Sad Wings of Destiny (1976) Lyrics: You’re in for surprise You’re in for a shock In london town streets When there’s darkness and fog When you least expect me And you turn your back I’ll attack I smile when I’m sneaking Through shadows by the wall I laugh when I’m creeping But you won’t hear me at all All hear my warning Never turn your back On the ripper You’ll soon shake with fear Never knowing if I’m near I’m sly and I’m shameless Nocturnal and nameless Except for “the ripper” Or if you like “jack the knife” Solo (glenn) Any back alley street Is where we’ll probably meet Underneath a gas lamp Where the air’s cold and damp I’m a nasty surprise I’m a devil in disguise I’m a footstep at night I’m a scream of the fright All hear my warning Never turn your back On the ripper…the ripper….the ripper
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by quapan

The Great Britain, Support In Environment Protection Or Opposed To Protecting The Environment?

According to the British “Guardian” has reported that British environmental groups condemned the British Government to access the sovereign rights of the sea-bed plan on 1 million square kilometers of Antarctica , saying the move would be in the region and the global eco-system to produce incalculable effects of the damage. The newspaper said in a report on 17 that British Foreign Office is collecting and processing data and soon afterwards will apply to the United Nations for sovereignty over Antarctica. If this application can pass, England will have an extension of 350 nautical miles seabed oil, gas and mineral exploration and mining rights which outward from the Antarctic continental shelf, covered the land area of about 100 million square kilometers.Why the Most Expensive purses Around The World are So Queer?

In this regard, the head of the World Wildlife Fund marine projects says, “Antarctica is an extremely fragile region, and no country should explore oil and gas in this region. Let’s Have a Look at the Most Expensive free web directory During Winter Vacation” He further indicates that, “Marine Life specific for this area has been extinct as a result of global warming. Must-See Trend Bible to Design bag As soon as exploitation activites are launched, consequent ruins will be cast on lives of this area.”

The man who is in charge of climate change of United Kingdom Greenpeace said the move of the government is “extremely irresponsible”, while is difficult to understand. He said, it is surprising that a leading country on the issue of global climate change would act enthusiasticly in the oil contest. The climate change is making enormous impacts on the Antarctic. Anyway, this act of the government is inappropriate.

Some analysts thought that the purpose for England to seize the sovereignty of Antarctica was to have the advantage in the future energy competition due to the strengthening competition of energy among countries. So far, the authorities of Chile and Argentina haven’t comment on the latest trends of British Government about the Antarctic issue.

On the other hand, the British Government is making some positive efforts to protect the environment, for example, the plan of the establishment of the green investment bank. British Chancellor of the Exchequer Alistair Darling has proposed the establishment of a “green” investment bank as the Government prior to formulating the budget the relevant part of the proposal.

It was reported that the bank will be dedicated to funding low-carbon, eco-friendly projects and businesses. The environmental and industry groups support Darling’s advice. They said that it will contribute to renewable energy investment and sustainable development.

Principle of policy department of Greenpeace Robin Oakley indicates that British government is in need of the bank on the basis of the above-mentioned targets. England government has promised to reduce the release of carbon dioxide in a big extent, to make the purposes come true, a huge amount of investment will be needed for developing [green” technology and low carbon projects. To this end, Robin Oakley said, “green” investment bank will help the UK achieve these goals.

“E3G” is a nonprofit organizations of British which support for companies to develop environmentally-friendly programs. Nick Mabey, the founder of the organization believes that investors will like to invest in low carbon projects in this bank. Maybee considered that the bank must be backed by adequate financial resources of the government. If it is established, it will become the sole state-owned bank for Europe used in “green” investment.

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by Templar1307

If Puget Sound Is Falling Down

William Steele, the Seismology Lab Coordinator at the University of Washington Geophysics Program, has a son, Chris, who goes to elementary school. “He comes in sometimes and he loves to do stuff.” It seems he’d recently put a sticker on one of the lab’s monitors, and his father had some trouble accessing the equipment. “What an excuse!” Steele never did get into the program he’d wanted to show me.

December 4th of last year there was a magnitude 5.1 quake in Klamath Falls, Oregon. Aftershocks were felt in Washington State. I had headed out to the UW in search of information on recent earthquake activity in the Puget Sound region.

“Oregon is relatively quiet next to Washington. But this year, we’ve had an enormous amount of activity in Oregon, counter to past patterns.” Klamath Falls couldn’t be noisier, said Steele, ticking off the numbers: September 4th, 5.9; Sept. 20th, 5.9, 5.0, 4.3; Dec. 4th, 5.1; and Christmas Day, 4.0, 3.4.

Most of our local activity in the Puget Sound region is recorded by the UW’s lab equipment. They have an emergency preparation computer program called “Beat the Quake,” hailing from the land of quakes, California, which has suffered through quite a lot of severe earthquake damage lately. That’s the program Steele had trouble running on his computer. Fortunately, the UW’s Seismology Lab has far more emergency preparedness information “so we don’t have to begin from ground zero” in the likely event of an earthquake. Steele is also the Public Information Officer covering quakes through the UW. “We have 135 seismic stations throughout Washington and Oregon, currently operating, and we’re expanding. We really cover a tremendously broad area.”

They locate quakes precisely, then determine the magnitude (quantity of total energy released by the quake), location (area affected by the quake), and epicenter (location on the surface directly above the focus, or place where an earthquake originates.)

They collect data about the geology of the region as well. “It’s critical data. This lab is an educational center for graduate students in geophysics.” They also educate citizens. School groups bring in students, and Steele speaks at civic organizations, encouraging people to take action and make themselves safer from earthquakes.

Of course, the big question everyone asks is, “When?”

“We’re not able to put down a date. It’s more complicated because three types of quakes occur in the Puget Sound region. The most common are deep earthquakes.

“Signals travel through the planet’s crust, sometimes all the way from the other side.” Events from anywhere show up on their helicorder sheets, making an analog, a 24-hour record, of every quake. For example, the Klamath Falls quakes, which are very near California on the Oregon coast.

“We cover the Cascade Range, and have multiple stations on every volcano. We have a good station at Mt. Baker, adequate to cover the region.” Earthquakes around volcanoes are very common.

The lab shares data with California for quakes occurring on the border of California and Oregon. “We’re part of the Washington Regional Seismic Network.” Steele showed me a map of Pacific Northwest Seismicity, 1969-1991. There were huge blue clusters in Puget Sound. What are those, I asked. “Moderate, shallow, and deep quakes. The deep clusters are in the Puget Basin.”

Deep earthquakes, the ones you really tend to write home about, are the largest in magnitude as measured on the Modified Mercalli Intensity Scale. The values usually range from 1.0 (not felt) to 7.0 (extreme damage to buildings and land surfaces). They can go even higher, as they have in recent deep quakes in Alaska.

Here’s what’s happening in Puget Sound: about 300 kilometers or more out from the coast is where the deep quakes are generated. There’s a ridge 500 to 700 kilometers out called the Juan de Fuca Ridge, and new material, new sea floor, is being deposited all the time along it. It pushes the Juan de Fuca plate toward the North American plate underneath the Seattle area. The Juan de Fuca plate moves an average of two inches a year, towards us, lifting the other plate.

A border zone locks it up, an interface between the two plates that stops the oceanic plate, making it subduct beneath us, forcing the ocean plate down into the mantle of the Earth. This boundary is called the Cascadia Subduction Zone, and extends from the middle of Vancouver Island in British Columbia down to Northern California.

The Earth’s mantle lies beneath its brittle crust. It’s semi-solid, due to tremendous heat and pressure. “Our Cascade volcanoes are probably there because of plate subduction beneath us. The push deforms the crust and builds up tremendous stresses. Right now, the coast of Washington is rising. It’s bulging up.” The oceanic plate is “cold rock” and the shock of the two forces meeting leads to deep earthquakes. Washington has recently experienced two large ones, in 1949 and 1965.

A flyer from the lab states that roughly 1,000 earthquakes per year are recorded in Washington and Oregon. “Between one and two dozen of these cause enough ground shaking to be felt by residents. Most are in the Puget Sound region, and few cause any real damage. However, based on the history of past damaging earthquakes and our understanding of the geologic history of the Pacific Northwest, we are certain that damaging earthquakes (magnitude 6.0 or greater) will recur in our area, although we have no way to predict whether this is more likely to be today, or years from now.” Steele thinks it will be soon.

“In 1949, there was a severe earthquake in Olympia, 7.1. Eight people were killed and there was millions of dollars worth of property damage. The quake was located 70 kilometers deep.

“In 1965, there was a magnitude 6.5 quake between Seattle and Tacoma.” Both earthquakes were felt as far away as Montana. But there were no aftershocks, as is usual during a deep quake. The infamous aftershocks, known to catch people in the middle of recovering from a bad earthquake, happen during land-based shallow earthquakes. The ocean-based shocks occurred once, causing ground tremors that lasted several minutes. “The 1965 quake killed about five people, and again there was millions of dollars of property damage.” Other deep events, difficult to calculate from records of the times, occurred in 1882, 1909, and 1939. “Every 35 years or so a 6.0+ magnitude quake occurs beneath Puget Basin. The whole region along the coast will shift at once. When it finally builds up enough pressure to kick up, it’ll be a big one.”

Eighty percent of the quakes on the planet happen along the Pacific North West Rim, which is referred to as “The Ring of Fire” because of all our volcanic activity. In 1964, one year before this area’s last big event, south-central Alaska generated a monster 9.3 quake, shaking the ground for twenty minutes, generating tidal waves that decimated Seward’s coast, affected 34,000 square miles, and killed 143 people. And there’s been recent large quakes in Cape Mendecino, California, and Parkfield, California, infamous for ground shaking, in 1992.

Brian Atwater of the USGS (United States Geological Service) and the UW geology department has done studies along the coasts of Washington and Oregon. He’s found a kind of layered soil…”what he found…ghost forests killed by the last big quakes. Subduction zone material covered by coarse black sand.” A layer gradually turned into forest floor and then the sand layer. “As bulging continues, coastline rises, and low-lying areas are flushed clean by salt water. Stress released during the quake makes the coastline subside by seven or eight feet. It ‘drops.’ If you’re living at five feet above sea level, it’s not a very comfortable thing.”

Earthquakes also generate large tsunamis, or tidal waves; the biggest ones, generated by larger quakes, can rip up an entire coastline for miles, wiping out bridges, roads, and buildings. The really great subduction zone quakes, 9.0 or more, only occur about once a century on the face of the planet. Strangely, a big quake may result in only about three-and-a-half minutes worth of strong ground shaking, which doesn’t sound like much. “One recent California quake was only seventeen seconds of strong ground motion, a 7.1 quake. A 7.0 quake releases the equivalent of 199,000 tons of TNT in energy; a 9.0 releases 200 million tons, or 17,000 atomic bombs’ worth of force.

“The difference between an 8 and a 9 is greater than the difference between a 2 and an 8, because of the logarithmic scale. The force increases exponentially. It gets 30 times greater each time.” I wondered if it ever goes up to 10.0.

By carbon-14 dating organic matter in ground and sea levels, “scientists can determine approximate dates for events going back 10,000 years.” Finding clues about these earthquakes involves both painstaking research and educated guesswork.

Research has recently identified a Seattle fault which generated a large quake between 1,000 to 1,100 years ago. “There were landslides, and a huge seiche-when something big falls in the water, creating waves like tsunamis. Large block landslides occurred in forests. Restoration Point on Bainbridge Island rose twenty feet from Puget Sound in seconds during that event.”

Buildup from glacial ice sheets once covering the continent make it difficult to analyze shallow crust faults. But geologists are pretty sure there are two major Seattle faults. The biggest one runs from the north tip of Mercer Island through Eastgate to the Kingdome, just north of West Seattle. The other fault runs through White Center, parallel to the bigger one. In 1872, an estimated 7.3 shallow quake caused what seismologists call “felt reports” from observers, the only evidence of some older quakes. Native Americans tell legends about what must have been some very sizeable earthquakes and tsunamis.

Nowadays, all the real-time telemetry (automatic transmission of data from a distant source to a receiving station) comes through in the back of the lab, where Steele poured me a cup of Starbucks coffee at their metal sink in a very equipment-crowded space. “Relays ‘zap’ activity energy in nanoseconds to the lab. Before people in a region know what’s going to hit them, we do.” The helicorders monitor 23 stations on analog. “We focus on volcanoes. All stations, including the ones on helicorders, go onto the computer system in the next room. The discriminator in the back takes FM carrier signals and separates them from seismic signals, leaving an amplified seismic signal. It goes to the front room, changing into digital information the computer can read.

