Gillette to Brett IV - a fun weekend and a big success!

Had the pleasure of being able to attend this years Gillette to Brett in Bloomington Ind.

I was able to leave early Friday and made it to Bloomington in time to make all the events.

Friday evening, of course, always starts at the universities Lilly Library where we are invited to view a wonderful exhibition of rare treasures and rare books.

I was told by one of the attending Sherlockains that he was actually able to touch the Beeton's Christmas Annual this year.

There are rare manuscripts and movie scripts along with other very interesting items.

Here is a signed script for the Hound of the Baskerville's

 Along side of many other motion picture treats.

 Also on display, and very interesting to me, is a letter from Daniel Boone.

His last home is not all that far from my house.

Doyle's manuscript of 'The Red Circle'.

 After a short break, long enough to get dinner or hit the hotel gym, we all met once again at the UI Cinema. . . .

 . . . for a screening of 1939's Hound of the Baskervilles

It was a lot of fun watching it with a big group of Sherlockian's on a large screen.

 Saturday morning, after signing in, gave us plenty of time to visit the sales room where we found, other than things to purchase, on display many items from several Holmes films.

 Here Brett's frock coat from the series.

 On the left is Ben Kingsley's coat from Without a Clue and Bruce's waist coat on the right.

 Labels explaining the items.

 Many autographs and other items on display.

 Rathbone's hat.

 I got the chance to meet a fellow blogger and author that I follow on line, Dan Andriacco.















Some of the other items on display.





We had many fine speakers Saturday.

We started with Bonnie MacBird who is very involved in film productive and gave a good talk on the script writing for Sherlock and some wonderful insights into why some of the scenes were written the way they were.

She was followed by Kristina Manente of the Baker Street Babes who talked about the fan base for the TV show Sherlock.
I came away realizing there is a big difference between Playing the Game for Sherlock, and Playing the Game for Sherlock Holmes, and that it seems unlikely the two shall meet.

Next was David Stuart Davies who gave a great talk on the humor in Sherlock Holmes, especially in film.















Also giving another wonderful talk was Bert Coules, talking once again about radio Holmes and the BBC series that he worked with. This time we had some behind the scene footage of how the show was put together.


After viewing 1984's A Scandal in Bohemia from Granada Television we had a terrific interview session with the director of that episode, Paul Annett.

 Paul talked about how the show came together and his time working with Brett. Lots of behind the scenes insight.

He talked about what it was like to work with Jeremy and other's on the show.

If you look at the scene in this photo on the screen, you will see that it is where Irene throws the photo of the King overboard.
The scene was filmed in the middle of England without any water near by on a staged 'ship' not much bigger than 10' x 10'.

Here I am with Paul.

The evening ended with a viewing of 1939's The Adventure's of Sherlock Holmes (which I was unable to make.)

It was a very relaxing, fun Sherlockian weekend with old friends and new.