href="http://www.newspapers.gov.im/Repository/ml.asp?Ref=UVVULzE5MTUvMTAvMDEjQXIwMTAwNw%3D%3D&Mode=Gif&Locale=english-skin-eu" target="_blank"><span style="color: blue;">Theatre Critique</span></a></span><br />
<span style="font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif;"><br /></span>
<span style="font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif;">Some fellow performers of interest:</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif;">1)<span style="color: blue;"> <a href="http://www.imuseum.im/search/agent_record/view?id=mnh-agent-1159571" target="_blank"><span style="color: blue;">Walter Wollanke - Internee record</span></a></span></span><br />
<span style="font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif;">2)</span> <a href="http://imuseum.im/search/agent_record/view?id=mnh-agent-1158238&type=agent&tab=all&from=0&term=s+syffoni&size=20&sort=&filter=&view=&images=&ttmgp=0&rfname=&rlname=&machine=&race=&raceyear=&linked=0&pos=0https://www.google.co.uk/?gws_rd=ssl" target="_blank"><span style="color: blue; font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif;">S. Syffoni - Internee record</span></a><br />
<span style="font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif;">3) <a href="http://www.newspapers.gov.im/Repository/ml.asp?Ref=VU5VLzE5MTcvMDgvMjYjQXIwMDYwMQ%3D%3D&Mode=Gif&Locale=english-skin-eu" target="_blank"><span style="color: blue;">Emil Gyori as Actor</span></a></span><br />
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<span style="font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif;">Some pages from Quoesque Tandem of interest:</span><br />
<span style="font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif;"><br /></span>
<span style="font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif;">1) <a href="http://www.newspapers.gov.im/Repository/ml.asp?Ref=UVVULzE5MTUvMTAvMDEjUGMwMDEwMg%3D%3D&Mode=Gif&Locale=english-skin-eu" target="_blank"><span style="color: blue;">Cover October 1 1915</span></a></span><br />
<span style="font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif;">2) <a href="http://www.newspapers.gov.im/Repository/ml.asp?Ref=UVVULzE5MTUvMTAvMDEjUGMwMDIwMg%3D%3D&Mode=Gif&Locale=english-skin-eu" target="_blank"><span style="color: blue;">Camp Photograph</span></a></span><br />
<span style="font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif;">3) <a href="http://www.newspapers.gov.im/Repository/ml.asp?Ref=UVVULzE5MTUvMTAvMDEjUGMwMDYwMQ%3D%3D&Mode=Gif&Locale=english-skin-eu" target="_blank"><span style="color: blue;">Camp Huts drawing</span></a></span><br />
<span style="font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif;">4) <a href="http://www.newspapers.gov.im/Repository/ml.asp?Ref=UVVULzE5MTUvMTAvMDEjQXIwMDQwMg%3D%3D&Mode=Gif&Locale=english-skin-eu" target="_blank"><span style="color: blue;">The Camp as a Town</span></a></span><br />
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<span style="font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif;"><b>NB: There are many photographs of Internee theatre productions on the iMuseum site. Most bear no identification of production or personnel.</b></span><br />
<span style="font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif;"><b>See<span style="color: blue;"> <a href="http://www.imuseum.im/search/all/search?term=internee+theatre+" target="_blank"><span style="color: blue;">HERE</span></a></span> for a selection.</b></span><br />
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<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEg8tani8-aNcZAFbSQxpIQVra9jPkErQ8QP_LiFlsBaHLXB1cOEMfsLzwEb1a_vm6AyXNP9rJdRHjq52ziFU-KIlC7m43HLm5CGBfWp2V_jszIqAY2fT0pI1N0jiqHBFJIJUw_CgXuvExc/s1600/barbed+wire+rose.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="180" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEg8tani8-aNcZAFbSQxpIQVra9jPkErQ8QP_LiFlsBaHLXB1cOEMfsLzwEb1a_vm6AyXNP9rJdRHjq52ziFU-KIlC7m43HLm5CGBfWp2V_jszIqAY2fT0pI1N0jiqHBFJIJUw_CgXuvExc/s320/barbed+wire+rose.jpg" width="320" /></a></div>
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<span style="font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif;"><b>The Final Word</b></span><br />
<span style="font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif;"><b><br /></b></span>
<span style="font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif;">I doubt Conan Doyle entered the minds of the German internees. For them, I suspect, the plays of Ferdinand Bonn represented the nostalgic and familiar. Their industry and inventiveness in such conditions is humbling and testament to the resilience of the human spirit. Lord knows what written texts were used just to learn lines. The camp libraries were well stocked but i doubt they ran to multiple copies of plays. Very likely Schmieder et al drew on a single copy to prepare <i style="font-weight: bold;">parts </i>in the old Elizabethan way.</span><br />
<span style="font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif;"><br /></span>
<span style="font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif;">I leave the final word to internee <b>L.J. Greiner</b> who said it all in this poem for Quousque Tandem (original German <a href="http://www.newspapers.gov.im/Repository/ml.asp?Ref=UVVULzE5MTUvMTAvMDEjUGMwMDUwMQ%3D%3D&Mode=Gif&Locale=english-skin-eu" target="_blank"><span style="color: blue;">HERE</span></a> ):</span><br />
<span style="font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif;"><br /></span>
<span style="font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif;"><b><i>How much longer </i></b></span><br />
<span style="font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif;"><b><i>Will it last , this war, this screaming and this shouting,</i></b></span><br />
<span style="font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif;"><b><i>This thunder, this murderous pounding?</i></b></span><br />
<span style="font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif;"><b><i>How much longer in the lonely night</i></b></span><br />
<span style="font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif;"><b><i>Must the heart plead for peace?</i></b></span><br />
<span style="font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif;"><b><i><br /></i></b></span>
<span style="font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif;"><b><i>How much longer</i></b></span><br />
<span style="font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif;"><b><i>This burden of terror, fearing the foe</i></b></span><br />
<span style="font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif;"><b><i>For husband or for son?</i></b></span><br />
<span style="font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif;"><b><i>When will peace return</i></b></span><br />
<span style="font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif;"><b><i>To the beloved home?</i></b></span><br />
<span style="font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif;"><b><i><br /></i></b></span>
<span style="font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif;"><b><i>How much longer</i></b></span><br />
<span style="font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif;"><b><i>Will this yearning torment the breast?</i></b></span><br />
<span style="font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif;"><b><i>How much longer, the nerve-racking, powerless waiting</i></b></span><br />
<span style="font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif;"><b><i>Sap the prisoner's zest for life?</i></b></span><br />
<span style="font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif;"><b><i>When will the iron bars fall?</i></b></span><br />
<span style="font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif;"><b><i><br /></i></b></span>
<span style="font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif;"><i><b> </b><span style="color: #e06666;"><b> - </b></span></i><b><span style="color: #e06666;">Their Last Bow - the war service of the Isle of Man internees</span>.</b></span><br />
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<span style="background-color: white; color: #222222; font-family: "arial"; font-size: 14px; font-weight: bold; white-space: pre-wrap;">ⒸRAYWILCOCKSON2016</span>Altamonthttp://www.blogger.com/profile/07487675562905937401noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1766557913348045247.post-26555988596378672462016-02-28T17:19:00.001-08:002016-02-28T17:19:23.071-08:00Where it is Always 1895 - the Story of a Boy and his Sherlock Holmes Story.<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhRWNqRYE79hqFKZr1UwgM32dWIUw97_aKwuXj5sWx2D-Uwp6UtGmJsMBFwOPw9neDB6FngShr7eKPvbeujXc_MssuFh1XgcE4pWw3RMyHsua6TYpZHVkzoywSnKMdNsy2LNDciN-jGnj0/s1600/story+ill.JPG" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="400" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhRWNqRYE79hqFKZr1UwgM32dWIUw97_aKwuXj5sWx2D-Uwp6UtGmJsMBFwOPw9neDB6FngShr7eKPvbeujXc_MssuFh1XgcE4pWw3RMyHsua6TYpZHVkzoywSnKMdNsy2LNDciN-jGnj0/s400/story+ill.JPG" width="395" /></a></div>
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<div dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.38; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;">
<span style="font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif;"><span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 400; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">In the summer of 1895, newspapers in St Louis, Missouri, and Canton, Ohio, published a story written for his school magazine by a pupil in Concord, Massachusetts. Variant prefatory notes combine sufficiently to identify the school, the author and his family. While the above illustration accompanies both, their titles differ: </span><span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-style: italic; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 700; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">“A Trip to Hades” </span><span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 400; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">and </span><span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-style: italic; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 700; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">“Up To Date Detective”</span><span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 400; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"> may be editorial choices</span><span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-size: 14.6667px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 400; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">.</span></span><br />
<span style="font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif;"><span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-size: 14.6667px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 400; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"><br /></span></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif;"><span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 400; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">The story was first published in </span><span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-style: italic; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 700; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">“The Minute Man”</span><span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 400; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">, the school magazine of Concord Home School. Its author was </span><span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 700; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">James Richardson, Jr., son of James Richardson of Cabanne Place. </span><span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 400; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">James is described as a promising pupil and his story a clever take-off or burlesque on Conan Doyle. Of interest, certainly, as a very early instance of Sherlockian fan fiction (on either side of the Atlantic), this adventure of </span><span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-style: italic; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 700; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">Padlock Homes </span><span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 400; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">and </span><span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-style: italic; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 700; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">Dr. Hotson </span><span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 400; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">in Hades provides a revealing, window into the reading habits and juvenile imagination of its author.</span></span><br />
<span style="font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif;"><span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 400; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"><br /></span></span></div>
<div dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.38; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;">
<span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 400; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">Moreover, from the scant facts available, I have been able to flesh out something of the history of Concord Home School and, most significantly, link young James with one of the giants of 20th Century American literature.</span></div>
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<span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 400; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">This post therefore offers:</span></div>
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<li dir="ltr" style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 400; list-style-type: decimal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline;"><div dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.38; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;">
<span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 400; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">A transcription of the story for ease of reading along with links to the newspapers.</span></div>
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<li dir="ltr" style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 400; list-style-type: decimal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline;"><div dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.38; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;">
<span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 400; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">A commentary on the pastiche.</span></div>
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<li dir="ltr" style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 400; list-style-type: decimal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline;"><div dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.38; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;">
<span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 400; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">A history of Concord Home School.</span></div>
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<li dir="ltr" style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 400; list-style-type: decimal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline;"><span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 400; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">A family history of James Richardson Jr</span></li>
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<span style="font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif;"><span style="font-size: large; white-space: pre-wrap;"><b>The Story.</b></span></span><br />
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<span style="font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif;"><span style="white-space: pre-wrap;">Please click on this link for the transcription [opens as pdf]:<span style="color: blue;"> <span style="color: blue;"><a href="https://drive.google.com/file/d/0B0gU8H55kDdaRnQ4dGVpWjZMTWs/view?usp=sharing" target="_blank"><span style="color: blue;">The Story</span></a> </span>.</span></span></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif;"><span style="font-size: large; white-space: pre-wrap;"><b>Commentary.</b></span></span><br />
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<span style="font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif;"><span style="white-space: pre-wrap;">James was 16 at the time of writing (see family history) and I think this shows both in the story's weaknesses and strengths. Lightly (if at all) edited for publication, it feels, as it stands, a third too long and would benefit from the excision of passages of pedestrian narrative commonly found in juvenile story-telling. Were I his teacher, I'd have recommended James enrich with descriptive detail and additional dramatic action. It is the product of an undisciplined imagination so carried away the author doesn't quite know what he intends to create. It's less a conscious burlesque than a spontaneous melange of youthful literary pleasures.</span></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif;"><span style="white-space: pre-wrap;">This very lack of focus opens a fascinating window on the reading of an American boy in 1895. Holmes, of course, is understandably at the imaginative forefront. To fill the void (hiatus) after the detective's demise, American newspapers serialised <i style="font-weight: bold;">"A Study in Scarlet" </i>and <i style="font-weight: bold;">"The Sign of Four"</i>. Of greater relevance here, Conan Doyle's early work <i style="font-weight: bold;">"The Mystery of Cloomber" </i>was made available in a cheap edition to sate public thirst for more Doyle and hyped as "the new novel from Dr. Doyle". </span></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif;"><span style="white-space: pre-wrap;">My blog on <i style="font-weight: bold;">"The Empty House" </i>[<i>see <a href="http://altamarkings.blogspot.co.uk/2012/04/that-awful-abyss-empty-house-3.html" target="_blank">Cree</a></i>] locates the source of the abyss image in that early novel's <i style="font-weight: bold;">"Hole of Cree" </i>and I detect its influence on James who may also have read a contemporary article noting precisely this prototypical aspect [<i>see <a href="http://chroniclingamerica.loc.gov/lccn/sn82015679/1895-05-10/ed-1/seq-3/#date1=1894&sort=date&date2=1895&words=Cloomber+Mystery&searchType=basic&sequence=0&index=4&state=&rows=20&proxtext=the+mystery+of+cloomber&y=15&x=21&dateFilterType=yearRange&page=1" target="_blank">May 1895</a> </i>].</span></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif;"><span style="white-space: pre-wrap;">Equally, Jules Verne figures strongly in the steampunk imagination at work here. All his relevant major works were printed in English and immensely popular well before 1895. To Verne and Doyle James adds a native American spin when he engineers that the climactic discovery of Hotson's story take place by the crater on Mount Shasta. California's volcano is shrouded in supernatural legend.</span></span></div>
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<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgXeWvxDJca1XglaogwPzKTD0MujRKP8L_bHdx5r1xh5kUJ5H7AHgwz4fGD_zUI2hq4eOiX79E65J6EzksNAoslqeOZjYRffJwGirsvhVWLBGfMNhCEZ_zFBCGpKkdV41xowWQGZTMwKfI/s1600/Mount_Shasta_from_Castle_Lake_at_Evening.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" height="275" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgXeWvxDJca1XglaogwPzKTD0MujRKP8L_bHdx5r1xh5kUJ5H7AHgwz4fGD_zUI2hq4eOiX79E65J6EzksNAoslqeOZjYRffJwGirsvhVWLBGfMNhCEZ_zFBCGpKkdV41xowWQGZTMwKfI/s400/Mount_Shasta_from_Castle_Lake_at_Evening.jpg" width="400" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Mount Shasta from Castle Lake by Thomas Hill (circa 1888)</td></tr>
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<span style="font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif;"><span style="white-space: pre-wrap;"> The process of Americanisation clearly delights young James. Taunton, Mass., and not Taunton, Devon, hosts the murderer, James Blake - himself endowed with a name identical with a national landmark but 20 miles from Concord. Boston's oldest 17th century house was built by James Blake, an immigrant from England's West Country. It is one of only two surviving homes in Massachusetts in the West-of-England style. </span></span><br />
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<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiKltrf1awq_WI928cBBgkYQhyphenhyphenpqW4_KHAu-mtaHw-K8tuzE9W8tHTEAuh_4hyphenhyphenLY45xviY6R_mCOJxNrtfzM-hz_6j3rY9fWr2Wszf2-xVmZXHUrBRN09TLEwJlVrZafL9DgUGldWDfd9k/s1600/Blake-House.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="220" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiKltrf1awq_WI928cBBgkYQhyphenhyphenpqW4_KHAu-mtaHw-K8tuzE9W8tHTEAuh_4hyphenhyphenLY45xviY6R_mCOJxNrtfzM-hz_6j3rY9fWr2Wszf2-xVmZXHUrBRN09TLEwJlVrZafL9DgUGldWDfd9k/s320/Blake-House.jpg" width="320" /></a></div>
<span style="font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif;"><span style="white-space: pre-wrap;">Intriguingly, the building was moving to Richardson Park as James Richardson wrote his story. The makeover is completed by a natural transformation of London's Baker St. into a New York Faker. </span></span><br />