“If it picks up a ‘jump’ (a skip in the needle on the helicorder) on a station, it checks other stations and records all data, whether there’s a signal or not. If it’s a big quake, it does estimates of the magnitude etc. via programs, beeps the people (like Steele), and sends information to seismologists around the region.” Steele might hear a “beep” anytime.

As I drank my coffee, Steele told me he’s a grad student, his life’s partner works, and together they support their family, renting a house in Wallingford and raising two kids. “It’s a rewarding job, but…the rewards are not monetary.” Nonetheless, he feels treated as a colleague by everyone, and has a good working relationship with all his “fellows at the lab.”

About earthquake preparedness, Steele is adamant. “The secret is not fear and loathing in Seattle, and that we have to hide under our beds. Let’s get ready. Our schools need to get to the point where we can withstand a 7.4 earthquake. How many little bodies do we need under bricks before we start spending some money?” Right now, there are no definite laws enforcing earthquake building codes, “if the building code years ago said you could pile bricks without mortar on top of each other.”

Unreinforced masonry creates structures that fall during even moderate earthquakes. “The entire wall of a school can fall down and kill students. A brick that falls three stories doesn’t slow down,” he said, referring to the death of a boy during the 1965 earthquake. Steele is certain such deaths are preventable.

At least six schools in Oregon have unreinforced structures, bricks that can fall and fill a doorway, blocking the exit. “Retrofit them, or tear them down and build another school. If a school has been considered unsafe for a quake lately, they can sell it, and it becomes a senior center. No laws stop that. These buildings need to be brought up to code or taken down. Deaths will happen unless we act. India just had a 6.8 quake…tens of thousands dead. There needs to be water and food stored away to last 72 hours. You need to get under a table and ride it out; get down on the ground, under something; check to see if you smell gas, and turn it off; electricity, too.”

You should get to know your community resources, Steele said. And in case of severe aftershocks, if you’re in a building “you should wait until the shaking stops, and then get out.” Lots of people are killed by falling debris while evacuating buildings.

The number of FEMA (the Federal Emergency Management Agency) in Woodinville, headed by Chris Trisler, is (206) 487-4645. It’s their job to assist people with earthquake preparedness.

What does Steele see in the immediate future? “I expect more of the same. Probably some quakes greater than 4.0 in the Puget Sound area. While we’ve been talking, there’ve been events in Klamath Falls,.” As I write this, there are aftershocks east of the Dec. 4 “sequence” starting in Klamath Falls. “The question is, are we going to recognize the danger and do something about it, or are we going to wait until we have an adequate death toll? I’d like to see a dedicated plan and some leadership from the state. It’ll be a lot of money.”

Steele said a colleague of his said it best: “The next great disaster will happen as soon as we forget about the last one.”

Some of the information in this article is from “Washington State Earthquake Hazards,” by Lawrance, Qamar, and Thorsen, 1988.)

WHAT TO DO OTHER THAN SCREAM YOUR LUNGS OUT – FALL DOWN!

Apparently, you may hear a very loud, building sound before the frenzy begins. The below is from “How to Survive in Earthquake Country,” a FEMA pamphlet. Find out about your risks, at home, and in your workplace. Get more specifics from the American Red Cross, or FEMA.

Learn what causes injuries: parts falling off building exteriors and interiors; flying pieces of broken glass; overturning bookcases; unanchored water heaters; storage facilities; anything made of glass; fires from damaged gas lines; electric lines; wood stoves; chimneys; toxic fumes.

Create emergency preparedness plans: find safe spots in your home; identify escape routes; plan two ways out of each room; pick two places to meet, outside your house and outside the neighborhood if you can’t return home; show everyone how to shut off water, gas and electricity; practice your plans, now.

Read “Your Family Disaster Plan,” and “Emergency Preparedness Checklist,” which you can get from FEMA.

Reduce earthquake hazards: evaluate your home; strap water heaters and gas appliances down; remember, stiff items snap; place heavy objects on lower shelves; anchor everything heavy; anchor hanging objects; support community earthquake preparedness.

Businesses, schools, daycares, neighborhoods, churches, clubs: hold workshops. Assemble a disaster preparedness kit: store food, water, clothes, a first aid kit, a radio, flashlights, and batteries, good for 72 hours of use, in your car trunk, home, and office. For more details, consult the FEMA brochure, “Your Family Disaster Supplies Kit.”

During/after an earthquake: stay calm; don’t panic or run. Earthquakes are usually preceded by loud sounds, so take quick action. You actually have about two seconds, so get ready for that earthquake now to protect yourself and others. Stay where you are: drop, cover and hold something solid, or take immediate cover under a heavy desk or table, in a doorway, hallway, or against inside walls. Turn away from glass. Keep away from chimneys, windows, tall bookcases, and objects that might fall.

Evacuate only after the shaking stops. Use the stairs, not the elevator. Remember, aftershocks may occur at any time. Listen to a radio or TV for instructions. Outdoors: move away from buildings, trees, and utility wires. Sit on the ground until the shaking stops. Flee inland immediately when near a coastline. Check for injuries. Do not move seriously injured people unless they’re in danger. Indoors: evacuate damaged buildings, as aftershocks could cause additional damage, or buildings can collapse.

Do not re-enter a building until it’s declared safe by responsible authorities. Don’t use the telephone except for emergencies; stay off the phone. Check for fires. Have a fire extinguisher, and know how to use it. Check utilities: gas, electric, and water lines may be broken. Gas: do not use matches, candles, open flames or electric switches indoors, because of possible gas leaks. If you smell gas, open windows, leave, and shut off the main gas valve, which is usually outside.

Electricity: if wiring is broken, shut off electricity at the main switch. Don’t touch anything near downed or damaged lines. Water: if water pipes are broken, shut off the supply at the main valve outside. Use water from ice cubes, water heaters, toilet tanks (if they don’t contain chemical cleaners). Clean up spills. Attend carefully to spills of potentially harmful materials such as medicines, drugs, and household cleaners. Provide adequate ventilation, as chemicals may combine to produce toxic gas. Remember to assist others in need.

And also remember: it’s not your fault. (Sorry about that, I couldn’t resist the joke.)

Only Want You For Your Body is the second album for Australian proto-metal band Buffalo, recorded and originally released in 1974 on the Vertigo label. A far more structured and polished release than the previous album Volcanic Rock, Only Want You For Your Body was conversely a much harder and heavier release. Buffalo had abandoned the progressive and psychedelic elements of their style, in favour of a more straightforward, modernistic approach to heavy metal. On the basis of this album, Buffalo were perhaps one of the earliest acts to develop heavy metal music away from its blues-rock origins with some passing similarities to future metal acts later in the decade, such as those in the New Wave of British Heavy Metal scene. The album even bizarrely contains a precursor to the death growl on the outro to the track “What’s Going On”. Buffalo courted controversy again with their album artwork the cover depicting a half-naked obese woman tied to a torture rack. Adding further fuel to accusations of misogyny was the shift in lyrical emphasis towards sex, in particular the tracks “I’m a Skirt Lifter, Not a Shirt Raiser” and “Kings Cross Ladies”. This also marked a shift towards street-level oriented lyrics an approach that would be later adopted by compatriot hard rock acts including AC/DC, The Angels and Rose Tattoo.
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by I am I.A.M.

History of Woking

Pre-1800

Anglo-Saxon and Norman Woking

Woking appears in written materials which, though created in the 12th century at Peterborough Abbey, formerly known as Medeshamstede, reliably describe earlier events. The earliest of these is the grant by Pope Constantine (708-715) of privileges to a monastery at Wochingas. Later in the 8th century a charter of King Offa of Mercia granted further privileges, freeing this church from numerous standard liabilities. This charter is paraphrased in a 12th century interpolation to the Anglo-Saxon Chronicle’s entry for 777 AD, also written at Peterborough:

In the time of [King Offa of Mercia] there was an ealdorman called Brorda who petitioned the king for love of him to free a church of his called Woking, because he wished to give it to Medeshamstede and to St Peter and the abbot that then was, who was called Pusa. … And the king freed the church of Woking from all obligations due to king and to bishop and to earl and to all men, so that no one should have any authority there, except St Peter and the abbot [of Medeshamstede]. This was ratified in the royal manor of Freoricburna.

Woking appears in the Domesday Book of 1086 as Wochinges. Its description there is complex, since it was then held as three estates, by King William the Conqueror, Walter FitzOther, constable of Windsor Castle, and Ansgot and Godfrey from Osbern FitzOsbern, then bishop of Exeter.

Woking Palace

A building was first recorded on the site of Woking Palace in 1272. In 1466 Lady Margaret Beaufort, mother of King Henry VII and grandmother of King Henry VIII, and her third husband, Henry Stafford, 2nd Duke of Buckingham, obtained by royal grant the former Beaufort manor of Woking. They lived in the manor house at least until Henry Stafford’s death in 1471. The modern Beaufort School in Goldsworth Park is named after Lady Margaret. Henry VII took the manor from his mother and began the process of converting the manor house into a palace. His son Henry VIII continued this process when he succeeded his father in 1509, and the palace became a favorite residence of the king. In 1490 a treaty with Austria, known as the Treaty of Woking, was signed at the Palace by Henry VII.[citation needed]

By 1620 the ownership of Woking Palace had passed by King James I to Sir Edward Zouch who abandoned the palace and built himself a new manor house at Hoe Bridge Place. Thereafter the buildings fell into decay and the original park surrounding the palace was turned over to agriculture.

17th century Woking

In 1651 the Wey Navigation Canal was opened for traffic from Guildford to the River Thames passing through Woking. Over a century later, in 1791, the canal from the Wey Navigation Canal to Basingstoke opened as far as Horsell. Then in 1792 the Basingstoke Canal opened as far as Pirbright. Navigation on the Brookwood Canal stopped in 1947. In 1991, the Basingstoke Canal was formally reopened along its whole length following renovation by volunteers.

In 1661 James Zouch, grandson of Sir Edward Zouch, obtained the Market Charter for Woking. A few years later in 1669 James Zouch from Woking was Sheriff of Surrey (16691670). In 1760, James Turner bought from the Earl of Onslow, owner of Woking Manor, some land in the “Tithing of Goldings”.

1800s

In 1849, Necropolis (cemetery) was first proposed for Woking Parish by the Board of Health. Whilst in 1879 St John’s Woking Crematorium was built to be used for the first time in 1884 when the first cremation in the UK was performed.

Sculpture of a Wellsian Martian Tripod near the Planets Entertainment centre, Woking.

H. G. Wells wrote his book The War of the Worlds whilst living on Maybury road in Woking in 1898. Many scenes from the story are set in Horsell, Woking and the surrounding area.

Facilities

The 1850s saw the first building of the ‘New Woking’, with the construction of the Albion Hotel. In 1862, the Royal Dramatic College opened in Maybury on the site which is currently occupied by the Lion Retail Park. The college then closed in 1877. The Oriental Institute opened on the site in 1884 but closed in the 1890s.

The 1880s saw the opening of the Woking Police Station in 1887; then in 1889 Woking Football Club was formed. This year also saw the opening of the Woking Mosque (the first purpose built mosque in Western Europe). Sultan Shah Jahan, Begum of Bhopal donated money to help build it and it is now called the Shah Jehan Mosque in her honour.

The Victoria Hospital opened in 1899.

Woking obtained electricity in 1890 and gas in 1891. In 1899 Woking’s sewerage system was built.

Railways

The railways came to Woking in 1838 when the London and Southampton company (renamed London and South Western Railway in 1839) railway opened as far as Winchfield. Woking Common Station (Now Woking Station) opened.

Politics

In 1830, the Woking Parish experienced civil unrest. Whilst in 1834 Guildford (affecting Woking parish) and Chertsey (affecting Horsell parish) Poor Law Unions were formed.

Notably in 1864 Guildford and Chertsey Highway Districts was formed. In 1872 Guildford and Chertsey Rural Sanitary Authorities formed; and 1874 saw the formation of the Woking School Board.

The Woking Local Board formed in 1894. It first met in Goldsworth Hall with 18 councillors representing the wards of Knaphill, St Johns, Mayford, Sutton, Brookwood, Old Woking, Maybury. By 1895 Woking Urban District Council was formed, replacing the Local Board and Chertsey Rural District Council.

Newspapers

In 1894, the ‘Woking News’ was first published from offices in Chertsey Road. Each copy cost 1d. In 1895, the ‘Woking Mail’ was first published from offices in Goldsworth Road. Each copy cost d. Later, these papers merged to become the ‘Woking News and Mail’.

