The 1936 BSI Dinner

The 1936 BSI Dinner is considered the second BSI Annual Dinner. We know that it occurred, and we know most of the people who attended, because we have a dinner program signed by many of the attendees. However, not very many additional details about the event are known or verified. Approximately thirty people attended, including author Henry James Forman, poet Stephen Vincent Benét, and columnist and author of Archy and Mehitabel Don Marquis.

Dinner Details: January 6, 1936
Christ Cella’s Restaurant, 144 East 45th Street, NY, NY

Dinner Photo Information

As far as we know, no group photo was taken of the January 6, 1936 BSI Dinner.

The above 1936 BSI Dinner menu photo is from the digitized BSI Trust collection at Houghton Library, Harvard University. Click on the above photo to see a larger version of it. 

BSI Honours List

Investitures:

Not awarded until 1944.

What is an Investiture?

Two-Shilling Award:

Not awarded until 1962.

What is a Two-Shilling Award?

The Woman:

Not identified; possibly none.

What is The Woman honour?

"Stand with me here upon the terrace..."

(as named at this Dinner, not their year of passing)

None this year.

What is the origin of "standing on the terrace?"

Morley-Montgomery Award:

Not awarded until 1959.

What is the Morley-Montgomery Award?

Reports on the Dinner

The Baker Street Irregulars, Irregular Memories of the ‘Thirties, ed. Jon L. Lellenberg, (New York: Fordham University Press, 1990)

List of 1936 BSI Dinner Attendees (PDF)

Recordings

None available online at this time.

Related Materials

1936 BSI Dinner Menu (digitized images at Harvard)

Cover, interior, and back. Sequence 7-9.

Previous dinner: the 1934 BSI Dinner (No dinner was held in 1935.)

Next dinner: the 1940 BSI Dinner (No dinner was held in 1937, 1938, or 1939.)

For an index to all BSI Dinners and photos, see our BSI Dinner Summary list.

The BSI Archive is located at the Houghton Library at Harvard University, Cambridge, Massachusetts. Archival material may be used by any qualified scholar, subject to the normal rules and regulations of the Library. For links to a detailed finding aid and related information, see our BSI Archive at Harvard page.

Page composed on 10/6/14 by Andy Solberg.
This page last updated 2/7/15 by Andy Solberg.