Union Jack -- September 7, 2018

www.;philsp.com

Sexton Blake, a British detective, first appeared in 1893.  In 1894, he began appearing in the weekly The Union Jack.  By the late 1890s, Blake had become an imitation of Sherlock Holmes.  By 1920, he had become a more distinct character.  Blake appeared in Union Jack, and The Sexton Blake Library until 1963.  He also appeared on the stage, in comic books, radio and television.  

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Mr. Herbert Kelcey and Miss Effie Shannon in William Gillette's Original Version of Sherlock Holmes -- November 23, 2015

Town Talk, 03-August-1907

The first actor to become famous for playing Sherlock Holmes was American William Gillette. He played Holmes more than 1300 times, in a play he wrote himself, from 1899 to 1932. Other people toured in the play during times when Gillette was busy elsewhere or retired.  He retired frequently.  I wrote about him on my other blog:
http://bigvriotsquad.blogspot.com/2014/03/sherlock-holmes-looks-exactly-like.html

Town Talk, 03-August-1907

"This is the first time in history of stock in San Francisco that this great play has been essayed."  A stock company would perform several different plays during a period, often during the summer.  The September, 1902 Theater Magazine said Herbert Kelcey and Effie Shannon would tour with Sherlock Holmes in cities that had not yet been visited by William Gillette in the play.

Herbert Kelcey played Sherlock Holmes.

Effie Shannon played the heroine, Alice Faulkner. 

The Highest Priced Serial Ever Published -- October 19, 2015

Washington Evening Star, 13-November-1914

Arthur Conan Doyle's last Sherlock Holmes novel, The Valley of Fear, was touted as "The highest priced serial ever published." 

A Study in Scarlet -- What is It? -- February 21, 2015

Last month we saw that the 11-January-1894 Scranton Tribune carried a series of teasers about A Study in Scarlet, the first Sherlock Holmes novel.  This month we'll look at the 12-January-1894 issue.  The top of the first page above is from the 11th.  The 12th was the same. 

A box on page two had this.  I like the finger. 

On pages three and four, "A Study in Scarlet" appeared between several items. 

Also on page three.

Page four describes Sherlock Holmes' major skill. 

And finally, this box appeared on page 8. 

More next month in this blog. 

Keep An Eye Open for a Solution Of The Mystey Of "A Study In Scarlet" -- January 21, 2015

The 11-January-1894 Scranton Tribune carried a series of teasers about A Study in Scarlet, the first Sherlock Holmes novel. 

"A Study in Scarlet" appeared between several items on page three. 

There was a larger item toward the bottom of the page. 

This item appeared on page four.  "Once you begin it, you will grow feverish for the end, and await the sequel with impatience kindled by delicious uncertainty." 

"A Study in Scarlet" appeared again between several items on page five.

"It's queer, but people all over town are beginning to ask each other what there is in 'A Study in Scarlet.'"

"A Study in Scarlet" appeared again between several items on page six.

More next month in this blog. 

A Study in Scarlet -- December 28, 2014

Moving Picture World, 19-December-1914

There were two adaptions of Arthur Conan Doyle's Sherlock Holmes novel A Study in Scarlet made in 1914.  The British feature version, directed by George Pearson, is lost and anxiously sought.  James Bragington played Holmes. 

I have not heard of anyone looking for the American Gold Seal two-reeler released by Universal.  Francis Ford directed and played Sherlock Holmes.  Some sources claim that his brother John, who later became a famous director, played Doctor Watson.  I would like to see more evidence. 

Sherlock Holmes Number -- November 20, 2014

Collier's Magazine published most Sherlock Holmes stories in the United States.  The 15-August-1908 issue included the first part of "The Adventure of Wisteria Lodge."

