"Breakfast 2s 6d, Cocktail 1s" [NOBL]

For our final day at the BSI Weekend, we recreated the Saturday experience as we've known it for some years: breakfast at the Red Flame Diner, browsing the Vendors' Room at the Algonquin Hotel, and then the Baker Street Irregulars Reception.

Each of these has an important and universal component to it: we have an opportunity to spend time interacting with other Holmesians present at the events. With the advent of Facebook and the Sherlock Holmes Social Network, it's easy to connect with other like-minded souls at any time. But as we've said before, our little hobby is one of the original social networks. We gather because of a single common interest, yet we connect on a variety of levels. And the the convivial conversation, witty banter and intellectual discourse we have in person is irreplaceable. Indeed, it's one of the driving forces behind so many hundreds of us gather in New York each January.

Breakfast at the Red Flame is one of the unscripted events during the weekend. The diner is directly next to the Algonquin, so it's a natural stop for so many of us. Walking in the door, you feel like you're in a neighborhood establishment, as you're instantly greeted by waves and greetings. The booths accommodate up to 4 people, so the breakfast discussions are usually intimate - and funny if you happen to be at some of the booths we've been lucky enough to join over the years.

The gates to the Vendors' Room open at 9:00 a.m., and one will usually find Jerry Margolin foaming at the mouth, lest anyone gain admission before he does. Jerry is always first in and first with his checkbook out. The collectibles range from a full table of BSI publications to rare books, theatre cards, correspondence, jewelry, and a wide variety of Sherlockiana. It's really a site to behold. And usually, we stop in between the tables, chatting with each other and congratulating the newest members of the BSI as they come through.

The Reception
Over the last few years, the New York City Bar Association has graciously shared their quarters with us - very convenient, as they're literally across the street from the Algonquin. In addition to food and drink, attendees hunger and thirst for the entertainment that accompanies this annual party. The BSI dinner is capably recapped - in verse - by Al Rosenblatt ("Inspector Bradstreet") and his daughter Betsy Rosenblatt ("Lucy Ferrier"). This year, they focused on current events including recent late night television show wars, Tiger Woods, and of course the Guy Ritchie film.

Another highlight is the auction for some unique Holmesian items, the proceeds of which benefit the John H. Watson Fund. The fund helps to defray the travel costs for Sherlockians who are otherwise unable to afford the entire price of the BSI Weekend. This year's auction items included a pillow embroidered to reflect events in "The Abbey Grange," a set of posters from the new film, a medical certificate signed by Joseph Bell's father (Bell himself being a medical school professor of Conan Doyle's and an inspiration for the character of Sherlock Holmes), and a set of five medals/pins from the Curious Collectors of Baker Street. There was also an impromptu bidding for a BSI dinner packet which was left behind last night by the author of this blog. (!)





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Ray Jessel, lyricist for the 1965 Broadway musical "Baker Street" and one of last night's dinner guests, joined us today as well - and graced us with some banter and a few witty songs. Update: You can view the entire set of recorded musical numbers by Ray and others here:




With that, we wrapped up the weekend and hopped on a flight back home. The full recap of the weekend events will be available in the Spring issue of the Baker Street Journal. Please follow the link to subscribe.

"Irregularity at Meals" [3STU]

The Friday of the BSI Weekend is typically spent running from meal to meal. By the end of it, one begins to wonder if it was even a wise thing to do to commit to a breakfast, large lunch, and catered dinner all in a single day. But then one thinks back on the conversations had, friendships rekindled, and new faces met, and one realizes that it's well worth the expanding waistline.

The William Gillette Memorial Lunch has been in existence for over 60 years. Currently held at Moran's Chelsea Restaurant, it originated as a lunch for out-of-towners who arrived early for the BSI dinner. Now, it's open to everyone who would like to attend, so you'll see a strong contingent of locals as well as travelers. The locals also include the Friends of Bogey's of Baker Street, a stage troupe who always have an humorous skit that incorporates William Gillette. This year, hilarity ensued as they took a Holmesian approach to nursery rhymes and we were treated to Peter Peter Amberley, the Adventure of the Christmas Pie, the Three Rubadubs, the 24 Black Peeps, and a Cardboard Box containing the severed tails of three vision-impaired mice.