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<span style="font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif;"><span style="white-space: pre-wrap;">It's New York, December 3, 1997. Hotson and the author bestride the future as well as the past. As did a certain H G Wells in <i style="font-weight: bold;">"The Time Machine"</i>, a work eight years in the making. Whether James had read some or all of the story by 1895 is not known but possible. [<i>see <a href="http://colemanzone.com/Time_Machine_Project/TimeMachinePrint.htm" target="_blank">Time Machine</a> </i>for a detailed chronology of publication]. He could certainly have read <b><i>"The Chronic Argonauts"</i></b> (1888) A teenager's lack of artistic control over his time slip is, I think, masked by a leaping imagination that relishes the surreal. It's there in Homes, Hotson and (shades of Restoration drama) <b><i>"Mrs Slimdiet"</i></b>. Perhaps the devil's <i style="font-weight: bold;">"hash" </i>is a schoolboy side-swipe at the Concord School dinner lady, but is aptly absurd.</span></span><br />
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<span style="font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif;"><span style="white-space: pre-wrap;">Finally, James Richardson Jr. is bang up to date with two allusions. Hotson discovers an embarrassed Homes playing <i style="font-weight: bold;">"And Her Golden Hair Was Hanging Down Her Back" </i>on his violin. Frank Tousey's music hall song was published in 1894 and here is the version James would know: <a href="http://www.traditionalmusic.co.uk/songster/44-and-her-golden-hair-was-hanging-down-her-back.htm" target="_blank">Tousey</a> .</span></span><br />
<span style="font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif;"><span style="white-space: pre-wrap;">Listen to Dale Evans singing it <a href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wOCA6vm6oGs" target="_blank">Here</a> .</span></span><br />
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<span style="font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif;"><span style="white-space: pre-wrap;">Young James has a taste for the risque. Cue <b><i>Trilby O'Ferrell</i></b>. </span></span><br />
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<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiYgI6f8ENTLf_q5Xl46aUF_pzDC9Av6LFyGgMtYvVp9Gnbq7z26eCZTIVpZusBCNxq7kg8_Qpz4lR1dQX_I2v6-S9QiiZAJ9grzhF5_ulIvyWSA7ZHNeYp2iUra4tb1amRYLQnvFv0IuU/s1600/Virginia_Harned_Trilby.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" height="400" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiYgI6f8ENTLf_q5Xl46aUF_pzDC9Av6LFyGgMtYvVp9Gnbq7z26eCZTIVpZusBCNxq7kg8_Qpz4lR1dQX_I2v6-S9QiiZAJ9grzhF5_ulIvyWSA7ZHNeYp2iUra4tb1amRYLQnvFv0IuU/s400/Virginia_Harned_Trilby.jpg" width="247" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Virginia Harned as Trilby, Boston 1895</td></tr>
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<span style="font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif;"><span style="white-space: pre-wrap;">In the year 1895 America was in the grip of a <b><i>"Trilby"</i></b> craze. Published serially in <i style="font-weight: bold;">"Harper's Monthly"</i> in 1894, George du Maurier's novel sold 200,000 copies in America alone when available in book form in 1895. London would lap up Beerbohm Tree's stage version; America had its own. With Wilton Lackaye as Svengali and Boston's own 27 year old Virginia Harned as O'Ferrell, Mr. Palmer's Company staged <i style="font-weight: bold;">"Trilby" </i>at the Garden Theatre, New York in April, having premiered at Boston Museum on March 4th. </span></span><br />
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<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEh4Ll3DUdf8osV6rIn7wt-ZOYa33utOC8L0-WSd7Y6dUT7veFQE2OLZv4KfFQ4HJxMWn1kzroKqRmwmMzlS0GigUbgas4Hr3PlDKJE0ve6ycBbxPhgdjL2ylTYF8pHCwhevTGoa5FnXB14/s1600/_BostonMuseum_TremontSt+1872.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" height="268" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEh4Ll3DUdf8osV6rIn7wt-ZOYa33utOC8L0-WSd7Y6dUT7veFQE2OLZv4KfFQ4HJxMWn1kzroKqRmwmMzlS0GigUbgas4Hr3PlDKJE0ve6ycBbxPhgdjL2ylTYF8pHCwhevTGoa5FnXB14/s400/_BostonMuseum_TremontSt+1872.jpg" width="400" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Boston Museum Theatre 1872.</td></tr>
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<span style="font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif;"><span style="white-space: pre-wrap;"> </span></span> <span style="font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif;">James is careful to couch the topical allusion in a moral (if comical) context. Hotson, we are to believe, freed the mesmerised girl from her Svengali by removing the 'wheels' from her head. Perhaps James too is mesmerised, as most young men were by this bohemian beauty. I reckon he'd have jumped at a theatre trip down the road from school.</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif;"> <b><span style="font-size: large;">Concord School.</span></b></span><span style="font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif;"><span style="white-space: pre-wrap;"><br /></span></span><br />
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<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhJB30ljVTDxCryYHmgJG16NO1E22dyIXTdL-Ou4yQFMhiT4OGVSUUWSVqliqI-xiuhvSIvPCMU8gjXcF7EPAC9qxH-lvI7jyH5LolmKWxYoWe8o4OY4qMLQ8fQhdZM1e0MkSfn9UlU7G0/s1600/school+ad.JPG" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" height="105" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhJB30ljVTDxCryYHmgJG16NO1E22dyIXTdL-Ou4yQFMhiT4OGVSUUWSVqliqI-xiuhvSIvPCMU8gjXcF7EPAC9qxH-lvI7jyH5LolmKWxYoWe8o4OY4qMLQ8fQhdZM1e0MkSfn9UlU7G0/s400/school+ad.JPG" width="400" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Advert in The Nation, 1894.</td></tr>
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<span style="font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif;">It's a moot point whether Principal Garland would have arranged such a theatre visit. The reader may judge perhaps from the following links to further information about James Garland's private school which opened in 1890 and changed its name to Concord School in 1897.</span><br />
<span style="font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif;">1. Concord Directory and Guide: <a href="http://www.forgottenbooks.com/readbook_text/The_Concord_Directory_and_Guide_1000739656/149" target="_blank">Directory</a> .</span><br />
<span style="font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif;">2. Unitarian Year Book: <a href="http://www.forgottenbooks.com/readbook_text/Unitarian_Year_Book_1000780401/667" target="_blank">Year Book</a> </span><br />
<span style="font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif;">3. Concord Library Holdings (inc some issues of <i style="font-weight: bold;">"Minute Man" </i><a href="http://184.168.105.185/archivegrid/collection/data/28513661" target="_blank">Library</a> <u>.</u></span><br />
<span style="font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif;">4. Surviving South Bridge Boathouse: <a href="https://books.google.co.uk/books?id=g_LidsYd-YMC&pg=PA70&lpg=PA70&dq=concord+home+school+1890&source=bl&ots=Fl-OL7FYws&sig=TN6bC3G7q26TjTL7iKtLuHiqyNE&hl=en&sa=X&ved=0ahUKEwj4qZe7nZTLAhUoD5oKHXt5BN0Q6AEIJDAC#v=onepage&q=concord%20home%20school%201890&f=false" target="_blank">Boathouse</a> .</span><br />
<span style="font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif;">NB: Click Google Earth on this present day map to see the surviving boathouse and gain a sense of the (wooded) 75 acres of school estate: <a href="https://www.google.co.uk/maps/place/South+Bridge+Boat+House+Inc/@42.4582527,-71.3666522,15z/data=!4m2!3m1!1s0x0:0x5dd5686f1a307bf2" target="_blank"><span style="color: blue;">Estate</span></a> .</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif; font-size: large;"><b>Family History.</b></span><br />
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<span style="font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif;">A private boarding school. $600 per annum - James has a wealthy father, back on Cabanne Place, St Louis, Missouri. Here he is, banker, James Clifford Richardson, son of James Richardson and so usually referred to as "Jr., like his own son, the schoolboy author:</span><br />
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<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Father of schoolboy James (1849-1903).</td></tr>
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<span style="font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif;">To read the links below is to encounter multiple tragedy and one of the great love stories of the 20th Century. Young James born in 1879 will disappear from history but we know he suffered the successive losses of father, sister and mother and lived to see his famous younger sister (age 3 in 1895) take the bohemian literary road of Trilby O'Ferrell to Paris as the first Mrs. Ernest Hemingway. And the rest is history and a moveable feast.</span><br />
<span style="font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif;">1. Family: <a href="http://www.wyman.org/Genealogy/familygroup.php?familyID=F8525&tree=Wyman" target="_blank">Family</a> .</span><br />
<span style="font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif;">2. Father's History: <a href="http://delong.typepad.com/sdj/2013/09/james-clifford-richardson-1849-1903.html" target="_blank">Father</a> .</span><br />
<span style="font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif;">3. The Road to Suicide: <a href="https://books.google.co.uk/books?id=kqF7IHfSHJMC&pg=PA152&lpg=PA152&dq=james+clifford+richardson+st+louis&source=bl&ots=3EK6-kq_TQ&sig=fBmf_V_hKM1XwWFyVfqUivJyawM&hl=en&sa=X&ved=0ahUKEwiSqtX6r5XLAhWD8RQKHaotAqsQ6AEIMDAE#v=onepage&q=james%20clifford%20richardson%20st%20louis&f=false" target="_blank">Suicide</a> .</span><br />
<span style="font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif;">4. Elizabeth Hadley Richardson <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hadley_Richardson" target="_blank">Elizabeth</a> .</span><br />
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<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgMZoaPYTQJjfxawc0c7mDWdndFCqnLTwZySngdDtYobjD64tthyphenhyphenu5RLJNKxmqWzS4FTBchy8pdARgd3DinVcQ8L40nGJes_9WtZwpQ8J6Cqe60QU5e7BeevD4f5zfiLNdUhv0Asv0Kheg/s1600/eliz.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" height="400" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgMZoaPYTQJjfxawc0c7mDWdndFCqnLTwZySngdDtYobjD64tthyphenhyphenu5RLJNKxmqWzS4FTBchy8pdARgd3DinVcQ8L40nGJes_9WtZwpQ8J6Cqe60QU5e7BeevD4f5zfiLNdUhv0Asv0Kheg/s400/eliz.jpg" width="277" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">James's Little Sister.</td></tr>
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<span id="docs-internal-guid-335f4a22-2a8c-17fe-f466-c344340da262"><span style="background-color: white; color: #222222; font-family: "arial"; font-size: 14px; font-weight: 700; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">ⒸRAYWILCOCKSON2016.</span></span><br />
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Altamonthttp://www.blogger.com/profile/07487675562905937401noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1766557913348045247.post-12469337854567608552016-02-16T18:47:00.003-08:002016-02-16T18:47:31.228-08:00Theodore Lorch as Sherlock Holmes ( on stage 1906 - 10 )<table align="center" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto; text-align: center;"><tbody>
<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgr46DQLB5jk-Fpp1SJsuI8iGVPvJeKnUw_UwzjPt9klKjArkLzzd-BIsaXfHQJSOpOptO-j0CoPb9CSPGHx6-vrJAw_5EHPqJRtQxjiDY0_VzR6YWlR_mmWPTIkEHQdhjmBT4aJlk7dYE/s1600/SIGN4.JPG" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" height="400" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgr46DQLB5jk-Fpp1SJsuI8iGVPvJeKnUw_UwzjPt9klKjArkLzzd-BIsaXfHQJSOpOptO-j0CoPb9CSPGHx6-vrJAw_5EHPqJRtQxjiDY0_VzR6YWlR_mmWPTIkEHQdhjmBT4aJlk7dYE/s400/SIGN4.JPG" width="297" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Theodore Lorch Salt Lake City 1907</td></tr>
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<div dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.38; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;">
<span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: "arial"; font-size: 14.666666666666666px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 400; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">The film actor,Theodore Lorch, has largely eclipsed the illustrious man of the stage he became in the first decade of the 20th Century. Versatile and prolific, his face is familiar from cowboy films; from his appearances with The Three Stooges; notably as Chingachgook ( in the 1920 silent </span><span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: "arial"; font-size: 14.666666666666666px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 700; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">“The</span><span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: "arial"; font-size: 14.666666666666666px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 400; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"> </span><span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: "arial"; font-size: 14.666666666666666px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 700; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">Last of the Mohicans”</span><span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: "arial"; font-size: 14.666666666666666px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 400; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"> ) and especially as a High Priest in </span><span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: "arial"; font-size: 14.666666666666666px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 700; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">“Flash Gordon”</span><span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: "arial"; font-size: 14.666666666666666px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 400; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">, 1936. Lorch was 40 by the time his film career took off after the war. He had made but one short before it, in 1908, called </span><span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: "arial"; font-size: 14.666666666666666px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 700; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">“Shamus O’Brien”</span><span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: "arial"; font-size: 14.666666666666666px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 400; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">.</span></div>
<span id="docs-internal-guid-33e9721b-eca3-fbb2-1960-3426b55f53d7"><br /><span style="font-family: "arial"; font-size: 14.6667px; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">This post records evidence from news archives of Lorch’s appearances in the role of Sherlock Holmes between 1906 and 1910. For those interested, notes and links expanding on his life and activities on the pre-war stage follow.</span></span><br />
<span style="font-family: "arial"; font-size: 14.6667px; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"> <a href="https://drive.google.com/file/d/0B0gU8H55kDdaNjVmVDZwS19rYVU/view?usp=sharing" target="_blank">Read More</a> (This link will open as pdf )</span><br />
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<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEh75uXxYAPgBAqX6lreF-A9FYmV-Z5fZfq4WZ-me-vF9v4f-xxsh9qW1kAWO9Ylvh3pfXy1zA_QzseXmd3SRiD9URO8w7CH_KbZsKg4YoeBLm_73KsFgN1KRcG7KLZQ-pidYKWApX41WT8/s1600/SIGN1.JPG" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="280" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEh75uXxYAPgBAqX6lreF-A9FYmV-Z5fZfq4WZ-me-vF9v4f-xxsh9qW1kAWO9Ylvh3pfXy1zA_QzseXmd3SRiD9URO8w7CH_KbZsKg4YoeBLm_73KsFgN1KRcG7KLZQ-pidYKWApX41WT8/s400/SIGN1.JPG" width="400" /></a></div>
<span style="font-family: "arial"; font-size: 14.6667px; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"><br /></span>Altamonthttp://www.blogger.com/profile/07487675562905937401noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1766557913348045247.post-44763666170012636142016-02-10T19:00:00.002-08:002016-02-11T09:22:04.621-08:00"In the Power of Sherlock Holmes" - A Distinctly Australian Cry.<table align="center" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto; text-align: center;"><tbody>
<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjflU-72z2ICX-EjlQoLaygx3oAqGVf_3H5vRw-UPDnkFKApwuywepeX89jTY71YMdA7P2fa2Lm8MwOOWlg_gGl6XNq0Vaph4A-phNxOEip6jOoB_gP7kvZEu7nRwaQbuu46BvzV85lh9c/s1600/shire+hall+mildura+1913.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" height="258" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjflU-72z2ICX-EjlQoLaygx3oAqGVf_3H5vRw-UPDnkFKApwuywepeX89jTY71YMdA7P2fa2Lm8MwOOWlg_gGl6XNq0Vaph4A-phNxOEip6jOoB_gP7kvZEu7nRwaQbuu46BvzV85lh9c/s400/shire+hall+mildura+1913.jpg" width="400" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Shire Hall, Mildura, Queensland, 1912</td></tr>
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<span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: "arial"; font-size: 14.666666666666666px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 400; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"> </span><span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: "arial"; font-size: 14.666666666666666px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 400; text-decoration: underline; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"> </span><span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: "arial"; font-size: 14.666666666666666px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 700; text-decoration: underline; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">In the Power/In the Grip/At the Mercy of Sherlock Holmes.</span></div>
<b id="docs-internal-guid-af0de531-ce37-0f59-b6b3-cc3af160cae2" style="font-weight: normal;"><br /></b>
<br />
<div dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.38; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;">
<span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: "arial"; font-size: 14.666666666666666px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 400; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"> </span><span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: "arial"; font-size: 14.666666666666666px; font-style: italic; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 700; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">“A distinctly Australian cry</span><span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: "arial"; font-size: 14.666666666666666px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 700; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">” [The Boscombe Valley Mystery]</span></div>
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<br />
<div dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.38; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;">
<span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: "arial"; font-size: 14.666666666666666px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 400; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">By 1910, Sherlock Holmes was a familiar figure to theatregoers in Australia and New Zealand, most notably through the performances of Cuyler Hastings, in Gillette’s “Sherlock Holmes” and Charles Blake in Max Goldberg’s “Bank of England”. It was therefore good business on the part of J C Williamson to secure (within a month of its first UK performance) Australian and New Zealand rights to perform Conan Doyle’s new play, “The Speckled Band”. The company’s 1911 production, starring William Desmond, having done well in Australia, embarked on a short New Zealand tour early in 1912, taking in only select venues as they were due back in Sydney by 24 February and Desmond was returning to America. [ </span><span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: "arial"; font-size: 14.666666666666666px; font-style: italic; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 400; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">see </span><a href="http://paperspast.natlib.govt.nz/cgi-bin/paperspast?a=d&cl=search&d=HNS19120207.2.40.3&srpos=5&e=-------10--1----0the+speckled+band+william+desmond--" style="text-decoration: none;"><span style="background-color: transparent; color: #1155cc; font-family: "arial"; font-size: 14.666666666666666px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 400; text-decoration: underline; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">NZ Tour</span></a><span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: "arial"; font-size: 14.666666666666666px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 400; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"> ].</span></div>
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<br />
<div dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.38; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;">
<span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: "arial"; font-size: 14.666666666666666px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 700; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">“In the Power of Sherlock Holmes” by the Australian author, Norman Campbell.</span><span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: "arial"; font-size: 14.666666666666666px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 400; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"> </span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "arial"; font-size: 14.6667px; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">Meanwhile, back in Victoria, Australia, a new four act play about Sherlock Holmes was staged by The Campbell Dramatic Company. “In the Power of Sherlock Holmes” premiered in the Shire Hall, Mildura on 2 February, 1912 with </span><span style="font-family: "arial"; font-size: 14.6667px; font-weight: 700; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">J L Lawrence </span><span style="font-family: "arial"; font-size: 14.6667px; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">as Holmes.</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: "arial"; font-size: 14.6667px; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"> <a href="https://drive.google.com/file/d/0B0gU8H55kDdaemRtaHZOdDBYV0U/view?usp=sharing" target="_blank">Read More</a> (this link will open as pdf).</span><br />
