Speaker 1: You're listening to Part Time Genius, the production of Kaleidoscope
Speaker 1: and iHeartRadio.
Speaker 2: Guess what, my gush?
Speaker 1: What's that? Mary? Also Mary, I'm supposed to be the
Speaker 1: one saying the guest was, but I'll let it slide
Speaker 1: this time. What is up? Mary? Okay?
Speaker 2: Well, today is a very important day and we need
Speaker 2: to celebrate.
Speaker 3: Is it your Birthda better? It's not my virtue? Oh God,
Speaker 3: so much better? No nofense, my goshion, I'm taking I
Speaker 3: give up. Why is today so special?
Speaker 2: It's November twenty first, which is the anniversary of Sherlock
Speaker 2: Holmes's first appearance in print. On this day, in eighteen
Speaker 2: eighty seven, a British magazine called Beaten's Christmas Annual came
Speaker 2: out with Arthur Conan Doyle's very first home story, a
Speaker 2: novel called A Study in Scarlett.
Speaker 1: Well, I love a Study in Scarlet. But I had
Speaker 1: no idea.
Speaker 2: That's the best part. A lot of people have no idea.
Speaker 2: The exact date of the story publication is weirdly hard
Speaker 2: to find. That's because this magazine, which was only published annually,
Speaker 2: didn't have a date anywhere on it, just the year,
Speaker 2: which is why you'll sometimes find December eighteen eighty seven
Speaker 2: given as the date of holmes debut because it said Christmas, right.
Speaker 2: But the thing about Sherlock Holmes superfans like me is
Speaker 2: we want facts, we don't want guestimates. So a Sherlock
Speaker 2: historian named Matthias Bostrom decided to solve the problem of
Speaker 2: the overly vague publication date by digging into newspapers of
Speaker 2: the time, and he found a series of ads promoting
Speaker 2: Beaten's Christmas Annual and Doyle's novel, which was the big
Speaker 2: feature in it, that first appeared on November twenty first.
Speaker 2: The ad copy said the magazine was available for purchase
Speaker 2: for one shilling and now pre orders were not a
Speaker 2: thing back then, which meant the magazine must have been
Speaker 2: on newstands that day, and November twenty first, eighteen eighty
Speaker 2: seven was a Monday, so just to be sure, Boston
Speaker 2: went back. He checked papers from the previous week and
Speaker 2: found no mention of Beaten's magazine for Sherlock Holmes. Therefore,
Speaker 2: we can deduce that today, November twenty first, is the
Speaker 2: real anniversary.
Speaker 1: I love how analytical and how thorough that is is
Speaker 1: really amazing. These are my people. Well, it sounds like
Speaker 1: the game's afoot, so less discovered non intriguing facts about
Speaker 1: Sherlock Holmes. Hey there, podcast listeners, Welcome to Part time Genius.
Speaker 1: I'm Mongish articular, and today I have my friend and
Speaker 1: super producer Mary Philip Sandy in the studio with me.
Speaker 1: And right over there observing my every move and scribbling
Speaker 1: in a notebook is Dylan Fagan. He better not be
Speaker 1: writing a rip rowing uncle of all my adventures. I
Speaker 1: have told him over and over not to do that.
Speaker 1: So let's get started. Mary. You know, I kind of
Speaker 1: vaguely knew you were into Sherila Holmbs, but I had
Speaker 1: no idea like how much a part of your life
Speaker 1: it was.
Speaker 2: I mean, this goes back. My grandparents gave me a
Speaker 2: collection of the stories when I was like ten years
Speaker 2: old for Christmas. I spent the entire holiday vacation just
Speaker 2: hold up in my room reading this book over and
Speaker 2: over and over. I still have it, and I still
Speaker 2: read it to this day.
Speaker 1: And was it just shla Colmbs or was it other
Speaker 1: mysteries and mystery novels as well?
Speaker 2: It was really just Slack Holms. There was just something
Speaker 2: about it that captured my imagination to a degree that
Speaker 2: I think a lot of people can relate to because
Speaker 2: it's really exciting, really well written, and the characters just
Speaker 2: come alive, they jump off the page at you.
Speaker 1: And was this a family thing too or just just you?
Speaker 4: No?
Speaker 2: No, I was just a lonely nerd in my room
Speaker 2: with my Holm stories and I still am. That's really it.