1900-1945

In 1930 Woking Civic Arms was granted the motto Fide et Diligentia meaning By Faith and Diligence.

In 1924 ‘Woking Offers’ free paper advertising local traders started. By 1928 ‘Woking Offers’ was renamed ‘Woking Outlook’ to be renamed ‘Woking Review’ in 1933. It is believed to be the oldest free newspaper in Britain.

In 1924 Waterer’s Park was left to Woking U.D.C. by Anthony Waterer of Knaphill Nursery. Knaphill Football Club started playing there.

In 1945, a V-2 rocket launched by Germany landed on Woking.

Utilities

In 1902 Woking’s gas street lighting was replaced with electric. Five years later Horsell obtained a sewerage system. During World War II, Woking Fire Brigade placed under the wartime control of the National Fire Service and became the responsibility of Surrey County Council from 1 April 1948.

Facilities

Around 1900, the original Woking open air swimming pool was opened. By 1935 the second Woking open air swimming pool was opened which led to the formation of the Woking Swimming Club in the same year.

In 1929, Woking Library opened.

Transport

In 1902 Guildford and District Motor Services started a bus service in the Guildford and Woking area. Furthermore Woking and Bagshot Light Railway was proposed that would have run over what is now Goldsworth Park on the Woking side of the Woking/Horsell parish boundary. By 1910 the project died out.

Then in 1915 Guildford and District Motor Services was bought by Aldershot and District Traction, who eventually took over its services in the Guildford and Woking area. In 1923 Southern Railway formed. It ran most routes through Woking Station.

During World War II, Southern Railway placed under Government control.

Politics

1907 saw Horsell merge into the Woking Urban District Council.

In 1933, Chertsey Rural District Council abolished; and most of Byfleet and Pyrford Parishes and part of Woodham tithing in Chertsey Parish and part of Bisley Parish were joined with Woking Urban District Council.

Then in 1936, a small part of Byfleet, around the Mill, that had been joined with Walton and Weybridge. The new W.U.D.C. boundary in 1936 was mostly the same as the current Woking Borough boundary.

During World War II, Surrey was divided into two emergency control areas.

The West Emergency Area comprised the councils Bagshot RD, Caterham and Warlingham UD, Chertsey UD, Dorking UD, Dorking and Horley RD, Egham UD, Farnham UD, Frimley and Camberley UD, Godalming RD, Guildford B, Guildford RD, Hambledon UD, Leatherhead UD, Reigate B, Walton and Weybridge UD and Woking UD.

East Emergency Area (later called = Group 9 London CD) comprised the councils Banstead UD, Barnes B, Beddington and Wallington B, Carshalton UD, Coulsdon and Purley UD, Croydon CB, Epsom and Ewell B, Esher UD, Kingston B, Malden and Coombe B, Merton and Morden UD, Mitcham B, Sutton and Cheam B, Richmond B, Surbiton B and Wimbledon B

CB=County Borough, B=Borough, UD=Urban District and RD=Rural District

Martinsyde in Woking

Formed by Helmut P Martin and George H Handasyde in 1908, the Brooklands-based Martin and Handasyde aircraft company changed its name to Martinsyde Ltd in 1915 and then moved its office and aircraft manufacturing activities to the former Oriental Institute in Woking. By 1918, Martinsyde aircraft production had increased to such an extent that it was Britain’s third largest aircraft manufacturer. In 1920, the factory was devastated by fire and aircraft production ended although motorcycle production continued until the company entered receivership in 1922. In 1924, Martinsyde’s assets passed to the Aircraft Disposal Company (ADC). In 1926, the site became James Walker Engineering to be renamed Lion Works.

Post-1945

In 1983, Woking was twinned with Amstelveen in the Netherlands, though the Charter of Friendship was signed in 1989. Then in 1992 Woking was twinned with Le Plessis-Robinson in France, though the Charter of Friendship was signed in 1993. In 1999, Woking twinned with Rastatt in Germany, though the Charter of Friendship was signed in 2001.

Large local employers

In 1947 Kenwood started in Woking leaving the town two years later. In 1957 James Walker Engineering opened a new site in Old Woking; it closed in 2006. In 1963, McLaren Racing Team formed; in 1999 they started to build the new Mercedes SLR.

In 1976 British American Tobacco moved into Export House Tower. Telewest took up occupancy in 2001, becoming Virgin Media six years later. In 2009, Mouchel Group PLC moved from West Hall in nearby West Byfleet into Export House, along with Mustang Engineering.

Sports

1954 Woking Squash Club was formed and in 1968 Woking Archery Club was established. In 1994 Woking Football Club won the FA Trophy, winning it again in 1997.

Town planning

1953 the Surrey Plan foresaw a Woking Urban District population of about 67,000 in the mid-1970s, but the 1961 Census figures exceeded that amount. In 1965, a revised town plan foresaw a population of 97,000 by 1981 and proposed building 3 new housing schemes, one of which was known as ‘Slococks’, to be built on nurserylands owned by Slococks. By 1970, New Ideal Homes and Woking Council agreed to a partnership to build ‘Slococks’.

In 1973 the plan to build a housing estate was approved by the Government. The project was called Goldsworth Park. Work started in Goldsworth Vale (phase one was Wilders Close etc.), with plans to build approx. 4,500 homes for approx. 15,000 residents. It also planned for a lake, sports facilities, golf course, shops, swimming-pool, library, industrial estate, youth centres, pubs, churches, fire station and social facilities. A year later the first owner moved into the estate.

Facilities

In 1971 Wolsey Place Shopping Centre opened. About this time Centre Halls and Woking Centre Library opened.

Then in 1973 the new covered Woking Swimming Pool was opened (called the Centre Pool), near to where Toys’R'Us and Peacocks Corner are now on the A320. The Pool in the Park opened in 1989.

In 1977, Marjorie Richardson (the former 46th Woking Urban District Council Chairman for 1962/3) opened a centre in Woking for retired people. 1983 saw the opening of the Woking Civic Offices by the Duke of Gloucester.

In 1992, Peacocks Shopping Centre, Library, Town Gate, Cinema and New Victoria Theatre and the Leisure Lagoon at Pool in the Park opened. Centre Halls, Centre Pool and Woking Centre Library had been demolished to make room for them. Then in 1996, The Planets Entertainment complex was completed.

In 1999, the Surrey History Centre officially opened by HRH Charles, The Prince of Wales. In 2007, work finished on the Albion Square canopy outside the town side of Woking railway station costing 3.1 million.

Politics

In 1974, Woking Borough Council was formed, replacing the Urban District Council and was under Conservative Control. In 1994 Woking Borough Council switched from Conservative to No Overall Control. In 1999, Ian Eastwood became Deputy Mayor. Also in that year, the South East Regional Assembly was set up covering Kent, Sussex, Hampshire and the Isle of Wight, Surrey, Berkshire, Buckinghamshire and Oxfordshire.

In 2006, Woking Borough Council announced a Housing Private Finance Initiative (PFI) project called Priority Homes – Putting Affordable Housing First. The proposed development will provide 190 affordable houses within a mixed tenure community on a single site, to the north of Moor Lane, in Westfield.

On Friday 23 March 2007, HRH Prince Charles opened a climate change exhibition at The Peacocks shopping centre. The exhibition, a joint venture by Business in the Community and the British Council of Shopping Centres (BCSC) endorsed by the Climate Group, features displays with information on “issues of recycling, energy use, transport, waste reduction and locally sourced food.”

Telephone codes

Sometime between 1989 and 1994, it had changed from 04862 to 0483. The original reason for this was that 04862 was a RING code of GUILDFORD and actually meant 0GU62. British Telecom decided to move most UK RING codes to their related CORE codes (Guildford CORE code 0483 actually stood for 0GU3).

In 1994, Woking’s STD telephone code changed from 0483 to 01483 along with most areacodes in the UK on Phoneday.

Transport issues

South side of Woking Station

On 14 December 1993, an explosion on the railway lines between Woking and West Byfleet disrupted rail traffic and forced the closure of 9 stations in the area.

In 1996 South West Trains won the franchise for most rail routes through Woking Station (the former BR Network South East/South West Division). In 2002, Arriva’s Woking depot in Goldsworth Park Trading Estate closed, buses moving to Guildford.

Other notable events

In 1963, the Rolling Stones played a concert at the ‘Atalanta’ Ballroom in Woking.

Paul Weller was born on 25 May 1958, in Sheerwater. He went on to form the Jam in 1972.

In 2001, C&A closed its Swiftflow distribution depot on Goldsworth Park Trading Estate. Then in 2003, a new, bigger warehouse was built on the site of the old C+A warehouse in Kestrel Way.

Mayors of Woking

See List of Mayors of Woking

Partisan composition of Woking Borough Council

Woking Borough Council is usually elected by thirds: That is, approximately one-third of the members are re-elected at each election, each serving four year terms, with one year out of every four not having Council elections.

The Council was, however, re-elected whole in 2000 after wholesale boundary changes to the Wards.

Year

Conservative

Labour

Lib Dem

Independent

Other

1999

12

7

14

1

0

2000

14

5

16

1

0

2002

17

5

13

1

0

2003

17

6

12

1

0

2004

17

4

15

0

0

2006

15

3

18

0

0

2007

19

0

17

0

0

Party Control

19741986: Conservative

19861992: No Overall Control

19921994: Conservative

19941996: No Overall Control

19961998: Liberal Democrats

19982007: No Overall Control

2007resent: Conservative

See also

Woking (UK Parliament constituency)

References

^ Ekwall, E., The Concise Oxford Dictionary of English Place-Names, 4th edn., Oxford University Press, 1960, p. 529.

^ See e.g. Stenton, F.M., ‘Medeshamstede and its Colonies’, in Stenton, D.M. (ed.), Preparatory to Anglo-Saxon England Being the Collected Papers of Frank Merry Stenton, Oxford University Press, 1970, and Blair, J., ‘Frithuwold’s kingdom and the origins of Surrey’, in Bassett, S. (ed.), The Origins of Anglo-Saxon Kingdoms, Leicester University Press, 1989.

^ Birch, W. de Grey, Cartularium Saxonicum, 3 vols., London, 1885-93, no.133.

^ Anglo-Saxon Charter S 144 Archive Peterborough British Academy ASChart Project. Retrieved on May 20, 2008.

^ See e.g. Garmonsway, G.N., The Anglo-Saxon Chronicle, Dent, Dutton, 1972 & 1975, p. 53.

^ Williams, A. & Martin, G.H. (eds.), Domesday Book A Complete Translation, Penguin, 2002, pp. 71, 74.

^ ‘Parishes: Woking’, A History of the County of Surrey: Volume 3 (1911), pp. 381-390. URL: http://www.british-history.ac.uk/report.aspx?compid=42992. Date accessed: 08 May 2008.

^ Local Elections, 1999

^ Local Elections, 2000

^ Local Elections, 2002

^ Local Elections, 2003

^ Local Elections, 2004

^ Local Elections, 2006

^ Local Elections, 2007

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by Joost J. Bakker IJmuiden

William Gillette

Youth

The neighborhood where William Gillette was born, Nook Farm in Hartford, Connecticut, was a literary and intellectual center, with such residents as Mark Twain, Harriet Beecher Stowe and Charles Dudley Warner.

Gillette’s father was Francis Gillette, a former United States Senator and crusader for the abolition of slavery, public education, temperance and women’s suffrage. His mother was Elisabeth Daggett Hooker, a descendant of the Reverend Thomas Hooker, the Puritan leader who founded the town of Hartford and either wrote or inspired the first written constitution in history to form a government. In the Gillette home, young Will grew up with his three brothers and a sister. One other sister, Mary, died as a small child. Another brother, Edward H. Gillette, later became a farmer, newspaper editor and congressman from Iowa.

His oldest brother, Frank Ashbell, went to California and died there in 1859 from consumption (tuberculosis). The next brother, Robert, joined the Union army and served in the Antietam campaign, was invalided home sick, recovered, and joined the Navy. Assigned to the U.S.S. Gettysburg, Robert took part in both assaults on Fort Fisher, but was tragically killed the morning after the surrender of the fort when the powder magazine exploded. When brother Edward went west to Iowa, and sister Elisabeth married George Henry Warner, both in 1863, William was left as the only child in the household.

As a student, Gillette specialized in oratory and engineering. But he had always wanted to be an actor and, at age 20, left Hartford to begin his apprenticeship. He briefly worked for a stock company in New Orleans and then returned to New England where, on Mark Twain’s own recommendation, he debuted at the Globe Theater of Boston with Twain’s stage-play The Gilded Age, in 1875. Afterward, Gillette was a stock actor for six years through Boston, New York and the Midwest.

