WEBVTT - 9 Not-So-Elementary Facts About Sherlock Holmes! 0:00:03.120 --> 0:00:06.519 You're listening to Part Time Genius, the production of Kaleidoscope 0:00:06.680 --> 0:00:08.080 and iHeartRadio. 0:00:12.039 --> 0:00:13.160 Guess what, my gush? 0:00:13.360 --> 0:00:16.560 What's that? Mary? Also Mary, I'm supposed to be the 0:00:16.560 --> 0:00:21.079 one saying the guest was, but I'll let it slide 0:00:21.120 --> 0:00:23.599 this time. What is up? Mary? Okay? 0:00:23.680 --> 0:00:26.239 Well, today is a very important day and we need 0:00:26.280 --> 0:00:26.880 to celebrate. 0:00:27.200 --> 0:00:30.920 Is it your Birthda better? It's not my virtue? Oh God, 0:00:31.040 --> 0:00:35.280 so much better? No nofense, my goshion, I'm taking I 0:00:35.400 --> 0:00:37.440 give up. Why is today so special? 0:00:37.520 --> 0:00:40.720 It's November twenty first, which is the anniversary of Sherlock 0:00:40.800 --> 0:00:44.200 Holmes's first appearance in print. On this day, in eighteen 0:00:44.280 --> 0:00:47.640 eighty seven, a British magazine called Beaten's Christmas Annual came 0:00:47.680 --> 0:00:50.720 out with Arthur Conan Doyle's very first home story, a 0:00:50.800 --> 0:00:52.640 novel called A Study in Scarlett. 0:00:52.840 --> 0:00:55.560 Well, I love a Study in Scarlet. But I had 0:00:55.640 --> 0:00:56.320 no idea. 0:00:56.400 --> 0:00:58.680 That's the best part. A lot of people have no idea. 0:00:58.800 --> 0:01:01.760 The exact date of the story publication is weirdly hard 0:01:01.760 --> 0:01:05.600 to find. That's because this magazine, which was only published annually, 0:01:05.760 --> 0:01:08.120 didn't have a date anywhere on it, just the year, 0:01:08.640 --> 0:01:11.759 which is why you'll sometimes find December eighteen eighty seven 0:01:11.880 --> 0:01:14.880 given as the date of holmes debut because it said Christmas, right. 0:01:15.280 --> 0:01:18.000 But the thing about Sherlock Holmes superfans like me is 0:01:18.240 --> 0:01:22.319 we want facts, we don't want guestimates. So a Sherlock 0:01:22.480 --> 0:01:26.200 historian named Matthias Bostrom decided to solve the problem of 0:01:26.240 --> 0:01:30.280 the overly vague publication date by digging into newspapers of 0:01:30.360 --> 0:01:33.520 the time, and he found a series of ads promoting 0:01:33.560 --> 0:01:36.560 Beaten's Christmas Annual and Doyle's novel, which was the big 0:01:36.600 --> 0:01:39.840 feature in it, that first appeared on November twenty first. 0:01:40.360 --> 0:01:43.240 The ad copy said the magazine was available for purchase 0:01:43.319 --> 0:01:45.720 for one shilling and now pre orders were not a 0:01:45.760 --> 0:01:48.480 thing back then, which meant the magazine must have been 0:01:48.680 --> 0:01:52.400 on newstands that day, and November twenty first, eighteen eighty 0:01:52.400 --> 0:01:54.960 seven was a Monday, so just to be sure, Boston 0:01:55.120 --> 0:01:57.800 went back. He checked papers from the previous week and 0:01:57.880 --> 0:02:02.200 found no mention of Beaten's magazine for Sherlock Holmes. Therefore, 0:02:02.240 --> 0:02:05.080 we can deduce that today, November twenty first, is the 0:02:05.120 --> 0:02:06.120 real anniversary. 0:02:06.320 --> 0:02:10.480 I love how analytical and how thorough that is is 0:02:10.520 --> 0:02:15.000 really amazing. These are my people. Well, it sounds like 0:02:15.040 --> 0:02:19.160 the game's afoot, so less discovered non intriguing facts about 0:02:19.160 --> 0:02:43.519 Sherlock Holmes. Hey there, podcast listeners, Welcome to Part time Genius. 