Speaker 1: Well, the reason I'm asking is because homes definitely had
Speaker 1: a presence in my house as well. Like I loved mysteries,
Speaker 1: and I loved mystery novel I loved like Encyclopedia Brown,
Speaker 1: I loved and It Bliden's The Famous Five. I read
Speaker 1: all the Miss Marple and Rachael Poirot in the school library.
Speaker 1: But I was obsessed with Sherlock Holmes so much so
Speaker 1: that for both third grade and fourth grade Halloween's I
Speaker 1: was sholock.
Speaker 4: Is there photographic evidence? Okay, but it's definitely true. And
Speaker 4: also like I was telling a friend this earlier, but
Speaker 4: one of the biggest crisis I remember dealing with and
Speaker 4: this is how easy my life was. But like one
Speaker 4: of the biggest crisis was in sixth or seventh grade.
Speaker 4: Seinfeld used to be aired on Wednesday nights, and this
Speaker 4: PBS show Mystery aired on Thursday nights, and my mom
Speaker 4: and I would watch Mystery, and then they moved Seinfeld
Speaker 4: into the same time slot, and it created all this
Speaker 4: conflict because I didn't want to tell my mom I
Speaker 4: might want to instead.
Speaker 1: I still kind of really he wanted to watch these
Speaker 1: mysteries and Jeremy Brett being a Sherlock Holmes or whatever.
Speaker 1: But finally my friend Howard jumped in to save the
Speaker 1: day and he taped Seinfeld for me weekly, which is
Speaker 1: so sweet.
Speaker 2: Howard saved today. That's amazing. That is amazing.
Speaker 1: So tell me, did you ever go around the like
Speaker 1: neighborhood trying to solve mysteries or anything?
Speaker 2: Do I still do that?
Speaker 1: Yeah?
Speaker 2: I still do that to this debt, No, truly, Like
Speaker 2: you know, it'll be like, hmmmm that restaurant. That restaurant's
Speaker 2: changed a dishaunting. I wonder why, you know, because in
Speaker 2: New York there's always things changing, and there's always a
Speaker 2: reason if you pay attention, there is always a reason.
Speaker 1: My neighbors love me. I remember in third grade there
Speaker 1: was like a new kid in my neighborhood and he
Speaker 1: ended up being very sweet kid. But he would stretch
Speaker 1: the truth a lot, and so like we biked down there,
Speaker 1: we met him, and he's kind of lulky, and he
Speaker 1: told us he was like the second grade world boxing
Speaker 1: champion or whatever, like something nonsense, very very realistic. Yeah,
Speaker 1: of course. And I was like trying to deduce how
Speaker 1: you could tell he wasn't. So I was like, see,
Speaker 1: you can see he doesn't have any ten lines. Oh yeah,
Speaker 1: he hasn't been around the world, like you know that
Speaker 1: this is absolutely fake. No.
Speaker 2: A few years ago a friend of mine got catfished
Speaker 2: and I helped crack that case. Really Oh yeah, yeah, yeah,
Speaker 2: of course we could do a whole episode on that.
Speaker 1: For our catfish. Yeah yeah, yeah, well I think we
Speaker 1: probably should get started. Do you want to hear that story?
Speaker 1: Since you are the resident Sherlock Holmes head, why don't
Speaker 1: you start?
Speaker 2: Okay? So, like I said, people around the world have
Speaker 2: become obsessed with Sherlock Holmes for very good reason. And
Speaker 2: today there are statues of Sherlock Holmes in London, in Edinburgh,
Speaker 2: in Moscow, and of course in Chester, Illinois, which is
Speaker 2: a town of about eight thousand people on the Mississippi River,
Speaker 2: and that's actually the home of the only Sherlock Holmes
Speaker 2: statue in the United States.
Speaker 1: Do you know what's funny is that my old boss,
Speaker 1: this eccentric guy named Felix Dennis, he had this garden
Speaker 1: of heroes that he had in his backyard. So he
Speaker 1: had like a sculpture made of Roger Banister, of like
Speaker 1: Bruce Lee, of all these people. And Sherlock Holmes was
Speaker 1: in that garden of heroes as he should be, which
Speaker 1: is so ridiculous but cool in a way.
Speaker 2: It doesn't make sense, but it also kind of does
Speaker 2: you know.
Speaker 1: But that was not Chester, Illinois. So tell me what
Speaker 1: does this little town have to do with Sherlock Holmes.