<span style="font-family: "arial"; font-size: 14.6667px; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"> </span><br />
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<span style="font-family: "arial"; font-size: 14.6667px; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"><br /></span>Altamonthttp://www.blogger.com/profile/07487675562905937401noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1766557913348045247.post-67789834671693823792016-01-08T01:05:00.002-08:002016-01-08T01:41:01.356-08:00The Extraordinary Days of Ordinary Teachers.<br />
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<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEi4k8kb2wepU9fPkR7TCxiK1behJnsAQhNDzxtm1fym5HJfDjKidpvZNtYdTXgnmQrX_5qRrt81Qb4eh5yx0MvrgeJtNPSVsozhlcncl1oXPecO6H8o-nq_lhmG1e4ETorBAh1zF7qw38Q/s1600/Rembrandt_Christ_in_the_Storm_on_the_Lake_of_Galilee.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" height="400" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEi4k8kb2wepU9fPkR7TCxiK1behJnsAQhNDzxtm1fym5HJfDjKidpvZNtYdTXgnmQrX_5qRrt81Qb4eh5yx0MvrgeJtNPSVsozhlcncl1oXPecO6H8o-nq_lhmG1e4ETorBAh1zF7qw38Q/s400/Rembrandt_Christ_in_the_Storm_on_the_Lake_of_Galilee.jpg" width="321" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">"The Storm on the Sea of Galilee" Rembrandt 1633</td></tr>
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<span style="font-size: large;">In this time of great transformation certain quiet constants abide,That historic expressed will of a nation to provide by right a guaranteed period of general education for all generated, among myriad concomitants, a perpetual obligation to furnish all classrooms with the quiet constant that is here my theme: the ordinary teacher.</span><br />
<span style="font-size: large;"> <a href="https://drive.google.com/file/d/0B0gU8H55kDdaMDVVUG9kN0NpVG8/view?usp=sharing" target="_blank">Read more</a> (this link will open as pdf).</span>Altamonthttp://www.blogger.com/profile/07487675562905937401noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1766557913348045247.post-75928658809615256622015-12-24T22:47:00.000-08:002015-12-24T22:47:36.376-08:00Three Sherlockian Scrooges - in the Spirit of Christmas Present.<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEh_fj7X1tOksFsV7AsR2c0xBZ1-McW7BYALsiAXvTQbL32qzc2bbbL9Rd8t0Rg8xdGrRDulWtoD2z_g7jETWlCGQYrzPfYOFZx9DgdZcY_I6BuzPsacCwRwuas3uAHG4GyqQ7rpWJqlNA8/s1600/scrooge-ghost-christmas-present.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="271" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEh_fj7X1tOksFsV7AsR2c0xBZ1-McW7BYALsiAXvTQbL32qzc2bbbL9Rd8t0Rg8xdGrRDulWtoD2z_g7jETWlCGQYrzPfYOFZx9DgdZcY_I6BuzPsacCwRwuas3uAHG4GyqQ7rpWJqlNA8/s400/scrooge-ghost-christmas-present.jpg" width="400" /></a></div>
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<span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif; font-size: large;"><b><i>"It is just possible that I am saving a soul," {Sherlock Holmes, "The Blue Carbuncle".}</i></b></span><br />
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<span style="color: #990000; font-family: Verdana, sans-serif; font-size: large;">Today is Christmas Day. As usual, I'll re-read these classic Christmas tales by Dickens and Doyle and (for dessert) remind myself of the definitive Holmes and Scrooge I find in Jeremy Brett and Alastair Sim.</span><br />
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<span style="color: #990000; font-family: Verdana, sans-serif; font-size: large;">This annual pleasure reminded me that several actors made their mark in both fictional worlds. There are likely more than the three ghosts I conjure here (please add others in a comment) but I limit this seasonal post to a trio you can view on Youtube.</span><br />
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<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Basil Rathbone as Scrooge in "A Christmas Carol", 1958.</td></tr>
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<span style="color: #990000; font-family: Verdana, sans-serif; font-size: large;">In 1954, <b>Basil Rathbone</b> played Jacob Marley's Ghost to Fredric March's Scrooge. This TV production may be viewed here:</span><br />
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<span style="color: #990000; font-family: Verdana, sans-serif; font-size: large;">Four years later, he essayed the main role, thus becoming the only actor I know who has played Watson, Holmes, Marley and Scrooge. His 1958 performance may be seen here:</span><br />
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<span style="color: #990000; font-family: Verdana, sans-serif; font-size: large;"> 20 Christmases earlier, in 1938, <b>Reginald Owen</b> stepped in for an injured Lionel Barrymore to play Scrooge in MGM's <i>"A Christmas Carol"</i>. Owen, of course, had previously played Dr. Watson in the 1932 Clive Brook <i>"Sherlock Holmes"</i> and Holmes himself in 1933's <i>"A Study in Scarlet"</i>.</span><br />
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<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Reginald Owen as Scrooge in 1938.</td></tr>
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<span style="color: #990000; font-family: Verdana, sans-serif; font-size: large;">Here's Lionel Barrymore generously introducing Owen's performance in the film's official trailer:</span><br />
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<span style="color: #990000; font-family: Verdana, sans-serif; font-size: large;">Perhaps the most significant figure in this little history is <b>Sir Seymour Hicks</b>.</span><br />
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<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Sir Seymour Hicks as Scrooge in 1935.</td></tr>
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<span style="color: #990000; font-family: Verdana, sans-serif; font-size: large;"> In 1893, aged 22, Hicks made history as the world's first embodiment of Dr. Watson (see my previous post <a href="http://altamarkings.blogspot.co.uk/2015/11/10-pm-25-november-1893-enter-sherlock.html" target="_blank">Enter Sherlock Holmes</a> ). At 30, in 1901, he premiered on stage in the Dickens role, eventually playing it thousands of times. Here's a clip from his first (silent) film in the role:</span><br />
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<span style="color: #990000; font-family: Verdana, sans-serif; font-size: large;">The second (sound) film of 1935 is much more interesting, not least because, though he's forty years older, it preserves the voice of the world's first Watson. You can watch the film here:</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif; font-size: large;"><b><i>"And so, as Tiny Tim said, 'A Merry Christmas to us all; God bless us, every one!" </i></b></span><br />
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<span style="background-color: white; font-family: impact; font-size: 13px; line-height: 18.48px;">© Ray Wilcockson (2015) All Rights Reserved</span>Altamonthttp://www.blogger.com/profile/07487675562905937401noreply@blogger.com2tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1766557913348045247.post-42565862385376022952015-11-25T11:54:00.001-08:002015-11-25T13:56:10.527-08:0010 pm. 25 November 1893 - Enter: Sherlock Holmes.<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEinp7pgGsfhURicuMT5_O6MO-o5WS0R04RcDaFbC4csRndLw3r2Sw3X4yyS_g9RWcxNIFOx6uRCfpzSWwkmDRFOLZr_X-1NzZof1ClDQNfp44ZfnFlo6dqQovb_EUrM4N0PSRymcyiKuKw/s1600/img062.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="263" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEinp7pgGsfhURicuMT5_O6MO-o5WS0R04RcDaFbC4csRndLw3r2Sw3X4yyS_g9RWcxNIFOx6uRCfpzSWwkmDRFOLZr_X-1NzZof1ClDQNfp44ZfnFlo6dqQovb_EUrM4N0PSRymcyiKuKw/s400/img062.jpg" width="400" /></a></div>
<span style="color: #990000; font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif; font-size: large;">122 years ago to the hour of this post, Charles Brookfield walked onto the stage of London's Royal Court Theatre and into history as the first actor to play Sherlock Holmes. He was 36 and is pictured above (bearded) with the world's first Doctor Watson, 22 year old Seymour Hicks, in "The Sketch" which interviewed the pair in their dressing room on December 20.</span><br />
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<span style="color: #990000; font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif; font-size: large;"><b>At 10 "Under the Clock" (an extravaganza in one act).</b></span><br />
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<span style="color: #990000; font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif; font-size: large;">Having recently acquired a programme dated that first night and original page of the interview, it seemed fitting to share these rarely seen items on this anniversary. I have also appended a few notes and links for further reading.</span><br />
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<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhe-QlE-1nmTSst9S_8QXXYeEiY3JoxGTZS_02nxBVP2WeOsdpoDAqxEJu5AU8TZODzy4E8CrNy1SrMdukIU84fNN6OmbUo6n1t1KL02e01AdcGCfrFG7N34m3up9s6D3czlcfQpv78K0Y/s1600/Royal-Court-Theatre-7.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="266" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhe-QlE-1nmTSst9S_8QXXYeEiY3JoxGTZS_02nxBVP2WeOsdpoDAqxEJu5AU8TZODzy4E8CrNy1SrMdukIU84fNN6OmbUo6n1t1KL02e01AdcGCfrFG7N34m3up9s6D3czlcfQpv78K0Y/s400/Royal-Court-Theatre-7.jpg" width="400" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Still the same Royal Court today.</td></tr>
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<span style="color: #990000; font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif; font-size: large;"><b>The Programme.</b></span><br />
<span style="color: #990000; font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif; font-size: large;">It consists of one thin sheet folded once to make four pages each 10" x 7 1/2".</span><br />
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<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiowDY435_DRAt5AVrUZfngmnJcZgVsditQEZZdp7w8vmxwyWLrZB_TLGLf3G0ur2Ylb90FulSNQ19SkBAOE2FSLCSYn9kuspTRprG-NhoCu4VMTXsf0eNHV01ke3mr4bHdx-cK4MNZLuw/s1600/img057.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="400" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiowDY435_DRAt5AVrUZfngmnJcZgVsditQEZZdp7w8vmxwyWLrZB_TLGLf3G0ur2Ylb90FulSNQ19SkBAOE2FSLCSYn9kuspTRprG-NhoCu4VMTXsf0eNHV01ke3mr4bHdx-cK4MNZLuw/s400/img057.jpg" width="341" /></a></div>
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<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhCfB_3LHWmw82_2u_54KbhFeE_aIn888GfPs9ofGC6lsbe0z9uMvOeKn0NUga4tVvN6s-p_8IwvQIFXAeCV-DxTZEgLaJ-XyBPIdMbdddfdJ_-Pis0IlJB_FHurltLu9GfPZKHdMXDGak/s1600/img060.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="320" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhCfB_3LHWmw82_2u_54KbhFeE_aIn888GfPs9ofGC6lsbe0z9uMvOeKn0NUga4tVvN6s-p_8IwvQIFXAeCV-DxTZEgLaJ-XyBPIdMbdddfdJ_-Pis0IlJB_FHurltLu9GfPZKHdMXDGak/s320/img060.jpg" width="246" /></a></div>
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<span style="color: #990000; font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif; font-size: large;">Here is a close-up of "Under the Clock" cast list:</span><br />
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<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgNtPPe8-PRjIIJtPTx_B_EnXtKk18Fqz8kxpBzRRI2Dn1-Jg_FhLCM03U0NwkENJtslhiWdH2btuDXgI-oWbFyRN4RLa8XtuxJ7mezn75RNJaYLYrufKeJ9aIGZlTrjybjnUm6mZJof-c/s1600/img059.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="352" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgNtPPe8-PRjIIJtPTx_B_EnXtKk18Fqz8kxpBzRRI2Dn1-Jg_FhLCM03U0NwkENJtslhiWdH2btuDXgI-oWbFyRN4RLa8XtuxJ7mezn75RNJaYLYrufKeJ9aIGZlTrjybjnUm6mZJof-c/s640/img059.jpg" width="640" /></a></div>
<span style="color: #990000; font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif; font-size: large;"><b>The Supporting Cast.</b></span><br />
<span style="color: #990000; font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif; font-size: large;"><i>Lottie Venne</i>, who played Hannah, a maid of all work, is the best known and well documented on the net. Her ability to deliver the most outrageous lines while remaining a picture of innocence was ideal for the occasion.</span><br />
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<span style="color: #990000; font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif; font-size: large;"><i>Robert Nainby</i> (1869-1948) was an Irish comedian and actor who later made a career in films.</span><br />
<span style="color: #990000; font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif; font-size: large;"><i>William Wyes</i> was similarly a comic actor - here shown playing a farmer in 1894.</span><br />
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<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgoizWoaykaN5gXJQGX7-onUlyMFyY9zDCrfu2prIfnPqfMscFHkcVeJtmggmNbDv8qfK7hZfXlejzsYQswSFSX1EWI4wZDUKelMfEI3PDzdOoAgPJDxudVoT-k2dYoAFqb3XxIkpr8jLk/s1600/william+wyes.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="320" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgoizWoaykaN5gXJQGX7-onUlyMFyY9zDCrfu2prIfnPqfMscFHkcVeJtmggmNbDv8qfK7hZfXlejzsYQswSFSX1EWI4wZDUKelMfEI3PDzdOoAgPJDxudVoT-k2dYoAFqb3XxIkpr8jLk/s320/william+wyes.jpg" width="231" /></a></div>
<span style="color: #990000; font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif; font-size: large;">I know nothing of the Foresters but <i>Harry Paulo</i> was a very famous clown who died aged 77 in 1925.</span><br />
<span style="color: #990000; font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif; font-size: large;"><i>Miss Lyall</i> and <i>Maude Wilmot</i> were young dancers.</span><br />
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<span style="color: #990000; font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif; font-size: large;"><b>Edward Jones.</b></span><br />
<span style="color: #990000; font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif; font-size: large;">Jones, who conducted the orchestra that night and composed the "Under the Clock" overture would, ironically, go on to write the music for "The Sign of the Cross" a very successful 4-act historical tragedy, written by and starring Wilson Barrett, whose "Hamlet" is burlesqued in "Under the Clock"</span><br />
<span style="color: #990000; font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif; font-size: large;">Youtube has one piece Jones wrote for Barrett that gives a taste of his work:</span><br />
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<iframe allowfullscreen="" class="YOUTUBE-iframe-video" data-thumbnail-src="https://i.ytimg.com/vi/NmzPwondHIc/0.jpg" frameborder="0" height="266" src="https://www.youtube.com/embed/NmzPwondHIc?feature=player_embedded" width="320"></iframe></div>
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<span style="color: #990000; font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif; font-size: large;">On the revue, its plot, writers, reception and modern reprint: <a href="https://books.google.co.uk/books?id=DTy7BAAAQBAJ&pg=PT274&lpg=PT274&dq=under+the+clock+brookfield+hicks+1893&source=bl&ots=SNyrdnjq1z&sig=VpHBpFwWkc17T4FmqDXuLken6sw&hl=en&sa=X#v=onepage&q=under%20the%20clock%20brookfield%20hicks%201893&f=false" target="_blank">Charles Press Bedside Book</a> and <a href="https://books.google.co.uk/books?id=raAe5YqTEyIC&pg=PA33&lpg=PA33&dq=edward+jones+music+1893&source=bl&ots=BECVGGz08T&sig=jHbUuCYBySK7DwvoT6-liOqhVg8&hl=en&sa=X#v=onepage&q=edward%20jones%20music%201893&f=false" target="_blank">Amnon Kabatchnik</a> </span><br />
<span style="color: #990000; font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif; font-size: large;">On contemporary reception: <a href="http://www.forgottenbooks.com/readbook_text/The_Theatre_v10_1000267196/57" target="_blank">The Theatre 1894</a> (2 pages).</span><br />
<span style="color: #990000; font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif; font-size: large;">On the significance of this "extravaganza"to the history of revue: <a href="http://core.ac.uk/download/pdf/45166.pdf" target="_blank">Moore's Thesis</a> which I recommend. Moore explains the play's title derives from the Telegraph entertainment listings which were headed by a woodblock of that newspaper's famous clock.</span><br />
<table align="center" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto; text-align: center;"><tbody>
<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjoFdw4bdQKgZhrzYJkszQm5evI85_neFGtKZ8SAB1ZkhLAS7w200f9BwXbKjVj4IwlUHJcS54anWkAJksFPLa8N94Zw4zs-vp7mjuFlNv97Pk7ezpIDSoXTUwudojO0MRsWageiCHh0q8/s1600/clock.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" height="400" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjoFdw4bdQKgZhrzYJkszQm5evI85_neFGtKZ8SAB1ZkhLAS7w200f9BwXbKjVj4IwlUHJcS54anWkAJksFPLa8N94Zw4zs-vp7mjuFlNv97Pk7ezpIDSoXTUwudojO0MRsWageiCHh0q8/s400/clock.jpg" width="301" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Dismantling of old clock 1931 credit CORBIS Images</td></tr>
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<span style="color: #990000; font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif; font-size: large;">On Charles Brookfield, jealousy and Oscar Wilde: <a href="http://1890swriters.blogspot.co.uk/2014/02/sherlock-bully.html" target="_blank">Sherlock the Bully</a> (highly recommended!)</span><br />
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<span style="color: #990000; font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif; font-size: large;">On Wilson Barrett's "Hamlet" (as modern Sherlockians have more than a passing interest in Shakespeare's play!) - excellent study: <a href="http://hamletguide.com/stage/pdf/barretts.pdf" target="_blank">James Thomas on Hamlet</a> </span></div>
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<span style="color: #990000; font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif; font-size: large;">I have scanned the large original in two parts:</span></div>
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<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEis5VlWT8NDnMVgKLaAZwj5oQhlrEKRqtdVthQhd-nFioenmm_VKaRmZkyG5mQkPOYaxHWheKrSKw1NdegWeIdW6XYN0d_FrfH7fRKVFfwLR5dhM_SLA5uwlUe2wVoSROFC7viHxysEjO0/s1600/charles+brookfield.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: left; float: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="320" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEis5VlWT8NDnMVgKLaAZwj5oQhlrEKRqtdVthQhd-nFioenmm_VKaRmZkyG5mQkPOYaxHWheKrSKw1NdegWeIdW6XYN0d_FrfH7fRKVFfwLR5dhM_SLA5uwlUe2wVoSROFC7viHxysEjO0/s320/charles+brookfield.jpg" width="234" /></a></div>
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<b><span style="font-size: large;">Charles Brookfield</span></b></div>
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<b><span style="font-size: large;">The first Sherlock Holmes.</span></b></div>
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<span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif; font-size: large;"><b>Seymour Hicks</b></span><br />
<span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif; font-size: large;"><b>The first Doctor Watson.</b></span><br />
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<span style="background-color: white; font-family: "impact"; font-size: 13px; line-height: 18.48px;">© Ray Wilcockson (2015) All Rights Reserved.</span></div>
Altamonthttp://www.blogger.com/profile/07487675562905937401noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1766557913348045247.post-44598397736582165772015-07-27T21:48:00.000-07:002015-07-27T21:48:23.702-07:00"The Tragedy" - a response in verse to Picasso's 1903 painting.<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjdSxf1Yks4jj0deWH8e9ccpeTvj20lOqDJlWH4d_U0Q-zx156YDzm4byCzOBwiveQnNeJo1ThnY3CnyavVap2qIrHV9jVIYTOSSFSWD2HvRtE_4iXBrHULNk3TZ0fFsJsBcJU7G4lAL14/s1600/picasso9.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="400" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjdSxf1Yks4jj0deWH8e9ccpeTvj20lOqDJlWH4d_U0Q-zx156YDzm4byCzOBwiveQnNeJo1ThnY3CnyavVap2qIrHV9jVIYTOSSFSWD2HvRtE_4iXBrHULNk3TZ0fFsJsBcJU7G4lAL14/s400/picasso9.jpg" width="260" /></a></div>
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<span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: Arial; font-size: 14.666666666666666px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">Unrelieving, infinite hues of blue suffuse,</span></div>
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<span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: Arial; font-size: 14.666666666666666px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">Lap at despair,</span></div>
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<span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: Arial; font-size: 14.666666666666666px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">Claim her,</span></div>
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<span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: Arial; font-size: 14.666666666666666px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">Confounding their child.</span></div>
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<span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: Arial; font-size: 14.666666666666666px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">All statued; paralysed:</span></div>
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<span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: Arial; font-size: 14.666666666666666px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">Triptych of Tragedy.</span></div>
