For Sherlock Holmes fans, appeal is elementary
Posted Dec. 19, 2015 at 7:09 PM
Updated Dec 19, 2015 at 7:12 PM
PEORIA — For a fictional detective who lived in the 1800s, Sherlock Holmes still is very much alive. To his fans, anyway.
“Every generation has their Sherlock Holmes,” said Bradley Keefauver, creator of the blog Sherlock Peoria.
A small, adult crowd gathered Saturday afternoon for the Peoria Public Library’s Baker Street Bash to listen to Keefauver talk and answer questions on Sherlock Holmes lore, answer trivia questions and go on a scavenger hunt, among other activities.
“He is someone you can almost see existing,” said Keefauver, who wore a T-shirt advertising “Sure-lock and Watts-on Security and Electrical Consulting,” which depicted Holmes as a lock and his sidekick, John Watson, as a light bulb.
He said with Sir Arthur Conan Doyle’s characters in the public domain, a new novel starring the detective is released nearly every week. With multiple television shows, movies, novels and fanfictions, everyone has a different entry point into the Holmes universe.
“Each remake inspires new interest,” said Jamie Jones, branch manager of the McClure Branch.
“It keeps being brought back.”
The event was planned to tie in to the upcoming Christmas special of the BBC’s “Sherlock,” a contemporary interpretation.
Standing on a low stage, Jones asked the crowd for the address of Holmes and Watson. A quiet chorus of “221B Baker St.,” answered her, followed by a whispered, “that’s easy.” But her questions got harder until the crowd was partially stumped when she asked what Irene Adler’s measurements were from an episode of “Sherlock.” Finally, she awarded a newly released book on Mycroft Holmes to Curt Bier of East Peoria, who won the trivia contest.
Bier remembers becoming a fan after reading “The Hound of the Baskervilles” in junior high school.
“I’m glad they had an event like this,” he said, his new book, which he had previously planned to check out from the library, on his lap.
Jones said another Baker Street Bash, which could include a murder mystery, might be held when the new season of “Sherlock” is released.
Braley Dodson can be reached at 686-3196 and bdodson@pjstar.com. Follow her on Twitter @BraleyDodson.
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"Jones said another Baker Street Bash, which could include a murder mystery, might be held when the new season of 'Sherlock' is released."
ReplyDeleteThat should give them plenty of time to organize it and advertise it!
"the crowd was partially stumped when she asked what Irene Adler’s measurements were..."
What?! No way I'd have missed that one :-)
Where is the info written down?!
DeleteThat would be Lara Pulver's Irene Adler's measurements which I believe is 32-24-34 and they were flashed on the screen during the episode. Doyle was too much a gentleman to have recorded the real Irene Adler's measurements. So that would be TV trivia not Sherlockian (or Holmesian or Canonical) trivia.
DeleteYou are correct sir on the measurements. In "A Scandal in Belgravia", you might recall Sherlock deduced that they were the combination for the safe.
DeleteWhat a fun and sexist trivia game we Sherlockian could have thanks to BBC Sherlock making such an activity acceptable and fun for the whole family: name the actress who played Irene and list her measurements at the time of portrayal. "Rachel McAdams!" one could shout out at the next scion society meeting or "Morgan Fairchild!", "Natalie Dormer!", "Gayle Hunnicut!", "Charlotte Rampling!", or anyone of the many Russian actresses who've played the role for real stumpers and extra points. Hey, these "Sherlock Peoria"-type blogs practically write themselves! Merry Krampus!
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