0:02:43.560 --> 0:02:46.440 I'm Mongish articular, and today I have my friend and 0:02:46.639 --> 0:02:49.840 super producer Mary Philip Sandy in the studio with me. 0:02:50.320 --> 0:02:54.280 And right over there observing my every move and scribbling 0:02:54.320 --> 0:02:58.880 in a notebook is Dylan Fagan. He better not be 0:02:58.919 --> 0:03:01.400 writing a rip rowing uncle of all my adventures. I 0:03:01.400 --> 0:03:03.720 have told him over and over not to do that. 0:03:03.880 --> 0:03:08.000 So let's get started. Mary. You know, I kind of 0:03:08.120 --> 0:03:11.000 vaguely knew you were into Sherila Holmbs, but I had 0:03:11.000 --> 0:03:13.239 no idea like how much a part of your life 0:03:13.320 --> 0:03:13.760 it was. 0:03:14.160 --> 0:03:16.400 I mean, this goes back. My grandparents gave me a 0:03:16.440 --> 0:03:18.160 collection of the stories when I was like ten years 0:03:18.200 --> 0:03:20.960 old for Christmas. I spent the entire holiday vacation just 0:03:21.000 --> 0:03:23.320 hold up in my room reading this book over and 0:03:23.360 --> 0:03:25.079 over and over. I still have it, and I still 0:03:25.120 --> 0:03:26.079 read it to this day. 0:03:26.240 --> 0:03:28.720 And was it just shla Colmbs or was it other 0:03:28.919 --> 0:03:30.760 mysteries and mystery novels as well? 0:03:30.840 --> 0:03:32.840 It was really just Slack Holms. There was just something 0:03:32.880 --> 0:03:35.760 about it that captured my imagination to a degree that 0:03:35.920 --> 0:03:37.760 I think a lot of people can relate to because 0:03:37.920 --> 0:03:40.640 it's really exciting, really well written, and the characters just 0:03:40.680 --> 0:03:42.360 come alive, they jump off the page at you. 0:03:42.800 --> 0:03:45.720 And was this a family thing too or just just you? 0:03:45.840 --> 0:03:46.000 No? 0:03:46.000 --> 0:03:47.520 No, I was just a lonely nerd in my room 0:03:47.560 --> 0:03:51.600 with my Holm stories and I still am. That's really it. 0:03:51.960 --> 0:03:55.800 Well, the reason I'm asking is because homes definitely had 0:03:55.800 --> 0:03:59.040 a presence in my house as well. Like I loved mysteries, 0:03:59.040 --> 0:04:02.160 and I loved mystery novel I loved like Encyclopedia Brown, 0:04:02.320 --> 0:04:05.480 I loved and It Bliden's The Famous Five. I read 0:04:05.600 --> 0:04:09.680 all the Miss Marple and Rachael Poirot in the school library. 0:04:09.800 --> 0:04:14.160 But I was obsessed with Sherlock Holmes so much so 0:04:14.320 --> 0:04:17.840 that for both third grade and fourth grade Halloween's I 0:04:17.920 --> 0:04:18.400 was sholock. 0:04:19.480 --> 0:04:24.720 Is there photographic evidence? Okay, but it's definitely true. And 0:04:24.839 --> 0:04:27.599 also like I was telling a friend this earlier, but 0:04:27.680 --> 0:04:31.920 one of the biggest crisis I remember dealing with and 0:04:32.000 --> 0:04:34.160 this is how easy my life was. But like one 0:04:34.200 --> 0:04:36.839 of the biggest crisis was in sixth or seventh grade. 0:04:37.760 --> 0:04:41.200 Seinfeld used to be aired on Wednesday nights, and this 0:04:41.279 --> 0:04:45.000 PBS show Mystery aired on Thursday nights, and my mom 0:04:45.040 --> 0:04:49.279 and I would watch Mystery, and then they moved Seinfeld 0:04:49.440 --> 0:04:53.039 into the same time slot, and it created all this 0:04:53.200 --> 0:04:55.520 conflict because I didn't want to tell my mom I 0:04:55.560 --> 0:04:57.159 might want to instead. 0:04:58.880 --> 0:05:00.880 I still kind of really he wanted to watch these 0:05:00.920 --> 0:05:04.200 mysteries and Jeremy Brett being a Sherlock Holmes or whatever. 0:05:04.240 --> 0:05:07.400 But finally my friend Howard jumped in to save the 0:05:07.480 --> 0:05:11.080 day and he taped Seinfeld for me weekly, which is 0:05:11.240 --> 0:05:11.880 so sweet. 0:05:12.120 --> 0:05:16.279 Howard saved today. That's amazing. That is amazing. 0:05:17.040 --> 0:05:18.960 So tell me, did you ever go around the like 0:05:18.960 --> 0:05:20.640 neighborhood trying to solve mysteries or anything? 0:05:20.720 --> 0:05:21.560 Do I still do that? 0:05:21.680 --> 0:05:21.880 Yeah? 0:05:21.920 --> 0:05:23.960 I still do that to this debt, No, truly, Like 0:05:24.320 --> 0:05:27.400 you know, it'll be like, hmmmm that restaurant. That restaurant's 0:05:27.480 --> 0:05:30.839 changed a dishaunting. I wonder why, you know, because in 0:05:30.839 --> 0:05:32.800 New York there's always things changing, and there's always a 0:05:32.800 --> 0:05:35.080 reason if you pay attention, there is always a reason. 