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<span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: Arial; font-size: 14.666666666666666px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">Barely alive,</span></div>
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<span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: Arial; font-size: 14.666666666666666px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">Lit by the world’s last candle,</span></div>
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<span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: Arial; font-size: 14.666666666666666px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">Hunched and held</span></div>
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<span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: Arial; font-size: 14.666666666666666px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">Bemused, they reel</span></div>
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<span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: Arial; font-size: 14.666666666666666px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">In an intolerable spell: </span></div>
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<span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: Arial; font-size: 14.666666666666666px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">While silent, whitened ripples ice and bleed.</span></div>
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<span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: Arial; font-size: 14.666666666666666px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">[Ray Wilcockson, </span><span style="font-family: Arial; font-size: 14.6666666666667px; line-height: 1.38; white-space: pre-wrap;">July 2015.]</span></div>
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<span style="background-color: white; font-family: Impact; font-size: 13px; line-height: 18.4799995422363px;">© Ray Wilcockson (2015) All Rights Reserved.</span></div>
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Altamonthttp://www.blogger.com/profile/07487675562905937401noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1766557913348045247.post-89736376379815676972015-05-31T20:57:00.001-07:002015-05-31T21:13:19.430-07:00"The Speckled Band" - A Simple Act of Charity. New Year 1911.<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
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<span style="font-family: Georgia, Times New Roman, serif; font-size: large;">Readers of Sherlock Holmes may be interested in a theatre programme I recently acquired that records an unusual occasional performance of Conan Doyle's adaptation of <i>The Speckled Band. </i>This post shares its content and attempts to provide some context.</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: Georgia, Times New Roman, serif; font-size: large;"><b>1) The Pretoria Pit Disaster. </b></span><br />
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<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Postcard of the Disaster (John Sharples later died).</td></tr>
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<span style="font-family: Georgia, Times New Roman, serif; font-size: large;">At 7.50 am on December 21, 1910 an explosion occurred in the No 3 Bank Pit, Hulton Colliery, Westhoughton, Lancashire, that shocked a nation preparing for Yuletide festivities. It proved to be one of the worst mining disasters in British history. The Parish of Westhoughton website has an excellent account <a href="http://www.lan-opc.org.uk/Westhoughton/Pretoria/index.html" target="_blank"><span style="color: blue;">HERE</span></a> & may be supplemented by the moving story of survivor Joseph Staveley recorded <a href="http://www.staveley-genealogy.com/pretoria_pit.htm" target="_blank"><span style="color: blue;">HERE</span></a> .</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: Georgia, Times New Roman, serif; font-size: large;">As these accounts detail, a fund was at once set up to support the many bereaved families and, even as more of the dead were being recovered, Sheffield was in the vanguard in arranging a charity matinee of entertainment at its Lyceum. <i>Under</i> <i>the Immediate Patronage </i>of the late Queen's third and fourth daughters (then in their 60's), the local <i>Telegraph </i>Mayor, (new) Master Cutler (Arthur Balfour) and others supported an <i>ad hoc </i>committee of Sheffield theatre managers. It is testament to their commitment and the tragedy's impact that such performers as Lillie Langtry and Seymour Hicks were engaged <i>gratis </i>at such short notice.</span><br />
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<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Part 1 of the Matinee Programme</td></tr>
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<span style="font-family: Georgia, Times New Roman, serif; font-size: large;"><b>2) The Speckled Band.</b></span><br />
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<span style="font-family: Georgia, Times New Roman, serif; font-size: large;">At the time of the Pretoria disaster Conan Doyle was home at Windlesham with a special Christmas to celebrate. Adrian had just been born (on November 19) and would be christened on the second day of 1911. Notwithstanding this preoccupation, his permission is sought and given to include a version of his latest theatrical success in Sheffield's matinee of the 5th.</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: Georgia, Times New Roman, serif; font-size: large;">After the failure of <i>The House of Temperley </i>Doyle's hurriedly adapted short story had more than averted potentially heavy losses in leasing <i>The Adelphi. </i>Saintsbury's <i>Holmes</i> and Lyn Harding's <i>Rylott </i>had packed the theatre from June until the play's transfer to <i>The Globe </i>in August. That equally well-received show had closed by the end of November. In America, the less successful production starring Charles Millward would fold on December 17, after brief runs in Boston and at New York's <i>Garrick. </i></span><br />
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<span style="font-family: Georgia, Times New Roman, serif; font-size: large;">The play was due to commence a new season in 1911 under Arthur Hardy's management at <i>The Strand. </i>The popular Lyn Harding would return along with Christine Silver as <i>Enid Stoner. </i>A new <i>Holmes </i>for London theatregoers, O P Heggie, performed the role from February 6-25, primed with a note from the author (<i>see<span style="color: blue;"> <a href="http://images.goldbergauctions.com/php/lot_auc.php?site=1&sale=49&lot=625" target="_blank"><span style="color: blue;">HERE</span></a></span> ). </i></span><br />
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<span style="font-family: Georgia, Times New Roman, serif; font-size: large;">It is perhaps less well-known that Arthur Hardy was already touring a company that had, for example, played the Edinburgh <i>Lyceum </i>from 5-10 December, 1910. A playbill survives in Glasgow University's Special Collections. <i>Holmes </i>is Julian Royce (back in the role he played when touring the Gillette/Doyle play) and it is from <b>this</b> cast the Sheffield contingent was drawn (<i>see <a href="http://special.lib.gla.ac.uk/sta/search/detaile.cfm?EID=22524" target="_blank"><span style="color: blue;">HERE</span></a> ).</i> </span><br />
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<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Part 2 of the Matinee Programme</td></tr>
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<span style="font-family: Georgia, Times New Roman, serif; font-size: large;">Seven members of the touring company travelled to Sheffield for the afternoon to play <i>The Baker Street Scene. </i>In Doyle's play this is Act 2, scene 2. An online version of <i>The Speckled Band </i>may be read <a href="http://freeread.com.au/@RGLibrary/ArthurConanDoyle/PoetryDrama/SPEC.html" target="_blank"><span style="color: blue;">HERE</span></a> . This omits <i>Mrs Soames </i>who is another client in other editions. Two striking omissions will be observed: <i>Milverton </i>is excised and of course where there's no Act 3 there can be no snake!</span><br />
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<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Julian Royce</td></tr>
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<span style="font-family: Georgia, Times New Roman, serif; font-size: large;">I'd say the scene stood up well enough on its own terms offering the iconic detective in reassuringly familiar situations and surroundings. Apart from the practical need to keep things simple, perhaps this was not in any case a time for melodramatic horror. There was enough real horror in the adjoining county.</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: Georgia, Times New Roman, serif; font-size: large;">Andrew Lycett notes in his biography (p 345-60)that ACD kept a lump of coal in his study that he joked he'd gladly drop on his toe if visitors conceded there was coal in Kent ( a favoured, failed investment). I'm sure it took on a more sober meaning after Chrismas 1910.</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: Georgia, Times New Roman, serif; font-size: large;"><b>3) Some Matters of Related Interest.</b></span><br />
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<span style="font-family: Georgia, Times New Roman, serif; font-size: large;"><i>The Billboard </i>for October 15, 1910 has an article about Charles Frohman's new production for the <i>Boston </i>theater in which Conan Doyle is reported to have promised to attend <i>"the first performance of his play wherever it is presented in America"</i><b> </b>(<i>see <a href="http://fultonhistory.com/Newspaper%2015/Billboard/Billboard%201911/Billboard%201911%20-%200465.pdf" target="_blank">HERE</a> ). </i>I doubt he ever saw this as a feasible prospect. </span><br />
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<span style="font-family: Georgia, Times New Roman, serif; font-size: large;">My American friend, Sherlockian Howard Ostrom, may be intrigued to learn (or did he know?) that Gilbert M (Bronco Billy) Anderson is not the only early cowboy star with a Sherlock Holmes connection. While researching I came across a reference to the early rehearsals for Frohman's <i>"The Speckled Band": </i>Ronald L Davis notes in his <i>"William S Hart: Projecting the American West" </i>(<i>see <a href="https://books.google.co.uk/books?id=QaCdoNBKSn0C&pg=PA55&lpg=PA55&dq=the+speckled+band+1911&source=bl&ots=9OkT2zbQrD&sig=4mwo-a4o5HzDj07sZuDEC48Q3S0&hl=en&sa=X&ei=h9VnVbnUAojjU9eFgMAP&ved=0CFUQ6AEwDTgU#v=onepage&q=the%20speckled%20band%201911&f=false" target="_blank"><span style="color: blue;">HERE</span></a> ) </i>that Hart was hired to play <i>Holmes </i>in <i>The Speckled Band </i>but quit after one week's rehearsal, <i>"sensing that the show was heading for disaster". </i>In the event, Charles Millward occupied Baker Street in Boston.</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: Georgia, Times New Roman, serif; font-size: large;">Later in 1911: While, in England, A Corney Grain is known to have played the detective in <i>The Speckled Band </i> on May 8 at the Southampton <i>Grand</i>, William Desmond began a lengthy tour of Australia and New Zealand in August for the Williamson Company.</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: Georgia, Times New Roman, serif; font-size: large;">1914: <i>The Sydney Morning Herald </i>for 25 April reported the imminent appearance of Julian Royce in the role made famous in England by Matheson Lang: Harry Vernon's <i>"Mr Wu". </i>(<i>see <a href="http://trove.nla.gov.au/ndp/del/article/15503781" target="_blank"><span style="color: blue;">HERE</span></a> ). </i>This article is of further interest in describing Charles Millward's career and current introduction to Australia.</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: Georgia, Times New Roman, serif; font-size: large;"><i> </i>Royce seemed fated to follow in more famous footsteps but there is an interesting comment on his <i>Holmes </i>in <i>The New Zealand Herald </i>of 16 May 1914 (<i>see <a href="http://paperspast.natlib.govt.nz/cgi-bin/paperspast?a=d&d=NZH19140516.2.139.41" target="_blank"><span style="color: blue;">HERE</span></a> ) </i>suggesting <i>"the British press spoke of him as the best Sherlock Holmes ever seen". </i></span><br />
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<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Julian Royce in the Gillette "Sherlock Holmes" at Kennington Theatre.</td></tr>
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<span style="font-family: Georgia, Times New Roman, serif; font-size: large;"> <i> </i></span><br />
<span style="background-color: white; font-family: Impact; font-size: 13px; line-height: 18.4799995422363px;">© Ray Wilcockson (2015) All Rights Reserved.</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: Georgia, Times New Roman, serif; font-size: large;"><b><br /></b></span>Altamonthttp://www.blogger.com/profile/07487675562905937401noreply@blogger.com2tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1766557913348045247.post-20189881033966729022015-05-25T19:34:00.001-07:002015-05-26T10:28:42.128-07:00Return to New Street - Birmingham in the Sherlock Holmes Canon.<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
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<span style="font-size: large;"><b>Birmingham and Aston.</b></span><br />
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<span style="font-size: large;">I hear of Sherlock in unlikely places. There exists an establishment in Birmingham's Corporation Street I have not had reason to visit whose <a href="https://www.suttonsandrobertsons.com/visit-our-stores/corporation-street-birmingham" target="_blank"><span style="color: blue;">website</span></a> addresses <i>"Sherlock Holmes trivia buffs".</i> I wonder if its manager is a florid-faced, elderly gentleman , with fiery red hair...</span><br />
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<span style="font-size: large;">Today, Corporation Street extends from New Street and its station for some two miles all the way to the site of Conan Doyle's home <i>circa </i>1880. Clifton House, Aston Road is long gone, along with much of the Victorian city. A blue plaque, erected by the civic society, commemorates the author's residence in what was then still a village.</span><br />
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<span style="font-size: large;">These were formative years for Conan Doyle: as doctor, writer and man. He turned 21 as ship's surgeon aboard the Greenland whaler, <i>Hope</i>, during the first of two maritime adventures that punctuated extended periods in Aston as medical assistant to Dr Reginald Ratcliff Hoare who treated him more like a son than an employee.</span><br />
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<span style="font-size: large;">My sense is that Hoare persisted for Conan Doyle as one of those fixed points welcome in any life. In its report of his death in 1898, the BMJ notes Dr Conan Doyle was <i>"one of those who sent tokens of their respect". ( <span style="color: blue;"><a href="http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC2411150/?page=1" target="_blank"><span style="color: blue;">see column one</span></a> </span>). </i>The family was represented at Conan Doyle's wedding to Jean Leckie in 1907. Hoare lives on as the inspiration for Dr Horton in <i>"The Stark-Munro Letters"</i>...and both doctors perhaps in Sherlock Holmes's identical morning habit of smoking the dottles of a previous night's pipes. </span><br />
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<span style="font-size: large;">Birmingham would never be forgotten and just now and again finds its way into the Sherlock Holmes stories. </span><br />
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<span style="font-size: large;"><b>The Gloria Scott.</b></span><br />
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<span style="background-color: white; color: #cc0000; font-family: Verdana, Arial, sans-serif; font-size: 16px; line-height: 27.2000007629395px;"><b><i>"There had been a daughter, I heard, but she had died of diphtheria while on a visit to Birmingham."</i> </b></span><span style="font-size: large;"><b><br /></b></span>
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<span style="font-size: large;">A poignant creation, Victor Trevor's nameless sister. Her passing mention has no plot significance but along with a deceased mother and the father's fate plays out a retribution for the original sin and leaves Victor alone in the world. </span><br />
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<span style="font-size: large;">As to the girl's particular fate, it parallels the irony of her father's - riches are no protection in this life. This is no child of the slums; diphtheria (that great leveller) takes her as readily, far from home.</span><br />
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<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhs0G4GpOoAsF9IaZUD7l4wx17f70fvoW1Yqx-bCNg0dtIzGAgrPtu952Tqh_rgn8uXPBYtn3pts2FSqKm7mk8jSq_nLUsVo05tlUQbB3Kc0rrl-h2opaTamGoWsxw06g5eV-iq6f1qC0I/s1600/rea.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" height="263" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhs0G4GpOoAsF9IaZUD7l4wx17f70fvoW1Yqx-bCNg0dtIzGAgrPtu952Tqh_rgn8uXPBYtn3pts2FSqKm7mk8jSq_nLUsVo05tlUQbB3Kc0rrl-h2opaTamGoWsxw06g5eV-iq6f1qC0I/s400/rea.jpg" width="400" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">River Rea shows her 3 children, Cholera, Typhoid & Diphtheria to Birmingham.</td></tr>
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<span style="font-size: large;"><br /></span>
<span style="font-size: large;">The story's internal evidence places Holmes at Donnithorpe <i>"more than twenty years" </i>after <i>The Gloria Scott </i>episode of 1855. </span><br />
<span style="font-size: large;">Thus, in late 1892, Doyle writes essentially of Hoare's Birmingham which had endured an outbreak of diphtheria in 1871-2 and was currently bracing for a steep rise in fatalities that would peak in 1895. For me, and I suspect Dr Doyle, Victor Trevor's unnamed sister stands for thousands like her. </span><br />
<span style="font-size: large;"><br /></span>
<span style="font-size: large;"><b>The Three Gables.</b></span><br />
<br />
<i><span style="color: #cc0000; font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;"><b>"I was trainin' at the Bull Ring in Birmingham when this boy done get into trouble."</b></span></i><br />
<i><span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;"><br /></span></i>
<span style="font-family: Georgia, Times New Roman, serif; font-size: large;">Steve Dixie is, of course, transparently lying. Holmes knows it; Dixie knows he knows it. Given the bruiser's slow wits and lack of education it is amusingly feasible to imagine he here trots out his stock alibi blissfully unaware that city's Bull Ring was (and still is) essentially a market.</span><br />
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<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEg-Fdn5bkVL9Wdz72mHsrsJ6ppxCDaFIUOrrZ33y_y9_8LKB33xrNlCtEQNV9IVtS2u1mPIt_i1AJ4plIsvK2aFt0LZDDyCrdLxmfAlr0XmXnGpnEl_Tz656NJTsXP9jm-jmGt2hMJkWGA/s1600/bull+1905.JPG" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" height="300" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEg-Fdn5bkVL9Wdz72mHsrsJ6ppxCDaFIUOrrZ33y_y9_8LKB33xrNlCtEQNV9IVtS2u1mPIt_i1AJ4plIsvK2aFt0LZDDyCrdLxmfAlr0XmXnGpnEl_Tz656NJTsXP9jm-jmGt2hMJkWGA/s1600/bull+1905.JPG" width="400" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Bull Ring Market, Birmingham c 1905.</td></tr>
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<span style="font-family: Georgia, Times New Roman, serif; font-size: large;"> It is just as likely, however, that some of the city's boxing gyms were located in the area. Moreover, Conan Doyle appears to have kept in training during his tenure in Aston. We know he had <i>"two pairs of battered and discolored gloves"</i> with him on board <i>The Hope</i>, where he, famously, gave steward, Jack Lamb, a black eye.</span><br />
<span style="font-family: Georgia, Times New Roman, serif; font-size: large;"><br /></span>
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<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEh8vtB0osm7ga0tb2IRRx4pkxMv3aYk_DfSE5FgDhi3IPejkRVm9sfJRTQ0lXykHJtMi2MCs4hKiNAwmVQ5PvmkFcMKCPRpa25oVgNXIb0WBJgt1Knktx8K1mYJ_qByv7BmbSoZOZknMLU/s1600/dixie.JPG" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" height="301" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEh8vtB0osm7ga0tb2IRRx4pkxMv3aYk_DfSE5FgDhi3IPejkRVm9sfJRTQ0lXykHJtMi2MCs4hKiNAwmVQ5PvmkFcMKCPRpa25oVgNXIb0WBJgt1Knktx8K1mYJ_qByv7BmbSoZOZknMLU/s320/dixie.JPG" width="320" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Sreve Toussaint as Steve Dixie (Image Granada TV).</td></tr>
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<span style="font-family: Georgia, Times New Roman, serif; font-size: large;"><br /></span>
<span style="font-family: Georgia, Times New Roman, serif; font-size: large;">What is certain is that both Doyle (in 1880) and Steve Dixie (<i>circa 1903) </i>would need all the pugilistic skills they could muster in a Birmingham rife with gangs such as the notorious Peaky Blinders. </span><br />
<span style="font-family: Georgia, Times New Roman, serif; font-size: large;"><br /></span>
<span style="font-family: Georgia, Times New Roman, serif; font-size: large;"><b>The Three Garridebs.</b></span><br />
<span style="font-family: Georgia, Times New Roman, serif; font-size: large;"><b><br /></b></span>
<i><span style="color: #cc0000; font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;"><b>"Howard Garrideb
Constructor of Agricultural Machinery
Binders, reapers, steam and hand plows, drills,
harrows, farmers’ carts, buckboards, and all other
appliances.