Speaker 2: Absolutely nothing. But it is also the home of Elsie
Speaker 2: Chrysler Segar, the cartoonist who created Popeye, you know, the
Speaker 2: spinacheating sailorman right. Cigar was born in eighteen ninety four,
Speaker 2: and he grew up reading Sherlock Holmes. He was a
Speaker 2: big fan. He even worked a bunch of Sherlock references
Speaker 2: into Thimble Theater, the popular comic strip where he introduced
Speaker 2: his famous characters Olive oil, Ham, Gravy, and Popeye. Unfortunately,
Speaker 2: Sierra died in nineteen thirty eight. He was only forty three,
Speaker 2: and apparently he was working on a Sherlock inspired detective
Speaker 2: story that he never got to finish. To honor him,
Speaker 2: the town of Chester began putting up statues of the
Speaker 2: Popeye character. There's like a trail you can walk around
Speaker 2: and see them all. And in twenty nineteen they unveiled
Speaker 2: a statue called Sherlock and Cigar. It's the famous detective.
Speaker 2: He's wearing his hat and the cape. He's holding a
Speaker 2: magnifying glass in a newspaper, but his face was made
Speaker 2: to look like Cigars. And there's also a time capsule
Speaker 2: buried next to the statue. I love this. They put
Speaker 2: a time capsule in the ground under the statue and
Speaker 2: they're planning to dig it up on cigars two hundredth birthday.
Speaker 2: So everyone mark your calendars on December eighth, twenty ninety four.
Speaker 2: We are all going to Chester, Illinois to find out
Speaker 2: what's in that time guy.
Speaker 1: So that's so crazy. It's also crazy that they switched
Speaker 1: out his face for Cigars.
Speaker 2: I know, it's really there's pictures of it online. It's
Speaker 2: really interesting looking.
Speaker 1: Did Cigar have like a curious looking face like anything?
Speaker 2: Just perfectly normal looking guy? He doesn't look like Popeye
Speaker 2: at all.
Speaker 1: So it is pretty well known that a Scottish surgeon
Speaker 1: named doctor Joseph Bell was the model for Sherlock Holmes.
Speaker 1: But I was wondering what is the opposite of Holmes.
Speaker 1: You know his mortal enemy, Professor Moriarty, and he is
Speaker 1: such a memorable character even though he only appears in
Speaker 1: a handful of stories. And the crazy thing is that
Speaker 1: Conan Doyle actually doesn't build out a huge life story
Speaker 1: for him. We know he's exceptionally brilliant. He's a great mathematician,
Speaker 1: an astronomer, chess player, a former academic, left teaching and
Speaker 1: became a consulting criminal for the London Underworld. But there
Speaker 1: are intriguing clues that point to a person who might
Speaker 1: actually have been Conan Doyle's inspiration. So, for example, Moriarty
Speaker 1: is said to have written a treatise on the binomial
Speaker 1: theorem when he was just twenty one, and a book
Speaker 1: called The Dynamics of an Asteroid that Holmes says is
Speaker 1: so good that no one in the scientific community can
Speaker 1: criticize it. Well, it turns out there was an exceptionally brilliant,
Speaker 1: high profile Canadian American mathematician and astronomer named Simon Newcombe.
Speaker 1: He actually taught at Johns Hopkins for a while well,
Speaker 1: and he wrote a paper about the binomial theorem when
Speaker 1: he was only nineteen, and this occurred in the eighteen sixties,
Speaker 1: which you know, sounds familiar. He also published several papers
Speaker 1: about the movements of individual asteroids.
Speaker 2: Wow, that's that's kind of uncanny. Don't tell me this
Speaker 2: Newcomb guy was also a criminal mastermind.
Speaker 1: No, but apparently he was super, super intense. His colleagues
Speaker 1: were intimidated by him, and it's been said he was
Speaker 1: more feared than liked. And apparently Arthur Conan Doyle had
Speaker 1: a close friend who was familiar with Nucomb and his work.
Speaker 1: So we may have this cranky professor to thank for
Speaker 1: one of literature's greatest baddies.
Speaker 2: Wow, thank you, professor Newcombe.
Speaker 1: Yeah.
Speaker 2: Science and medicine are such an interesting part of the
Speaker 2: Sherlock Holms stories, and it really makes sense given Conan
Speaker 2: Doyle's own career as a doctor. But one thing that
Speaker 2: fascinates me is how Holmes influenced and reflected the emerging
Speaker 2: field of forensic science. Take fingerprints for example, you know,
Speaker 2: dusting a crime scene for Prince is like Law and
Speaker 2: Order one oh one. Now, even though people had been
Speaker 2: studying fingerprints for centuries, it wasn't until eighteen ninety two
Speaker 2: that a murder was solved using fingerprint evidence, and that
Speaker 2: was a case in Argentina, and Argentina actually became the
Speaker 2: first country in the world to make fingerprinting an official
Speaker 2: method of identifying individuals, especially in the context of crimes.
