The cocktail hour that introduced Sherlock Holmes’s 121st birthday festivities featured as esteemed guests actors John Wood and Mel Martin, who portrayed, respectively, Sherlock Holmes and Alice Faulkner in William Gillette’s play, Sherlock Holmes. Princess Nina Mdivani Harwood (the widow of Denis Conan Doyle and daughter-in-law of Sir Arthur Conan Doyle) was honored as The Woman. The Dinner also marked Fred Dannay’s (half of Ellery Queen) return. There were 147 attendees. Rev. Leslie Marshall’s delivery of Sherlock Holmes’s Prayer was especially notable during the proceedings. There was Canonical music, followed by Standing on the Terrace for those who had dropped from the ranks, the introductions of a large number of first-timers, and the awarding of Honours to those who had served the cause well. After several scholarly papers, brief reports from the Scion Societies were given. Julian Wolff called the 1975 meeting “probably the best ever.”
Dinner Details: January 10, 1975
The Regency Hotel, 540 Park Avenue, New York
Dinner Photo Information
Click on the above photo to see a larger version of it, and maximize your browser window to see the most detail.Key to People in the 1975 BSI Dinner Photo (digitized image at Harvard)
Three pages. Front, interior, and back. Sequence 54-56
BSI Honours List
Investitures:Glenn Laxton as Mr. James M. Dodd
William McCullam as The Reigate Squires**
Jan C. Prager as Mr. Fairdale Hobbs, changed to Lowenstein of Prague
Nicholas Utechin as The Ancient British Barrow**
Lynn E. Walker as The Long Island Cave Mystery
* received Investiture at another event during the year
** in absentia
What is an Investiture?
Two-Shilling Award:
Nathan L. Bengis
Paul Clarkson (in absentia)
What is a Two-Shilling Award?
The Woman:
Princess Nina (Conan Doyle Harwood) Mdivani
What is The Woman honour?
"Stand with me here upon the terrace..."
(as named at this Dinner, not their year of passing)
Not listed in the 1975 BSJ report.
What is the origin of “standing on the terrace?”
Morley-Montgomery Award:
Peter E. Blau, "In Memoriam: Muzaffar ad-Din"
The Baker Street Journal v24 n3 (September 1974) pp. 141-145 (available in the eBSJ)..
What is the Morley-Montgomery Award?
Reports on the Dinner
The Baker Street Journal v25 n2 (June 1975) p. 115, 120 (available in the eBSJ).List of 1975 BSI Dinner Attendees (not available at this time, but see Key to the Photo, above)
Recordings
None available online at this time.Related Material
1975 BSI Dinner Menu (digitized image at Harvard)Two pages. Cover and interior. Sequence 52-53
Previous dinner: the 1974 BSI Dinner
Next dinner: the 1976 BSI Dinner
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 11/12/2015 by Tamar Zeffren
This page last updated 11/28/15 by Andrew Solberg.