During these years, Gillette irregularly attended classes at a few institutions, although he never completed their programs. His family was not overly happy about his chosen profession, but (contrary to many sources) he was not disinherited. In fact, his father, Francis, who had held the strongest objections to the theater in general, offered the least resistance, and drove him to the train station, telling his son that he had driven two other sons to this same station and they had never returned; William was to make sure he was the exception. Francis supplied him with an allowance on which to subsist (his apprenticeship was without pay). And, when the old Senator’s health went downhill late in 1878, William forsook the stage for more than a year to care for his father in his final illness. Upon the old Senator’s death, Will and George Henry Warner were named executors of Francis’ estate, and they, Elisabeth and Edward shared in the inheritance.

In 1882 Gillette married Helen Nichols of Detroit. They were blissfully happy. She died in 1888 from peritonitis, caused by a ruptured appendix. He was grief-stricken for years and in the Spring of 1890 was struck down with tuberculosis. He did not act again for four years, and he never remarried.

Playwright, Director and Actor

Gillette in Secret Service.

In 1881, while performing at Cincinnati, Gillette was hired as playwright, director and actor for per week by two of the Frohman brothers, Gustave and Daniel. The first play he wrote and produced was The Professor. It debuted in the Madison Square Theater, lasting 151 performances, with a subsequent tour through many states (as far west as St. Louis, Missouri). That same year, he produced Esmeralda, written together with Frances Hodgson Burnett.

Early in his career, Gillette figured out that it would be in the triple role of playwright, director and actor that he would make the most money, and he also figured out that the best way to fill theaters was by giving the public what it wanted: clear, wholesome entertainment focusing on issues of love, honor, integrity and nobility. He also realized, and his mechanical and engineering inclinations helped, that special effects in sound, lighting, and stage settings would bring the customers out. When he was starring in Held by the Enemy, he invented a manner in simulating the sound of a horse’s hoofs, and for Sherlock Holmes he developed the rising and lowering of the curtain in total darkness at the beginning and the end of each act.

Among the premier matinee idols of his day, he was described by Amy Leslie as ne of Gibson notables materialized.” He stood six feet, three inches tall, slender but well-proportioned, with an aristocratic face and a quietly dignified and manly demeanor. He belonged to the “heroic school,” standing strong and silent in the midst of chaos. His typical quiet “he-man” role would later be taken over by such stalwarts as Gary Cooper, Clint Eastwood and John Wayne. Never bombastic, neither an orator nor a declaimer, his acting was understated, always spontaneous and natural, subtle, and quiet, his effects achieved by suggestion rather than overt action. Lewis Strang observed that “he rarely gesticulates, and his bodily movements often seem purposely slow and deliberate. His composure is absolute and his mental grasp of a situation is complete.15]

He moved with skill and a commanding dignity, all eyes riveted to his stark, spare frame, his piercing eyes, and his metallic voice. Tall, dignified, impassive, and imperturbable, he was one of those actors whose own personality dominated every role he played, varying only in relation to which part of him the role demanded the whimsical and witty, or the strong and heroic. He believed that the actor whose personality best fits a role will perform it well; and the roles he created for himself were fashioned to fit his own personality and acting skills. On stage he was mesmerizing and profound, but not versatile. He was by all accounts a superior actor in every respect, but only within a limited range of roles.

He could mesmerize an audience simply by standing motionless and in complete silence, or by indulging in any one of his grand gestures or subtle mannerisms. He did not gesture often but, when he did, it meant everything. He would steal a scene with a mere nod, a shrug, a glance, a twitching of the fingers, a compression of his lips, or a hardening of his face. Slight inflections in his voice spoke wonders. ccasionally, Georg Schuttler pointed out, hen it was least expected, he gestured or moved his body so quickly that the speed of the action was compared to the swift opening and closing of a camera shutter.16]

He used his mind rather than his emotions, and carefully calculated every move, every nuance, every twitch, every change of expression, in order to produce the best effect. S. E. Dahlinger summed him up: ithout seeming to raise his voice or ever to force an emotion, he could be thrilling without bombast or infinitely touching without descending to sentimentality. One of his greatest strengths as an actor was the ability to say nothing at all on the stage, relying instead on an involved, inner contemplation of an emotional or comic crisis to hold the audience silent, waiting for the moment when he would speak again.17]

He was an unemotional actor, unable to emote, even in love scenes, about which Montrose Moses commented, e made appeal through the sentiment of situation, through the exquisite sensitiveness of outward detail, rather than through romantic attitude and heart fervor.”

His performances were renowned for the halting, even stumbling way he went about it. Life elements had entered acting, he declared, so to him each performance was a “life-simulation.” Therefore, it was important for actors and actresses to speak their lines lines already written and learned as if they are making them up as they go along, which of course is how real people talk in real life. The actor, Gillette said, must speak each line as if this was the first time those words were being said, and enter each room as if it was the first time he had done it, not the one hundredth. Thus, he would hesitate at times, stumble over words, and act as if he was truly making it up as he went along and not repeating lines he had been reciting over and over again in previous performances. Therefore, his performances were not smooth and seemingly effortless. He looked as if he hadn learned his part, as if he was ad-libbing or struggling to remember lines, or even making it up as he went along which was precisely the impression he wished to create, precisely the effect he was trying to achieve.

His repressed style also helped him to accommodate a voice that was really not strong to begin with. It was thin and light, crisp and clear, with a head-tone quality and a limited range. Morehouse described it as “dry, crisp, metallic, almost shrill.” Gretchen Finletter recalled that it was “a dry, almost monotonous voice admirably suited to the great Holmes.” Monotonous, Dennis Sherk pointed out, is ardly a complimentary term for an actor of Gillette stature, but it would appear that this monotonous delivery was deliberately effected. The ruse was evidently successful, for it was reported the monotone of his voice ad magic in it and lent quality to other voices speaking against it.21]

Most of all, his acting remained contemporary and modern. The Times noted in 1937 that, “it would be hard to convince that portion of the American public that knew and followed him that any better actor had ever trod the American stage. And it might be impossible to find any other actor who at 76 could revive a role from the Nineties and make a smashing tour with it through two seasons over the length and breadth of the country. It would be conservative to say that Mr. Gillette was the most successful of all American actors.”

In spite of his superior talent as an actor, however, Gillette left his original impact on the Western theater as a dramatist. His plays were known for their unity and tight construction at a time when most plays were not. And it was Gillette who led the way in providing realism in stage setting. He brought exquisite and authentic detail to his sets, realistic sound effects and startling lighting effects to all of his productions. He contributed technical and mechanical ideas that improved stage effects, his greatest single effect being the raising and the lowering of the curtain in total darkness so as to hide scene changes and, at the rising of the curtain, to reveal in the dawning light the set for the next scene. This, and eliminating between-act curtain calls and speeches, helped maintain the illusion the actors were trying to create. And the curtain effect was one of the means by which he not only maintained but actually emphasized the fourth wall separating the audience from the make-believe world on the stage. His dialogue was realistic and his characters, within the realms of farce and melodrama, were natural in both their behavior and their mannerisms. This made them easier to identify with and it made the dramatic scenes all the more dramatic.

He had a heightened sense of the dramatic, and his two most riveting scenes the hospital scene in Held by the Enemy and the Telegraph Office scene in Secret Service are still considered to be among the most dramatic scenes in the history of the American theater. Add to these the Stepney Gas Chamber scene in Sherlock Holmes and the blackout scene in Electricity, and you have a dramatist with an astounding knack for spine-tingling excitement.

He was creative in the way he developed his characters, and this really first came out in Held by the Enemy in which he did away with the traditionally clear-cut distinction between hero and villain, introduced characters who were sometimes a mixture of both, and made a spy the sympathetic hero of the play. Cousin Richard Burton wrote that illette has from the first been daring in his treatment of character. He hates the conventional as the devil holy water, and sometime puzzles his audience a bit by portraying a person who refuses to go into a category and be labeled villain or hero.24]

What made Gillette two Civil War plays unique and popular was that he refused to take sides. He treated North and South equally, bestowing integrity, loyalty and honor on both, even as he made a spy each play sympathetic hero. Yet, what set Gillette apart from all the rest was not simply his reliance on realism, his imperturbable naturalistic acting, or his superior sense of the dramatic. At a time when American art of all kinds was held by the British in very low esteem, he as also a pioneer in making American drama merican, rejecting what had been up until that time a pervasive European influence on American theater.25]

He was, in fact, the first American playwright whose authentically American plays were not only accepted but highly regarded on both sides of the Atlantic. This was no small achievement when, since his country founding, actors from both countries preferred only British plays to perform in, audiences in both countries wanted only British plays to watch, and American plays exported to England had to be converted by British play-doctors into British-flavored productions to even be staged. Gillette changed all that with Held by the Enemy. By the time Secret Service hit the sceptered isle, the conquest was history.

Inventor

During an 1886-87 production of Held by the Enemy, Gillette introduced a new method of his own devising which simulated the galloping of a horse. Where men had slammed halves of coconut shells on a slab of marble to simulate the sound, Gillette found this clumsy and unrealistic. Applied for on June 9, Letters Patent No. 389,294 was issued to him on September 11. It title is ethod of Producing Stage Effects. It was a method, not a mechanical device, so there were no illustrations in the two-page document. And the patent was very broad, introducing new and useful method of imitating the sound of a horse or horses approaching, departing, or passing at a gallop, trot, or any other desired gait, the same to be used in producing stage effects in theatrical or other performances or entertainments, exhibitions, &c.

His method consisted in eating with clappers, that represent the hoofs of a horse, upon some material that serves to represent the road-bed over which the horse is supposed to be traveling as well as tamping, pawing, or jumping about in a restive manner while the rider is mounting, and then starting off, first at a trot, then a gallop, and finally a run, or at any gait desired, in any order. He could also imitate the sounds of the hoofs pounding on different surfaces: tone, brick, clay, gravel, greensward, or when crossing bridges.26]

It was not the first patent he had applied for and received. In 1883 he filed the first of four patent requests with the United States Patent and Trademark Office for a Time-Stamp “as stamps upon the upper surface of papers a dial and one or more dial-pointers, representing the time of day at which the papers stamped by it were respectively so stamped.” All four requests were granted.

Comeback

Charles Frohman was a young Broadway producer who had been successful with the exchanging of theater productions between the USA and the UK. After he produced some of Gillette’s plays, the two formed a greater partnership. Their productions had great success, sweeping Gillette into London’s society spot, which had been historically reluctant to accept American theatre. With Held by the Enemy in 1887, Gillette became the first American playwright to achieve true success on British stages with an authentic American play.

Secret Service

Gillette finally came fully out of retirement in October 1894 in Too Much Johnson, adapted from the French farce, La Plantation Thomassin, by Maurice Ordonneau. Following its debut at the Park Theatre in Waltham, Massachusetts, it opened on October 29 at the Columbia Theatre in Brooklyn. This farce was extremely popular, and has been produced on stage several times in the century since its debut.

In 1895 he brought forth the greatest play he would ever write, Secret Service. It was the absolute best of the many Civil War plays produced after the war, and it was the literary apex of his career as a playwright and dramatist. His approach was even-handed and wholly nonpartisan, bestowing on characters from both sides of the conflict all the finer qualities of patriotism, courage and honor that good melodrama demanded. He never got into the reasons for the war. The only motivation he allowed his characters was their allegiances to their respective causes, and the allegiances of both sides were given equal honor and nobility of purpose and action. Also, as he had in Held by the Enemy, Gillette turned a spy into the sympathetic hero of the play, and he made a romance the main focus of the play rather than the military conflict in which the protagonists were involved.

Secret Service was first performed in the Broad Street Theatre in Philadelphia for two weeks beginning on May 13, 1895, with Maurice Barrymore in the lead role. Gillette rewrote some of the script and starred in the play when it opened at the Garrick Theatre on October 5, 1896. It was the first time he had taken on the role of the romantic hero in one of his own plays. The production ran until March 6, 1897, and was an enormous critical and popular success.

Following its American success, Frohman booked Secret Service to open at the Adelphi Theatre on the West End in London on May 15, 1897, and it became the cornerstone of Frohman achievements in England.

Sherlock Holmes

Meanwhile Sir Arthur Conan Doyle, feeling that Holmes was stifling him and keeping him from more worthy literary work, had finished his Sherlock Holmes saga and killed Holmes off in The Final Problem, published in 1893. Afterwards, however, Doyle found himself in need of further income, as he was planning to build a new home. He decided to take his character to the stage, and wrote a play. Holmes had appeared in two earlier stage works by other authors, Charles Brookfield’s skit Under the Clock (1893) and John Webb’s play Sherlock Holmes (1894); nevertheless, Doyle now wrote a new 5-act play with Holmes and Watson in their freshmen years as detectives.