Estimates for Artesian Wells
Apply Grosvenor Buildings, Aston."</b></span></i><br />
<br />
<span style="font-family: Georgia, Times New Roman, serif; font-size: large;">Doyle would be as familiar with Grosvenor <i>Road</i> in Aston as Sherlock Street in the city centre. Eventually, Corporation Street becomes the Lichfield Road beyond Aston Rd North and Grosvenor is by the railway station. </span><br />
<span style="font-family: Georgia, Times New Roman, serif; font-size: large;"><br /></span>
<span style="font-family: Georgia, Times New Roman, serif; font-size: large;">So, the hapless Nathan Garrideb is packed off to a strange city 100 miles and two hours away having taken no such journey in years. There are, of course, striking similarities with <i>REDH </i>and <i>STOC. </i>In essence all three are cautionary tales ( as is <i>ENGR</i>). In such cases the only sensible action any of these clients take is to consult Sherlock Holmes.</span><br />
<span style="font-family: Georgia, Times New Roman, serif; font-size: large;"><br /></span>
<span style="font-family: Georgia, Times New Roman, serif; font-size: large;">Birmingham is ideal for Doyle's purposes and it is not surprising the city still calls to him in 1925 for another of its worthies has remained a constant reminder of it in the author's life: Joseph Chamberlain.</span><br />
<span style="font-family: Georgia, Times New Roman, serif; font-size: large;"><br /></span>
<span style="font-family: Georgia, Times New Roman, serif; font-size: large;">Though never Prime Minister, the Londoner who migrated to Birmingham to make screws was a towering political figure throughout the three most active decades of Conan Doyle's career (in Churchill's phrase <i>"the one who made the weather")</i>. The two lives converged most closely in the Boer War and during the author's failed excursions into politics. But they had passed like ships in the night long before. </span><br />
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<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjMCZA4LlZjS0_uhwUhQerZFgW2lb0W_MQzwTLHUaS_AN20-anDN9cM7CznWNcA_nSugSYff9G1FcLCo9IzuKZzxvT8rQEWMNPCd8RtZWF1F-Xrwh4H_K554pBRl_fQYYThMOn3f7GQA8A/s1600/jo+70th+bday.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" height="260" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjMCZA4LlZjS0_uhwUhQerZFgW2lb0W_MQzwTLHUaS_AN20-anDN9cM7CznWNcA_nSugSYff9G1FcLCo9IzuKZzxvT8rQEWMNPCd8RtZWF1F-Xrwh4H_K554pBRl_fQYYThMOn3f7GQA8A/s1600/jo+70th+bday.jpg" width="400" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">1906 postcard for Chamberlain's 70th Birthday.</td></tr>
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<span style="font-family: Georgia, Times New Roman, serif; font-size: large;"><b><br /></b></span>
<span style="font-family: Georgia, Times New Roman, serif; font-size: large;"><b>The Stockbroker's Clerk.</b></span><br />
<span style="font-family: Georgia, Times New Roman, serif; font-size: large;"><b><br /></b></span>
<span style="font-family: Georgia, Times New Roman, serif; font-size: large;"><i><span style="color: #cc0000;">"You are ready to come to Birmingham then?" </span></i></span><br />
<span style="font-family: Georgia, Times New Roman, serif; font-size: large;"><span style="color: #cc0000;"><br /></span></span>
<span style="font-family: Georgia, Times New Roman, serif; font-size: large;">Though set more than a decade apart, <i>STOC </i>and <i>GLOR </i>stand together in <i>The Memoirs </i>and draw on the common memory of Doyle's Midlands interlude. The former is <i>the </i>Birmingham story of the Canon, uniquely bringing Holmes and Watson to the streets their creator walked. </span><br />
<span style="font-family: Georgia, Times New Roman, serif; font-size: large;"><br /></span>
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<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhx3BfHFZzIfEl_2VUO81ioqJmB1uj0tBwIvDTTQeDmFGCv6JTE_quyCm9dboqyJZMXOMsnW_u8xAzAnh6_M3k7cO7PIX0GSBIUUD6HqptQ2vVLUgt0vG7QgFEYiSYa6ST7KxYrimNKAGs/s1600/cor+1904.JPG" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" height="262" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhx3BfHFZzIfEl_2VUO81ioqJmB1uj0tBwIvDTTQeDmFGCv6JTE_quyCm9dboqyJZMXOMsnW_u8xAzAnh6_M3k7cO7PIX0GSBIUUD6HqptQ2vVLUgt0vG7QgFEYiSYa6ST7KxYrimNKAGs/s400/cor+1904.JPG" width="400" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Looking up Corporation St from New St c 1904.</td></tr>
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<span style="font-family: Georgia, Times New Roman, serif; font-size: large;"><br /></span>
<span style="font-family: Georgia, Times New Roman, serif; font-size: large;">The chronologers date <i>STOC </i>to 1888/89. For years I have mistakenly pictured 126b, the offices of the phantom Franco-Midland Hardware Company, Limited, as Dickensian in age and character. In fact, Corporation Street was barely ten years old in 1888 and would not be completed until 1903. By the time Doyle arrived, ex-Mayor Chamberlain had been elected to Parliament, but his ambitious plan to cut a swathe through the slums with a great boulevard stretching from New Street had been accepted in '76 and begun in '78. Given its number, the fictional office would be one of the newest built and likely awaiting first occupation.</span><br />
<span style="font-family: Georgia, Times New Roman, serif; font-size: large;"><br /></span>
<span style="font-family: Georgia, Times New Roman, serif; font-size: large;">Hall Pycroft relates how <i>'Mr Arthur Harry Pinner' </i>suggested <i>"a couple of hours at Day's Music Hall in the evening". </i></span><br />
<span style="font-family: Georgia, Times New Roman, serif; font-size: large;"><i><br /></i></span>
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<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgfEvOZh3NiB-Fn4zj77K8Y9zyGG3gLcvsIqPhtQ6fGO_HPSgG6jM1zMUt2IOxBxJIf7R4XDz0qrVr1qrB24JUjAFBbNfbjWazhumI_ybFxlzdo5uYsxIhXumAb986gbxv5KoONCh8R0Po/s1600/28thFront.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" height="400" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgfEvOZh3NiB-Fn4zj77K8Y9zyGG3gLcvsIqPhtQ6fGO_HPSgG6jM1zMUt2IOxBxJIf7R4XDz0qrVr1qrB24JUjAFBbNfbjWazhumI_ybFxlzdo5uYsxIhXumAb986gbxv5KoONCh8R0Po/s400/28thFront.jpg" width="292" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Day's Crystal Palace 1890 programme (image Arthur Lloyd)</td></tr>
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<span style="font-family: Georgia, Times New Roman, serif; font-size: large;"><i><br /></i></span>
<span style="font-family: Georgia, Times New Roman, serif; font-size: large;">Day's Crystal Palace Concert Hall (later The Empire) was on the corner of Smallbrook St and Hurst St in the city centre. Opened in 1862, the name changed to Day's Crystal Palace of Varieties in 1887. It would close in September, 1893, six months after the publication of <i>STOC. </i>Just the place a young doctor's assistant might seek entertainment in his brief periods of leisure. </span><br />
<span style="font-family: Georgia, Times New Roman, serif; font-size: large;"><br /></span><span style="font-family: Georgia, Times New Roman, serif; font-size: large;"><b>A Tale of Two Cities & Dual Identities.</b></span><br />
<span style="font-family: Georgia, Times New Roman, serif; font-size: large;"><i><br /><span style="color: #cc0000;">"He swears by London you know, and I by Birmingham."</span></i></span><br />
<span style="font-family: Georgia, Times New Roman, serif; font-size: large;"><i><br /></i></span>
<span style="font-family: Georgia, Times New Roman, serif; font-size: large;"><i>The Stockbroker's Clerk </i>may not aspire to <i>comet vintage </i>in the Canon but it possesses an artful symmetry of plot, character and setting, stylistically suited to a whimsical but cautionary parable of the human comedy. There is no iconic scene such as <i>REDH </i>offers in the bank vault; no classic moment of deduction on a par with the dog in the night. Holmes, with almost as little to do as in <i>ENGR,</i> is rather in connoisseur mode, chronicling (with Watson) one of those outre tales that everyday life occasionally presents. It is this kind of story and, aptly, if less comical, Pinner's tasks for Pycroft are pale and unimaginative beside Jabez Wilson's encyclopaedic marathon.</span><br />
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<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhGRiQj50gSLJydzcZDWrauT-zVjlGMyXJndmh_tQHxaDh7nxZk3OC_Dq2u5ZuFeJyPyqIJWgjuOCvF0INWGBFhLiXensT1-htz_FqI8ngtlbBck9PvVSHeVrmH5G7ri_EwUNGmkYkMhY8/s1600/stoc-01.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" height="208" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhGRiQj50gSLJydzcZDWrauT-zVjlGMyXJndmh_tQHxaDh7nxZk3OC_Dq2u5ZuFeJyPyqIJWgjuOCvF0INWGBFhLiXensT1-htz_FqI8ngtlbBck9PvVSHeVrmH5G7ri_EwUNGmkYkMhY8/s320/stoc-01.jpg" width="320" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">"Nothing could be better," said Holmes.</td></tr>
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<span style="font-family: Georgia, Times New Roman, serif; font-size: large;"><br /></span>
<span style="font-family: Georgia, Times New Roman, serif; font-size: large;">In keeping with its prosaic nature, the story opens not in Baker St but in the domestic setting of Watson's Paddington practice. Doyle takes pains to endow Hall Pycroft with idiom and vocabulary authentic to his city milieu. </span><br />
<span style="font-family: Georgia, Times New Roman, serif; font-size: large;"><br /></span>
<span style="font-family: Georgia, Times New Roman, serif; font-size: large;">The railway journey serves two functions: its dramatic duration coincides with the clerk's relation of events and, symbolically, it represents a voyage (taken by the three travellers and the reader) from darkness to illumination.</span><br />
<span style="font-family: Georgia, Times New Roman, serif; font-size: large;"><br /></span>
<span style="font-family: Georgia, Times New Roman, serif; font-size: large;">Birmingham proves a place of ironies. In <i>3GAR </i>it is merely somewhere distant to park Nathan while Killer Evans retrieves the hidden press. Here the city functions as a siren to the clerk's credulous greed and as the place of (mild) penance. It is mere good fortune (with the support of Sherlock Holmes) that he is not stung more seriously than toiling through trade directories for several nights in a New Street hotel.</span><br />
<span style="font-family: Georgia, Times New Roman, serif; font-size: large;"><br /></span>
<span style="font-family: Georgia, Times New Roman, serif; font-size: large;">For the Beddington brother who deceives Hall Pycroft, Birmingham had, similarly, seemed a cunning, inspirational plan. Ironic and retributive indeed that he should go to all the trouble and expense of renting offices and disguising himself only for events in London to confound him utterly.</span><br />
<span style="font-family: Georgia, Times New Roman, serif; font-size: large;"><br /></span>
<span style="font-family: Georgia, Times New Roman, serif; font-size: large;">One of the subtle beauties of this story lies in the way it plays with identity. It is quite the prose <i>Comedy of Errors</i>. Consider. One Beddington poses as both Arthur Pinner and his brother, Harry. The other (the murderer) assumes Hall Pycroft's identity. As Holmes concludes: <i>"Human nature is a strange mixture, Watson. You see that even a villain and a murderer can inspire such affection that his brother turns to suicide when he learns that his neck is forfeited". </i>Ironically, only then are the Beddingtons inescapably themselves.</span><br />
<span style="font-family: Georgia, Times New Roman, serif; font-size: large;"><br /></span>
<span style="font-family: Georgia, Times New Roman, serif; font-size: large;">Doyle has Shakespearean fun with this meme of dual identities and cannot resist including Holmes and Watson.</span><br />
<span style="font-family: Georgia, Times New Roman, serif; font-size: large;">The former is presented as an accountant to <i>Arthur Harry Pinner, </i>the latter as a clerk. We should not miss (Watson doesn't) that Hall Pycroft can formulate a lie rather too easily for comfort.<i> </i>It is he who suggests the ruse of introducing <i>"two friends of mine who are in want of a billet". </i>And one senses Watson's disquiet in <i>"One is Mr Harris of Bermondsey, and the other is Mr Price, of this town," said our clerk, <b>glibly</b>."</i> </span><br />
<span style="font-family: Georgia, Times New Roman, serif; font-size: large;"><br /></span>
<span style="font-family: Georgia, Times New Roman, serif; font-size: large;">Perhaps Sherlock Holmes and Doctor Watson provide the "Blade Straight, Steel True" image of <i>true</i> brotherhood.</span><br />
<span style="font-family: Georgia, Times New Roman, serif; font-size: large;"><br /></span>
<span style="font-family: Georgia, Times New Roman, serif; font-size: large;"> <b>*******</b></span><br />
<span style="font-family: Georgia, Times New Roman, serif; font-size: large;"><b><br /></b></span>
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<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjThQs5gmdCq97adB3usTLFm1epMfYkq5SnOCYjlV_Ow4f0_EC9u25yIDpGuh6sgnE9EJAR65RKwAnfWiAH9JzJh8qlvLD1TF5k9SbZZ7dToGR1bnBA2Qsxw_hyMtVuf5dFqYWlRIBk4OI/s1600/new+st+08.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="257" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjThQs5gmdCq97adB3usTLFm1epMfYkq5SnOCYjlV_Ow4f0_EC9u25yIDpGuh6sgnE9EJAR65RKwAnfWiAH9JzJh8qlvLD1TF5k9SbZZ7dToGR1bnBA2Qsxw_hyMtVuf5dFqYWlRIBk4OI/s400/new+st+08.jpg" width="400" /></a></div>
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<span style="color: #cc0000; font-family: Georgia, Times New Roman, serif; font-size: large;">The train awaits. It's goodbye Birmingham. Next stop Euston!</span><br />
<span style="font-family: Georgia, Times New Roman, serif; font-size: large;"><br /></span>
<span style="font-family: Georgia, Times New Roman, serif; font-size: large;"><b>Further Reading.</b></span><br />
<span style="font-family: Georgia, Times New Roman, serif; font-size: large;"><b><br /></b></span>
<span style="font-family: Georgia, Times New Roman, serif; font-size: large;">Day's Crystal Palace: <a href="http://www.arthurlloyd.co.uk/Birmingham/EmpirePalaceTheatreBirmingham.htm#days" target="_blank"><span style="color: blue;">Arthur Lloyd Site Entry</span></a> </span><br />
<span style="font-family: Georgia, Times New Roman, serif; font-size: large;">Doyle in Birmingham: <span style="color: blue;"><a href="http://www.birmingham.gov.uk/doyle" target="_blank"><span style="color: blue;">Birmingham City Council Entry</span></a> </span></span><br />
<span style="font-family: Georgia, Times New Roman, serif; font-size: large;">Joseph Chamberlain</span><br />
<span style="font-family: Georgia, Times New Roman, serif; font-size: large;">Improvement Scheme: <a href="https://theironroom.wordpress.com/2014/06/" target="_blank"><span style="color: blue;">The Iron Room Entry</span></a> </span><br />
<span style="font-family: Georgia, Times New Roman, serif; font-size: large;">Early Municipal Housing</span><br />
<span style="font-family: Georgia, Times New Roman, serif; font-size: large;">in Birmingham: <a href="https://municipaldreams.wordpress.com/2013/11/19/early-municipal-housing-in-birmingham-and-the-prejudice-against-flats-part-1/" target="_blank"><span style="color: blue;">Municipal Dreams Entry</span></a> </span><br />
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<span style="background-color: white; font-family: Impact; font-size: 13px; line-height: 18.4799995422363px;">© Ray Wilcockson (2015) All Rights Reserved.</span><br />
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<span style="font-size: large;"><br /></span>Altamonthttp://www.blogger.com/profile/07487675562905937401noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1766557913348045247.post-84143284676312363522015-02-23T02:27:00.000-08:002015-02-23T02:27:36.204-08:00Selkirk's "Lost Sherlock Holmes Story" - A Case of Literary Identity.<table align="center" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="float: left; margin-right: 1em; text-align: left;"><tbody>