Speaker 2: So it's really remarkable that Sherlock Holmes was talking about
Speaker 2: fingerprint evidence as early as eighteen ninety in The Sign
Speaker 2: of the Four. He was ahead of the times and
Speaker 2: way ahead of Scotland. Yard as usual, they did not
Speaker 2: use fingerprints until nineteen.
Speaker 1: Oh one, that is crazy.
Speaker 2: And there was also a French criminologist named doctor Edmond
Speaker 2: Locard who is considered the father of forensic science. In
Speaker 2: nineteen ten he worked with the Leon Police Department to
Speaker 2: set up the world's first crime investigation lab and that's
Speaker 2: where he developed modern techniques like chemical analysis of ink
Speaker 2: and handwriting identification. He was also a pioneer of dust analysis,
Speaker 2: that is the study of dust, mud, other tiny particles
Speaker 2: found at crime scenes, like bits of things tracked in
Speaker 2: by shoes or tiny traces of fibers from clothing, and
Speaker 2: that work really echoed the level of precision that Holmes
Speaker 2: often used to solve cases, and Lecard gave him credit
Speaker 2: for all of this. He once said, Sherlock Holmes was
Speaker 2: the first to realize the importance of dust. I merely
Speaker 2: copied his methods.
Speaker 1: That is incredible. The one thing I think about when
Speaker 1: I think about fingerprints, though, is that the one creature
Speaker 1: that has fingerprints that can be confused with a humans
Speaker 1: is koala's.
Speaker 2: So the Koala did it.
Speaker 1: It wasn't the officer or the butler.
Speaker 2: My Kohala butler committed that crime. It was nowhere nearar.
Speaker 1: So one of the things I can't help think about
Speaker 1: is how different Charlock Holmes would be if he were
Speaker 1: written today, right, Like, he probably wouldn't be smoking or vaping,
Speaker 1: so as bad for you. But you know what's worse
Speaker 1: is cocaine.
Speaker 2: Yes, it is.
Speaker 1: Cocaine is slightly worse. And Conan Doyle's depiction of the
Speaker 1: rug is a fascinating look at the way public perception
Speaker 1: of cocaine has changed over the time. So if you
Speaker 1: look at the sign of the four which you just referenced,
Speaker 1: that came out in eighteen ninety, and it opens with
Speaker 1: Holmes injecting himself with what he calls a seven percent
Speaker 1: solution of cocaine, and Watson observes that he's been doing
Speaker 1: this three times a day for the past several months.
Speaker 1: But at the time, cocaine didn't actually carry the stigma
Speaker 1: it does today. It was considered a cutting edge medical marvel,
Speaker 1: and doctors used it as an anesthetic and prescribed it
Speaker 1: for nervousness and lethargy. You could buy cocaine tablets for nausea,
Speaker 1: cocaine sprays for nasal congestion, even cocaine toothpaste for gum sensitivity.
Speaker 1: So by making homes a cocaine user, Conan Doyle was saying, Hey,
Speaker 1: this guy knows the latest trends in science, and he's
Speaker 1: got lots of energy.
Speaker 2: For solving crist so much energy.
Speaker 1: But just a decade later, obviously, public opinion shifted. In
Speaker 1: nineteen oh one, a doctor named John Willie published a
Speaker 1: report of a young patient who'd become addicted to cocaine.
Speaker 1: His arms were bruised from the needles, and he was
Speaker 1: so sick he couldn't leave his home. Obviously, it's a
Speaker 1: very destructive drug, and according to Willie, the young man
Speaker 1: was an avid reader of Sherlock Holmes and wanted to
Speaker 1: be like his favorite detective. Now The British Medical Journal
Speaker 1: actually covered the case and warned that authors who glamorized
Speaker 1: the drug use would quote have much to answer for.
Speaker 1: And even though cocaine was still used in medical settings,
Speaker 1: more and more people became concerned about its dangers. So finally,
Speaker 1: in nineteen oh four, Conan Doyle broke Sherlock's coke habit
Speaker 1: in the Adventure of the Missing three Quarter, and Watson
Speaker 1: describes his efforts to help Holmes quit cocaine, calling it
Speaker 1: quote the drug mania which had threatened once to check
Speaker 1: his remarkable career.
