"That Familiar Face"

Sherlock Holmes might as well have been Jack the Ripper. Watching all the TV specials that heralded the Ripper centenar this fall, I began to realize that, despite one hundred years in the public eye, Holmes remains just as mysterious to us today as his slasher counterpart. Think about it. Part of the horror of Jack the Ripper is that to this day, we still cannot say if he was ever stopped, if he is alive or dead, or even if he is that queer old Mr. Dorblodgett who lives across the street. The Ripper could be standing in front of us in a line at the grocery store, somehow untouched by age, and we would never know it. And with Holmes, it is much the same.

We've seen Basil Rathbone play Holmes. We've seen Sidney Paget's drawings of the Master Detective. We've bought silly coffee mugs with a big-nosed fellow in deerstalker on them. But if Sherlock Holmes — the Sherlock Holmes — ever walked up to us on the street and said, "Pardon me, do you know of a local tobacconist?" we probably wouldn't know him from Thorneycroft Huxtable.

Basil Rathbone we would recognize. Jeremy Brett we would know in an instant. We might even recognize Walter Paget, Sidney's brother, who served as a model for so many drawings of Holmes. But to be able to spot the genuine article would be another matter entirely, even for the most learned of Sherlockians. True, we would all like to believe that our truly Sherlockian souls would react to the presence of such a noble spirit, like metal in the presence of lightning. But would they really? — Or would Holmes just stroll on by us, like the dozens of other everyday sorts who cross our paths? Who knows, one might even look at him long enough to consider how much he looks like our insurance agent or our sixth grade teacher, without the slightest glimmer of his true identity.

The deerstalker hat and calabash pipe have become crutches for the instant identification of our old friend, as have the beak-shaped nose and widow's peak hairstyle. If the films of Basil Rathbone and Jeremy Brett have taught us nothing else, they should have at least showed us that Sherlock Holmes may not have stuck to that one severe hair-style throughout his life. According to Watson's original text, Holmes's nose was "hawkish" and his hair was black. That is all Watson writes: and even then, that description of Holmes's nose must be viewed as a judgement call by Watson. Sticking strictly to the facts, we know Holmes had black hair.

He was also thin. Enough references are made to that aspect of the detective throughout the cases that we can be fairly certain of his thinness. His eyes were gray, and he seems to have been a Caucasian. He was over six feet tall. Together, these facts barely make up enough data for a police APB, much less a positive identification of the man. Even if you knew for a fact that Sherlock Holmes was in any given town of 5,000 people, you still couldn't be sure of tracking him down.

And the image gets more blurred with each passing day. Everytime Snoopy or Garfield is seen wearing a double-billed cap, everytime an actor slicks back his hair in something of a Dracula style, the wrong characteristics are reinforced and the real Sherlock Holmes, wherever he may be, becomes less recognizable to the general public. Hats and hairstyles are the easiest parts of one's appearance to alter.

The ironic part of it all is that, where once Sherlock Holmes found it necessary to be a master of disguise, now he just has to be himself to avoid recognition. A 1980's hairstyle and a new set of clothes would suffice against even a fanatic Sherlockian's gaze. Samuel Rosenberg was right after all — naked is the best disguise.

Just because spotting Sherlock Holmes in this day and age is going to be difficult, however, doesn't mean we should stop looking. As true followers of the Master Detective, the challenge should prove exhilarating.

The game is afoot!

(Printed in Plugs & Dottles, December 1988)