Sherlock Holmes Found -- October 22, 2014

Moving Picture World, 21-October-1916

The first actor to become famous for playing Sherlock Holmes was American William Gillette. Arthur Conan Doyle had killed Sherlock Holmes in 1893, but, needing money, was happy to let Gillette write a four act play, Sherlock Holmes, or The Strange Case of Miss Faulkner. In fact, Gillette had to write the play twice, because the first manuscript burned in the fire at Lucky Baldwin's Hotel and Theater at Powell and Market in San Francisco on 23-November-1898. Gillette played Holmes more than 1300 times, and his play was the basis for later films with John Barrymore and Basil Rathbone. The play also introduced a love interest for Holmes, Alice Faulkner. Gillette played Holmes in a 1916 feature film, which had been believed to be lost.

I was happy earlier this month when the  San Francisco Silent Film Festival announced that a print has turned up at the Cinémathèque Française.  The  Cinémathèque and the Festival are working together on a restoration.

Learn more about William Gillette on my other blog:
http://bigvriotsquad.blogspot.com/2014/03/sherlock-holmes-looks-exactly-like.html

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The Royals beat the Giants 7-2.  Jake Peavy started well, but the wheels fell off in the sixth. 

The Case-Book of Sherlock Holmes -- September 23, 2014

www.coverbrowser.com

Pocket Books issued this edition of Arthur Conan Doyle's The Case-Book of Sherlock Holmes, his last collection of Holmes stories.  I like the cover. 

The Valley of Fear Review -- August 27, 2014

From The New York Courier and International Topics, 27-February-1915.

The highest commendation for and the best description of The Valley of Fear (Doran) is that it is a genuine Sherlock Holmes novel, with all the suspense of The Sign of the Four and The Hound of the Baskervilles, and all the charm of personality which in Sherlock Holmes is added to his fascination as a detective. In an old English house is a murder mystery which seems insoluble. Guess as he may, the reader cannot find the surprising solution of the mystery which Sherlock Holmes and Dr. Watson unearth. Then the scene of the story suddenly changes to America and the murder syndicate of an anarchistic community. Here broods the shadow of horrible fear, but it is dissipated by the investigations and dramatic coup of a man who is as strange and interesting a character as any one whom Conan Doyle has depicted.

A Character Which This World-Renowned Actor Has Stamped With Undying Fame -- July 26, 2014

Moving Picture World, 01-April-1916

The first actor to become famous for playing Sherlock Holmes was American William Gillette.

Arthur Conan Doyle had killed Sherlock Holmes in 1893, but, needing money, was happy to let Gillette write a four act play, Sherlock Holmes, or The Strange Case of Miss Faulkner. In fact, Gillette had to write the play twice, because the first manuscript burned in the fire at Lucky Baldwin's Hotel and Theater at Powell and Market in San Francisco on 23-November-1898. Gillette played Holmes more than 1300 times, and his play was the basis for later films with John Barrymore and Basil Rathbone. The play also introduced a love interest for Holmes, Alice Faulkner.

Gillette played Holmes in a 1916 Essanay feature film, which is believed to be lost.  Many people felt Gillette was too old by the time the film was produced. 

Mr Gillette...Was Enthusiastically Appreciated -- June 22, 2014

The manager of the Willis Wood Theatre in Kansas City, Missouri reported that the week was split between William Gillette in Sherlock Holmes and San Toy, a musical set in China.  "Mr Gillette came the first three nights, to big business and was enthusiastically appreciated."  Gillette wrote the play and went on to play the part more than 1300 times.  When Knighthood Was in Flower was a play based on a popular novel set during the reign of Henry VIII. 

Here is an article from my other blog about William Gillette and his play:
http://bigvriotsquad.blogspot.com/2014/03/sherlock-holmes-looks-exactly-like.html

Sherlock Holmes Comic Book -- April 17, 2014

I bought this comic book in 1975 when DC published it.  I enjoyed the adaption of "The Empty House."  Unfortunately, they did not do another edition.  My copy probably resides in a box in my mother's basement. 