Speaker 2: Wow, don't do drugs. He like Sherlock Combs. Well, I guess,
Speaker 2: don't be like Schurlock Coombs that he did drugs. He
Speaker 2: like the later Sherlock Holmes where he's not doing drugs.
Speaker 1: That's the yess.
Speaker 2: Well, here's the fact that I love. Even if you
Speaker 2: don't know his name, you probably know the work of
Speaker 2: the artist Sidney Paget, who became famous for his illustrations
Speaker 2: of Conan Doyle's works. Paget drew over three hundred and
Speaker 2: fifty pictures of the Detective and his adventures, and for
Speaker 2: many of us, his art shaped our idea of Sherlock
Speaker 2: Holmes as much as the stories themselves. I mean I
Speaker 2: can see them in my mind even just saying his name.
Speaker 2: But there's another illustrator I want to tell you about,
Speaker 2: and that's Arthur Conan Doyle's father, Charles Charles Altamont Doyle
Speaker 2: came from a big family of creative people. His dad,
Speaker 2: that is, Arthur's grandfather, was a well known artist and
Speaker 2: political cartoonist. Two of Charles's brothers, Richard and James, that is,
Speaker 2: Arthur's uncles, also went on to become successful artists. As
Speaker 2: a young man, Charles supported his growing family by selling
Speaker 2: book illustrations, but he dreamed of being a world famous
Speaker 2: painter and that just was not happening. He struggled with
Speaker 2: depression and alcoholism, and eventually he lost his job. He
Speaker 2: became unable to work, and he was admitted to a
Speaker 2: psychiatric asylum, which back then was a terrible place to be.
Speaker 2: And Arthur Conan Doyle had great sympathy for his father's struggles.
Speaker 2: He never judged him, and he really admired his father's talent.
Speaker 2: So in eighteen eighty eight, he commissioned his dad to
Speaker 2: illustrate the book edition of A Study in Scarlet, which
Speaker 2: was being published as a standalone novel after its first
Speaker 2: appearance in Beaton's magazine. Charles actually drew all those illustrations
Speaker 2: from his cell in the asylum. Oh wow, and they
Speaker 2: capture some of the most exciting moments of the story.
Speaker 2: They're really great, actually. And here's another little detail that
Speaker 2: I find really sweet in a story his Last Bow,
Speaker 2: Sherlock Holmes goes undercover with a fake name, and Conan
Speaker 2: Doyle chose the alias Altamont in honor of his dad.
Speaker 1: That is really sweet. You know. I know little things
Speaker 1: about Conan Doyle, right, like they was friends with Harry Houdini,
Speaker 1: like all all these spiritualist things whatever. But I had
Speaker 1: no idea that he came from this artistic family.
Speaker 2: Yeah, it was in his blood. It was in his blood.
Speaker 2: And his dad's art was really incredible. He did a
Speaker 2: lot of paintings and other drawings when he was locked up,
Speaker 2: and he kind of channeled all of the anger and
Speaker 2: frustration helt about being in this asylum into his art.
Speaker 2: And it's you know belatedly, I think really really interesting. Actually,
Speaker 2: Arthur Conan Doyle had an exhibit of his works after
Speaker 2: his dad had died, Yeah, to showcase what he could do.
Speaker 2: It was really, really, really touching.
Speaker 1: That's incredible. So after this, I'm going to look up
Speaker 1: Arthur Conan Doyle's fathers are and you're going to look
Speaker 1: up pictures of me in third grade as Yeah, Sherlock.
Speaker 2: Holmes equally equally important.
Speaker 1: It's important. But that is so sweet. So you know,
Speaker 1: illustrations aren't the only way we picture Sherlock Holmes. We
Speaker 1: have to shout out some of the great actors who
Speaker 1: portrayed him. Basil Rathbone, Jeremy bred, Benedict Cummer, Badge, Will Ferrell.
Speaker 2: I always forget that Will Ferrell played Sherlock Holmes. I
Speaker 2: actually I haven't seen it, but I do know it's
Speaker 2: out there.
Speaker 1: Yeah, I mean, I can't believe you haven't seen it.
Speaker 1: It's this twenty eighteen Buddy comedy Holmes and Watson, with
Speaker 1: Will Ferrell and John c Riley, and The Hollywood Reporter
Speaker 1: described it as devastatingly unfunny.
