A year ago this past April, the Baker Street Irregulars hosted their Canonical Conclave of Scion Societies in Indianapolis, an event intended to inspire. A lot of the Sherlock Holmes societies represented came away with renewed energies, and personally, I came away with an idea. I shared it with a couple of people at that event, who were enthusiastic for it, but ideas are easy. Fleshing them out is the real trick. So let's talk about that idea.
From 1977 to 1993, that grand Sherlockian John Bennett Shaw hosted weekend conferences all over the country, wonderful things during a time when there was no internet to connect us, no Google search to bring Sherlockians together. Most of us knew what we knew, initially, from the Baring-Gould Annotated Sherlock Holmes and its section on the Baker Street Irregulars. Going to one of Shaw's university based weekends was like finding a supercharger for a Sherlock Holmes fans and plugging yourself into it.
The idea of putting together a new Shaw weekend was intriguing, especially to a couple of fellows who had been in Peoria in 1979, when Shaw's planned Bradley University workshop was cancelled only a month before. (And nobody told a very angry Jack Tracy, who arrived in town thinking it was still happening.) The fiftieth anniversary of that Peoria failure is coming up, to the day, on July 20th, 2029. Peoria's still a decent enough place, with a pretty good airport, and accomodations enough, so the idea of trying to make up for that failure. (The local scion had only been in existence for two years. The local university didn't really know the circles to publicize it in either. And me, I had barely been out of college three months and hadn't met any Sherlockians in Peoria yet.)
Great idea on paper, sure. But how do you have a John Bennett Shaw workshop without John Bennett Shaw? It's not like we have Shaw tribute bands playing his hits. And a full on themed symposium about the Santa Fe collector is more Norwegian Explorer turf at this point, as they've done it before. Truly recreating a John Bennett Shaw workshop isn't about talking about Shaw. It's doing what he would have done, and doing it for the year and the world you were doing it in, and not 1979.
So what did a basic Shaw outline look like?
Friday evening was Shaw's opening talk, "Sherlock Holmes, Then and Now," an overview of Holmes history and the fandom, complete with poetry, important quotes, and stories. After that introduction, we'd all watch They Might Be Giants. Remember that video was only coming about when those took place and the chance to see a modern movie that loved Sherlock Holmes that much was rare. A new version of a Shaw workshop might pick something more current, but still a joy for all.
There might be a slide show of Shaw's collection first thing the next morning, where you could just be amazed at all the things Sherlock Holmes has inspired. The great thing about this is that Shaw's collection still exists, and is even greater now. A similar presentation is possible.
And, oh, we were quiz people back then, and John Bennett Shaw loved to test us with one of his particularly devilish quizzes. A timed quiz on a particular story might follow the first presentation, with another, on a second story later in the weekend. There were some good prizes and young minds often took the wins. Do we like to take tests now, fifty years later? Are we so competitive? You tell me. I'll pass.
Other speakers would come next, depending upon the particular workshop, but the topics tried to cover the important bases: Conan Doyle, parody and pastiche, cocaine, Afghanistan, Dorothy Rowe Shaw's miniature Baker Street, writing a Sherlockian paper, London, and more. Rare short films and cartoons would be shown as well. Shaw would often wind things up after dinner with a talk about the B.S.I. and Sherlockian societies, with stories and sing-alongs.
Sunday morning there might be a final quiz, winners of the short fiction contest announced (prompts were given of Friday evening and short-short stories had to be turned in by 5 PM Saturday), with prizes for the winners. The program of talks and short films continues into Sunday afternoon. You got a full weekend's worth from John Bennett Shaw, more like 221B Con length than most Sherlockian weekends these days.
If you consider what John Bennett Shaw's roadshow brought to so many cities in that long-ago decade, it was basically a full Sherlockian experience, covering everything that was the hobby at that time. We didn't have fanfic back in the 1980s, but if we had there would have been a talk on that. There might have been some short anime films, or other non-American rarities. In 2029, the full Sherlockian experience will be fifty years larger than it was in 1979. Television shows, audio mediums, comics, and commercial pastiches have grown exponentially. Sherlockian journals and newsletters rose and fell. Could you even cover the Sherlockian world as thoroughly as Shaw did in a single weekend now?
We aren't nearly as starved for Sherlockian content as we were back then, and do we have a John Bennett Shaw? Like the old saying says, you can't go home again. But you can move forward with hopes for a new place that's pretty great. The Shaw model, that Johnny Appleseed way of displaying the best of the hobby he loved so much to inspire others, is still useful. All of our current weekend conferences and events are the descendents of those Shaw weekends, after all. The big difference with Shaw was that he didn't settle in a single town and repeat the weekend -- he kept spreading the word.
Something to think about. And by the by . . . weren't some of you other regions hoping to try the Canonical Conclave thing? "Just asking," as those most irritating of trolls say. But you don't see me committing to putting a Shaw weekend on just yet, so I won't push. But we're always curious about what the years ahead will bring, so let's keep our eyes on that horizon.