The image comes from the Grand Comics Database: http://www.comics.org/

Sleuthathon, a Blogathon of Gumshoes -- March 16, 2014

Moving Picture World, 21-October-1916

Fritzi at Movies Silently is hosting Sleuthathon, a Blogathon of Gumshoes.  My entry for the blogathon is on my new movies-mostly blog, The Big V Riot Squad:  Sherlock Holmes Looks Exactly Like William Gillette. 

The first actor to become famous for playing Sherlock Holmes was American William Gillette. Arthur Conan Doyle had killed Sherlock Holmes in 1893, but, needing money, was happy to let Gillette write a four act play, Sherlock Holmes, or The Strange Case of Miss Faulkner. In fact, Gillette had to write the play twice, because the first manuscript burned in the fire at Lucky Baldwin's Hotel and Theater at Powell and Market in San Francisco on 23-November-1898.  Gillette played Holmes more than 1300 times, and his play was the basis for later films with John Barrymore and Basil Rathbone.  The play also introduced a love interest for Holmes, Alice Faulkner.  Gillette played Holmes in a 1916 feature film, which is believed to be lost. 

Study in Scarlet Review -- February 21, 2014

Here is a review of A Study in Scarlet and another detective novel from the 31-March-1890 Pittsburg Dispatch.  Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania was trying to drop the "h" at the time.  A Study in Scarlet was the first Sherlock Holmes novel, but was the second published in America, after The Sign of the Four.  Edgar Allan Poe wrote about amateur French detective C Auguste Dupin in "The Murders in the Rue Morgue" and two other stories. Émile Gaboriau wrote about Monsieur Lecoq, a Sûreté detective, in several novels. I know nothing about William C Hudson's Jack Gordon, Knight Errant, but I will say that is a good title.

Everybody who read "The Sign of the Four" in Lippincot's, a month or two ago, will turn with interest to A Study in Scarlet (J. B. Lippincott Co. J. R. Weldin & Co. 50 cents), another detective story by the same author. In point of time "A Study in Scarlet" precedes "The Sign of the Four," being noticed in that brilliant little story and having the same hero. Mr. Sherlock Holmes is the best detective we know of in any of the detective stories.  He has good reason for having a poor opinion of Edgar A. Poe's "Dupin," and even of Gaboriau's "Lecoq." As for Miss Green's "Mr. Brice" or Mr. Hawthorne's real Inspector Byrnes, Sherlock Holmes is still 'way ahead.  He has a genius for detecting. He has a happy faculty of seeing everything and knowing immediately what everything means. A man Is found dead in a deserted house. Mr. Sherlock Holmes is summoned in his capacity of "consulting detective." He looks about the yard and house and room, and comes to the conclusion that "there has been murder done and the murderer was a man. He was more than six feet high, was in the prime of life, had small feet for his height, wore coarse, square toed boots, and smoked a trichinopoly cigar.  He came here with his victim in a four-wheeled cab, which was drawn by a horse with three old shoes and one new one on his off fore leg.  In all probability the murderer bad a florid face, and the finger nails of his right hand were remarkably long." This was certainly pretty well for a brief inspection of an empty room. 

The plot breaks in two in the middle, after Gaboriau's fashion, and traveling from England to Utah begins over again until the second thread gets long enough to be tied to the first. Somehow, we will read detective stories. Probably they feed some mental hunger of the human race. Mr. A. Conan Doyle, with his "Sherlock Holmes," knows how to construct a most ingenious plot. The publishers have printed the story on such good paper and in such good type that an added pleasure is given to the reading. It is the most attractive and interesting paper-covered novel which has appeared on The Critic's table for several months. A capital book for the vacation satchel.