Doyle offered the role first to Henry Irving and then to Beerbohm Tree. But Irving turned it down and Tree demanded that Doyle readapt Holmes to his peculiar acting profile; he also wanted to play both Holmes and Professor Moriarty. Doyle turned down the deal, considering that this would debase the character.

Noting that the play needed a lot of work, literary agent A. P. Watt sent the script to Charles Frohman who traveled to London to meet Doyle. There, Frohman suggested the prospect of an adaptation by Gillette. Doyle endorsed this and Frohman obtained the staging-copyright. Doyle insisted on only one thing: there was to be no love interest in “Sherlock Holmes.” Frohman uttered a Victorian rendition of “Trust me!”

Gillette, who then read the entire collection for the first time, liked the idea and started the piece’s outlining in San Francisco, while still touring in Secret Service. Both artists became confident. On one occasion, after they had exchanged numerous telegrams about the play, Gillette telegraphed Doyle: “May I marry Holmes?” The unwavering Doyle responded: “You may marry him, or murder or do what you like with him.”

The love interest was in keeping with the melodramatic style of the time, which centered on romance and happy endings. Gillette always gave his audiences some degree of romance, and always happy endings.

Coins Famous Phrase

Gillette’s version consisted of five scenes in two acts. Combining elements from several of Doyle’s stories, he mainly utilized the plots “A Scandal in Bohemia” and “The Final Problem”. Also, it had elements from A Study in Scarlet, The Sign of Four, The Boscombe Valley Mystery and The Greek Interpreter. However, with the exception of Holmes, Watson, Moriarty and Billy the Pageboy, all the other characters were his own inventions.

Different from the intellectual-only original, “a machine rather than a man,” Gillette portrayed Holmes as brave and open to express his feelings. He wore the deerstalker cap on stage, which was originally featured in illustrations by Sidney Paget in the 1890s. Gillette also introduced the curved or bent briar pipe, instead of the straight pipe pictured by illustrators, supposedly so that Gillette could pronounce his lines more easily; actually, it’s as difficult to pronounce lines clearly whether the pipe is bent or straight, and it may have been that Gillette’s face was easier to see from the seats with a bent briar in his mouth. Gillette also made use of a magnifying-glass, a violin and a syringe, which all came from the Canon and which were all now established as “props” to the Sherlock Holmes character.

Gillette formulated the complete phrase: “Oh, this is elementary, my dear fellow”, which was later reused by Clive Brook, the first spoken-cinema Holmes, as: “Elementary, my dear Watson”, Holmes’ best known line and one of the most famous expressions in the English language.

Irene Adler, The Woman of the series, was replaced by Alice Faulkner, young and beautiful lady who was planning to avenge her sister’s murder but eventually falls in love with Holmes; and the pageboy, nameless in the Canon, was given the name Billy by Gillette, a name he carried over into the Basil Rathbone films and has retained ever since.

Sherlock Holmes, or The Strange Case of Miss Faulkner (later renamed Sherlock Holmes – A Drama in Four Acts) was finished. Then, one night as the Secret Service company was playing in San Francisco and staying in the Baldwin Hotel. The script was in the possession of his secretary, William Postance, in his room at the Baldwin when fire swept from the property room of the Baldwin Theatre through the hotel in the early morning hours of November 23. The financial loss was estimated at nearly ,500,000. Only two deaths were known at first, though several people were missing; and, while the flames were confined to the Baldwin, smoke and water damaged the adjoining structures.

Postance barely escaped, but the entire script was reduced to ashes. Postance went to the Palace Hotel, where Gillette was sound asleep, and awakened him at 3:30 in the morning to break the bad news. Not overly happy about being disturbed in the middle of the night, Gillette simply asked, s this hotel on fire? Assured that it was not, he told Postance, ell, come and tell me about it in the morning.31]

With both original scripts — Doyle’s and Gillette’s adaptation — destroyed, Gillette rewrote the piece, either from notes or an extra copy, in a month.

Doyle and Gillette had never met. So Doyle’s shock was understandable when the train came to a halt and Sherlock Holmes himself stepped onto the platform. Yet, there he was, the long spare figure with the aquiline features and deep-set eyes. Sitting in his landau, Doyle contemplated the apparition with open-mouthed awe until the actor whipped out a magnifying lens, examined Doyle’s face closely, and declared (precisely as Holmes himself might have done), “Unquestionably an author!”

Doyle broke into a hearty laugh and the partnership was sealed with the mirth and hospitality of the weekend at Undershaw. The two became lifelong friends.

Holmes Tour

Wiliam Gillette as Sherlock Holmes

Lithograph – 1900

Library of Congress Collection

After a copyright performance in England, Sherlock Holmes debuted on October 23, 1899, at the Star Theatre in Buffalo. Following appearances in Rochester and Syracuse, and Scranton and Wilkes-Barre in Pennsylvania, Sherlock Holmes made its Broadway debute at the Garrick Theater on November 6, 1899, performing until June 16, 1900. It was an instant success. Gillette applied all his dazzling special effects over the massive audience.

But he faced sharp, even derisive, criticism from the newspapers, especially about Holmes falling in love. In Conan Doyle’s original novels, Holmes was said to have an “aversion to women.” As a matter of fact, throughout 34 years, the critics nearly always praised the acting and the special effects, but not the play itself.

The company also toured nationally, along the western United States, from October 8, 1900, to March 30, 1901. This was bolstered by another company also, with Cuyler Hastings, through minor cities and Australia.

After a pre-debut week in Liverpool, the company debuted in London (September 9, 1901), at the Lyceum Theatre, performing in Duke of York’s Theatre later.

It was another hit with its audience, despite not convincing the critics. The 12 weeks originally appointed were at full-hall. The production was extended until April 12, 1902 (256 presentations), including a gala for King Edward VII on February 1. Then it toured England and Scotland with two ancillary groups: North (with H.A. Saintsbury) and South (with Julian Royce). At the same time, the play was produced in foreign countries (such as Australia, Sweden, and South Africa).

The dean of British actors, Sir Henry Irving, was touring America when Sherlock Holmes opened at the Garrick Theatre, and Irving saw Gillette as Holmes. The two actors met and Irving concluded negotiations for Sherlock Holmes to begin an extended season at the Lyceum Theatre in London beginning in early May. Gillette was the first American actor ever to be invited to perform on that illustrious stage, which was an enormous honor. Irving was the dean of British actors, the first ever to be knighted, and the Lyceum was his theater.

Sherlock Holmes made its British debut at the Shakespeare Theatre in Liverpool on September 2, 1900. It was the beginning of a major triumph. Gillette then opened Sherlock Holmes at the Lyceum in London on September 9. The Lyceum tour alone netted Gillette nearly 0,000, and it made the most money of all the productions in the final years of Irving tenure at the Lyceum.

In the USA, Gillette toured again from 1902 to 1903, until November 1903, when Gillette starred in The Admirable Crichton by James M. Barrie, requested personally by Barrie. His own play, Electricity, appeared in 1910, and he starred in Victorien Sardou’s Diplomacy in 1914, Clare Kummer’s A Successful Calamity in 1917, Barrie’s Dear Brutus in 1918, and his own The Dream Maker in 1921. A brief revival of Sherlock Holmes in early 1923 did not generate enough interest to return to Broadway, so he retired to his Hadlyme estate.

Worldwide Fame

In his lifetime, Gillette presented Sherlock Holmes approximately 1,300 times (third in the historical stage-record), before American and English audiences. He was also shown widely, through appearances in many magazines, by way of photographs or illustrated caricatures, and was also well represented on the covers of theater programs.

Meanwhile, around the world, other productions took place, based on Gillette’s Sherlock Holmes. These were either satiric, which were very successful, and/or undue; some lasted several seasons. Frohman’s lawyers tried to curb the illegal phenomenon exhaustedly, traveling overseas, from court to court.

Even Gillette parodied it once. The Painful Predicament of Sherlock Holmes the first of a handful of one-act plays he would write was written for two benefits, and was performed for the first time at the Joseph Jefferson Holland Benefit at the Metropolitan Opera House on March 24. Holland was an actor who had been forced to retire the year before due to illness. The skit was titled The Frightful Predicament of Sherlock Holmes, and there were but five characters in the entire skit: Holmes, Billy the pageboy, the madwoman Gwendolyn Cobb (who had nearly all of the dialogue), and the two aluable assistants who come to take the madwoman away. Its original title was A fantasy in about one-tenth of an act, and the entire scene transpires in Holmes Baker Street room omewhere about the date of day before yesterday.34]

Retitled The Harrowing Predicament of Sherlock Holmes, it was performed again on April 14 for the benefit of the Actors Society of America at the Criterion Theatre, and again at the Duke of York Theatre in London when Gillette inserted it on October 3 as a curtain-raiser for Clarice. Playing Billy in the curtain-raiser, as well as in Clarice, was young Charles Chaplin.

Models for Holmes’ portrait

The magazines Collier’s Weekly (USA) and The Strand (UK) pushed Conan Doyle avidly, offering to continue the Sherlock Holmes series for a generous salary. The new chapters were first published in 1901, first with a prequel and later with Holmes revived definitively (1903). It continued for another quarter-century.

Gillette was the model for pictures by the artist Frederic Dorr Steele, which were featured in Collier’s Weekly then and reproduced by American media. Additionally, Steele contributed to Conan Doyle’s book-covers, Gillette’s short stories (Baker Street Irregulars) and, later, doing marketing when Gillette made his farewell performances.

As international copyright did not yet exist, Conan Doyle’s series were widely printed throughout the USA, mostly with pictures of Gillette on stage. P. F. Collier & Son owned the copyrights of Steele’s illustrations and issued drawings in many editions.

In 1907 he was caricatured on the cover of Vanity Fair Magazine by the famous Sir Leslie Ward (who signed his work “Spy”), and later became the subject of such famous American caricaturists as Pamela Coleman Smith, Ralph Barton and Al Freuh.

By means of such international exposure, Gillette became the image of Holmes for decades, created the very image of Holmes that remains to this day, and made the detective so real that many, both then and now, believe the detective really lived.

Gillette Castle

Gillette Castle.

While most of Gillette work has long been forgotten, his last great masterpiece is still well known today: his castellated etirement home.

The Washington Post called it he acme of his dreams.38] He once called it his “Hadlyme stone heap. Others called it he rock pile or illette’s folly.” Today, we call it simply Gillette Castle.

Ironically he never referred to it as a castle, although his neighbors often did, but it ummarizes the success upon which all his dreams were built, dreams that urned his picturesque estate into a small boy dream of paradise.38]

In 1913, while sailing up the Connecticut River in his houseboat, Gillette spotted a hill, part of the Seven Sisters, over a ferry’s pier in Hadlyme. He docked, disembarked and climbed up. He was so amazed by the view that he purchased 115 acres (0.47 km2) of land, the next month. He decided to build up a castle at this location, supposedly inspired by or modeled loosely after the Chteau de Moulineaux, a French feudal castle built during the era of the Dukes of Normandy and associated in folklore with Robert Le Diable (Robert the Devil). The design of the castle and its grounds features numerous innovative designs, and the entire castle was designed, to the smallest details, by Gillette himself.

During the five years of construction, Gillette lived aboard his houseboat, the Aunt Polly, named after a mountain woman in South Carolina who tended to him when he was sick, or at a home he had purchased in Greenport, Long Island. The material for the castle was carried up by an aerial-trolley designed by him. The castle’s walls tapered from 5 feet (1.5 m) thick at the base to 3 feet (0.91 m) at the upper levels. The castle possessed 24 rooms and 47 doors, with hand-carved puzzle locks, which were also devised by Gillette. The main salon measured 30 by 50 feet (15 m) and was 19 feet (5.8 m) in height, featuring a complex mirrored system of surveillance of the castle’s public rooms from his bedroom. He explained this as a means “to make great entrances in the opportune moment.”

The mansion was finished in 1919, at a cost of 1 million US dollars. Gillette called it Seven Sisters. Its small train was his personal pride. The train’s layout was 3 miles (4.8 km) long, and it traveled all around the property, crossing several bridges and going through one tunnel designed by Gillette. Gillette also enjoyed strolls on his property in company of his guests, who included the noted physicist Albert Einstein, former U.S. President Calvin Coolidge, and former Mayor of Tokyo Ozaki Yukio, whose 1912 gift of the Yoshino cherry blossoms still beautifies the nation’s capital.