0:05:35.480 --> 0:05:40.440 My neighbors love me. I remember in third grade there 0:05:40.520 --> 0:05:43.200 was like a new kid in my neighborhood and he 0:05:43.400 --> 0:05:45.440 ended up being very sweet kid. But he would stretch 0:05:45.480 --> 0:05:48.560 the truth a lot, and so like we biked down there, 0:05:48.680 --> 0:05:51.839 we met him, and he's kind of lulky, and he 0:05:51.960 --> 0:05:55.919 told us he was like the second grade world boxing 0:05:56.000 --> 0:05:59.760 champion or whatever, like something nonsense, very very realistic. Yeah, 0:06:00.000 --> 0:06:02.360 of course. And I was like trying to deduce how 0:06:02.440 --> 0:06:04.599 you could tell he wasn't. So I was like, see, 0:06:04.680 --> 0:06:07.760 you can see he doesn't have any ten lines. Oh yeah, 0:06:07.960 --> 0:06:10.479 he hasn't been around the world, like you know that 0:06:10.680 --> 0:06:11.800 this is absolutely fake. No. 0:06:11.800 --> 0:06:14.240 A few years ago a friend of mine got catfished 0:06:14.440 --> 0:06:17.720 and I helped crack that case. Really Oh yeah, yeah, yeah, 0:06:17.839 --> 0:06:20.040 of course we could do a whole episode on that. 0:06:22.200 --> 0:06:26.240 For our catfish. Yeah yeah, yeah, well I think we 0:06:26.279 --> 0:06:29.440 probably should get started. Do you want to hear that story? 0:06:31.040 --> 0:06:34.280 Since you are the resident Sherlock Holmes head, why don't 0:06:34.320 --> 0:06:34.799 you start? 0:06:35.000 --> 0:06:38.000 Okay? So, like I said, people around the world have 0:06:38.120 --> 0:06:40.920 become obsessed with Sherlock Holmes for very good reason. And 0:06:41.160 --> 0:06:44.920 today there are statues of Sherlock Holmes in London, in Edinburgh, 0:06:45.040 --> 0:06:47.880 in Moscow, and of course in Chester, Illinois, which is 0:06:47.880 --> 0:06:50.800 a town of about eight thousand people on the Mississippi River, 0:06:51.120 --> 0:06:53.400 and that's actually the home of the only Sherlock Holmes 0:06:53.400 --> 0:06:54.880 statue in the United States. 0:06:55.240 --> 0:06:57.200 Do you know what's funny is that my old boss, 0:06:57.400 --> 0:07:01.160 this eccentric guy named Felix Dennis, he had this garden 0:07:01.200 --> 0:07:03.719 of heroes that he had in his backyard. So he 0:07:03.800 --> 0:07:07.240 had like a sculpture made of Roger Banister, of like 0:07:07.320 --> 0:07:09.960 Bruce Lee, of all these people. And Sherlock Holmes was 0:07:09.960 --> 0:07:11.880 in that garden of heroes as he should be, which 0:07:11.920 --> 0:07:14.280 is so ridiculous but cool in a way. 0:07:14.440 --> 0:07:16.160 It doesn't make sense, but it also kind of does 0:07:16.280 --> 0:07:16.480 you know. 0:07:17.280 --> 0:07:20.200 But that was not Chester, Illinois. So tell me what 0:07:20.280 --> 0:07:23.000 does this little town have to do with Sherlock Holmes. 0:07:23.040 --> 0:07:27.480 Absolutely nothing. But it is also the home of Elsie 0:07:27.560 --> 0:07:31.120 Chrysler Segar, the cartoonist who created Popeye, you know, the 0:07:31.160 --> 0:07:34.640 spinacheating sailorman right. Cigar was born in eighteen ninety four, 0:07:34.680 --> 0:07:36.560 and he grew up reading Sherlock Holmes. He was a 0:07:36.600 --> 0:07:39.480 big fan. He even worked a bunch of Sherlock references 0:07:39.520 --> 0:07:42.640 into Thimble Theater, the popular comic strip where he introduced 0:07:42.680 --> 0:07:47.760 his famous characters Olive oil, Ham, Gravy, and Popeye. Unfortunately, 0:07:47.760 --> 0:07:50.720 Sierra died in nineteen thirty eight. He was only forty three, 0:07:50.840 --> 0:07:53.880 and apparently he was working on a Sherlock inspired detective 0:07:53.920 --> 0:07:56.600 story that he never got to finish. To honor him, 0:07:56.640 --> 0:07:59.200 the town of Chester began putting up statues of the 0:07:59.200 --> 0:08:01.400 Popeye character. There's like a trail you can walk around 0:08:01.440 --> 0:08:04.560 and see them all. And in twenty nineteen they unveiled 0:08:04.560 --> 0:08:08.640 a statue called Sherlock and Cigar. It's the famous detective. 