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The BSI Dinner
The highlight of the weekend for those who are invited to attend is always the annual dinner of the Baker Street Irregulars - the very event that that got this entire movement started. This year, there was plenty to be excited about, including some celebrity sightings such as Neil Gaiman, Laurie R. King and Curtis Armstrong, to name a few. But the real stars are the Sherlock Holmes enthusiasts who make it such an interesting place to be.

This year, the dinner was held at a new venue for the BSI - the Yale Club, just a couple of blocks from the Algonquin Hotel. It was the equivalent of the Union League Club, The Woman for 2010 - typically the (long-suffering) wife of a long-standing BSI member was Karen Gurion, wife of Andrew J. Peck, BSI ("Inspector Baynes, Surrey Constabulary"). She was toasted by Jerry Margolin ("Hilton Cubitt") and then she gave her own remarks. Of Andy's acquisition of an original Frederic Dorr Steele illustration of Sherlock Holmes, she remarked, "That's art?" To which, noted dealer Otto Penzler, who was in attendance replied, "So sell it back!" Karen clearly warmed up to the group, saying that she felt like Sally Field: "You like me! You really like me!" And indeed, we do.

Following the cocktail party, we wound our way upstairs to the dining room and began the proceedings of the evening. Wiggins got right to the awards, first doling out a special crystal award with Queen Victoria on one side and Sherlock Holmes on the other, to Freda Howlett, widow of Holmesian Tony Howlett and one of the co-founders of the Sherlock Holmes Society of London. Directly following Freda's award, Mike launched into the Eddies - awards given to the editors of BSI publications to demonstrate his thanks for the hard work they've done. They were:

• Steve Rothman for A Remarkable Mixture
• Les Klinger for his general editorship of the BSI Manuscript and History Series and A Tangled Skein
• John Bergquist for So Painful a Scandal
• Susan Dahlinger and Glen Miranker for co-editing the 2007 BSJ Christmas Annual Rathbone Returns
• Gianluca Salvatore for editing Mandate for Murder
• A posthumous award to H. Paul Jeffers for the 2005 BSJ Christmas Annual Once a Week in Baker Street

Some remarks from Wiggins followed: the BSI Archives will become increasingly important over the next five years and the correspondence of every member of the BSI is sought; more scholarly conferences around the country will be happening; and we need to keep in mind not to take ourselves too seriously. That being said, we launched into some papers, some serious, some not so serious.

Nils Nordberg ("A Norwegian Named Sigerson") opined on the Scandinavian roots of Holmes, and was followed by Sue Vizoskie ("Mrs. Saunders") who posited that Holmes was a woman (!). Finally, Nathan Hartley ("Penang Lawyer") discussed the original Penang lawyer and the real identity of James Mortimer. Then, Peter Blau ("Black Peter") took the podium and gave a toast to An Old Irregular - in this case, Bill Rabe. We'll have some of the audio at a later date. But Peter let us know that Bill, who was one of the inspirations behind "Aunt Clara," which we sing every year, got his inspiration from a song called "Mush Mush."

Henry Boote ("Meyers, Toronto") stepped up to tickle the ivories and gave us a rendition of "Mush, Mush" and then invited Scott Monty to belt out a few stanzas of "Aunt Clara" with gracious help from the audience on the chorus. And as if that wasn't enough musical entertainment, we were joined by Ray Jessel, the songwriter who was responsible for the Broadway musical "Baker Street" (you can purchase it by clicking through). Ray gave some brief remarks and then played a few songs on the piano, including the memorable "A Married Man." He shared that to write for Watson was eaier, as "he represents the human element" in the Canon. To say that it was a treat to hear Ray play would be an immense understatement.

We then stood on the terrace for the BSIs we lost over the last year. They included: Edwin King, Joe Fink, Ed Lauterbach, Edward Starr, Richard Warner, Frank Beckman, and H. Paul Jeffers. Then it was time to move on to the happier part of the program...

