HISTORY OF THE
HANSOM WHEELS |
The initial
program consisted of (1) the call to order, “The game is afoot!”, (2)
the responsive reading of The Musgrave Ritual, (3)
the playing of an audiotape of the Rathbone-Bruce A Scandal in
Bohemia, and (4) the presentation of an original scholarly paper, “Moriarty Was a Woman,” by Hub Wall. Subsequent
convocations have consisted of dinner meetings following this same
general format. At the first such, which was held May 19, 1977, at the
now-defunct Mary’s Celebrity Club (many of the venues
at which the society has met over the years have closed down), Don Mankowski was appointed Official
Quizmaster and the late Bob Robinson BSI Program Chairman. The
organization then met each month for the next six years. After that, it
met six times a year, generally on the third Thursday of each
even-numbered month, and now meets on the third Thursdays of February,
April, July or August, and October. A special Christmas meeting/party
is held early in December. Meetings are now held at The Palmetto Club
on Sumter Street in Columbia, which we hope will avoid the Hansom
Wheels curse and remain in business. During the coronavirus pandemic we
met virtually via Zoom but are now returning to in-person meetings
combined with Zoom for guest speakers and out-of-town viewers. The
organization’s newsletter, The Pink ’Un, named for the
racing form mentioned in “The Adventure of the Blue
Carbuncle,” initially was written and distributed by The
Hub. After a few years, Phil Dematteis took over this
job, which he performs yet today. The late Bill Brown,
who had become Quizmaster when Prof.
Mankowski moved to Florida, retired some years ago and was replaced by
the sister-and-sister team of Marcia Rowen and Kathy Trice. Kathy had attended the
initial meeting at USC and for many years had handled the finances of
the organization. Charlie Cook held the position for a
while, and it has finally fallen on the already overburdened shoulders
of the aforementioned Dematteis, aka The Tantalus. Many of the
original scholarly papers that were presented before The
Hansom Wheels subsequently appeared in such prestigious
Sherlockian publications as The Baker Street Journal, The Baker
Street Miscellany, The Serpentine Muse, The Sherlock Holmes Journal, and
The Holmes and Watson Report. For many years, the
December meeting has featured the production of one of Dr. Watson’s
accounts as adapted for the stage by Bob Robinson. In
addition, it became a tradition at summer meetings to feature an
original Sherlockian parody written for the radio by Bill
Brown. Today the The
Pink ’Un, published in advance of each meeting, enjoys a
circulation of more than one hundred. The meetings are attended by anywhere from
fifteen to forty-five harmless eccentrics. We believe The
Hansom Wheels to be one of the most successful and
active Sherlock Holmes societies in all the world. But then we would
say that, wouldn’t we? |