After Gillette died with no wife or children, his will stated

I would consider it more than unfortunate for me should I find myself doomed, after death, to a continued consciousness of the behavior of mankind on this planet to discover that the stone walls and towers and fireplaces of my home founded at every point on the solid rock of Connecticut; that my railway line with its bridges, trestles, tunnels through solid rock, and stone culverts and underpasses, all built in every particular for permanence (so far as there is such a thing); that my locomotives and cars, constructed on the safest and most efficient mechanical principles; that these, and many other things of a like nature, should reveal themselves to me as in the possession of some blithering saphead who had no conception of where he is or with what surrounded.

In 1943, Connecticut’s government took the property, re-baptizing it Gillette’s Castle and Gillette Castle State Park.

Located in 67 River Road, East Haddam, Connecticut, it was reopened in 2002. After a four years of restoration, costing 11 million dollars, it now includes a museum, park, and many theatrical celebrations. It receives 100,000 annual visitors, who can hike or picnic there.

The castle is now No. 86002103 on the National Register of Historic Places., and it remains a distinctive feature of the view from the Connecticut River.

Last Years and Farewell Tour

Gillette announced his retirement many times throughout his career, despite not actually accomplishing this until just after his death. The first announced retirement took place after the turn of the century, after he purchased the boat Aunt Polly which was 144 feet (44 m) in length and weighed 200 tons.

Naturally, Sherlock Holmes was Gillette’s foremost production with 1,300 performances (in 1899-1901, 1905, 1906, 1910, 1915, 1923, and 1929-1932). While performing on other tours, he was always forced by popular demand to include at least one extra performance of Sherlock Holmes.

In 1929, at the age of 76, Gillette started the farewell tour of Sherlock Holmes, in Springfield, Massachusetts. Scheduled for two seasons, it was eventually extended into 1932. The first run of the tour included in the cast Theatre Guild actress Peg Entwistle as Gillette’s female lead. Entwistle was the young ingenue who committed suicide by jumping from the Hollywoodland sign in 1932.

In the New Amsterdam Theater of New York, on November 25, 1929, a great ceremony took place. Gillette received a signature book, autographed by 60 different world eminences. There, in his speech, Arthur Conan Doyle stated: “I consider the production a personal gratification… My only complaint is that you made the poor hero of the anemic printed page a very limp object as compared with the glamour of your own personality which you infuse into his stage presentment.” Former President Calvin Coolidge commented that the production was a “public service”. And Booth Tarkington told him, “I would rather see you play Sherlock Holmes than be a child again on Christmas morning.” On the same occasion, the critics concurred, praising the performance’s sentimentally. His final appearance on stage as Sherlock Holmes took place on March 19, 1932, in Wilmington, Delaware.

His last appearance on stage was in Austin Strong Three Wise Fools in 1936, co-starring with Charles Coburn, James Kirkwood, Brandon Tynan, Isabell Irving, and Mary Rogers, daughter of comedian Will Rogers.

Gillette died on April 29, 1937, in Hartford, due to a pulmonary hemorrhage. He was buried in the Hooker family cemetery, at Farmington, Hartford County, Connecticut, next to his wife.

Bibliography

In his life, Gillette wrote 13 original plays, 7 adaptations and some collaborations, encompassing farce, melodrama and novel adaption. Two pieces about the Civil War remain his greatest works: Held by the Enemy (1886) and Secret Service (1896). Both were successful with both the public and the critics, and Secret Service remains the only one of his plays available today on commercial VHS and DVD from a 1977 Broadway Theater Archive production starring John Lithgow and Meryl Streep. He reaped more than million dollars in gaining, most of it from his own and other touring productions of Sherlock Holmes.

Bullywingle the Beloved (performed in Hartford, Connecticut, October 3, 1892, again in March 1873).

The Twins of Siam (July 1879, never produced).

The Professor (Summer 1879, tryout in Columbus, Ohio).

Esmeralda (adapted from short story by Frances Hodgson Burnett, October 29, 1881, Madison Square Theatre, New York; published by the Madison Square Theatre in 1881).

Digby Secretary (adapted from Gustave Von Moser’s Der Bibliothekar, September 29, 1884, New York Comedy Theatre, New York).

The Private Secretary (adapted from Gustave Von Moser’s Der Bibliothekar, February 9, 1885, Madison Square Theatre, New York).

Held by the Enemy (February 22, 1886, Criterion Theatre, Brooklyn, New York; published by Samuel French Ltd. in 1898).

She (Dramatization of novel by Rider Haggard, November 29, 1887, Niblo Garden, New York).

A Legal Wreck (August 14, 1888, Madison Square Theatre, New York; published by the Rockwood Publishing Company in 1890).

A Legal Wreck (Novelization, Rockwood Pub. Co., 1888).

A Confederate Casualty (1888, Never produced).

Robert Elsmere (Partial dramatization of novel by Mary Augusta Ward; unable to obtain Mrs. Ward’s permission, Gillette discontinued work on the project, and it was dramatized by other playwrights and produced without his participation).

“Mr. William Gillette Surveys the Field, Harper Weekly, Vol. XXXIII, No. 1676, February 2, 1889, Supplement, pp. 98-99.

All the Comforts of Home (adapted from Carl Lauf’s Ein Toller Einfall, March 3, 1890, Boston Museum, Boston, Massachusetts; published by H. Roorbach in 1897).

Maid of All Work (1890, never produced).

Mr. Wilkinson Widows (adapted from Alexandre Bisson Feu Toupinel, March 23, 1891, National Theatre, Washington, D.C.).

Settled Out of Court (adapted from Alexandre Bisson La Famille Pont-Biquet, August 8, 1892, Fifth Avenue Theatre, New York).

The War of the American Revolution (January 1893, ine scenes with historical commentary, written for the arnum & Baily people, for a libretto to use with their ast Episodic Drama of the Revolution).

Ninety Days (February 6, 1893, Broadway Theatre, New York).

Too Much Johnson (adapted from Maurice Ordonneau La Plantation Thomassin, November 26, 1894, Standard Theatre, New York; published in 1912).

Secret Service (May 13, 1895, Broad Street Theatre, Philadelphia, Pennsylvania; published in 1898; published by Samuel French Ltd. in 1898).

“The Tale of My First Success, New York Dramatic Mirror, The Christmas Number 1886, December 26, 1896, p. 30.

Because She Loved Him So (October 28, 1898, Hyperion Theatre, New Haven, Connecticut).

Sherlock Holmes (with Arthur Conan Doyle, October 23, 1899, Star Theatre, Buffalo, New York; published by Samuel French, Ltd., in 1922, by Doubleday, Doran & Company, Inc., in 1935, and by Doubleday in 1976 and 1977).

“The House-Boat in America, The Outlook Magazine, Vol. 65, No. 5, June 2, 1900.

The Frightful Predicament of Sherlock Holmes (March 24, 1905, Joseph Jefferson Holland Benefit, Metropolitan Opera House; later retitled The Harrowing Predicament of Sherlock Holmes and finally The Painful Predicament of Sherlock Holmes, published by B. Abramson in 1955).

Clarice (September 4, 1905, Liverpool, England).

Ticey, or That Little Affair of Boyd (June 15, 1908, originally retitled A Private Theatrical, then retitled A Maid-of-All Work, later retitled That Little Affair of Boyd, Columbia Theatre, Washington, D.C.

Samson (adapted from Henri Bernstein Samson, October 19, 1908, Criterion Theatre, New York).

The Red Owl, originally titled he Robber (One-Act Play, August 9, 1909, London Coliseum; published in One-Act Plays for Stage and Study, Second Series, Samuel French, Ltd., 1925, pp. 47-80.

Among Thieves (One-Act Play, September 6, 1909, Palace Theatre, London; published in One-Act Plays for Stage and Study, Second Series, Samuel French, Ltd., 1925, pp. 246-267.

Electricity (September 26, 1910, Park Theatre, Boston, Massachusetts; published by Samuel French Ltd. in 1924).

Secret Service: Being the Happenings of a Night in Richmond in the Spring of 1865 (Novelization, Dodd, Mead and Company, New York, and Kessinger Publishing in the United Kingdom, 1912).

Butterfly on the Wheel (1914, never produced).

Diplomacy (adapted from Victorien Sardou Dora, October 20, 1914, Empire Theatre, New York).

William Hooker Gillette: The Illusion of the First Time in Acting (The Dramatic Museum of Columbia University in Papers on Acting, Second Series, Number 1, 1915).

hen a Play Is Not a Play, Vanity Fair, Vol. 5, Nos. 5-7 – vol. 6, Nos. 2-4, January-June 1916, pp. 53.

Introduction to How to Write a Play, edited by Miles Dudley, Papers on Playmaking II (Dramatic Museum of Columbia University, 1916), pp. 1-8.

How Well George Does It (1919, never produced; published by Samuel French Ltd. in 1936).

merica Great Opportunity, in The World War: Utterances Concerning Its Issues and Conduct by Members of the American Academy of Arts and Letters, Printed for It Archives and For Free.

The Dream Maker (November 21, 1921, Empire Theatre, New York).

Sherlock Holmes, A Play (Samuel French, Ltd., 1922).

Winnie and the Wolves (dramatized from Bertram Atkey stories in the aturday Evening Post, May 14, 1923, Lyric Theatre, Philadelphia, Pennsylvania).

The Astounding Crime on Torrington Road (Novel, Harper & Brothers, 1927).

The Crown Prince of the Incas (1932-36, never completed).

Sherlock Holmes, A Play (Doubleday, Doran & Company, Inc., 1935).

In-life Published Editions of Sherlock Holmes

1922. First publication by Samuel French.

1935. Published by Doubleday, Doran & Co. It was a pricey edition, containing Gillette’s foreword, multi-paged feature on trivial data and illustrations by Frederic Dorr Steele.

Filmography

In 1916, Gillette starred the first cinema-adaptation of his Sherlock Holmes, albeit it was not the first film about Holmes. It was a seven-reel silent film by Essanay Film Manufacturing Co. directed by Arthur Berthelet. Marjorie Kay played Alice Faulkner and Ernest Manpani was Moriarty. One acid critic noted that Gillette was “about to lose his physical strength to perform the character” since then, insisting that he would not be able to repeat it over the 60 years old. No copy of the film has survived.

In 1922, Goldwyn Pictures filmed another version of Gillette’s play. It was directed by Albert Parker and John Barrymore played Holmes. This has recently been restored by the George Eastman House.

Secret Service was filmed in 1919 by Paramount Pictures, directed by Hugh Ford with Robert Warwick in Gillette’s role and Shirley Mason as the female lead.

Secret Service was filmed again in 1931 by Radio Pictures. It was directed by J. Walter Ruben and Richard Dix was the Union’s spy.

In 1977, as part of the Broadway Theatre Archive, a production of Secret Service was filmed starring a pair of young unknowns John Lithgow as Captain Thorne and, as Edith Varney in her very first appearance in a full-length film, Meryl Streep. This is the only play by Gillette still available on commercial VHS or DVD.

In 1981, Gillette play Sherlock Holmes was produced by Home Box Office, in only its second theater production, in collaboration with the Williamstown Theater Festival and artistic director Nikos Psacharopoulos, and was broadcast on November 19, 1981, with repeats on November 23, 27, 29, and December 1 and 5. This production starred Frank Langella as Holmes, Stephen Collins as Larrabee, Susan Clark as Madge Larrabee, Richard Woods as Dr. Watson, and 12-year-old Christian Slater as Billy the Pageboy. This production is not available on commercial VHS or DVD.

Radio

On October 20, 1930, Gillette performed the first serial radio-version of Sherlock Holmes: The Adventure of the Speckled Band. It was based on the original theater version by Conan Doyle, re-adapted by Edith Meiser, and was the first time Holmes was portrayed on radio as part of a continuing series. It was transmitted by WEAF-NBC (New York) and sponsored by G. Washington Coffee Co.. This show became the pilot of a series and, after Gillette, Richard Gordon took over the part for the remaining 34 programs in the series.

On November 18, 1935, Gillette, now 82 years old, performed his own Sherlock Holmes on WABC radio of New York. His play was again re-adapted by Edith Meiser. Reginald Mason played Dr. Watson and Charles Bryant played Professor Moriarty. Its duration was 50 minutes. This play too was the pilot for a new Holmes series by Lux Radio Theater. The New York Times said that Gillette was “still the best, with all his shades and improvisation.”

As Novelist

1927, The Astounding Crime on Torrington Road. Only mystery novel.