Another story of the detective order, which suffers a good deal for being read immediately after "A Study in Scarlet," but which if read before and by itself is a capital piece of work, is Jack Gordon, Knight Errant (Cassoll Publishing Co.: J. R. Weldin & Co., 50 cents.) The plot is very well done, gradually developed, arousing no suspicion, and coming to a fine climax. There is a murder at the beginning, and as in "A Study in Scarlet," the fellow who is murdered richly deserves his fate. The novelist in such a case is in a quandary. The murderer must be hunted down. That is the thread of the plot. But discovered murderers are either hung or imprisoned, and that is no way at all to dispose of a worthy hero. It is true that the remarkable story "For the Right" ends in that way. But that was altogether an exceptional case. Mr. Doyle and Mr. Hudson could not let the law have its course. It gets perilously near to it in both cases. But there is an escape. It seems to The Critic, even after a long experience in the reading of good, bad and indifferent novels, that the love business is a little hurried up in this case. Jack and Lucy have hardly been introduced before they are betrothed. Still, of course, circumstances alter cases, and in this case there was no lack of very astonishing circumstances. "Jack Gordon" teaches unobtrusively a very good moral.

The New Sherlock Holmes -- January 22, 2014

We saw back in September (http://cablecarguy.blogspot.com/2013/09/richard-gordon-in-role-of-sherlock.html) that Broadway actor Richard Gordon started playing Sherlock Holmes on the radio in 1930.  British actor Louis Hector took over the role when Gordon left because of "salary differences."  Recordings of some of Louis Hector's performances are available on The Great Detectives of Old Time Radio.  When I listened to "The Adventure of the Devil's Foot," I thought Hector sounded like WC Fields.  After, the host of the podcast said the same thing. 

The item is from the February, 1935 Radio Mirror. 

Sherlock Holmes, or Held for Ransom -- December 19, 2013

The Vitagraph Company of America released "Sherlock Holmes, or Held for Ransom" in 1905, along with a great selection of "picture hits, 12 cents per foot."    From the New York Clipper, 16-October-1905. 

Peter O'Toole and Joan Fontaine RIP -- December 16, 2013

I was sad to learn of the deaths of Peter O'Toole and Joan Fontaine. 

It is a wonder that Peter O'Toole lived as long as he did, because he had been a hard drinker.  I loved almost everything I saw or heard him in, from Lawrence of Arabia to Ratatouille.

One summer I took a Joseph Conrad summer class from a favorite professor who wanted to do something out of his usual area, which was Old and Middle English.  No one else knew how to work a 16mm projector, so I ran Lord Jim, with an anamorphic lens, which I had never before touched. 

I still hear people quote lines from My Favorite Year.  "Ladies are unwell. Gentlemen vomit."

He played Sherlock Holmes in a series of animated adaptions. 

The image shows him with Audrey Hepburn on the set of How to Steal a Million, which was released in 1965.

Joan Fontaine and her sister, Olivia De Havilland were Hollywood stars and cousins of aircraft designer Sir Geoffrey de Havilland.  Joan Fontaine appeared in Hitchcock's Rebecca, his first movie in America, and Suspicion. 

I hope that Miss Fontaine and her sister spoke to each other before it was too late. 

Starring Ronald Howard as Sherlock! -- November 23, 2013

American Sheldon Leonard went to Paris to film a series of half-hour Sherlock Holmes stories with a British cast, including Ronald Howard, son of actor Leslie Howard, as Holmes and H Marion Crawford as Doctor Watson.  I have seen many of the shows and they are ok, although I think Howard overdid it with the deerstalker and the curved pipe.  Be sure to click on the image to see a larger version. 

The Speckled Band -- October 21, 2013

This set of theater ads from the 05-December-1910 New York Tribune shows that two Sherlock Holmes plays were running at the same time.  William Gillette had revived his own play Sherlock Holmes and Lewis S Stone, who later played Judge Hardy, appeared as Sherlock Holmes in The Speckled Band, adapted by Arthur Conan Doyle himself.  I have not been able to find much more about this production, so it may not have been a success.  HA Saintsbury had appeared in the play in Britain with great success.  William Gillette was making one of many farewell appearances in his play.