How I became a Sherlockian

By Jennie C. Paton

​I was a big reader growing up.  Even reading under the covers with a flashlight after lights out -- until my mother confiscated it.  So, went to the library and got an easy electronics book and taught myself how to build one using a wooden cradle, copper, wires, bulb and batteries.  I got money for the latter picking up bottles and getting the small change.  Fed my habit of reading from 9 to midnight, then sleep until 3 or 4 and read until I heard my parents get up around six, take a short nap and start the day.  To this day, I get 4 hours of sleep and I’m good.

I had read everything I could in the children’s library and was starting to reread.  You didn’t get an ‘adult’ card until you turned 13, but the librarian decided I was way ahead of the rest and got my adult card at 11.  It was a thrill crossing over to the adult section and opening up a wider world of reading.  I read everything.  Fiction and non-fiction.  I walked to the library daily to drop off the books I finished and get another 3 although I could get more with the adult card.  I discovered the Sherlock Doubleday Complete edition, a weighty tome, and decided to challenge myself and see how fast I could go through it.  I was hooked and have been a Sherlockian ever since.  To this day, I keep a copy of the Doubleday Complete in the ‘library’ of the house, the office, and in my small vintage camper trailer.

Life involved a lot of travel, so had to travel light.  I didn’t get introduced to any Sherlockian groups until many, many years later, the first being The Hansom Wheels of Columbia, SC.  I attended graduate school at the U of SC and became friends with one of the Journalism professors, Bill Brown. He was also ‘the voice’ for the university at that time. He was a master punster and also a Sherlockian.  We took turns to see who could come up with the worst pun.  He usually won.  He invited me to attend a meeting of the Hansom Wheels and I liked it.  When I moved, yet again, I would drive from GA to SC to attend their meetings.  He didn’t like my driving back on two-lane country roads at night, so insisted I stay over and head back in the mornings.  It was an almost 3 hour drive from where I was in GA to Columbia, SC.  Took longer at night to avoid hitting wildlife and drunk drivers hitting me.

Back in 1985, still in GA, I bought my first top-loading VCR and discovered Sherlock on film.  I had books about the various films, television, plays, cartoons, live radio, from A to Z… and how many of them were considered lost, or never preserved and I decided to be the one to ‘save’ whatever I could find.  I recorded the Granada Brett series and even got the videotapes from England of the new episodes as they aired there.  I progressed over the years from that simple machine to professional equipment and was in contact with folk from around the world for something Sherlockian in their countries.  I had equipment that could ‘translate’ PAL, SECAM to NTSC, and visa versa so I could share with others.  Even Peter Blau would send me his videotapes for me to copy and I had the equipment to convert 16mm film to videotape.  He was instrumental getting the project rolling.  

Over the years, that tiny start has grown to 35,000 videos – over 5,000 of those still in the working phase – downloaded but not cataloged.  Some of those videos are 30 seconds or less, like the commercials.  All important for a Sherlockian doing research.  I’ve moved from VHS, to DVD and now digital format.  I have a 64tb server and many smaller drives (for backup).  I’ve been shipping material to U of MN since 2001.  They have the bulk of the collection for current Sherlockians and for the future so no one has to wonder what a film, television, local production of a play, even recorded Zoom meetings, like Five Miles From Anywhere, Shaka Sherlockians, Praed Street, and others who post their meetings online.  It’s been saved or as much of it as possible.  This has turned into a full-time job, even though I’m retired.

Living where I am now, in the middle of nowhere Mojave Desert, having internet and Zoom has been a godsend.  I don’t feel so isolated.  The world is wide open and every day I find something new.  I may be remote, but I send out my ‘daily finds’ of video and interesting newsy bits to folk around the globe.  And they, in turn, keep me in the loop on newly discovered material.  You can’t find everything and it helps to have extra pairs of eyes.

Just sent out a box of archive quality DVDs (lasts 100 years) to U of MN today – the 3rd box this year.  Digital and archive is an oxymoron.  It’s a long way to anywhere, so the Zooms are my way of getting involved with Sherlockians around the globe.  To attend an LA meeting, I’d have to drive about 150 miles (one way), stay overnight, and then battle traffic on the way back.  Zooms are the answer even if my internet connection is a bit wonky.  People see my name, but I keep the video off to preserve bandwidth.  No, I don’t plan on moving.

It's the thrill of the hunt and finding yet another ‘lost’ video.  The Web has accelerated the discoveries of new material and I’ll probably be on the hunt for as long as I’m able.  The collection has been preserved and added to.  You can find it at the U of MN, Special Collections, Sherlock Holmes Collection.