Legacy

Tryon, North Carolina

In 1891, after his first visiting of Tryon, North Carolina, Gillette began building his bungalow, which he later enlarged into a house. He named it Thousand Pines and it is privately owned today. In past years, in November, the town of Tryon celebrated the William Gillette Festival, honoring Gillette.

Read about Tryon’s 1998 Festival (External Link)

New York City

On December 7, 1934, Gillette attended the first dinner meeting of the Baker Street Irregulars in New York. To this day, the BSI honors him with the William Gillette Memorial Luncheon on the Friday afternoon of their annual January meeting in New York City.

Baker Street Irregulars Weekend, The Annual Gathering of the oldest Literary Society dedicated to Sherlock Holmes (External Link)

The Illusion of the First Time

As a theorist, Gillette is remembered for The Illusion of the First Time in Acting, a paper containing nothing new but all that was important to performance on the stage, collected for the first time into one expression. While all of it is common knowledge today, it was revolutionary when he wrote it, and it was a major departure from theatrical tradition and practice. Booth, Macready, Kean, Forrest, and Boucicault would have rejected it outright. Naturalness and realism, while expected today, and the norm, were not within the old school grasp.

Yet, up into the twenty-first century, there is hardly a concept referred to more often than the Illusion of the First Time. It is referred to over and over again in one school or another, in one writeup or another; and, in the year 2001, specific references, by his name, to his description of it were applied to two of the finest actors of the new generation.

D. K. Holm wrote of Johnny Depp in the Portland Mercury, merican playwright/actor William Gillette called good acting he illusion of the first time. This is Depp’s strong suit.46]

And, Steve Vineberg wrote of Robert Downey, Jr., at that time appearing in the hit Fox television sitcom, Ally McBeal and most recently the latest actor to play Sherlock Holmes, that here’s a mysterious beauty to Mr. Downey’s reading of (his lines), not only in his application of what William Gillette called he illusion of the first time the actor’s trick of making the lines sound as if they were newly minted but more movingly in Larry’s struggle to admit to feelings that he tends to submerge because they call up so much loss.47]

Quotations

“Elementary, my dear fellow! Elementary!”

“There isn any reason in the world why we can do as well in this farewell business as any other country on the face of the globe. We have the farewellers and the people to say farewell to. If I can only keep it up I will be even with my competitors by the Spring of 1922, and by the Winter of 1937 I will be well in the lead.”

“It just seems, somehow, that every five years finds me back again, so you can expect me back at it again once more in 1941. Probably in 1976, when they are celebrating the two-hundredth anniversary of the beginning of the Declaration of Independence, or what ever it is, 40 years from now, I’ll still be farewelling. I should apologize for being here, but I am a man among Yankees, and they take promises with a grain of salt in fact they usually take them home and pickle them in brine, so they probably knew I’d be back. Besides I have several good excuses but they really don’t count. And besides and you men who follow horse racing will know what I mean I’m not running against anyone, they’re merely letting me trot around the track.”

“Farewell, Good Luck, and Merry Christmas.”

References

^ Short biography on Henry Zecher website – http://www.henryzecher.com/gillettebio.htm

^ Riley, Dick; Pam McAllister (2005). The Bedside Companion to Sherlock Holmes. Barnes & Noble Books. pp. 5960. ISBN 978-0-7607-7156-3. ; Short biography on Henry Zecher website – http://www.henryzecher.com/gillettebio.htm

^ See Andrews, Kenneth R., Nook farm, Mark Twain’s Hartford Circle (Harvard University Press, 1950) and Van Why, Joseph S., Nook Farm (Harriet Beecher Stowe Center, Hartford, CT, 1975).

^ Andrews, Kenneth R., Nook Farm, Mark Twain’s Hartford Circle (Harvard University Press, 1950).

^ Hooker, Edward W., The Descendants of Rev. Thomas Hooker: Hartford, Connecticut, 1586-1908 (Edited by Margaret Huntington Hooker and printed for her at Rochester, N.Y., 1909; Legacy Reprint Series, Kessinger Publishing, LLC, 2007).

^ Sacramento Daily Union, August 8, 1859, notice, compiled by David Murray, Superintendent of the City Cemetery, reads: Mortality of the City. In the 1860 Mortality Schedule Index at the California State Library in Sacramento is an entry under Gillett, Frank A.; age 23; male; CT listed for state of birth; died Aug; listed as Farmer for occupation; died Sacramento County; enumeration district 2; township Sacramento City.

^ Burton, Nathaniel J., A Discourse Delivered January 29th, 1865, in Memory of Robert H. Gillette (Press of Wiley, Waterman & Eaton), 1865.

^ Robinson, Charles M., III, Hurricane of Fire, the Union Assault on Fort Fisher (Naval Institute Press, 1998), p. 184; Gragg, Rod, Confederate Goliath, the Battle of Fort Fisher (Harper Collins, 1991), p. 235; Hartford Courant, “Death of Paymaster Gillette,” January 21, 1865, p. 2; Burton, Nathaniel J., A Discourse Delivered January 29th, 1865, in Memory of Robert H. Gillette.

^ Duffy, Richard, “Gillette, Actor and Playwright,” Ainslee Magazine, Vol. VI, No. 1, August 1900, p. 54.

^ Letter to George Warner, Gillette Correspondence, Harriet Beecher Stowe Center, Hartford, Connecticut.

^ Last Will of Francis Gillette, Signed October 12, 1877, City of Hartford Probate Records, 1876-1880, Microfilm #LDS1314362, CSL #986, continued on LDS #987,Pages 435-436, and 539-541.

^ Helen Gillette Death Certificate, Office of Vital Statistics, Office of the Town Clerk, Town Hall, Greenwich, Connecticut, September 1, 1888.

^ Frohman, Daniel, Daniel Frohman Presents An Autobiography (Claude Kendall & Willoughby Sharp, 1935), p. 51; Gerzina, Gretchen, Frances Hodgson Burnett (Chatto & Windus,2004), p. 89, 93-95, 99; Gillette, William, Esmeralda in The Century Magazine, Vol. XXIII, New Series VOL I, November 1881 to April 1882 (The Century Co., 1882), pp. 513-531; Hartford Courant, musements, smeralda, November 6, 1882, p. 3; New York Times, rs. Burnett New Play, October 30, 1881, p. 8.

^ Leslie, Amy, Some Players (Hebert S. Stone & Company, 1899), p. 302.

^ Strang, Lewis C., Famous Actors of the Day in America (L.C. Page and Company, 1900), p. 178.

^ Schuttler, George William, William Gillette, Actor and Director (An unpublished thesis submitted in partial fulfillment of the requirements for the degree of Doctor of Philosophy in Speech Communication in the Graduate College of the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign, 1975), p. 97; Schuttler, Georg William, (1983) “William Gillette: Marathon Actor and Playwright,” The Journal of Popular Culture, Vol. 17, Issue 3, Winter 1983, pp. 115129. doi:10.1111/j.0022-3840.1983.1703_115.x, p. 124-125.

^ Dahlinger, S. E., he Sherlock Holmes We Never Knew, Baker Street Journal, Vol. 49, No. 3, September 1999, p. 10.

^ Moses, Montrose J., The American Dramatist (Little, Brown, and Company, 1925), p. 369.

^ Morehouse, Ward, Matinee Tomorrow (Whittlesey House, 1949), p. 23.

^ Finletter, Gretchen, From the Top of the Stairs (Little, Brown, 1946), p. 44.

^ Sherk, H. Dennis, William Gillette: His Life and Works, (An unpublished thesis in English submitted in partial fulfillment of the requirements for the degree of Doctor of Philosophy in the Graduate School, Department of English, at the Pennsylvania State University, June 1961), pp. 199-200.

^ New York Times, illiam Gillette, Actor, Dead at 81, April 30, 1937, p. 21.

^ Murphy, Brenda, American Realism and American Drama, 1880-1940 (Cambridge University Press, 1987), p. 162; Dithmar, Edward, ecret Service, Harper Weekly, October 10, 1896, p. 215.

^ Burton, Richard, illiam Gillette, The Book Buyer, February 1898, p. 28.

^ Films for the Humanities & Sciences http://www.films.com/Films_Home/Item.cfm/1/6018.

^ Letters Patent No. 389,294, ethod of Producing Stage Effects, September 11, 1887, U.S. Patent Office.

^ United States Patent and Trademark office, Letters Patent No. 289,404, Filed April 25, 1883, granted December 4, 1883; Letters Patent No. 300,966, filed May 2, 1883, granted June 24, 1884; Letters Patent No. 302,559, filed on May 14, 1883, and approved July 29, 1884; and Letters Patent No. 309,537, filed December 5, 1883, and issued December 23, 1884.

^ New York Sun Journal, September 11, 1887, quoted in Schuttler, Georg William, William Gillette, Actor and Playwright, p. 11; Price, E. D., FGS, Editor, Hazell’s Annual Cyclopedia (London: Hazell, Watson, and Viney, 1888), p. 191; Deshler, Welch, Editor, The Theatre, Vol. III, No. 6, April 25, 1887, Whole No. 58, in The Theatre (Theatre Publishing Company, 1888), p. 107; London Times, “Princess’s Theatre,” April 4, 1887, p. 5; London Daily Telegraph, “Princess’s Theatre,” April 4, 1887, p. 3.

^ Doyle, Sir Arthur Conan, Memories and Adventures (Wordsworth Editions Limited, 2007), p. 87; Starrett, Vincent, The Private Life of Sherlock Holmes(The MacMillan Company, 1933), p. 139.

^ New York Times, an Francisco Hotel Fire, ucky Baldwin House Laid in Ruins by Flames, Loss of Life May Be Great, Only Two Victims Bodies So Far Recovered Theatre in the Building Also Burned, November 24, 1898, p. 1.

^ Shepstone, Harold J., “Mr. William Gillette as Sherlock Holmes,” The Strand Magazine, April 1901, p. 615.

^ Higham, Charles, The Adventures of Conan Doyle, the life of the creator of Sherlock Holmes (W.W. Norton & Company, Inc., 1976), pp. 153-154; Encyclopedia Sherlockiana, illette, William (MacMillan, 1994), p. 90.

^ Cullen, Rosemary, & Don B. Wilmeth, Plays by William Hooker Gillette (Cambridge University Press, 1983), p. 16 Plays by William Gillette, Rosemary Cullen, Don B. Wilmeth.

^ Gillette, William H., The Painful Predicament of Sherlock Holmes (Ben Abramson, 1955).

^ Vanity Fair Magazine, “Sherlock Holmes,” February 27, 1907, Front Cover.

^ Smith, Pamela Coleman, William Gillette As Sherlock Holmes (R. H. Russell, 1900).

^ Celebrity Caricature in America, http://www.npg.si.edu/exh/caricatures/intro.htm.

^ a b Washington Post, “Gillette’s Castle,” February 2, 1936, p. B6.

^ Monagan, Charles A., Connecticut icons: 50 Symbols of the Nutmeg State, illette Castle (Globe Pequot, 2006), p. 77; Ojeda, Miguel, Circulo Holmes, (Harold Stackhurst) martes, 20 de mayo de 2008 (Tuesday, May 20, 2008).

^ Van Name, Fred, Gillette Castle at Hadlyme, A State Park (Connecticut Vignettes, Copyright by Fred Van Name, 1956).

^ Gillette, William, Last Will and Testament, 1/27/37; Hartford ourant, illette Will Requests His Home Not Be Sold To lithering Saphead, May 4, 1937, p. 1.

^ 9 National Register of Historic Places www.nationalregisterof historicplaces.com/CT/New+London/state4.html.

^ Letters of Salutation and Felicitation Received by William Gillette on the Occasion of His Farewell to the Stage in Sherlock Holmes (1929).

^ William Gillette Medical Certificate of Death, Connecticut State Department of Health, signed by Dr. John A. Wentworth, April 29, 1937.

^ Oonnor, John J., V: H.B.O. Offers herlock Holmes, New York Times, November 19, 1981.

^ Holm, D.K., Nose for Movies Johnny Depp is Really the Best Actor in Hollywood, The Portland ercury, Vol. 1, No. 44, April 5 – Apr 11 2001, http://www.portlandmercury.com/portland/Content?oid=24307&category=22133.

^ Vineberg, Steve, elivering Something Real To ‘Ally McBeal’, New York imes, Sunday TELEVISION/RADIO, March 18, 2001 http://query.nytimes.com/gst/fullpage.html?res=9B05E6D6113AF93BA25750C0A9679C8B63.

