It's Elementary for Talbot Sherlockians

Story and photo by Eric Mills

 A cold, bitter wind, a dark street...

The clip-clop of fast-moving feet, shadowy figures hunched against the oppressive chill, figures wrapped in overcoats and wool hats, making their way to the door, suddenly greeted by cheery warmth, by cocktails and kindred spirits. Who were these mysterious ones, venturing through the wintry night, braving the dreary gloom? Sherlock Holmes aficionados, that's who, gathering for conviviality and Conan Doyle conversation as the Denizens of the Bar of Gold held their inaugural meeting at the Tidewater Inn on December 11.

The Mid-Shore now has its own Sherlockian society, and judging from the turnout at the Tidewater, there are more Holmes-heads here than had been expected. The club organizers had hoped for maybe 15 true believers to show up; they got 40. Auspicious beginnings. Sherlockians have united. The game's afoot.

Here they were, women and men from different walks of life i.e. executives and journalists, retirees and locals, a diverse crowd united by a common skein: a passion for all things relating to the World's First Consulting Detective.

"The Sherlockian thing appeals to people of all ages, all sexes, all occupations," said Michael Whelan, co-founder of the Denizens of the Bar of Gold. Whelan, now a Talbot County resident, is an eminent Sherlockian who has lived in various parts of the country and is a member of numerous Holmes societies. Organized Holmes fandom amounts to a worldwide fraternal order. In America, in Europe, in Asia there are Sherlockian clubs, and the great seminal organization to which any self-respecting group traces itself is the Baker Street Irregulars, the famed New York institution celebrating its 60th anniversary this year. Franklin D. Roosevelt, heavyweight boxing champ Gene Tunney, mystery writer Rex Stout and scads of other famous personages grace the alumni list of the Baker Street Irregulars.

A bona fide Sherlockian organization is a "scion society" (offshoot, descendant) of the Baker Street Irregulars, the august granddaddy of them all. "The Denizens are a scion society of the Baker Street Irregulars," Whelan confirmed. "There are at this time some 375 active Sherlock Holmes scion societies in the world."

For years, the Sussex Apiarists, based in Chestertown, was the Peninsula's only scion society. Some members of the newly formed Denizens, including cofounder Chris Wilke, are longtime members of the Chestertown club. Overlapping membership in different societies is common in the Holmesian world; groups support one another, and avid buffs, such as Whelan, join or form clubs wherever they go.

Here are some of the core beliefs of the true Sherlockian:

-Sherlock Holmes and Doctor Watson are fictional characters, you say, created by Arthur Conan Doyle, you say? Ah you poor misguided soul. Any devotee can tell you (with tongue to only partly in cheek) that Sherlock Holmes is real, that his good friend Dr. John H. Watson really did chronicle of the great detective's exploits, and that Conan Doyle was nothing more than Watson's literary agent.

-In Sherlockian parlance, then, Conan Doyle is often referred to as "the Literary Agent." The four Holmes novels and 56 short stories written, er, agented, by Conan Doyle are reverently called "the Canon," or, on occasion, "the Sacred Writings."

-A good Sherlockian, a worthy society member, should be well-versed -- in the Canon. He or she also should know how to have a good time. Part scholar, part sybarite, a Sherlockian can debate obscure Canon references and savor good food and drink with equal ease.

Why "the Denizens of the Bar of Gold"? The club moniker is derived , from the name of an opium den in the short story "The Man With the Twisted Lip" in the Adventures of Sherlock Holmes. Fittingly enough, the Denizens' inaugural meeting featured as its guest speaker one "Po-Ling," a Chinese Londoner from the late l8OOs, who gave a slide lecture on the opium dens of Victorian England, and wove Holmes, Watson and Conan Doyle into the presentation as well. Beneath the costume and make-up, Po-Ling is actually John Pforr, gasogene (president) of the Six Napoleons of Baltimore, one of the oldest scion societies in existence.

The Denizens of the Bar of Gold are scheduled to gather again at the Talbot Country Club on April 30th. A highlight of that evening will be a formal debate on the relative merits of Basil Rathbone and Jeremy Brett could get contentious!.

-Easton Life Magazine January 1994