0:08:08.720 --> 0:08:10.960 He's wearing his hat and the cape. He's holding a 0:08:11.000 --> 0:08:14.760 magnifying glass in a newspaper, but his face was made 0:08:14.760 --> 0:08:18.600 to look like Cigars. And there's also a time capsule 0:08:18.720 --> 0:08:20.720 buried next to the statue. I love this. They put 0:08:20.720 --> 0:08:23.360 a time capsule in the ground under the statue and 0:08:23.400 --> 0:08:26.280 they're planning to dig it up on cigars two hundredth birthday. 0:08:26.280 --> 0:08:30.080 So everyone mark your calendars on December eighth, twenty ninety four. 0:08:30.200 --> 0:08:33.480 We are all going to Chester, Illinois to find out 0:08:33.520 --> 0:08:34.319 what's in that time guy. 0:08:34.440 --> 0:08:37.520 So that's so crazy. It's also crazy that they switched 0:08:37.559 --> 0:08:38.760 out his face for Cigars. 0:08:38.920 --> 0:08:40.959 I know, it's really there's pictures of it online. It's 0:08:41.040 --> 0:08:42.120 really interesting looking. 0:08:42.200 --> 0:08:45.559 Did Cigar have like a curious looking face like anything? 0:08:45.679 --> 0:08:47.880 Just perfectly normal looking guy? He doesn't look like Popeye 0:08:47.920 --> 0:08:48.160 at all. 0:08:50.640 --> 0:08:53.480 So it is pretty well known that a Scottish surgeon 0:08:53.600 --> 0:08:56.560 named doctor Joseph Bell was the model for Sherlock Holmes. 0:08:56.760 --> 0:09:00.320 But I was wondering what is the opposite of Holmes. 0:09:00.400 --> 0:09:04.679 You know his mortal enemy, Professor Moriarty, and he is 0:09:04.920 --> 0:09:08.360 such a memorable character even though he only appears in 0:09:08.400 --> 0:09:10.200 a handful of stories. And the crazy thing is that 0:09:10.240 --> 0:09:12.600 Conan Doyle actually doesn't build out a huge life story 0:09:12.640 --> 0:09:17.920 for him. We know he's exceptionally brilliant. He's a great mathematician, 0:09:18.240 --> 0:09:22.280 an astronomer, chess player, a former academic, left teaching and 0:09:22.320 --> 0:09:26.559 became a consulting criminal for the London Underworld. But there 0:09:26.600 --> 0:09:29.280 are intriguing clues that point to a person who might 0:09:29.440 --> 0:09:35.119 actually have been Conan Doyle's inspiration. So, for example, Moriarty 0:09:35.160 --> 0:09:37.800 is said to have written a treatise on the binomial 0:09:37.880 --> 0:09:40.560 theorem when he was just twenty one, and a book 0:09:40.640 --> 0:09:43.800 called The Dynamics of an Asteroid that Holmes says is 0:09:43.960 --> 0:09:46.800 so good that no one in the scientific community can 0:09:46.840 --> 0:09:50.800 criticize it. Well, it turns out there was an exceptionally brilliant, 0:09:50.880 --> 0:09:56.560 high profile Canadian American mathematician and astronomer named Simon Newcombe. 0:09:57.000 --> 0:10:00.080 He actually taught at Johns Hopkins for a while well, 0:10:00.200 --> 0:10:02.319 and he wrote a paper about the binomial theorem when 0:10:02.320 --> 0:10:06.319 he was only nineteen, and this occurred in the eighteen sixties, 0:10:06.480 --> 0:10:10.320 which you know, sounds familiar. He also published several papers 0:10:10.360 --> 0:10:12.600 about the movements of individual asteroids. 0:10:13.360 --> 0:10:15.720 Wow, that's that's kind of uncanny. Don't tell me this 0:10:15.760 --> 0:10:17.760 Newcomb guy was also a criminal mastermind. 0:10:18.440 --> 0:10:22.800 No, but apparently he was super, super intense. His colleagues 0:10:22.840 --> 0:10:25.600 were intimidated by him, and it's been said he was 0:10:25.640 --> 0:10:28.800 more feared than liked. And apparently Arthur Conan Doyle had 0:10:28.840 --> 0:10:31.360 a close friend who was familiar with Nucomb and his work. 0:10:31.520 --> 0:10:34.560 So we may have this cranky professor to thank for 0:10:34.679 --> 0:10:36.600 one of literature's greatest baddies. 