The Honours List
The awarding of the irregular shilling is always a marvelous thing. There were nine in the class of 2010, as well as three Two-Shilling Awards:

• "Lord Bellinger" - Tom Cynkin
• "Ettie Shafter" - Pj Doyle
• "Vernet" - Sir Christopher Frayling
• "Imperial Tokay" - Patricia Guy
• "The Red Circle" - Laurie R. King
• "Violet Smith" - Sarah Montague
• "Holloway and Steele" - Daniel Polvere
• "The Three Gables' - Sally Sugarman
• "Isadora Klein" - Maria Carmen Veiga Hayzen
• John Bergquist, Two Shilling Award
• Bob Coghill, Two Shilling Award
• Steve Doyle, Two Shilling Award

The dinner concluded with the reading of "A Long Evening with Holmes."




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Aplogies for any typos or misspellings; this was done in haste.

"One Winter's Night" [MUSG]

The first day of the BSI weekend has kicked things off nicely. We arrived to the Algonquin Hotel mid-morning just in time to see the Christopher Morley Walk getting started on the streets of New York. The lobby was fairly quiet, but there was a a table of longstanding friends and Holmesians gathered, including Susan Rice ("Beeswing"), Marilyn MacGregor ("V.V. 341"), Jon Lellenberg ("Rodger Prescott") and Susan Dahlinger ("The Bruce-Partington Plans"). We were soon joined by Curtis Armstrong ("An Actor and a Rare One"), John Baesch ("State and Merton County Railroad"), Scott Bond ("The Copper Beeches") and Sherry Rose Bond ("Violet Hunter"). We were able to briefly get caught up on families, jobs, retirement and general friendly chatter.

Lunchtime saw us first at the National Arts Club for the lunch of the Sacred Six, and then directly next door at the Players Club for the Lunch of Steele, in memory of Frederic Dorr Steele, illustrator of some of the Sherlock Holmes stories. A member of the Players for 40 years, his artwork was on display and his pool cue was still in its holder. The group enjoyed receiving the first lapel pin for the Three Hours For Lunch Club - the precursor to the Baker Street Irregulars.

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At the Williams Club, the annual Morley-Montgomery Award for the best article in the Baker Street Journal, was given to Marshall S. ("Mike") Berdan, a contributor for more than 30 years, won for his Spring 2009 article on "The Mazarin Stone". The award was presented at a reception sponsored by the Baker Street Journal, attended by many of the past year's contributors. While the gathering included many seasoned "regulars" who write frequently for the Journal, also present was 18-year-old Lucy Kiefer, whose first Sherlockian paper appeared in the Summer issue.

 

As the evening drew closer, it was time for the BSI Distinguished Speaker series, and this outing brought us an archivist - one Joan Winterkorn, a valuation expert with Bernard Quaritch of London. She spoke about some of the great archives she had known, including the papers and correspondence of seven generations of the John Murray publishing family. The latter include most of Lord Byron's important manuscripts and letters as well as much correspondence with Arthur Conan Doyle. The Distinguished Speaker lecture was graced with the attendance of two previous Distinguished Speakers, Sir Christopher Frayling and Laurie R. King, as well as dozens of Sherlockians. It was a bibliophile's dream.

After the lecture, people formed small groups and found their way to local restaurants, savoring perhaps the last intimate moments before the festivities really kick into full gear tomorrow.

"Weekend Visitors" [SOLI]

Well, the Baker Street Irregulars weekend is upon us! Hundreds of Sherlock Holmes enthusiasts will converge upon New York in an annual ritual that has its origins all the way back in 1934.

The unofficial headquarters of the weekend is the Algonquin Hotel, home of the famed Algonquin Round Table, about which much has been written. We'll be spending plenty of time in the lobby, as well as running from meal to meal and catching up with those we haven't seen in a while.

We'll also be providing regular updates here as time allows, and on Twitter as @S_Holmes. You can also follow in the box on the right, as we use the Twitter "hashtag" (that's a pound sign in front of an acronym) #bsiweekend. Expect to get the news of the newest investitured members of the Baker Street Irregulars on Twitter as they're announced.

If you can't be with us in person, we hope you're with us in spirit. This is an exciting time for Holmesians everywhere. It's amazing how much we'll be able to share through the power of the web.

Click here to see related posts on the BSI Weekend.