2. Be Very Quiet Around The Bees! from May 27, 2019

Welcome

Welcome to the Watsonian Weekly for Monday, May 27th, 2019.

The Watsonian Weekly is the John H. Watson Society’s look at the week just past and your week ahead. In the tradition of Watson himself, we don’t promise to give you every bit of data surrounding John H. Watson and his friend Sherlock Holmes, but if you just want to hear someone say the name “Watson” a lot for about for about half an hour, this is the podcast for you.

Bull pup Calder reporting, also know as Brad Keefauver.

What was up with Watsons this week?

Well, this was the week of the first episode of this podcast, the Weekly Watsonian, and many a kind comment on it from our first listeners. I say kind, because none of them noted that I gave the episode date as April instead of May, and then prattled on about how it was definitely May.  Nothing like setting the bar low in our first episode – nowhere to go but up!

So what happened this week, the week prior to May 27th?

The master of screen Sherlocks, Howard Ostrom, has let us know that a new production about Sherlock Holmes called “Sherlock Holmes in Russia” began filming in St. Petersburg. The sad news for we Watsonians? Sherlock Holmes will be leaving Watson behind in London and partnering up with a Dr. Kartsev. What will Dr. Kartsev bring to the mix? We’ll have to find out, but one wonders is Sherlock is going for “an experience of Watsons  “which extends over many nations and three separate continents,”

This past Tuesday, we saw the release of the fourth book in the Warlock Holmes series by G.S. Denning. The  title is The Sign of Nine, and it brings back another of our true detective John Watsons, who struggles to deal with one of the most off-kilter Holmeses of all, Warlock Holmes. This time, Watson seems to have a seven-per-cent solution of mummy in his bloodstream, and what that means . . . well, I’m looking forward to finding out.

Of course, I still have to finish European Travels for the Monstrous Gentlewoman by Theodora Goss, which has just a little bit of John Watson up front, but then means you have to read over seven hundred pages in hopes of seeing him again.

This week, CBS’s Elementary had its first episode of its seventh and final season. Joan Watson was starting to get fed up with investigating crime in London, even though her Sherlock seems to be healthier and happier than we’ve ever seen him. Look for those that pair to head back to New York City soon in the twelve episodes that remain, I’d predict.

Also this week, a Peoria discovery that I’m crediting to Professor Mary O’Reily for wondering why an author would create a character with his own first name. In counting characters named “Arthur” in the Sherlockian Canon, it was quickly found that the name “Arthur” tends to appear once per book, with two big exceptions: The Hound of the Baskervilles and The Casebook of Sherlock Holmes.  Since we would think an author wouldn’t put his own name as a character in a book that he was writing, current theory is that Watson used his literary agents first name as a pseudonym for a person in each book that he authored (or “arthured” as one might say) as a tribute to Arthur Conan Doyle.

MX Publishing announced the second edition of A Guide to Deduction by Hannah Rogers, and the subtitle says it all: “The ultimate handbook for any aspiring Sherlock Holmes or Doctor Watson.”  I will repeat that last bit: “or Doctor Watson.” Good to see our friend John getting his due, and I’ve placed my order. It’ll be here Monday, so perhaps you’ll hear something of it next week. No guarantees, though, as I’m horrible with getting book reviews done.

The Great Sherlock Holmes Debate was held this weekend, at which an assemblage of Sherlockian experts were gathered to answer the question, “Have we gone too far?” As we’re still working on establishing our sources, here at the Watsonian Weekly, we don’t know if that question got answered or not, and if a plan was devised to restrain us, if, indeed, it was decided that, yes, we have gone too far.  How this all impacts John H. Watson, I’m not sure, but it seemed worth bringing up.

Your Watsonian Week Ahead

In random theater news, Ken Ludwig’s “Baskerville: A Sherlock Holmes Mystery,” is playing in Mankato, Minnesota from Wednesday until Saturday, but if you miss it in Mankato, the play will be staged in Minneapolis a couple weeks later. Why it’s not called “Baskerville: A Sherlock Holmes and Dr. Watson Mystery,” I do not know. We need to start lobbying for more Watson in titles, Watsonians.

Monday, May 27th, is the 157th birthday of American writer John Kendrick Bangs, who is probably the most prominent writer to take up Sherlock Holmes’s story after he died at Reichenbach, but before we learned he was really alive. Since Bangs’s novel The Pursuit of the House-boat takes place in the afterlife, and Watson was not dead at the time, John does not get an appearance.

On Wednesday the 29th, however, you can celebrate the birth of a writer who did care about our good Watson, and that writer was G.K. Chesterton.  Chesterton wrote the following about early Sherlockians: “They cross-examine poor Watson about every detail of date and weather and topography and time-table, like hanging judges investigating a read murder.”  I think Chesterton would be happy to know that we now have Watsonians on the planet, and we’re not about to let our friend John be led to the gallows for what some perceive as his mistakes.

This week marks your last chance to book ahead for the Left Coast Sherlockian Symposium in October for the low price of $65, before it goes up on June 1. You can find details at leftcoastsherlock.com  -- I’m going to be speaking here, so if you’ve found this voice tolerable enough to listen to two podcasts, October in Portland, Oregon will be a chance to see my mouth move while you’re hearing it live.

Howard Ostrom passed along a real Watsonian must-see for this week:

An 85 year old mystery. What happened the night John Watson died? An original musical based on A Scandal in Bohemia by Sir Arthur Conan Doyle with characters from the Nancy Drew and Hardy Boys mysteries.

