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The 2007 After last year, when I was a no-show for the first time in many years, I decided this year’s trek to New York City would be different from years past. For the first time, I did not stay at the Algonquin Hotel. I had accumulated hotel points during 2006 from my work travels and I was able to get a hotel 1 block away from the Algonquin for four nights for free. Free is good, especially when you are in New York City. Secondly, I flew in on Wednesday afternoon instead of Thursday afternoon. This allowed me to attend the ASH Wednesday Dinner at O'Casey's and take part in the Christopher Morley Memorial Walk. This is the annual event lead by Jim Cox and Dorie Nash. Sixteen brave souls convened in front of the Algonquin to follow Jim and Dorie around Manhattan to many of the places associated with Christopher Morley. The first stop was just two doors down from my hotel on W. 45th Street at number 25. This was the where the original Saturday Review of Literature was published. The walk took us past the Woolworth Building which when it was built was the tallest structure in the world. Morley’s office at the New York Post, where he was a columnist, was located near there. In the 1920’s the area surrounding the Woolworth Building was known as Newspaper Row, because most of New York City’s dozen or so daily newspapers were located there. The temperature was above freezing but the closer we got to Brooklyn Bridge in lower Manhattan, the colder it seemed so the group forwent the opportunity to walk across the bridge and opted to head to the tour final stop, McSorley’s Pub, established in 1854. This is the traditional watering hole of Sherlockians, Morleyians, U.S. presidents, and just about anyone else who is looking for a truly New York City experience.
After several beers and thick corned-beef sandwiches, the walk wrapped-up and most headed back to the lobby of the Algonquin. It was a virtual who’s-who of the Sherlockian world that filled the dark-wooded lobby. High-powered, low-powered, and no-powered Sherlockians mix and mingle there with ease and familiarity. There was enough time to swap Sherlockian tales of every kind before heading to the Williams Club to hear this year’s Distinguished Speaker, Ms. Laurie R. King. She was a delightful speaker who said Sherlockians are too humorous to carry grudges. She also assured the room that Mary Russell, the heroine of one of her series and wife to Sherlock Holmes, was not pregnant.
Friday morning arrived much too early, but this is the price one pays for coming to the Birthday Celebration. The William Gillette Memorial Luncheon is held every year at Moran’s Seafood Restaurant in lower Manhattan at the corner of W. 19th and 10th Ave. More than 172 Sherlockians packed in to see this year’s event. The entertainment is always provided by Andrew Joffe and Paul Singleton with help this year from Curtis Armstrong and Elyse Locurto. This event is a tradition started in 1945 and gets better every year.
Friday evening arrived. Sherlockians prepared to attend either the Baker Street Irregular Dinner or the Gaslight Gala. The Gaslight Gala replaced the Baskerville Bash this year and was the dinner I attended. To read about the BSI Dinner, read their excellent Blog site. The Gala was less structured, more relaxed, and equally as fun. The usual suspects were there. The Sherlet’s performed, Billy Fields ran the auction, and all of it took place at the same location as previous, The Manhattan Club on West 57th street.
Afterwards there was a mass gathering in the Algonquin lobby with enough body-heat to bake a cake. This year’s temperatures were near record highs, but someone evidently forgot to tell the maintenance workers at the Algonquin. A select few chose to leave and descend en masse to O’Lunney’s Irish Pub on West 45th Street and stay there until the forced expulsion at 4:30am. This late or early, depending on one’s point of view, made the Huckster’s Room at the Algonquin arrive far too soon. Once again, the regular Sherlockian purveyors were there selling their wares to many bleary eyed Sherlockians. I was actually quite good this year; however this may be due to the fact that I had already visited Otto Penzler’s Mysterious Books at its new location on Warren Street just north of the Financial District. My new motto this year was ‘If I can read it, why buy it.’
This year’s cocktail party was held at the New York Bar Association. The new venue is conveniently located across the street from the Algonquin and much to everyone’s delight, it worked out very nicely. The main chamber room is such that everyone could hear and have an unimpeded view of everything. There were more than 200 Sherlockians and their guests but the anti-room where the appetizers were set up did not seem overly crowded.
The Curious Collectors of Baker Street, an L.A. scion society, held their annual dinner at Kennedy’s on West 57th Street. This event is now 7 years old and more than 30 Sherlockians attended this year. After dinner, a few brave souls trekked back over to O’Lunney’s before one last round of beers and good-byes. My flight was scheduled such that I was not able to attend the Sunday Brunch sponsored by the Adventuresses of Sherlock Holmes (A.S.H.).
This year’s celebration was excellent. The weather was supreme and every Sherlockian seemed to be in perfect form. It is flawless weekends like this one that stokes the Sherlockian fires into full blaze. I am already excited about returning next year. Happy Collecting!!!
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