0:10:36.760 --> 0:10:38.400 Wow, thank you, professor Newcombe. 0:10:39.400 --> 0:10:39.600 Yeah. 0:10:39.640 --> 0:10:42.400 Science and medicine are such an interesting part of the 0:10:42.440 --> 0:10:44.920 Sherlock Holms stories, and it really makes sense given Conan 0:10:44.920 --> 0:10:47.679 Doyle's own career as a doctor. But one thing that 0:10:47.679 --> 0:10:52.240 fascinates me is how Holmes influenced and reflected the emerging 0:10:52.280 --> 0:10:56.720 field of forensic science. Take fingerprints for example, you know, 0:10:56.800 --> 0:10:59.000 dusting a crime scene for Prince is like Law and 0:10:59.120 --> 0:11:02.600 Order one oh one. Now, even though people had been 0:11:02.640 --> 0:11:06.400 studying fingerprints for centuries, it wasn't until eighteen ninety two 0:11:06.520 --> 0:11:09.360 that a murder was solved using fingerprint evidence, and that 0:11:09.400 --> 0:11:12.800 was a case in Argentina, and Argentina actually became the 0:11:12.800 --> 0:11:15.680 first country in the world to make fingerprinting an official 0:11:15.720 --> 0:11:19.320 method of identifying individuals, especially in the context of crimes. 0:11:19.960 --> 0:11:23.319 So it's really remarkable that Sherlock Holmes was talking about 0:11:23.320 --> 0:11:27.040 fingerprint evidence as early as eighteen ninety in The Sign 0:11:27.080 --> 0:11:29.080 of the Four. He was ahead of the times and 0:11:29.200 --> 0:11:31.560 way ahead of Scotland. Yard as usual, they did not 0:11:31.720 --> 0:11:33.800 use fingerprints until nineteen. 0:11:33.480 --> 0:11:36.000 Oh one, that is crazy. 0:11:36.559 --> 0:11:39.520 And there was also a French criminologist named doctor Edmond 0:11:39.640 --> 0:11:43.160 Locard who is considered the father of forensic science. In 0:11:43.280 --> 0:11:46.120 nineteen ten he worked with the Leon Police Department to 0:11:46.280 --> 0:11:49.760 set up the world's first crime investigation lab and that's 0:11:49.800 --> 0:11:53.480 where he developed modern techniques like chemical analysis of ink 0:11:53.640 --> 0:11:58.120 and handwriting identification. He was also a pioneer of dust analysis, 0:11:58.160 --> 0:12:01.800 that is the study of dust, mud, other tiny particles 0:12:01.800 --> 0:12:04.000 found at crime scenes, like bits of things tracked in 0:12:04.040 --> 0:12:07.160 by shoes or tiny traces of fibers from clothing, and 0:12:07.160 --> 0:12:09.960 that work really echoed the level of precision that Holmes 0:12:10.000 --> 0:12:13.319 often used to solve cases, and Lecard gave him credit 0:12:13.360 --> 0:12:15.720 for all of this. He once said, Sherlock Holmes was 0:12:15.720 --> 0:12:18.560 the first to realize the importance of dust. I merely 0:12:18.559 --> 0:12:19.520 copied his methods. 0:12:20.040 --> 0:12:23.040 That is incredible. The one thing I think about when 0:12:23.120 --> 0:12:27.200 I think about fingerprints, though, is that the one creature 0:12:27.320 --> 0:12:31.240 that has fingerprints that can be confused with a humans 0:12:31.400 --> 0:12:32.200 is koala's. 0:12:33.240 --> 0:12:35.280 So the Koala did it. 0:12:35.120 --> 0:12:37.679 It wasn't the officer or the butler. 0:12:38.240 --> 0:12:41.319 My Kohala butler committed that crime. It was nowhere nearar. 0:12:42.720 --> 0:12:44.720 So one of the things I can't help think about 0:12:45.000 --> 0:12:47.600 is how different Charlock Holmes would be if he were 0:12:47.640 --> 0:12:51.040 written today, right, Like, he probably wouldn't be smoking or vaping, 0:12:51.200 --> 0:12:54.480 so as bad for you. But you know what's worse 0:12:54.679 --> 0:12:55.719 is cocaine. 