Attention all you Sherlockians and mystery lovers—
I am very proud to announce The Mystery of the Missing Page- a sequel to A Scandal in Bohemia. It is– a musical mystery-adventure story that spans three generations and involves Dr. John Watson, Nancy Drew & The Hardy Boys—and their descendants!!!
I was privileged to co-direct this story with writer/co-director Tinamarie Panyard and the students of the Different Directions ‘Acting Out’ class!
Performances are at the Medicine Show Theatre, 545 W 52nd Street (3rd Flr)
Thursday May 30th at 7Pm
Friday May 31st at 7Pm
Saturday June 1st 7Pm
Sunday June 2nd 3Pm
Adult @20.00//Students $15.00

A Watsonian Puzzle

And now, bullpup Mopsy, alias Margie Deck, is here with the answer to the cleri-who puzzle she presented us with last week.

I hope you did well guessing that. She did give you a whole week, after all.

Watson’s Word of the Week

“crate”

Defined as “a slatted wooden case for transporting or storing goods,” the word crate is only used by John Watson in one of the sixty non-wooden cases of Sherlock Holmes, and  that case is “The Red-headed League.” James Armitage also used it in a document he wrote up on the prison ship Gloria Scott, but as far as Watson goes, the good doctor only used the word in “Red-headed League.”

Why does Watson differentiate between crates and “massive boxes” as he describes the interior of the bank vault? Perhaps he just wanted to say there was more than one kind of thing in the vault, even though it was just crates. He had Merryweather the banker perched on one, which is always an odd image. And who can forget this quote from Sherlock Holmes regarding crates:

“I shall stand behind this crate, and do you conceal yourselves behind those.”

That’s not a question. That’s just some weird Holmes-speak.

Bee Time with Elinor

And now, we’re going to take a little stroll into the world of those Watsons of Holmes’s later years, the bees. The John H. Watson Society’s resident beekeeper, bullpup Misty, also known as Elinor Gray, is here to give us a tour.

The John H. Watson Society

Since this is the first episode of the John H. Watson Society’s podcast, we should talk a little bit about the society itself.

The John H. Watson Society was founded in April of 2013 by Don Libey, with its initial energies rising out of the the Napa Valley Napoleons of Sherlock Holmes, a scion society of the Baker Street Irregulars. The John H. Watson Society however, was, as the name implies, not a Sherlock Holmes society, but one focusing on the other part of that partnership who often gets less attention, John Watson.

In the six years since it’s founding, the John H. Watson Society has opened its doors to members across the world with a wide range of contributors to its twice-a-year journal, The Watsonian,  panel appearances at 221B Con, and helping sponsor the upcoming Left Coast Sherlockian Symposium.

This new podcast venture of the society is just one more way we hope to connect with John Watson fans and keep the conversation about him going, maybe even going some places with our good doctor that the podcast universe hasn’t got to yet. If you have any ideas in that direction, let us hear from you.

You can read more about the John H. Watson Society at johnhwatsonsociety dot com, and you can email this podcast at  a very similar email address: podcast at johnhwatsonsocietydotcom.

Our Featured Watson This Week

This week I’ve turned to volume one of Howard Ostrom’s Sherlock Holmes Cyclopaedia – this is the Sherlock Holmes on Screens 1929 to 1939 volume, to dig up our featured Dr. Watson.

This Watson is from the 1931 British production of The Hound of the Baskervilles, and his name is Frederick Lloyd, though all of the reviews you’ll find in Howard’s book seem to refer to him as simply “Fred.”

Reviews of Fred Lloyd’s movie ranged from “a shoddy imitation” and “a total loss” to “Sensitive children will be extremely frightened; unsuitable for Sunday viewing.” But a review in Variety focuses in on poor Fred with their pronouncement: “The Dr. Watson is a flat comedian in the mannerisms of Fred Lloyd.”

The end of the movie was called “careless American slapstick,” and apparently Dr. Watson gets knocked unconscious somewhere in the process.

Fred Lloyd also played in a 1948 adaptation of Oliver Twist with Alec Guinness and Anthony Newley.  If you’re not of a certain age, you may not remember Anthony Newley as well as Obiwan Kenobi, but among Newley’s many TV roles was “Vince Watson” on EastEnders in 1998, so he bears mention on this podcast.

Fred Lloyd’s first wife, Auriol Lee, divorced him about ten years before he played Watson and almost immediately became the first woman pilot to fly across the equator in Africa. Since she was born in England and died in America, I think this Dr. Watson got his “women of three continents” knowledge with just one wife.

Fred Lloyd died in Sussex in 1949, which seems like a good place for a Watson to end his days, and got an admirable obituary from Sir John Gielgud.

Watsonian Wind-up

Was that enough Watsonian work for the week? Well, there’s always next week.

If you would like to write in, you can reach the Watsonian Weekly at our e-mail address:  podcast @ johnhwatsonsociety.com  -- that’s podcast @ johnhwatsonsociety.com   and we will take questions and Watsonian tidbits in both text e-mails and voice memos, if you have a phone or otherwise setup to email a voice memo, as we heard from Rob and Margie this episode.

Since it is our inaugural episode, and I’ve spent my initial podcast days on a much stranger podcast than this, we’re going to close this episode with a little musical number, parodying the theme from an old John Wayne movie to create a new Watsonian song.  Ready?

You probably aren’t, but we’ll hope to see you again next week all the same. Bye!

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