Why A Holmesian Image-Oriented Page?

The minor genesis of this page came out of my "wanna-be-a-writer" syndrome. I'd been working on Sherlock Holmes short stories for about a year, and I wanted somebody besides myself to read them. So I wondered how to do that. I had a fleeting thought of putting them on a web page, but I knew nothing about that whole concept.

But then came the real impetus. Tom Baynes' Gaslight on the Web has photos of almost two dozen different actors who have played Holmes (including the GREAT Arthur Wontner picture on the homepage of my own site). But I could not find my favorite Holmes, Ronald Howard (I didn't say best, I said favorite). I looked at a lot of sites, and there just weren't any pictures of him. I mentioned this to legendary Sherlockian Chris Redmond, and he told me maybe I should make my own site with Howard pictures on it (that will teach him to make throw-away comments, eh?). A friend told me about GeoCities, and I had a new hobby (of course, I've slacked off on my writing to work on the site. There's irony).

Initially I wanted to get one photo of as many actors as I could, and put them on a site with my own fiction. So was born "Bob's Original Sherlock Holmes Fiction Page." Since I'd never done anything with web sites before, I was pretty pleased. Then I bought MS FrontPage 2000 and realized I could do a LOT more without too much difficulty. So I gleaned everything I could from three key books and added some text. Working by decade, I hit the forties and the dominance of Basil Rathbone. I knew he deserved far more than one photo. Same thing for Jeremy Brett. So this site evolved into "Sherlock Holmes on Oxford Lane."

I think it's a pretty informative site  (gotta love hyperlinks). I already plan to add things such as a Watson element, comments on the books in my library, and updates from the eighties and nineties for the Galleries. In putting this together I  learned an awful lot about the portrayals of Holmes over the years. I intend to increase my knowledge of Holmes on radio and add that to the page as well.

I hope you learn about the actors who have played Holmes for over a century, as well as things like the Gillette play, Sherlock Holmes - A Drama in Four Acts. And oh yeah, it would be nice if you read some of my fiction. Maybe even check out that picture of me at the World Ultimate Championships.

Enjoy the site. Hit a link and see where it takes you. When in doubt, click on a picture!

Bob Byrne  -  bob.byrne@upa.org

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