<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjueLZWQP-zuEQqBe5qoMpstq-TQIaPYEK07TobpjvjlVO8D05UWaISWy-gXFOGpCkRjeJP-I6qvmDBDFvif-wzKbppVDiWMm1FRb9CY5OzrSjzreUARu9t7LrlQDlIj63T6mGCQDR9SPw/s1600/norw-05.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjueLZWQP-zuEQqBe5qoMpstq-TQIaPYEK07TobpjvjlVO8D05UWaISWy-gXFOGpCkRjeJP-I6qvmDBDFvif-wzKbppVDiWMm1FRb9CY5OzrSjzreUARu9t7LrlQDlIj63T6mGCQDR9SPw/s1600/norw-05.jpg" height="400" width="236" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Illustration by Sidney Paget.</td></tr>
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<span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;"><span style="font-size: large;"><span style="color: #cc0000;">The revelation of a hitherto unrecorded story featuring Sherlock Holmes and Doctor Watson has been attributed widely and prematurely to the authorship of Sir Arthur Conan Doyle. </span><i style="color: #cc0000;"><b>"Sherlock Holmes: Discovering the Border Burghs and, by Deduction, the Brig Bazaar" </b></i><span style="color: #cc0000;">may be read in its original entirety in </span><span style="color: blue;"><a href="http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-2961527/Unknown-Sherlock-Holmes-story-Sir-Arthur-Conan-Doyle-wrote-fundraising-sale-unearthed-lying-attic-50-years.html" target="_blank"><span style="color: blue;">The Daily Mail 20 February, 2015</span></a> </span><span style="color: #cc0000;">whose article details the circumstances of the discovery with a headline that cannot be taken as gospel, certainly not according to the website </span><i style="color: #cc0000; font-weight: bold;">"I Hear of Sherlock Everywhere" </i><span style="color: #cc0000;">whose prompt survey of extant contemporary documents concludes </span><a href="http://www.ihearofsherlock.com/2015/02/conan-doyle-didnt-write-lost-sherlock.html#.VOkn5_msW8A" target="_blank"><span style="color: blue;">Conan Doyle Didn't Write the Lost Sherlock Holmes Story.</span></a><span style="color: #cc0000;"> </span></span></span><br />
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<span style="color: #cc0000; font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;"><span style="font-size: large;">In his comment on a lucid article by </span></span><span style="color: #cc0000;"><span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif; font-size: large;">Mattias</span><span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif; font-size: 16pt;"> </span><span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif; font-size: large;">Boström</span><span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif; font-size: 16pt;">, </span><span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif; font-size: large;">L</span></span><span style="color: #cc0000; font-family: Verdana, sans-serif; font-size: large;">eslie S Klinger finds his fellow Sherlockian's analysis </span><i style="color: #cc0000; font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;"><span style="font-size: large;">"persuasive"</span></i><i style="color: #cc0000; font-family: Verdana, sans-serif; font-size: x-large;"> </i><span style="color: #cc0000; font-family: Verdana, sans-serif; font-size: large;">though he is not sure it is </span><i style="color: #cc0000; font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;"><span style="font-size: large;">"conclusive"</span></i><span style="color: #cc0000; font-family: Verdana, sans-serif; font-size: large;"> and notes </span><i style="color: #cc0000; font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;"><span style="font-size: large;">"there is much work still to be done".</span></i><br />
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<span style="color: #cc0000; font-family: Verdana, sans-serif; font-size: large;">In that spirit, I propose here to put the story itself under the magnifying glass for signs of Conan Doyle's literary fingerprints. Could he and would he have written it?</span><br />
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<span style="color: #cc0000; font-family: Verdana, sans-serif; font-size: large;">1) The reader is addressed by a nameless narrator tasked by the Editor of <i>"The Bazaar Book" </i>with writing a topical <i>"interview"</i> with <i>"Sherlock Holmes" </i>for its Saturday edition. Rejecting unviable alternatives, the Editor's hint that resourceful journalists use their imagination is readily taken up.</span><br />
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<span style="color: #cc0000; font-family: Verdana, sans-serif; font-size: large;">2) The narrator describes the process of imagining an entry impossible in reality into an imaginary room containing (imagined) Holmes and Watson. Shifting into the present tense, warming to the creation of palpable fancy, our narrator asserts arrival just as Watson is leaving for the night after a heated discussion on fiscal policy.</span><br />
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<span style="color: #cc0000; font-family: Verdana, sans-serif; font-size: large;">3) Signalling the start of an extended imaginary dialogue between detective and doctor (with the dramatic abbreviation <i>"loq" </i>(for 'loquitur'), the narrative voice all but mutes in a story only a quarter begun. There follow two imagined passages of deduction, triggered by the invention of parallel trips to Scotland: that Watson's destination is the Borders for <i>"another Parliamentary contest"</i> and that the bazaar he is to open is in aid of a bridge. Holmes bids his friend a teasing farewell. <i>Finis</i>.</span><br />
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<span style="color: #cc0000; font-family: Verdana, sans-serif; font-size: large;"><b>Discussion of Authorship.</b></span><br />
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<span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif; font-size: large;"><span style="color: #cc0000;">I set out here to clarify the implications of claiming Sir Arthur Conan Doyle wrote this 1300 word occasional piece. If he did, it would (chronologically) be the second of three, flanked by</span><span style="color: blue;"> <a href="http://www.diogenes-club.com/bazaar.htm" target="_blank"><span style="color: blue;">The Field Bazaar</span></a> </span></span><span style="color: #cc0000; font-family: Verdana, sans-serif; font-size: large;">of 1896 (1050 words) and 1923's <a href="http://www.sherlockian.net/acd/thetrick.html" target="_blank">How Watson Learned the Trick</a> (500 words). These are closer comparisons to consider than the Canon stories proper. I shall look first at the narrator framework and then at the deductions dialogue.</span><br />
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<span style="color: #cc0000; font-family: Verdana, sans-serif; font-size: large;">If A N Other wrote the Selkirk story it is possible its narrator is identical with the author (ie: a <i>'reporter')</i>.</span><br />
<span style="color: #cc0000; font-family: Verdana, sans-serif; font-size: large;">Attribution to Conan Doyle, however, necessarily renders the narrator an invention unique in his Holmes oeuvre. {I can envisage no commentator who would seriously argue Doyle wrote the deduction sequences and acquiesced in a narrative framework by a different hand.} By 1903, Holmes has his resident Boswell, a proven device only departed from on the few occasions the detective tells his own story and recourse with good reason to third person narration. <i>"The Mazarin Stone" </i>is a prose adaptation of the play <i>"The Crown Diamond"</i>; I discuss the special case of <i>"His Last Bow" <a href="http://altamarkings.blogspot.co.uk/2014/08/his-last-bow-cometh-hour-cometh-man.html" target="_blank">HERE</a> </i>and, while, strictly, the brief <i>"How Watson Learned the Trick" </i>is<i> </i>third person narrative, it's mostly continuous dialogue. Doyle is content to entrust the narrative of <i>"The Field Bazaar" </i>(the closest parallel for the Selkirk piece) to Watson.</span><br />
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<span style="color: #cc0000; font-family: Verdana, sans-serif; font-size: large;">I can suggest no artistic reason why in December, 1903, Conan Doyle would make so radical a departure, the more radical given his current imaginative absorption in <i>"The Return" </i>stories. If he could slip effortlessly back into a Watsonian narrative in 1896 for one solitary bazaar piece, I'd be surprised if he abandoned the good doctor in '03.</span><br />
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<span style="color: #cc0000; font-family: Verdana, sans-serif; font-size: large;">If the <i>'reporter' </i>is Doyle's creation two related literary problems arise: the narrator's characterization and the presentation of Holmes and Watson. Apart from the first two <i>movements</i> delaying the appearance of this <i>interview</i>'s subjects, the narrator's blatant stress on imagination effectively forestalls any suspension of disbelief as surely as Shakespeare's '<i>rude mechanicals'</i>. Were an imagined interview to ensue (it doesn't), it would be stillborn. The greater the insistence that imagination can pass through closed doors the less the reader is transported anywhere. In short, we have a naive narrator rooted in one world with no credible presence in that inhabited by the insubstantial shadows claimed to be Sherlock Holmes and Doctor Watson.</span><br />
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<span style="color: #cc0000; font-family: Verdana, sans-serif; font-size: large;">Even when, in the simplistic jar to present tense, the famous pair are invoked, like spirits conjured, they barely enjoy a half-life. There is no interview; there is not even an overview by our intrepid, unperceived reporter. There is far too much blocking the reader's imaginative view of anyone resembling Doyle's creations. First it is the self-conscious, clunking presence of the narrator; then, throughout the deductions dialogue, such a fusillade of political reference and literary allusion that both Doyle's characters and the skill of deduction are demeaned: the former puppet mouthpieces for the Tariff debate; the latter a washing line on which to peg a motley selection of Border literature.</span><br />
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<span style="color: #cc0000; font-family: Verdana, sans-serif; font-size: large;">To keep this discussion clear, I have appended notes on specific allusions to the politics of the day and sources from which the Border references are drawn. I would just stress that I see nothing with which Conan Doyle might not reasonably be familiar. By the same token, the good folk of Selkirk would be as well up on the national Tariff debate and positively steeped in their local cultural heritage. It is not this content that is significant to the question of authorship but the use to which it is put.</span><br />
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<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgQotdcInvBp-3UwcDlbgMKoGhP-rUnV3uhGQHDVdfyDMN8MN4ioCQQO51gAURsxWNmnGwecizdNra_8Zodj9ijupoVEUz5zud9LNKgVfGESM7jFMoCzifkwt45HiaJfhXtpY-JRn11PH4/s1600/loaves.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgQotdcInvBp-3UwcDlbgMKoGhP-rUnV3uhGQHDVdfyDMN8MN4ioCQQO51gAURsxWNmnGwecizdNra_8Zodj9ijupoVEUz5zud9LNKgVfGESM7jFMoCzifkwt45HiaJfhXtpY-JRn11PH4/s1600/loaves.jpg" height="266" width="400" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Joseph Chamberlain's Free Trade & Tariff Loaves Nov 4, 1903.</td></tr>
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<span style="color: #cc0000; font-family: Verdana, sans-serif; font-size: large;">To be invited without preamble to envisage Holmes and Watson as Free Trader and (mild) Protectionist is to be jolted into an unfamiliar personal political arena alien to the Canon. Indeed, that Sherlock Holmes rises above such partisan concerns is arguably presented as an occupational necessity to maintain objectivity. Holmes's reference to the <i>"Mysteries of the Secret Cabinet" </i>is but the first in what will prove to be an inordinately lengthy chain of strained attempts to relate the writer's real interests (politics and the Borders) with detective fiction. <i>"The Tragedy of a Divided House" </i>will, later, play as unsubtly on the recent <i>"Return" </i>story title.</span><br />
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<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhsCFbhumrDYH5jzoW3aLSb0gvW_rpSGJHWaXPQXlUnVnP2jP8hV0rzZMVBG7qe16bguzxNgyZMwZBrQCJ7Z8MNeOKrdmIIT5lhPtDwz6dvwzwjLlYeeDrNUYIWK0B3OhB2PwxjTvbYCSw/s1600/tumblr_ltguu6g62P1qzyfwq.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhsCFbhumrDYH5jzoW3aLSb0gvW_rpSGJHWaXPQXlUnVnP2jP8hV0rzZMVBG7qe16bguzxNgyZMwZBrQCJ7Z8MNeOKrdmIIT5lhPtDwz6dvwzwjLlYeeDrNUYIWK0B3OhB2PwxjTvbYCSw/s1600/tumblr_ltguu6g62P1qzyfwq.jpg" height="400" width="284" /></a></div>
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<span style="color: #cc0000; font-family: Verdana, sans-serif; font-size: large;"><b>The Norwood Builder - a special problem.</b></span><br />
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<span style="color: #cc0000; font-family: Verdana, sans-serif; font-size: large;">Before examining the overall quality and impact of the deductions, it is instructive to highlight an analogy employed drawn from <i>"The Norwood Builder" </i>in which Holmes refers to <i>"retailing </i>(to Watson) <i>the steps that led up to the arrest of the...builder by the impression of his thumb."</i></span><br />
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<span style="color: #cc0000; font-family: Verdana, sans-serif; font-size: large;">Now, as well as the addition of a <i>"lilting" </i>Watson, this is a fabrication. More seriously, the narrative logic locates the Selkirk story and deductions firmly in 1903. The Canon story is set 8 or 9 years earlier, mere months after the detective's <i>Return</i>.</span><br />
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<span style="color: #cc0000; font-family: Verdana, sans-serif; font-size: large;">Anyone claiming Doyle wrote for the Brig Bazaar must contend with:</span><br />
<span style="color: #cc0000; font-family: Verdana, sans-serif; font-size: large;">1) A deliberate or forgetful misrepresentation of a story published but a month earlier.</span><br />
<span style="color: #cc0000; font-family: Verdana, sans-serif; font-size: large;">2) A calculated or thoughtless abandoning of Canon chronology.</span><br />
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<span style="color: #cc0000; font-family: Verdana, sans-serif; font-size: large;">I shall not rehearse the totally valid reasons why Frederic Dorr Steele knowingly deploys artistic licence in his cover design for <i>"The Norwood Builder". </i>The anonymous author's misrepresentation is another matter. There are plenty of analogies in other stories that would accurately have suited the occasion.</span><br />
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<span style="color: #cc0000; font-family: Verdana, sans-serif; font-size: large;"><b>Deductions.</b></span><br />
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<span style="color: #cc0000; font-family: Verdana, sans-serif; font-size: large;">The first passage of deduction reveals how, over several days of observation, research and thinking Holmes knows without being told that Watson is heading for the Border Burghs with a view to standing for parliament again. </span><br />