^ Gillette, William, Sherlock Holmes, A Play, Wherein is set forth The Strange Case of Miss Alice Faulkner (Doubleday, Doran & Company, 1935), p. 82.

^ New York Times, “The Au Revoir Tour,” October 17, 1915, Fashions Society Queries Summer White House Music & Drama Pages Hotels & Restaurants, p. X8.

^ a b Hartford Courant, “Death Seals Last Gillette Retirement,” April 30, 1937, pp. 1, 6.

“Sherlock Holmes: The Published Apocrypha”, compiled by Jack Tracy.

“The Final Adventures of Sherlock Holmes”, compiled by Peter Haining.

Most of this information is from the full-length biography of William Gillette by Henry Zecher, soon[when?] to be published by the Mountainside Press in Shaftsbury, Vermont.

External links

William Gillette at the Internet Movie Database

William Gillette Introduction

The Baker Street Journal – writings about Sherlock Holmes

Gillettes Castle at Connecticut

Website of Gillette biographer Henry Zecher, whose full-length biography is soon to be published by the Mountainside Press in Shaftsbury, Vermont

William Gillette at Find a Grave

Categories: American actors | American dramatists and playwrights | People from Hartford, Connecticut | Sherlock Holmes | 1853 births | 1937 deaths | Deaths from pulmonary hemorrhageHidden categories: Articles with unsourced statements from March 2008 | All articles with unsourced statements | Vague or ambiguous time

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A few nice British Gas Cover images I found:

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by quapan

Vickers machine gun

History

The Vickers machine gun was based on the successful Maxim gun of the late 19th century. After purchasing the Maxim company outright in 1896, Vickers took the design of the Maxim gun and improved it, reducing its weight by taking out all unnecessary parts, and adding a muzzle booster.

The British Army formally adopted the Vickers gun as its standard machine gun on 26 November 1912, using it alongside their Maxims. There were still great shortages when the First World War began, and the British Expeditionary Force was still equipped with Maxims when sent to France in 1914. Vickers was, in fact, threatened with prosecution for war profiteering, due to the exorbitant price it was demanding for each gun. As a result, the price was slashed. As the war progressed, and numbers increased, it became the British Army’s primary machine gun, and served on all fronts during the conflict. When the Lewis Gun was adopted as a light machine gun and issued to infantry units, the Vickers guns were redefined as heavy machine guns, withdrawn from infantry units, and grouped in the hands of the new Machine Gun Corps (when heavier 0.5 in/12.7 mm calibre machine guns appeared, the tripod-mounted, rifle-calibre machine guns like the Vickers became medium machine guns). After the First World War, the Machine Gun Corps (MGC) was disbanded and the Vickers returned to infantry units. Before the Second World War, there were plans to replace the Vickers gun; one of the contenders was the 7.92 mm (.312 in) Besa machine gun (a Czech design), which eventually became the British Army’s standard tank-mounted machine gun. However, the Vickers remained in service with the British Army until 30 March 1968. Its last operational use was in the Radfan during the Aden Emergency. Its successor in UK service is the L7 GPMG.

Use in aircraft

The Vickers gun became a standard weapon on British and French military aircraft, especially after 1916. Although heavier than the Lewis, and using a belt feed which proved problematic in the air, its closed bolt firing cycle made it much easier to synchronize it to allow it to fire through aircraft propellers. The famous Sopwith Camel and the SPAD XIII types used twin synchronised Vickers, as did most British and French fighters between 1918 and the mid 1930s. In the air, the heavy water cooling system was redundant, but because the weapon relied on barrel recoil, the (empty) water-holding barrel jacket or casing needed to be retained. Slots were cut into the barrel jacket to aid air cooling.

As the machine gun armament of fighter aircraft moved from the fuselage to the wings in the years before the Second World War, the Vickers, with its fabric belts was generally replaced by the faster-firing Browning Model 1919 using metal-linked cartridges. Several British bombers and attack aircraft of the Second World War mounted the Vickers K machine gun or VGO, a completely different design.

Variants

Main article: Vickers .50 machine gun

The larger calibre (half-inch) version of the Vickers was used for armoured fighting vehicles and naval use.

The Gun, Machine, Vickers, .5-inch, Mk. II was used in tanks, the earlier Mark I having been the development model. This entered service in 1933 and was obsolete in 1944. Firing either single shot or automatic it had a pistol type trigger grip rather than the spades of the 0.303 in (7.7 mm) cartridge.

The Gun, Machine, Vickers, .5-inch, Mk. III was used as an anti-aircraft gun on British ships. This variation was typically four guns mounted on a 360 rotating and (+80 to 10) elevating housing. The belts were rolled into a spiral and placed in hoppers beside each gun. The heavy plain bullet weighed 1.3 oz (37 g) and was good for 1,500 yd (1,400 m) range (1,300 m). Maximum rate of fire for the Mark III was about 700 rpm from a 200-round belt carried in a drum. They were fitted from the 1920s onwards, but in practical terms, proved of little use. During the Second World War, the naval 0.5 in (12.7 mm) version was also mounted on power-operated turrets in smaller watercraft, such as Motor Gun Boats and Motor Torpedo Boats.

The Mark IV and V guns were improvements on the Mark II. Intended for British light tanks, some were used during the war on mounts on trucks by the LRDG in the North Africa Campaign

Foreign service

The Vickers was widely sold commercially and saw service with many nations and their own particular ammunition. It was also modified for each company and served as a base for many other weapons. For example:

6.5 mm Italian

6.5 mm Arisaka

6.5×54R Dutch

7×57 Mauser

7.5×55 Swiss

7.62×51 NATO

.30-06 Springfield

7.62×54R Russian

7.65×53 Mauser

8 mm Lebel

The Vickers MG remains in service with the Indian, Pakistani, and Nepalese armed forces, albeit as a reserve weapon, intended for emergency use in the event of a major conflict.

Specifications

The weight of the gun itself varied based on the gear attached, but was generally 25-30 lb (11-13 kg), with a 40-50 lb (18-23 kg) tripod. The ammunition boxes for the 250-round ammunition belts weighed 22 lb (10 kg) each. In addition, it required about 7.5 imperial pints (4.3 L) of water in its evaporative cooling system to prevent overheating. The heat of the barrel boiled the water in the jacket surrounding it. The resulting steam was taken off by flexible tube to a condenser containerhis had the dual benefits of avoiding giving away the gun’s location, and also enabling re-use of the water, which was very important in arid environments.

Rimmed, centrefire Mk 7 .303 inch (7.7 mm) cartridge from World War II.

In British service, the Vickers gun fired the standard .303 inch (7.7  mm) cartridges used in the Lee Enfield rifle, which generally had to be hand-loaded into the cloth ammunition belts. There was also a 0.5 in (12.7 mm) calibre version used as an anti-aircraft weapon and various other calibres produced for foreign buyers. Some British tanks of the early Second World War were equipped with the 0.5 in (12.7 mm) Vickers.

The gun was 3 ft 8 in (1.1 m) long and its cyclic rate of fire was between 450 and 600 rounds per minute. In practice, it was expected that 10,000 rounds would be fired per hour, and that the barrel would be changed every hour two-minute job for a trained team. Firing the Mark 8 cartridge, which had a streamlined bullet, it could be used against targets at a range of approximately 4,500 yd (4.1 km).

Use

The gun and its tripod were carried separately and were both heavy. The original design did not anticipate its being carried up jungle-covered mountains on men’s backs, but such was the weapon’s popularity that men were generally content to man-pack it to all manner of difficult locations. The tripod would be set up to make a firm base, often dug into the ground a little and perhaps with the feet weighted down with sandbags. The water jacket would be filled with water around the barrel. The firing of the gun would make the barrel heat up, and conducted heat would then boil the water in the jacket, and steam would be carried away down a rubber pipe, to condense in a metal can. The condensed water could then be poured back into the jacket to top it up, but another function of the condenser tin was to hide the emissions of steam, that might give away the gun’s position. This cooling system, though heavy, was very effective, and enabled the gun to keep firing far longer than air-cooled rival weapons.

The loader sat to the gunner’s right, and fed in belts of cloth, into which had been placed the rounds. The weapon would draw in the belt, push each round out of the belt and into the breech, fire it, and then drop the brass cartridge out of the bottom, to gather in a pile of spent brass underneath the weapon, while the cloth belt would continue through to the left side and wind up on the ground.

Clinometer for Vickers .303 machine gun

The Vickers was used for indirect fire against enemy positions at ranges up to 4,500 yards. This plunging fire was used to great effect against road junctions, trench systems, forming up points, and other locations that might be observed by a forward observer, or zeroed in at one time for future attacks, or guessed at by men using maps and experience. Sometimes a location might be zeroed in during the day, and then attacked at night, much to the surprise and confusion of the enemy. New Zealand units were especially fond of this use. A white disc would be set up on a pole near the MMG, and the gunner would aim at a mark on it, knowing that this corresponded to aiming at the distant target. There was a special back-sight with a tall extension on it for this purpose. The only similar weapon of the time to use indirect fire was the German MG 08, which had a separate attachment sight with range calculator.

A British World War Two Vickers MMG platoon typically had one officer in command of four guns, in two sections of two, each with a crew and a small team of riflemen whose job was to protect the gun, and keep it supplied with ammunition.

Users

 Commonwealth of Nations

 Australia

 Canada

 New Zealand

 Rhodesia

 South Africa

 United Kingdom

 Pakistan

 India

 Nepal

 Bolivia

 Ireland

Egypt

Gallery of images

Wikimedia Commons has media related to: Vickers machine gun

British Vickers gun team in action at the Battle of the Somme. Both are wearing gas masks

Rear view of Vickers gun team in action at the Battle of the Somme

Vickers gun set up for anti-aircraft purposes during the First World War

Vickers machine-gun of the 1st Manchester Regiment in Malaya, 1941

British Vickers gunners in action in Holland during Operation Market Garden. All are wearing the Mk III Turtle helmet

View of the breech of a Vickers gun showing brass feed ramp

Dorsal view of a Vickers gun showing fluted water-cooling tank

See also

Kjellman machine gun

M1917 Browning machine gun

Maschinengewehr 08

Schwarzlose MG M.07/12

Skoda M1909 machine gun

Vickers K Machine gun

Vickers .50 machine gun

Notes

^ Hogg, Ian V.; Batchelor, John (1976). Weapons & War Machines. London: Phoebus. pp. 62. ISBN 0-7026-0008-3. 

“The Vickers gun accompanied the BEF to France in 1914, and in the years that followed, proved itself to be the most reliable weapon on the battlefield, some of its feats of endurance entering military mythology. Perhaps the most incredible was the action by the 100th Company of the Machine Gun Corps at High Wood on 24 August 1916. This company had ten Vickers guns, and it was ordered to give sustained covering fire for 12 hours onto a selected area 2,000 yards away in order to prevent German troops forming up there for a counter-attack while a British attack was in progress. Two whole companies of infantrymen were allocated as carriers of ammunition, rations and water for the machine-gunners. Two men worked a belt-filling machine non-stop for 12 hours keeping up a supply of 250-round belts. One hundred new barrels were used up, and every drop of water in the neighbourhood, including the men drinking water and contents of the latrine buckets, went up in steam to keep the guns cool. And in that 12-hour period the ten guns fired a million rounds between them. One team fired 120,000 from one gun to win a five-franc prize offered to the highest-scoring gun. And at the end of that 12 hours, every gun was working perfectly and not one gun had broken down during the whole period. It was this absolute foolproof reliability which endeared the Vickers to every British soldier who ever fired one. It never broke down; it just kept on firing and came back for more. And that was why the Mark 1 Vickers gun was to remain the standard medium machine-gun from 1912 to 1968.”

^ http://www.vickersmachinegun.org.uk/

^ http://www.vickersmachinegun.org.uk/

Further reading

Anon, Vickers, Sons and Maxim Limited: Their Works and Manufactures. (Reprinted from ‘Engineering’) London (1898).

Plates showing the mechanism of the forerunner of the Vickers gun, the Vickers Maxim gun as well as numerous plates of the factories in which they and other arms were made.

External links

British Vickers Gun tactics during the Great War

Vickers machine gun

Spartacus Educational – Vickers machine gun

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Categories: Medium machine guns | Aircraft guns | Tank guns | Vickers | World War I aircraft guns | World War I machine guns | World War I British infantry weapons | World War II British infantry weapons | Military equipment of the British Empire | Machine guns of the United Kingdom | World War I infantry weapons of Australia | World War II infantry weapons of Australia | Korean War infantry weapons of AustraliaHidden categories: Articles lacking in-text citations from March 2008 | All articles lacking in-text citations

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