0:12:56.040 --> 0:12:56.559 Yes, it is. 0:12:56.600 --> 0:12:59.760 Cocaine is slightly worse. And Conan Doyle's depiction of the 0:13:00.040 --> 0:13:02.560 rug is a fascinating look at the way public perception 0:13:02.600 --> 0:13:05.080 of cocaine has changed over the time. So if you 0:13:05.120 --> 0:13:07.439 look at the sign of the four which you just referenced, 0:13:07.520 --> 0:13:10.080 that came out in eighteen ninety, and it opens with 0:13:10.200 --> 0:13:13.600 Holmes injecting himself with what he calls a seven percent 0:13:13.679 --> 0:13:17.319 solution of cocaine, and Watson observes that he's been doing 0:13:17.400 --> 0:13:20.199 this three times a day for the past several months. 0:13:20.360 --> 0:13:23.240 But at the time, cocaine didn't actually carry the stigma 0:13:23.360 --> 0:13:26.679 it does today. It was considered a cutting edge medical marvel, 0:13:27.120 --> 0:13:30.440 and doctors used it as an anesthetic and prescribed it 0:13:30.440 --> 0:13:34.800 for nervousness and lethargy. You could buy cocaine tablets for nausea, 0:13:34.960 --> 0:13:40.280 cocaine sprays for nasal congestion, even cocaine toothpaste for gum sensitivity. 0:13:40.440 --> 0:13:44.840 So by making homes a cocaine user, Conan Doyle was saying, Hey, 0:13:45.040 --> 0:13:47.600 this guy knows the latest trends in science, and he's 0:13:47.640 --> 0:13:49.040 got lots of energy. 0:13:48.760 --> 0:13:51.400 For solving crist so much energy. 0:13:52.880 --> 0:13:56.640 But just a decade later, obviously, public opinion shifted. In 0:13:56.760 --> 0:14:00.720 nineteen oh one, a doctor named John Willie published a 0:14:00.760 --> 0:14:04.360 report of a young patient who'd become addicted to cocaine. 0:14:04.440 --> 0:14:07.200 His arms were bruised from the needles, and he was 0:14:07.280 --> 0:14:09.920 so sick he couldn't leave his home. Obviously, it's a 0:14:10.000 --> 0:14:13.280 very destructive drug, and according to Willie, the young man 0:14:13.520 --> 0:14:15.840 was an avid reader of Sherlock Holmes and wanted to 0:14:15.880 --> 0:14:19.960 be like his favorite detective. Now The British Medical Journal 0:14:20.000 --> 0:14:22.960 actually covered the case and warned that authors who glamorized 0:14:23.000 --> 0:14:25.920 the drug use would quote have much to answer for. 0:14:26.160 --> 0:14:29.240 And even though cocaine was still used in medical settings, 0:14:29.280 --> 0:14:32.960 more and more people became concerned about its dangers. So finally, 0:14:33.120 --> 0:14:36.960 in nineteen oh four, Conan Doyle broke Sherlock's coke habit 0:14:37.080 --> 0:14:40.440 in the Adventure of the Missing three Quarter, and Watson 0:14:40.480 --> 0:14:43.520 describes his efforts to help Holmes quit cocaine, calling it 0:14:43.760 --> 0:14:47.000 quote the drug mania which had threatened once to check 0:14:47.040 --> 0:14:48.240 his remarkable career. 0:14:48.880 --> 0:14:52.400 Wow, don't do drugs. He like Sherlock Combs. Well, I guess, 0:14:52.400 --> 0:14:54.480 don't be like Schurlock Coombs that he did drugs. He 0:14:54.680 --> 0:14:57.040 like the later Sherlock Holmes where he's not doing drugs. 0:14:57.120 --> 0:14:58.640 That's the yess. 0:14:59.320 --> 0:15:00.800 Well, here's the fact that I love. Even if you 0:15:00.800 --> 0:15:03.440 don't know his name, you probably know the work of 0:15:03.480 --> 0:15:07.040 the artist Sidney Paget, who became famous for his illustrations 0:15:07.040 --> 0:15:10.080 of Conan Doyle's works. Paget drew over three hundred and 0:15:10.160 --> 0:15:13.000 fifty pictures of the Detective and his adventures, and for 0:15:13.080 --> 0:15:15.200 many of us, his art shaped our idea of Sherlock 0:15:15.200 --> 0:15:17.480 Holmes as much as the stories themselves. I mean I 0:15:17.480 --> 0:15:19.560 can see them in my mind even just saying his name. 0:15:20.160 --> 0:15:22.400 But there's another illustrator I want to tell you about, 0:15:22.480 --> 0:15:27.480 and that's Arthur Conan Doyle's father, Charles Charles Altamont Doyle 0:15:27.560 --> 0:15:30.360 came from a big family of creative people. His dad, 0:15:30.360 --> 0:15:32.960 that is, Arthur's grandfather, was a well known artist and 0:15:33.040 --> 0:15:37.040 political cartoonist. Two of Charles's brothers, Richard and James, that is, 0:15:37.120 --> 0:15:41.040 Arthur's uncles, also went