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<span style="color: #cc0000; font-family: Verdana, sans-serif; font-size: large;">In the process of deducing the doctor has (in order) Hawick, Galashiels and Selkirk on his mind, we encounter a Holmes who observes only in so far as he listens, one given to such disproportionate research as writing to a friend miles away for an obscure tome. This Watson is vociferously political and so ambitious of a candidacy he mugs up on Border politics, history, music and literature. Both characters are diminished from what is usually an iconic exchange. The prospect of this pair passing the evening in a drawing room with a mutual lady friend could only occur in a Street called <i>"Sloan"; </i>never <i>"Baker". </i>Nor does a tin of tobacco, smoked in the cloak of night pass muster as the last link in a chain of deduction. </span><br />
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<span style="color: #cc0000; font-family: Verdana, sans-serif; font-size: large;">In truth, we haven't really witnessed a classic Sherlockian deduction - a couple of lazy 2's have gone through the motions of making 4.</span><br />
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<span style="color: #cc0000; font-family: Verdana, sans-serif; font-size: large;">Devoid of true inspiration, 'deducing' the bridge turns again on a literary allusion at the expense of Watson's dignity and without illustration of the detective's extraordinary powers. I say <i>"Watson" </i>but he has faded long before, supplanted by someone resembling Sir Arthur Conan Doyle. I would just add that if, as I shall presently argue, A N Other wrote this bizarre Bazaar piece, I detect a local voice in the teasing threat that <i>"fearful odds" </i>await aspiring politicians from the no-nonsense electorate of the Border Burghs and am irresistibly reminded of Richard Hannay's intractable audience.</span><br />
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<span style="color: #cc0000; font-family: Verdana, sans-serif; font-size: large;"><b>Self-Parody.</b></span><br />
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<span style="color: #cc0000; font-family: Verdana, sans-serif; font-size: large;">This is a rarer genre than parody and self-parodies of real quality even rarer. Such is the context for my final discussion of a story that would be unique in Conan Doyle's writing, surprisingly unsuccessful and most strangely hatched in an alien style. I should advise anyone considering the authorship of this piece to read it alongside <i>"The Field Bazaar". </i>The 1896 deduction of Watson's invitation to support his <i>alma mater</i>'s cricket club is far superior and no parody. The term is I think sometimes applied because of its brevity, wit and lightness of touch. In essence, however, though the bazaar provides a theme, Conan Doyle faithfully breathes immediate life into Holmes and Watson of Baker Street, imbuing the train of reasoning with all the ingenuity he brings to the Canon proper. This detached scene would dovetail effortlessly into a conventional Holmes story. As ever, Conan Doyle's first concern is his art. He is in this uncompromising, even (<i>especially</i>) in the story designed to <i>'kill' </i>his creation.</span><br />
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<span style="color: #cc0000; font-family: Verdana, sans-serif; font-size: large;"><i>"The Field Bazaar" </i>is an occasional piece evincing a generous, lively, lighthearted spirit enjoying the task but not at the expense of the imagination's dignity. The prose is consummate in its pellucid economy, the authentic dialogue fully realising character. In short, it is proof positive of what Conan Doyle is prepared and equipped to offer for such special occasions.</span><br />
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<span style="color: #cc0000; font-family: Verdana, sans-serif; font-size: large;">I detect a very different kind of mind informing the Selkirk story. It feels antiquarian in attitude and language. The drama and poetry of the 18th Century and Border history centered on Flodden Field are the limited province of a writer who understands next to nothing about imaginative fiction.</span><br />
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<span style="color: #cc0000; font-family: Verdana, sans-serif; font-size: large;">I see no sane reason why Conan Doyle should take on such a persona. Indeed, I believe him incapable of it. This is the writer who is, in 1903, taking infinite pains to assemble a series of Holmes stories of the first order. He is happy <i>NORW </i>meets the standard, not so content with December's <i>SOLI. </i>With regard to the forthcoming trip to Scotland his letters to Mary Doyle tell of a similar, deeply serious concern to get his election speech just right. <i>That </i>is how he hopes to sway the Border electorate - not with an ingratiating self-parody. </span><br />
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<span style="color: #cc0000; font-family: Verdana, sans-serif; font-size: large;">One of the most admirable qualities Sir Arthur Conan Doyle possessed was an enviable capacity to keep multiple interests and projects in the air at the same time in disciplined compartments. Whatever he commits to is done with full-blooded, indefatigable energy, devoting all his considerable skills. It would be unbelievably perverse for such a man to completely undermine an imaginative world for the sake of a seat in Parliament or a Border brig. To modify the words of Sherlock Holmes at the end of <i>The Field Bazaar: </i>the Border episode was one of those small outlying problems to which Conan Doyle was sometimes tempted to direct his attention.</span><br />
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<span style="color: #cc0000; font-family: Verdana, sans-serif; font-size: large;">I assume he opened the Saturday bazaar; I know he made his Selkirk speech. I'd think the less of him if it's ever proved he wrote this travesty.</span><br />
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<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjuAwWcAccu3jCLV6H07L3c08SbV5CkgU1nZG7H2O6_2M0kTWBC3O0hrMyLZ6wu7UHnnr2d2HXiNFj3VDc1b_Kc8v9vMlSyOOL25ZeCSK9JI9qCOCqXPBcNGXCeU95oIHFgFsI8qjwyvUU/s1600/endofaffair.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjuAwWcAccu3jCLV6H07L3c08SbV5CkgU1nZG7H2O6_2M0kTWBC3O0hrMyLZ6wu7UHnnr2d2HXiNFj3VDc1b_Kc8v9vMlSyOOL25ZeCSK9JI9qCOCqXPBcNGXCeU95oIHFgFsI8qjwyvUU/s1600/endofaffair.jpg" height="608" width="640" /></a></div>
<span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif; font-size: large;"><i style="color: #cc0000;"> Sherlock Churchill berated by an Oldham Mrs Hudson? "You are the most destructive lodger I ever took in!"</i></span><br />
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<span style="color: #cc0000; font-family: Verdana, sans-serif; font-size: large;"><b>Notes.</b></span><br />
<span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;"><b>Lord Goschen championed Free Trade in 1903. Joseph Chamberlain's biography (p294) describes his use of the Martello tower image (in common use): </b></span><br />
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<pre class="western"><span style="color: black;"><span style="font-size: 9pt;">"Are you to take foreign tariffs lying down ? ' the advocate of the </span></span>
<span style="color: black;"><span style="font-size: 9pt;">new policy had asked. ' Lying down ' became one of the familiar </span></span>
<span style="color: black;"><span style="font-size: 9pt;">phrases of the fiscal school ; it was tossed backward and forward. </span></span>
<span style="color: black;"><span style="font-size: 9pt;">Lord Goschen played with it in the Queen's Hall : ' What do these </span></span>
<span style="color: black;"><span style="font-size: 9pt;">warlike champions recommend us to do ? To stand up ? No ! but </span></span>
<span style="color: black;"><span style="font-size: 9pt;">to crouch behind a wall. British trade was no longer to sally forth </span></span>
<span style="color: black;"><span style="font-size: 9pt;">and meet the foe, but to build fiscal martello towers around the coast </span></span>
<span style="color: black;"><span style="font-size: 9pt;">and arm them with guns which were spiked forty years ago ! ' Thus </span></span>
<span style="color: black;"><span style="font-size: 9pt;">the veterans fired into one another, and although there was not yet </span></span>
<span style="color: black;"><span style="font-size: 9pt;">so much bitterness as in the case of the Home Rule split, gibes were </span></span>
<span style="color: black;"><span style="font-size: 9pt;">sometimes used which caused resentment."</span></span></pre>
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<pre class="western"><span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;"><b style="color: black;">"Huz" means "we" and is listed in</b><span style="color: black; font-size: 9pt;"> </span><span style="color: blue;"><a href="https://books.google.co.uk/books?id=6VhkAgAAQBAJ&pg=PA180&lpg=PA180&dq=huz+an+mainchester&source=bl&ots=mcK6YuebqR&sig=LYf8h1-cGUG3aFMasOdRfsy5Ei8&hl=en&sa=X&ei=UO3oVKzwKsvUareNgIAI&ved=0CCgQ6AEwAQ#v=onepage&q=huz%20an%20mainchester&f=false" target="_blank"><span style="color: blue;">The Roxburghshire Word-Book</span></a> </span></span></pre>
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<pre class="western"><span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;"><b>"Teribus" - <span style="color: blue;"><a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Teribus_ye_teri_odin" target="_blank"><span style="color: blue;">Teribus Ye Teri Odin</span></a> </span></b></span></pre>
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</b></span></pre>
<pre class="western"><span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;"><b>"Common Riding" - <span style="color: blue;"><a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Common_Riding#Selkirk" target="_blank"><span style="color: blue;">Hawick and Selkirk</span></a> </span></b></span></pre>
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</b></span></pre>
<pre class="western"><span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;"><b>"Flodden Field" <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Battle_of_Flodden" target="_blank"><span style="color: blue;">Flodden and Selkirk</span></a></b></span></pre>
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</span></pre>
<pre class="western"><span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;"><b>"Flowers of the Forest" - <span style="color: blue;"><a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Flowers_of_the_Forest" target="_blank"><span style="color: blue;">Link 1</span></a> </span>and <a href="http://www.educationscotland.gov.uk/scotlandssongs/secondary/genericcontent_tcm4572881.asp" target="_blank"><span style="color: blue;">Link 2</span></a></b></span></pre>
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</span></pre>
<pre class="western"><span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;"><b>"Braw Lads" - <a href="http://www.bbc.co.uk/arts/robertburns/works/braw_lads_o_galla_water/" target="_blank"><span style="color: blue;">Braw Lads O Galla Water</span></a></b></span></pre>
<pre class="western"><span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">
</span></pre>
<pre class="western"><span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;"><b>Final Note: </b>It is just possible that (to a Scot) the reference to a <b>"Secret Cabinet" </b>calls to mind a collection of erotic verse and bawdy song written by Robert Burns called -<span style="color: blue;"> <a href="http://www.robertburns.org.uk/Assets/Documents/merrymuses.PDF" target="_blank"><span style="color: blue;">The Secret Cabinet or Merry Muses of Caledonia</span></a> </span>. This would raise the fascinating question of what Sherlock Holmes may really have been up to in Edinburgh!</span></pre>
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<span style="background-color: white; font-family: Impact; font-size: 13px; line-height: 18.4799995422363px;">© Ray Wilcockson (2015) All Rights Reserved.</span><br style="background-color: white; font-family: Arial, Tahoma, Helvetica, FreeSans, sans-serif; font-size: 13.1999998092651px; line-height: 18.1417331695557px;" />
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Altamonthttp://www.blogger.com/profile/07487675562905937401noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1766557913348045247.post-70727421870385914732015-01-10T01:51:00.001-08:002015-01-10T02:01:04.758-08:00Sherlock Holmes Spotting (Part 4) - Wanted for Questioning.<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhr4HrSEvlbVvHMp_EuO2hPYweYphJMhxv7zlY3y6fsRgpnQDv8GCgUvMYvU9yJgjZYblAeUVcZu_9miJF9aNJgktANHDujo3wq7WTvSmLiNzFu7MdT7cYKB1BeVQQVdVjv2RVHpGpxm_w/s1600/aw40011_created.png" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhr4HrSEvlbVvHMp_EuO2hPYweYphJMhxv7zlY3y6fsRgpnQDv8GCgUvMYvU9yJgjZYblAeUVcZu_9miJF9aNJgktANHDujo3wq7WTvSmLiNzFu7MdT7cYKB1BeVQQVdVjv2RVHpGpxm_w/s1600/aw40011_created.png" height="400" width="282" /></a></div>
<span style="font-size: large;"><br /></span>
<span style="font-size: large;">No case is cold in Sherlockian investigation and I therefore close this series of <i>Sherlock Holmes Spotting</i> with a small group of performers who have proved especially elusive. All are known to have impersonated Mr Sherlock Holmes but their files are regrettably slim. Hence, I detail here what little is known in the hope more in the way of biographical information, sightings, even photographs may come to light. Please report any new information here or to your nearest Sherlockian.</span><br />
<span style="font-size: large;"><br /></span>
<span style="color: #990000; font-size: large;"><b>John Webb.</b></span><br />
<span style="font-size: large;"><b><br /></b></span>
<span style="font-size: large;">Our first fugitive is known to have been active in the Glasgow area in the late Spring of 1894 with confirmed sightings (at least for a week) from May 28 when, with numerous accomplices, he masqueraded as Dr Conan Doyle's detective upon the stage of the <i>Theatre Royal</i>. </span><br />
<table align="center" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto; text-align: center;"><tbody>
<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhPE0kAVTK9BTst3nc-nXzmcd9ptSOfZ7KmB5gn3VCJ3mT0sOJk5Lr_4s9Dp4vtuEbgKtjuj4YxwXLNuPzSlrO_ijxh0Jd_LQbJHWumlIqrb9Bil6GydbPKFZjS6Bfay_JGQCLH1ZdMuVo/s1600/glasgow+herald+june+2+1894.JPG" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhPE0kAVTK9BTst3nc-nXzmcd9ptSOfZ7KmB5gn3VCJ3mT0sOJk5Lr_4s9Dp4vtuEbgKtjuj4YxwXLNuPzSlrO_ijxh0Jd_LQbJHWumlIqrb9Bil6GydbPKFZjS6Bfay_JGQCLH1ZdMuVo/s1600/glasgow+herald+june+2+1894.JPG" height="304" width="320" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Glasgow Herald June 2 1894</td></tr>
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<span style="font-size: large;"><br /></span>
<span style="font-size: large;">The second person ever to portray the Great Detective, he did so in conspiracy with Mr Charles Rogers whose play, "<i>Sherlock Holmes: a Psychological Drama in Five Acts"</i> had claimed stage copyright through a performance at the <i>Theatre Royal, </i>Hanley in December, 1893. An eye-witness from <i>The Era</i> reported John Webb played the part <i>"earnestly and with much success" </i>and secured a valuable list of his accomplices:</span><br />
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<span style="color: #363636;"><span style="font-family: verdana, Lucida Grande, Verdana, Lucida, Geneva, Helvetica, Arial, sans-serif;"><span style="font-size: 9pt;"><b>St.
John Hamund</b> (Dr. Watson), <b>Arthur Lyle</b> (Wilton Hursher), <b>C. M. Curtiss</b>
(Augustus Featherleigh), <b>Roy Cochrane</b> (Dr. Macfarlane), <b>Hugh Nolan</b>
(Dr. Grant), <b>Mr. Conor</b> (Mr. Westlake),<b> Philip Rooke</b> (Thompson), <b>James
Mayall</b> (Jones), <b>Kenyon Lyle</b> (Billy),<b> Mr. Quartermain</b> (Lord Chief
Justice), <b>Mr. Bowes</b> (Groves), <b>Mr. Archibald</b> (Rev. Mr. Williamson),<b>
Mr. James</b> (Hawkins), <b>Mr. Watson</b> (Cotton), <b>Mr.</b> <b>Constable</b> (Police-Sgt.
