“Were we celebrating the arrival of 1901 or 2001?” So opens the Baker Street Journal’s recap of the festivities commemorating Sherlock Holmes’ 147th Birthday, where “the last gasps of the Victorian and Clintonian eras merged.”
Steven Doyle read our Constitution and Buy-Laws. The evening’s toasts included a homage to Old Irregular Elmer Davis, ably proffered by Jon Lellenberg. This accolade included a radio broadcast by Davis describing Hitler’s invasion of Poland. Jerry Margolin toasted Mrs. Hudson, while Don Curtis toasted Mycroft Holmes. Peter Crupe toasted Watson's Second Wife's willingness to allow her husband to continue his adventures with Holmes. George McCormick spoke of other seconds in the Canon. (George was recognized for attending his 43rd consecutive annual dinner.) William Hyder offered a valuable admonition to those who dare to claim that Holmes was not real. Andrew Fusco reminded us of the qualities that made Irregulars like Nathan Bengis so memorable.
Tributes continued throughout the evening, with Andrew Joffe, Mary Ellen Rich, and Paul Singleton, ably accompanied by Henry Boote, praising the Three Irregulars (Eddy the Button, Julie the Wolf, and Tommy the Stick) in music hall-like songs. The presentations ended with Shirley Purvis defending the Hound of the Baskervilles as an innocent dog. Irving Kamil performed the annual "On the Terrace" ceremony (recognizing those who passed beyond the Reichenbach the previous year) which he had been doing since 1997 and would continue to do through 2009.
Sharon (Mrs. Donald E.) Novorsky was heralded as The Woman. Seven Irregulars received their Shillings. The Two-Shilling Award was presented to Donald K. Pollock for his tireless efforts as former editor of the esteemed BSJ.
At the next day’s Sherlockian Cocktail Reception, Judge Albert Rosenblatt, for the first time, enlisted the collaboration of his daughter Betsy Rosenblatt, and, together, they performed their remarkable summation of the previous year and of the Festivities in verse.
Dinner Details January 5, 2001
Union League Club, 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 2001 BSI Dinner photo (not available at this time)
BSI Honours List
Investitures:Charles Foley as Marlow Bates
Marcus Geisser as Rosenlaui
Julie A. McKuras as The Duchess of Devonshire
W. Scott Monty II as Corporal Henry Wood
Lloyd Rose as George Sand
Andrew L. Solberg as Professor Coram
Daniel Stashower as Thurston
* received Investiture at another event during the year
What is an Investiture?
Two-Shilling Award:
Donald K. Pollock
What is a Two-Shilling Award?
The Woman:
Sharon Novorsky
What is The Woman honour?
"Stand with me here upon the terrace..."
(as named at this Dinner, not their year of passing)
Alan Addlestone (The Addleton Tragedy, 1985)
Katherine McMahon (Lucy Ferrier, 1991)
William R. Michell (The Rock of Gibraltar, 1985)
E. W. McDiarmid (The Bruce-Partington Plans, 1957)
Cameron Hollyer (The Three Students, 1978)
Don Hardenbrook (Huret, the Boulevard Assassin, 1955)
What is the origin of “standing on the terrace?”
Morley-Montgomery Award:
Vizoskie, Ben, "Who Wrote the American Chapters of A Study In Scarlet?"
The Baker Street Journal v50 n2 (Summer 2000): 29-36 (available in the eBSJ)
What is the Morley-Montgomery Award?
The BSI Distinguished Speaker Lecture:
Madeleine Stern, "Sherlock Holmes, Bibliophile: Reconstructing Sherlock Holmes’s Library"
The Baker Street Journal v51 n2 (Summer 2001): 5-12 (available in the eBSJ).
What is the BSI Distinguished Speaker Lecture?
Reports on the Dinner
The Baker Street Journal v51 n1 (Spring 2001): 5-10 (available in the eBSJ).Blau, Peter, Scuttlebutt from the Spermaceti Press, (January 2001): 1-2.
List of 2001 BSI Dinner Attendees (not available at this time)
Recordings
A recording of portions of the 2001 BSI Dinner is available at Harvard as part of the BSI Archive.Related Material
Rosenblatt, Albert M., and Betsy Rosenblatt, “The Sherlockian Year In Verse: 2001,” The Baker Street Journal v51 n1 (Spring 2001): 11-13 (available in the eBSJ) The Rosenblatts’ rhyming retrospective, delivered at the January 6, 2001 Sherlockian Cocktail Reception.Previous dinner: the 2000 BSI Dinner
Next dinner: the 2002 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 9/8/2016 by Tamar Zeffren
This page last updated 9/17/2016 by Andrew Solberg.