on to become successful artists. As 0:15:41.040 --> 0:15:43.720 a young man, Charles supported his growing family by selling 0:15:43.760 --> 0:15:46.480 book illustrations, but he dreamed of being a world famous 0:15:46.520 --> 0:15:49.880 painter and that just was not happening. He struggled with 0:15:49.960 --> 0:15:53.480 depression and alcoholism, and eventually he lost his job. He 0:15:53.520 --> 0:15:56.040 became unable to work, and he was admitted to a 0:15:56.040 --> 0:15:59.400 psychiatric asylum, which back then was a terrible place to be. 0:16:01.080 --> 0:16:04.800 And Arthur Conan Doyle had great sympathy for his father's struggles. 0:16:04.840 --> 0:16:07.880 He never judged him, and he really admired his father's talent. 0:16:08.000 --> 0:16:10.720 So in eighteen eighty eight, he commissioned his dad to 0:16:10.880 --> 0:16:13.680 illustrate the book edition of A Study in Scarlet, which 0:16:13.720 --> 0:16:16.480 was being published as a standalone novel after its first 0:16:16.520 --> 0:16:20.560 appearance in Beaton's magazine. Charles actually drew all those illustrations 0:16:20.600 --> 0:16:23.280 from his cell in the asylum. Oh wow, and they 0:16:23.320 --> 0:16:25.640 capture some of the most exciting moments of the story. 0:16:25.520 --> 0:16:28.800 They're really great, actually. And here's another little detail that 0:16:28.960 --> 0:16:31.480 I find really sweet in a story his Last Bow, 0:16:31.600 --> 0:16:35.040 Sherlock Holmes goes undercover with a fake name, and Conan 0:16:35.040 --> 0:16:37.760 Doyle chose the alias Altamont in honor of his dad. 0:16:38.240 --> 0:16:41.680 That is really sweet. You know. I know little things 0:16:41.720 --> 0:16:44.240 about Conan Doyle, right, like they was friends with Harry Houdini, 0:16:44.400 --> 0:16:47.480 like all all these spiritualist things whatever. But I had 0:16:47.520 --> 0:16:50.080 no idea that he came from this artistic family. 0:16:50.240 --> 0:16:51.840 Yeah, it was in his blood. It was in his blood. 0:16:51.840 --> 0:16:53.960 And his dad's art was really incredible. He did a 0:16:54.000 --> 0:16:56.240 lot of paintings and other drawings when he was locked up, 0:16:56.600 --> 0:16:59.240 and he kind of channeled all of the anger and 0:16:59.240 --> 0:17:03.320 frustration helt about being in this asylum into his art. 0:17:03.400 --> 0:17:06.720 And it's you know belatedly, I think really really interesting. Actually, 0:17:06.840 --> 0:17:09.080 Arthur Conan Doyle had an exhibit of his works after 0:17:09.119 --> 0:17:11.600 his dad had died, Yeah, to showcase what he could do. 0:17:11.720 --> 0:17:13.159 It was really, really, really touching. 0:17:13.280 --> 0:17:15.719 That's incredible. So after this, I'm going to look up 0:17:16.000 --> 0:17:19.000 Arthur Conan Doyle's fathers are and you're going to look 0:17:19.040 --> 0:17:21.800 up pictures of me in third grade as Yeah, Sherlock. 0:17:21.520 --> 0:17:23.800 Holmes equally equally important. 0:17:23.880 --> 0:17:27.600 It's important. But that is so sweet. So you know, 0:17:27.720 --> 0:17:30.760 illustrations aren't the only way we picture Sherlock Holmes. We 0:17:30.840 --> 0:17:33.040 have to shout out some of the great actors who 0:17:33.119 --> 0:17:38.120 portrayed him. Basil Rathbone, Jeremy bred, Benedict Cummer, Badge, Will Ferrell. 0:17:38.400 --> 0:17:41.439 I always forget that Will Ferrell played Sherlock Holmes. I 0:17:41.480 --> 0:17:43.400 actually I haven't seen it, but I do know it's 0:17:43.440 --> 0:17:43.800 out there. 0:17:43.960 --> 0:17:45.840 Yeah, I mean, I can't believe you haven't seen it. 0:17:45.840 --> 0:17:48.920 It's this twenty eighteen Buddy comedy Holmes and Watson, with 0:17:49.000 --> 0:17:52.159 Will Ferrell and John c Riley, and The Hollywood Reporter 0:17:52.280 --> 0:17:55.080 described it as devastatingly unfunny. 0:17:55.200 --> 0:17:57.960 Okay, I will I will not put that on the 0:17:57.960 --> 0:17:59.800 two watch list. Then it's a shake. 