Thomas), <b>Phyllis Manners</b> (Mrs. Watson),<b> Edith Lewis</b> (Ruby Hursher),
<b>Jenny Hicks</b> (Jane), <b>Elaine Turner</b> (Rachel), <b>Cissy Sephton</b> (Lily).</span></span></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: inherit; font-size: large;">To these must be added one <b>Henry Cordyce </b>who, in concert with Hamund, managed the operation. Cordyce and Rogers have past history as the <i>1000 Reward Company </i>active in 1893, a prior association that, with further research, may yet yield some trace of Webb himself.</span><br />
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<span style="color: #990000; font-family: inherit; font-size: large;"><b>I seized my Thread.</b></span><br />
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<span style="font-family: inherit; font-size: large;"><b>Arthur Lyle </b>(<i>Wilton Hursher</i> in the play)<b> </b>has served as a fresh trail to follow...initially to Brighton in 1889, where he was recognised upon <i>The Royal</i>'s stage in the guise of <i>Justinian </i>in Monday, November 18's premier of <i>"Theodora".</i></span><br />
<span style="font-family: inherit; font-size: large;"><i><br /></i></span>
<span style="font-family: inherit; font-size: large;">The drama is an English version of Victorien Sardou's original (famously acted by Bernhardt), written by Robert Buchanan for the American actress, Grace Hawthorne (Nathaniel's niece) who purchased the rights from Sardou. The notes that follow are extracted from the excellent Robert Buchanan website (<i>see <a href="http://www.robertbuchanan.co.uk/html/theodora.html" target="_blank"><span style="color: blue;">HERE</span></a> ). </i></span><br />
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<span style="font-family: inherit; font-size: large;">In this lavish production (it boasted two tame lions on stage), <b>Lyle</b> had as fellow actor <b>Fuller Mellish </b>who would, years later, appropriately, appear as <i>Sidney Prince </i>in Gillette's Lyceum <i>"Sherlock Holmes".</i> Neither actor tours with the company for much of 1890. <b>Mellish </b>is back (and admired) as <i>Andreas</i>, the Greek,<i> </i>from September.</span><br />
<span style="font-family: inherit; font-size: large;"><br /></span>
<span style="font-family: inherit; font-size: large;"><i>The Stage </i>for 19 February, 1891, reviewed the play's first night at London's <i>Pavilion. </i>On stage with <b>Mellish </b>is a new addition to the cast, playing <i>"the illustrious general, Belisarius" - </i><b>John Webb</b> is described as <i>"commendable". </i></span><br />
<span style="font-family: inherit; font-size: large;"><i><br /></i></span>
<span style="font-family: inherit; font-size: large;">By the time the play opened in Newcastle-upon-Tyne (as detailed in <i>The Stage </i>for 23 April, 1891) <b>Webb </b>has been promoted to <i>"an excellent Justinian". </i></span><br />
<span style="font-family: inherit; font-size: large;"><i><br /></i></span>
<span style="font-family: inherit; font-size: large;">Though not specified in <i>The Stage</i>'s brief review of a Dublin <i>Gaiety </i>engagement (28 May), I take it <b>John Webb </b>was still in the cast at that time as his subsequent departure is commented upon in <i>The Stage</i>'s review of the resumed London run at <i>The New Olympic </i>(6 August).</span><br />
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<span style="color: #990000; font-family: inherit; font-size: large;"><b>The Observation of Trifles.</b></span><br />
<span style="font-family: inherit; font-size: large;"><b><br /></b></span>
<span style="font-family: inherit; font-size: large;">Where minimal data exists as in the case of the elusive <b>John Webb </b>any morsel, however insignificant in itself is worth noting: <i>"docket it", </i>Holmes himself advises.</span><br />
<span style="font-family: inherit; font-size: large;"><br /></span>
<span style="font-family: inherit; font-size: large;">I do not know if this is the same <b>John Webb</b>: I think it at least possible, given the thread followed here and the sense that he would, by late '93, be a known, experienced candidate for Sherlock Holmes. I have only scratched the surface of these lines of inquiry and see two main directions for the future: the much better documented</span><span style="font-size: large;"> </span><b><span style="font-size: large;">Robert Buchanan</span></b><b style="font-size: x-large;"> </b><span style="font-size: large;">archive may have preserved images of <i>Theodora </i>putting a face to <b>Webb. </b>There's also all the reason in the world to investigate that whole list of <i>accomplices </i>for more possible sightings of our elusive thespian. Meanwhile...</span><br />
<span style="font-size: large;"><br /></span>
<span style="color: #990000; font-size: large;"><b>Bessie B Beardsley.</b></span><br />
<span style="font-size: large;"><b><br /></b></span>
<span style="font-size: large;">Time to call in Pinkerton's for my next thespian wanted for questioning inhabited that shadowy, glitzy world of turn-of-the-century American vaudeville. I give you <b>Bessie B Beardsley</b>, who, anonymous as she remains, would appear to be the first female to impersonate Mr Sherlock Holmes in any media. Here's what I know (and it's not a lot!) about the original <i>Baker Street Babe.</i></span><br />
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<table align="center" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto; text-align: center;"><tbody>
<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEi6VKyHLAvJq_R7trKQGtK4Qg2xje6ETZzWbHUos2-B5Oc4n59UA0U2HFq7hP45P6ADClm9wviRqjfVIAx0Hdmtc5t5pyOj87xN0nXxqIzUXMStKeyBKXMiMpBoBULANiS9kQa0x4ws6hg/s1600/proctor's%2B5th%2Bave%2B1899.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEi6VKyHLAvJq_R7trKQGtK4Qg2xje6ETZzWbHUos2-B5Oc4n59UA0U2HFq7hP45P6ADClm9wviRqjfVIAx0Hdmtc5t5pyOj87xN0nXxqIzUXMStKeyBKXMiMpBoBULANiS9kQa0x4ws6hg/s1600/proctor's%2B5th%2Bave%2B1899.jpg" height="320" width="239" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Proctor's 5th Avenue Theater 1899</td></tr>
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<span style="font-size: large;">Not to be confused with Edison's (later) film <i>"Miss Sherlock Holmes" </i>starring Florence Turner, <i>"Little Miss Sherlock Holmes" </i>was a one-act vaudeville sketch, performed at <i>Proctor's 5th Avenue Theater </i>in early July, 1900.</span><br />
<span style="font-size: large;"><br /></span>
<span style="font-size: large;">Written by J Searle Dawley it was presented by and starred <b>Sheridan Block </b>as a highwayman. Set in the present in London, Block's three accomplices are the author, Harry Vaness and Ms Beardsley. Advertisements appeared in the <i>New York Times </i>(8 July) & the <i>Indianapolis Journal </i>(10 July) ( <i>see <a href="http://query.nytimes.com/mem/archive-free/pdf?res=9500E4DE1039E733A2575BC0A9619C946197D6CF" target="_blank"><span style="color: blue;">HERE</span></a> and <a href="https://newspapers.library.in.gov/cgi-bin/indiana?a=d&d=IJ19000710.1.3#" target="_blank">HERE</a> )</i></span><br />
<span style="font-size: large;"><b><br /></b></span>
<span style="font-size: large;">The fullest description that places the sketch in its vaudeville context appeared in the <i>New York Clipper </i>on 14 July. I reproduce it below.</span><br />
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<span style="font-size: large;">As yet, no photograph or further information has been detected.</span><br />
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<span style="color: #990000; font-size: large;"><b>Hugh Robinson.</b></span><br />
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<span style="font-size: large;">On September 20 1911, five days after the death of <b>Thomas Kingston </b>(see my previous post), London's <i>Kingsway Theatre </i>hosted (for 2 performances only) <i>"Sherbet Jones; or Who Stole the Roller Skates" </i>with <b>Hugh Robinson </b>(Sherbet Jones) along with <b>Ernest Thesiger </b>(Dr What's On) & <b>Miles Malleson </b>(Professor Goryarty).</span><br />
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<span style="font-size: large;">The <i>London Evening News </i>reviewed it the next day (see <a href="http://newspaperarchive.com/uk/middlesex/london/london-evening-news/1911/09-21/page-2" target="_blank"><span style="color: blue;">HERE</span></a> ).</span><br />
<span style="font-size: large;">Robinson is described as a <i>"Cambridge Humorist"</i> who has put together <i>"an undergraduate's lark" </i>which includes a satire on musical comedy <i>"The Girl with the Cash" </i>and his <i>"Sherbet Jones". </i>He plays the famous detective <i>"well...very youthful". </i>We are told <i>his little company includes a capable eccentric comedian in Mr Ernest Thesiger". </i>The audience, largely of friends, enjoyed the show, but the reviewer sees no serious future in it.</span><br />
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<span style="font-size: large;">Slight and brief as was its existence, the play has two features of special interest. The first, of course, is the subject of this post - what did <b>Hugh Robinson</b> look like in the role or <b>any</b> role? The second lies in the considerable historic interest for theatre history in the presence of two far more famous actors. This is Thesiger's first year on the stage (maybe his first public production?) He'd go on, like Malleson, to become a well-loved, highly respected actor of stage and screen. I suspect Miles Malleson was the connection as I believe he was at Cambridge too.</span><br />
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<span style="font-size: large;">I have found two further references to <b>Robinson</b>'s stage career:</span><br />
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<span style="font-size: large;">(1) On December 16, 1913, he was in <i>"One Afternoon" </i>on Eastbourne Pier with Harry King, while Thesiger was playing <i>Roderigo </i>in <i>"Othello" </i>at <i>His Majesty's. </i>(<i>see <span style="color: blue;"><a href="http://www.mocavo.co.uk/The-Stage-Year-Book-1913-Volume-1913/532944/303" target="_blank"><span style="color: blue;">HERE</span></a> </span></i>).</span><br />
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<span style="font-size: large;">(2) In October, 1916, while Thesiger was in <i>"A Little Bit of Fluff" </i>at <i>The Criterion </i>and Brighton's West Pier, <b>Robinson </b>was at <i>The Garrick </i>in the review <i>"Looking Around"</i>. (<i>see <a href="http://www.mocavo.co.uk/The-Stage-Year-Book-1916-Volume-1916-2/945510/244" target="_blank"><span style="color: blue;">HERE</span></a> </i>).</span><br />
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<span style="color: #990000; font-size: large;"><b>Sherlock Holmes Spotting.</b></span><br />
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<span style="font-size: large;">My apologies for the absence of illustrations in this post - but that is the point. I should love to be able to return to these early impersonators of Sherlock Holmes and at least put a face to them.</span><br />
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<span style="font-size: large;">I can, however, close with TWO images :- </span><br />
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<span style="font-size: large;"><b>"Gluck" (Hannah Gluckstein) </b>caught <b>Ernest Thesiger </b>perfectly in her painting <b>"Ernest Thesiger waiting to go on".</b></span><br />
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<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEife_iJGq18SeKamRjFzCsX5vaY7bhCJt2waYzUkHgZ-ljkCF6kK8Gz4EeDjKNIY4GXfGeA87wBLQWobco71VFRrOrhYtEUHjVQmSybeJ8Q6lLflphdbfO5bfkW1qTnANlUkAUptPXh8vE/s1600/gluck_hannah_gluckstein-ernest_thesiger~OM7e7300~10157_20051124_5608_280.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEife_iJGq18SeKamRjFzCsX5vaY7bhCJt2waYzUkHgZ-ljkCF6kK8Gz4EeDjKNIY4GXfGeA87wBLQWobco71VFRrOrhYtEUHjVQmSybeJ8Q6lLflphdbfO5bfkW1qTnANlUkAUptPXh8vE/s1600/gluck_hannah_gluckstein-ernest_thesiger~OM7e7300~10157_20051124_5608_280.jpg" height="320" width="224" /></a></div>
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<span style="font-size: large;">That indefatigable <i>Pinkerton Agent, </i>my American Sherlockian friend, Howard Ostrom, has recently put out a call for information on a more modern actor as mysterious as <b>John Webb</b>:</span><br />
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<span style="font-size: large;">Who the hell is <b>Burt Grosselfinger </b>pictured here in Howard's collection as a Sherlock Holmes of indeterminate date and context?</span><br />
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<span style="font-size: large;">The game is always afoot!</span><br />
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<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Burt Grosselfinger from The Howard Ostrom Collection.</td></tr>
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<span style="background-color: white; font-family: Impact; font-size: 13px; line-height: 18.4799995422363px;">© Ray Wilcockson (2015) All Rights Reserved.</span><br />
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Altamonthttp://www.blogger.com/profile/07487675562905937401noreply@blogger.com2tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1766557913348045247.post-22352519560731361402015-01-06T02:13:00.001-08:002015-01-06T20:28:31.864-08:00Days of Dignity or What You Will.<i>My contribution of 35 to #1000 years' Experience.</i><br />
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<i>Education establishments: 11-18 Secondary selective technical school; 11-16 Comprehensive schools; Sixth Form College; 16-19 & FE combined college and Supply including Special School. </i><br />
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<i>Posts: Assistant English (+ school librarian); Head of English (+ Director of Creative Arts + Director of Language and Communications); Lecturer in English.</i><br />
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<i>Subjects: English Language & Literature to 'A' level; Drama & Theatre Arts; General Studies to A level; BTEC Communications & (as needed) some French, Latin, EFL, E2L & Remedial English.</i><br />
<i><br /></i>[This is, I think, the first of two, related education posts. Forthcoming is <i><b>"The Readiness is All"</b></i> under the thematic umbrella #Nurture1415. My thanks to @ChrisChivers2 for inviting me to contribute.]<br />
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<b><i>Days of Dignity or What You Will.</i></b><br />
<b><i><br /></i></b>Twelfth Night, and a new school term. At my own grammar in the 1960's we would gather in the first assembly to sing:<br />
<i>"Lord Behold us with thy Blessing</i><br />
<i> Once again assembled here." </i><br />
The hymn's third verse opens thus:<br />
<i>"Keep the spell of home affection</i><br />
<i> Still alive in every heart."</i><br />
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In retirement I have no assembly to attend but I take this opportunity to write with affection about what essentially still lives in my heart and so, surely, is that which I most value from those years in the profession.<br />
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<b>Olden Days.</b><br />
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I think now that I was blessed to work (from 1969) in a system, with a local authority, advisers, HMI's, colleagues and (especially) Head Teachers who trusted professional autonomy. Moreover, I am crystal clear this was the crucial factor in the generation of that sense of personal and communal dignity I now value above all else in the practice of education. It is thanks to them that the sub-title of my career may be so Shakespearean: "<b>What You Will". </b><br />
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For me, there have always been two significant units in a school: its individuals and its communities. The former addresses the uniqueness of each person, adult or child; the latter is that living nest of Chinese boxes, incorporating local folk & parents, the whole school assembled and such constituent, overlapping, fluid communities as houses, year and form groups, classes, sets, sports teams, orchestras, play casts and staff.<br />
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Only in retrospect do I settle on <b>dignity</b> to christen the most gratifying feature encountered. Only now with time and energy for reflection is the beneficent connection patent between teaching English with autonomy and a perennial impulse to engage outside the class room. I can most usefully illustrate with reference to one 1970's 11-16 Comprehensive. With respect to teaching English with autonomy I'll focus on the currently topical matter of setting v mixed ability. I'll then recall a July afternoon that seems now to encapsulate all I wish to say here. But first...<br />
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<b>Dignity.</b><br />
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There is about this term a measured, quiet poise I do not detect in the more hackneyed <b>pride </b>we associate with wearing the school uniform and the broadcasting of achievement to the world on school websites or bannered gates. It is in fact the more dignified by its implicit, unspoken influence, palpable to those who sense it and enduring in its impact long after childhood. Where <b>pride </b>is a blatant flag, <b>dignity </b>is a modest pennant. You can't teach this abstract any more than you can character. Those who go about their business with dignity leave something wholesome in their wake born of self and reciprocal respect. With it, failure and success are <i>'imposters just the same' </i>and it's engendered by trustworthy acknowledgement of the intrinsic, unique worth of individuals and groups.<br />
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<b>The English Group.</b><br />
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It never mattered to me overmuch whether any age-group was <i>'setted' </i>or <i>'mixed-ability'. </i>Whatever the theoretical basis of the exercise, practicalities such as staffing levels, equalizing numbers and managing pupil relationships affect the equation. I never put much store in feeder primary grades or (at 6th form college) GCSE results, partly because (this is not a criticism) they often displayed disparity, but mostly because for an English teacher they told nothing like the full story. In addition, to be frank, it was more fruitful to set aside the past as soon as maybe because (like human development) English isn't a linear subject. Hence an undue consciousness of earlier performance was both irrelevant and counterproductive (especially with older students prejudiced by depressing grades).<br />
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My instinct has always been to get to know pupils as they present themselves and welcome the group as a nascent society. Apart from confidential pastoral information, the pupil before me <b>is </b>the embodiment of whatever data I need. Why look elsewhere when I have the living subject? My job is to observe and assess daily this ever-changing human data and respond to its ultimate benefit in real time, authentic encounters.<br />
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In the absence of a National Curriculum, targets, outcomes, lesson objectives and the like, I taught what and how I wished in the 1970's. Apart from discussing individual students, internal exam arrangements, external syllabi & capitation the most regular item of departmental interest was the expansion of resources, especially literature. The English <i>Scheme of Work </i>was a guiding reminder of that spectrum of matters with which an English teacher is properly concerned and (as with the best use of text books) not to be followed in its necessarily linear publication order.<br />
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Richness of resources was of paramount concern. Of course these incorporated specialized texts graded by reading age but I mean to stress the importance of variety, depth and breadth in effectively fuelling lessons, whose thirsty engines were Listening, Speaking, Reading and Writing.<br />
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I'd have found it prejudicial and self-limiting, either to advertise a <i>lesson objective </i>or prepare differentiated work. An English teacher who commits to articulating an objective must not be surprised if: (a) that is all that's accomplished ; (b) multiple unpredictable opportunities are preempted and (c) fluid, in-lesson, individual differentiation is rendered impossible.<br />
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For me, the lesson's content is a fresh, varied stimulus open to all that dignifies the group as people who matter equally and who may respond according to each one's lights. My job is to conduct a running exercise in subtle differentiation, an exercise that will have been ongoing on multiple levels since I met the group and contribute to awareness of objectives for group and individual I'd not flag up to either because I've long been convinced students learn more naturally when they forget they're being taught.(Indeed, at all levels, I've taught some of my most effective 'lessons' in dinner queues and playgrounds).<br />
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I have a lot of time for rank orders. The least useful, practically, is the received list of last year's exam grades which usually inform me only how a student read and wrote under exam conditions months ago. I ignore these into the same oblivion as the name of the group or set. My teaching is the more immediate if I view a given group as the only one in the world rather than the 4th of 6 sets.<br />
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The reality is that every group has ranges. Exam grades are one of many. I'd maintain that <i>knowing </i>your pupils means you can close your eyes in the staff room or late one night in bed and think: <i>"Listening. Rank order most receptive to least, my Year 7's. Go." </i> I think it the English teacher's job to maintain such mental and fluid rank orders for significant aspects of the subject, from ability to deploy the colon to poetic language sensitivity, imaginative engagement, and reading aloud. I'd not write these down - as a pupil is his or her own living data base, I'm the dynamic data processor. What else should occupy a teacher's mind but student and subject?<br />
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I'm only appropriately interested in grades external to a given group when end-of-year or external exams seek to compare my students with others. The only time I'd mark to external standards would be in mock exams, as part of my duty to prepare pupils for this special task. My teaching would change radically likewise. Training to perform in written examinations calls for directed, objective-led lessons of advice, familiarization, technique, revision strategies and realistic exercise.<br />
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Children are like adults. We tend to be more forthcoming when we feel valued. We are Billy Caspers all our lives - suddenly, amazingly fluent when our personal 'kestrels' are appreciated by a group peaceful in its achieved dignity. And I pray, are we Ralphs on this Lord of the Flies island, civilized in the belief every man woman and child has the right to take the conch in hand and enjoy fair hearing however apparently inarticulate.<br />
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<b>One July Afternoon.</b><br />
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The scene is a school hall I came to love. The time 1977.<br />
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I'd returned to the school that January as Head of Dept (after secondment and a year elsewhere) taking on a 4th year (Year 10) CSE group. Having realized by then that the quickest way to get known in a school is to produce a play, I dramatized a spin-off paperback of the hit of '76, <i>"Bugsy Malone",</i> secured Alan Parker's permission, got the green light from the Head and announced auditions in assembly.<br />
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I could have cast the play fully five times over, such was the response, including all the boys in my CSE set who, on hearing I had a script of a film they'd loved, asked to read it in class. West Midland (rough-cut) diamonds to a man, they'd never acted before, but read aloud in class with a surge of imaginative engagement never before evinced. I knew I had the makings of Fat Sam and Dandy Dan's gangs.<br />
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Limited as they were academically, these lads had street and sport cred which they deployed to draw in others. Faced with an embarrassment of riches I doubled up on the female leads and Bugsy who would perform alternate nights.<br />
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I can't remember why, but that July afternoon, members of the cast had gravitated naturally to the centre of their world. I can see them now. Costumed, they sit or stand about the darkened hall, talking fitfully, glancing now and then up at the illumined stage. And I too, unusually, find time to reflect.<br />
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How far had we come since Easter! I thought on the groundswell of support from every quarter. Of the music master who composed our songs. Of the design department's weeks of experiment to invent and then replicate splurge guns that worked, turning the playground into a firing range. Of the depth of trust and validating insight from a management that understood this was curriculum on a par with the most academic of classes.<br />
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Mostly I mused on transformation. I chose the word <b>dignity </b>for this celebratory post because that is what I perceived in the bearing of some boys become young men, awaiting the evening's performance with a grace in the step and a song of self-esteem in fearless hearts.<br />
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Here are some of them, caught in aspic, from my late dad's scrapbook. I wish all teachers in service and students at school similar legacies of dignity from doing what they will.<br />
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<b>Just some of the Gang</b><br />
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<b>And, of course, Bugsy & Molls.</b><br />
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<span style="background-color: white; font-family: Impact; font-size: 13px; line-height: 18.4799995422363px;">© Ray Wilcockson (2015) All Rights Reserved.</span><br />
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<b><i><br /></i></b>Altamonthttp://www.blogger.com/profile/07487675562905937401noreply@blogger.com2