Speaker 2: Okay, I will I will not put that on the
Speaker 2: two watch list. Then it's a shake.
Speaker 1: This seems like such a great idea.
Speaker 2: I know what could go wrong.
Speaker 1: But I actually wanted to tell you about another actor
Speaker 1: named will and that is William Gillette. Gillette was actually
Speaker 1: one of the first people to play Homes and he
Speaker 1: helped create two iconic sherlockisms. So backing up a bit,
Speaker 1: William Gillette was an American actor and playwright who helped
Speaker 1: Arthur Conan Doyle write a play about his famous detective.
Speaker 1: It was simply titled Sherlock Holmes. It actually premiered in
Speaker 1: New York in eighteen ninety nine and it had a
Speaker 1: long run on Broadway. It was followed by a hugely
Speaker 1: successful American tour, and then it moved to England and
Speaker 1: had a long run there. So Gillette played Homes actually
Speaker 1: over a thousand times, becoming very very famous and very
Speaker 1: very wealthy. So he designed and built himself a castle
Speaker 1: in Connecticut, where he was from. And this is actually
Speaker 1: a castle that I made my mom take me to
Speaker 1: as a kid. Why how what? I don't know. I
Speaker 1: think my aunt had mentioned it or something and I
Speaker 1: was like, Oh, we have to go there. And it's
Speaker 1: kind of crazy because it's like filled with homes like tricks, right.
Speaker 1: He has like trick mirrors so you can see around
Speaker 1: the corner of places. He has like little secret passageways.
Speaker 1: I remember something having to do with smoke, but I
Speaker 1: can't exactly remember, but it was like it was like
Speaker 1: exactly the type of thing a kid would design, you know,
Speaker 1: like a kid who was obsessed with homes in a way.
Speaker 1: But anyway, back to Gillette as homes. When the play premier,
Speaker 1: Jellette made a decision that would change Sherlock homes forever.
Speaker 1: In the original paget illustrations, Homes is shown smoking a
Speaker 1: normal pipe with a straight stem. Gellette actually wanted to
Speaker 1: be able to deliver lines while pacing the stage and smoking,
Speaker 1: and he realized that with a straight pipe he'd actually
Speaker 1: have his hand in front of his mouth all the time,
Speaker 1: so he swapped it out for one of those beautiful
Speaker 1: curved stem pipes. And that's obviously how we picture homes.
Speaker 2: It was a prop decision.
Speaker 1: It's just a prop.
Speaker 2: I did not know that.
Speaker 1: It's pretty amazing, right. And the second sherlockism we owe
Speaker 1: to Gillette is the phrase elementary, my dear Watson, which,
Speaker 1: as any homes head knows, Arthur Conan Doyle never wrote
Speaker 1: that phrase, and in the canon Holmes does use the
Speaker 1: phrase elementary to describe his deductions, and he addresses his
Speaker 1: friend is my dear Watson, but he never puts those
Speaker 1: two things together. And Julett added a line to his
Speaker 1: play Holmes says to Watson, elementary, my dear fellow, And
Speaker 1: later on the other scriptwriters made a slight change, replacing
Speaker 1: Fellow with Watson.
Speaker 2: Well, and thank goodness they did, because what else would
Speaker 2: we have as a catchphrase? Well, elementary, my dear listeners.
Speaker 2: We have a few more facts to go, but before
Speaker 2: we get to those, let's take a quick outbreak.
Speaker 1: Welcome back to Part Time Genius, where I'm sitting here
Speaker 1: with my super producer Mary and we are talking all
Speaker 1: things Sherlock Homes. So, Mary, I am curious, like you know,
Speaker 1: there have been a lot of recent adaptations of homes. Yes,
Speaker 1: the Downey Junior ones, the Benedict Commer badge. I think
Speaker 1: there was elementary, right, like some show on CBS. Which
Speaker 1: ones do you like? What do you like in the cannon?
Speaker 4: All right?
Speaker 2: Well, obviously Jeremy Brett is the best. That is the
Speaker 2: gold standard as far as i'm yeah.
Speaker 1: Yeah.
Speaker 2: I mean, look, I could do a whole episode on
Speaker 2: my feelings about the BBC Sharlock and what happened there.