0:18:00.080 --> 0:18:01.359 This seems like such a great idea. 0:18:01.400 --> 0:18:02.960 I know what could go wrong. 0:18:04.160 --> 0:18:06.040 But I actually wanted to tell you about another actor 0:18:06.200 --> 0:18:09.919 named will and that is William Gillette. Gillette was actually 0:18:09.920 --> 0:18:12.080 one of the first people to play Homes and he 0:18:12.080 --> 0:18:16.280 helped create two iconic sherlockisms. So backing up a bit, 0:18:16.440 --> 0:18:19.480 William Gillette was an American actor and playwright who helped 0:18:19.560 --> 0:18:22.280 Arthur Conan Doyle write a play about his famous detective. 0:18:22.480 --> 0:18:26.159 It was simply titled Sherlock Holmes. It actually premiered in 0:18:26.240 --> 0:18:28.600 New York in eighteen ninety nine and it had a 0:18:28.640 --> 0:18:31.719 long run on Broadway. It was followed by a hugely 0:18:31.720 --> 0:18:34.159 successful American tour, and then it moved to England and 0:18:34.240 --> 0:18:37.800 had a long run there. So Gillette played Homes actually 0:18:37.960 --> 0:18:42.240 over a thousand times, becoming very very famous and very 0:18:42.359 --> 0:18:46.399 very wealthy. So he designed and built himself a castle 0:18:46.440 --> 0:18:49.520 in Connecticut, where he was from. And this is actually 0:18:49.560 --> 0:18:51.560 a castle that I made my mom take me to 0:18:51.800 --> 0:18:57.919 as a kid. Why how what? I don't know. I 0:18:57.920 --> 0:18:59.879 think my aunt had mentioned it or something and I 0:18:59.920 --> 0:19:01.560 was like, Oh, we have to go there. And it's 0:19:01.640 --> 0:19:04.840 kind of crazy because it's like filled with homes like tricks, right. 0:19:04.840 --> 0:19:06.800 He has like trick mirrors so you can see around 0:19:06.840 --> 0:19:11.040 the corner of places. He has like little secret passageways. 0:19:11.400 --> 0:19:13.439 I remember something having to do with smoke, but I 0:19:13.440 --> 0:19:16.720 can't exactly remember, but it was like it was like 0:19:16.840 --> 0:19:19.840 exactly the type of thing a kid would design, you know, 0:19:20.040 --> 0:19:22.600 like a kid who was obsessed with homes in a way. 0:19:22.720 --> 0:19:27.000 But anyway, back to Gillette as homes. When the play premier, 0:19:27.200 --> 0:19:30.280 Jellette made a decision that would change Sherlock homes forever. 0:19:30.920 --> 0:19:34.080 In the original paget illustrations, Homes is shown smoking a 0:19:34.119 --> 0:19:37.399 normal pipe with a straight stem. Gellette actually wanted to 0:19:37.400 --> 0:19:40.440 be able to deliver lines while pacing the stage and smoking, 0:19:40.520 --> 0:19:43.160 and he realized that with a straight pipe he'd actually 0:19:43.200 --> 0:19:45.320 have his hand in front of his mouth all the time, 0:19:45.440 --> 0:19:48.200 so he swapped it out for one of those beautiful 0:19:48.359 --> 0:19:51.880 curved stem pipes. And that's obviously how we picture homes. 0:19:51.920 --> 0:19:53.440 It was a prop decision. 0:19:53.560 --> 0:19:54.320 It's just a prop. 0:19:55.359 --> 0:19:56.200 I did not know that. 0:19:56.200 --> 0:19:58.880 It's pretty amazing, right. And the second sherlockism we owe 0:19:58.920 --> 0:20:02.639 to Gillette is the phrase elementary, my dear Watson, which, 0:20:03.119 --> 0:20:06.800 as any homes head knows, Arthur Conan Doyle never wrote 0:20:06.840 --> 0:20:10.000 that phrase, and in the canon Holmes does use the 0:20:10.000 --> 0:20:14.159 phrase elementary to describe his deductions, and he addresses his 0:20:14.160 --> 0:20:16.720 friend is my dear Watson, but he never puts those 0:20:16.800 --> 0:20:20.240 two things together. And Julett added a line to his 0:20:20.359 --> 0:20:24.680 play Holmes says to Watson, elementary, my dear fellow, And 0:20:24.800 --> 0:20:28.160 later on the other scriptwriters made a slight change, replacing 0:20:28.200 --> 0:20:29.360 Fellow with Watson. 0:20:29.640 --> 0:20:31.800 Well, and thank goodness they did, because what else would 0:20:31.800 --> 0:20:35.600