The Announcement!

The Sheraton Read House, Chattanooga, TN

The Sheraton's opulent lobby

A lobby shot from the mezzanine

The Greeting

Kent Ross and his daughter, Sharrie, person the registration desk and greet the attendees.

Kent Ross, the major organizer of "The Gathering," calls the meeting to order and offers greetings on the behalf or The Confederates of Wisteria Lodge.

Billy "Superman" Fields takes the podium to offer greetings on the behalf of Nashville's Scholars of the Three-Pipe Problem.

Opening greetings continue with Jerry Abbott from Birmingham's Genus Loci (please notice Jerry's "tattoo" - Vermissa Valley of the South, we presume).

The "Confederates'" Bill Eggert. lecturer on film appreciation at Georgia Perimeter College, began the program with "A View of Holmes through John Barrymore which he illustrated with film clips from Barrymore's silent film "Sherlock Holmes."

Nashville's "Scholar," Marino Alvarez represented Sherlock Holmes as being a scientist and an academic, as well as a detective.

Helen Cauley (Confederate of Wisteria Lodge) treated the assemblage with an account of her experience, illustrated with film clips, as a member of the audience during an interview with Jeremy Brett during his visit to St. Louis. AND the an even more interesting story of how she finagled a seat next to Mr. Brett on the flight from St. Louis!! (First Class, yet!!)

Last, but by no means least, Nashville's Bill Mason presents a scholarly look at the Canonical characters as they appear in the earlier published cases and in the latter published cases. Bill shared with us the interesting observation that as Sir Arthur, himself, matured, the leading characters in the "reported cases" also reflected a similar "sympathetic" aging process.

One of the stars in the galaxy of activities at The Gathering of Southern Sherlockians was a "reader's theater" performance of "Second Generation: A Sequel to 'A Scandal in Bohemia,'" an amusing "pastiche" play written and directed by Rich Vitaris (center above) shown here with part of the cast . In the play Rich depicted Sherlock Holmes as being outwitted by Irene Adler's daughter ("The Second Generation"). The cast included Bill Eggert as Sherlock Holmes, Gord Shriver as Dr. Watson, Kay Pinckney as Irene Norton, Joel Senter as Mr. Litton Stanley, Ken Carr as Deevers, Helen Cauley as Harietta Bartel, and Carolyn Senter as The Announcer. Shown above, with Rich, are Kay Pinckney, Helen Cauley, and Carolyn Senter (in the background, being modest, we see Kenneth Carr).

Carolyn Senter, Gord Shriver, and Rich Vitaris chat before the festivities begin.

Nashville's Billy Fields is highly amused (but we're not sure by what!!).

Phil and Janet Walker sip coffee while fellow "Gatherers" queue up to register.

(L to R)Nashville's Donna Fields, Dean Richardson, and Billy Fields. Billy is making pre-dinner announcements.

The "Gathered" breathlessly await the opening ceremonies. Third from the right is Jody Baker, actually, the only real Chattanoogian in attendance, whose services were indispensable in making arrangements with the Read House for hospitality rooms and other special facilities.

On display was a marvelous collection of most impressive Sherlockiana generously provided by Richard Green.

Young Josh Green attended the festivities in proper Sherlockian attire.

Members Atlanta's Confederates of Wisteria Lodge, in attendance at The Gathering, pose for a group picture.

A group of Gatherers enjoy a late evening social gathering following the great "Cow and Chicken" dinner provided by the Sheraton Read House

The festivities of The Gathering were brought to a proper close with a reading of "221b." All privileged to be in attendance at this landmark assembly left looking forward in the hope that this would be but the first in a series of such Southern Scion meetings. It was a great event and those responsible for its creation and management are to be heartily congratulated!!