Speaker 2: But Benedict Cumberbatch and Martin Freeman were so good. Their performance,
Speaker 2: their chemistry together was just really exceptional. I will say
Speaker 2: there's actually an adaptation that I haven't seen that I
Speaker 2: want to see. It's called Miss Sherlock and it was
Speaker 2: made for Hulu Japan. It's set in Tokyo and the
Speaker 2: two leads are women. I believe it is the first
Speaker 2: major adaptation with Holmes and Watson being women and it's
Speaker 2: set in modern day Tokyo. So I'm really excited. Have
Speaker 2: to track that down.
Speaker 1: That's really wonder really cool. And did you ever watch
Speaker 1: this movie Young Holmes? Yes, I have a friend Lucas
Speaker 1: who sent me like the cliff of the last scene,
Speaker 1: which is so ridiculous.
Speaker 2: Very different vibe than what I'm talking about. Sure, my gosh.
Speaker 1: Yeah, but I actually forgot how much I loved Sherlock
Speaker 1: Holmes until the BBC series came out. Yeah, with Bendic
Speaker 1: Coumer Batche. But I'm curious what about the Aola home stuff.
Speaker 2: I have not actually seen that, but I've heard it's
Speaker 2: really great. I've heard it's great.
Speaker 1: Yeah, yeah, I know, my kids have watched in.
Speaker 2: Like I tried to get Julian to watch it, but
Speaker 2: he wasn't interested. Animation only that's the rule.
Speaker 1: So as long as we're talking about great moments of
Speaker 1: film and stage, I want to show you the very
Speaker 1: first Shrlock Holmes film. I'd say we can watch it
Speaker 1: right now because it's less than a minute long. But
Speaker 1: it's also a silent film, which is not great for
Speaker 1: podcast purposes.
Speaker 2: Yeah, not ideal. Well, what is the name of this film.
Speaker 1: It is called Sherlock Holmes Baffled, and it was made
Speaker 1: in nineteen hundred by the Biograph Company in New York City.
Speaker 1: It actually wasn't meant to be shown in theaters. It
Speaker 1: was made for a machine called the Mutoscope, which created
Speaker 1: a moving image by flipping through a reel of cards.
Speaker 1: The device was coin operated and only one person could
Speaker 1: watch it at a time. It had a viewfinder at
Speaker 1: the top so you could peer in and Sherlock Holmes
Speaker 1: Baffled packs a lot into its short run time. First
Speaker 1: of all, it's a slapstick comedy. So Holmes finds a
Speaker 1: burglar trying to rob his house, and when he tries
Speaker 1: to grab him, the burglar disappears, and then he reappears,
Speaker 1: and then he escapes through a window, leaving Sherlock Holmes.
Speaker 1: You know, baffle right there? It is. It's in the title,
Speaker 1: and the disappearing burglar was an impressive effect for the time.
Speaker 1: It was done with stop motion photography, which had only
Speaker 1: entered the cinematic lexicon a few years earlier. But the
Speaker 1: best part is Sherlock Holmes Baffled contains a mystery of
Speaker 1: its own that to this day has not been solved.
Speaker 1: Nobody knows who the actors.
Speaker 2: Are, what, why?
Speaker 1: How come? I mean, if you can remember, this was
Speaker 1: made for this like cheap penny arcade device, so it
Speaker 1: wasn't a big feature. And back then movie actors often
Speaker 1: went uncredited, So we don't know who was the first
Speaker 1: person to play Sherlock Holmes in a movie. But we
Speaker 1: can watch him failing to catch that thief whenever you want.
Speaker 1: It is on YouTube.
Speaker 2: Oh of course it is good. I'll check it out.
Speaker 1: What is your last background of you?
Speaker 2: Okay, so you can't talk about Sherlock Holmes without mentioning
Speaker 2: his fans, and we did just that a few years
Speaker 2: ago in an episode called What does it Take to
Speaker 2: Be a super Fan? Everyone should go back and listen
Speaker 2: to that one as soon as you're done with this one.
Speaker 2: But I want to tell you about a very particular
Speaker 2: aspect of the fandom that is really interesting and often overlooked,
Speaker 2: and that is the fact that for many, many years,
Speaker 2: official Sherlock Holmes fan societies like the Baker Street Irregulars
Speaker 2: were for men only, no girls allowed. And you know,
Speaker 2: this is the thing with being a Sherlock Holmes fan, right,
Speaker 2: these stories exist in a world of white men in
Speaker 2: a very different time, which is fine, but to some
Speaker 2: extent that spilled over into the fandom and created barriers
Speaker 2: that didn't need to exist. And in the nineteen sixties,
Speaker 2: a young woman named Evelyn Herzog ran up against this.
Speaker 2: She had discovered Sherlock Holmes as a kid, much like
Speaker 2: I did, and became a huge fan as a teenager.
Speaker 2: She actually wrote to the Baker Street Irregulars, which is
Speaker 2: this legendary Sherlockian society founded in nineteen thirty four, and
Speaker 2: she was like, hey, how can I join? And they
Speaker 2: wrote back saying, well, you can't because a the BSI
Speaker 2: is invite only, and also it didn't accept women. I
Speaker 2: should mention there were some smaller groups that were co ed,
Speaker 2: but you know, the big institutions like the Baker Street Irregulars,
Speaker 2: which was and is the most important one of all,
Speaker 2: Evelyn couldn't join. So she goes off to college and
Speaker 2: she meets some other women who love Sherlock Holmes as
Speaker 2: much as she does, and they begin meeting in her
Speaker 2: dorm room to talk all things Sherlock. They read papers
Speaker 2: and literary journals, they read the journal that the Baker
Speaker 2: Street Irregulars put out, and in January of nineteen sixty eight,
Speaker 2: inspired by the Women's Rife its movement, they decide they
Speaker 2: have had enough, and so they make these big signs
Speaker 2: that say things like BSI unfair to women, and they
Speaker 2: go pick it in the freezing cold outside a Baker
Speaker 2: Street Irregular's dinner in Manhattan. They're marching around on the sidewalk.
Speaker 2: At one point the police even show up, but the
Speaker 2: women stood their ground.
Speaker 1: That is so dramatic, but good for them, right, Yeah,
Speaker 1: And I can't believe it took till like nineteen sixty
Speaker 1: eight to like make a protest about this thing. So
Speaker 1: did the Baker street irregulars change their policies after this incident.
Speaker 2: Not right away, no, no, that would have been a
Speaker 2: great ending to this, but no, it actually no, you know,
Speaker 2: in its own way. It is great because Evelyn and
Speaker 2: her friends launched their own society, one that is still
Speaker 2: around today. It is called the Adventuresses of Sherlock Holmes
Speaker 2: and it gave women who were excluded from other Sherlockian
Speaker 2: groups a community of their own. The BSI did not
Speaker 2: end its men only rule until nineteen ninety one, ninety one,
Speaker 2: I know, better late than ever. Yeah, but when it
Speaker 2: finally did, Evelyn Hertzog was one of the very first
Speaker 2: women to be invested in the group. And today both
Speaker 2: the BSI and the Adventuresses remain invite only. You guys
Speaker 2: can get my number if you want it, but they
Speaker 2: welcome members regardless of gender, and we love to see that.
Speaker 1: That is insane. So do you know anything about this
Speaker 1: invitation process?
Speaker 2: You have to be nominated by someone, So if anyone
Speaker 2: would like to get in touch with me, just contact
Speaker 2: part time genius. Don't let me out.
Speaker 1: I love that fact, But more than anything, I love
Speaker 1: the one that you said about Arthur Conan Doyle's Dad
Speaker 1: and those illustrations. I feel like that definitely earns this
Speaker 1: week's trophy, so I'm going to give it to you.
Speaker 2: Thank you. I'm an award winning Sherlock Holmes podcaster.
Speaker 1: Takeure Street O regulars, let them know. Well, that's it
Speaker 1: for this episode of Part Time Genius. From Dylan, Gabe, Mary,
Speaker 1: Will and myself. Thank you so much for listening. And
Speaker 1: don't forget we do have an Instagram account. It's just
Speaker 1: at Part Time Genius. Hit us up. We're waiting for
Speaker 1: your comments and questions and likes. Part Time Genius is
Speaker 1: a production of Kaleidoscope and iHeartRadio. This show is hosted
Speaker 1: by Will Pearson and Me Mongage Chatikler and research by
Speaker 1: our goodpal Mary Philip Sandy. Today's episode was engineered and
Speaker 1: produced by the wonderful Dylan Fagan with support from Tyler Klang.
Speaker 1: The show is executive produced for iHeart by Katrina Norbel
Speaker 1: and Ali Perry, with social media support from Sasha Gay,
Speaker 1: trustee Dara Potts and Viney Shorey. For more podcasts from
Speaker 1: Kaleidoscope and iHeartRadio, visit the iHeartRadio app, Apple Podcasts, or
Speaker 1: wherever you listen to your favorite shows,