"Holmes, Sweet Holmes"

The famous William Gillette, pictured here as "Sherlock Holmes", is a distant relative of mine. It was Gillette portrayal of Holmes on stage (and later in motion pictures) in the very late 1890s and first third of the 1900s, brought us the now firmly fixed and stereotypical image of the detective with a deerstalker cap, curved briar pipe, magnifying glass and violin.

Below, the eccentric Gillette Castle, built by Gillette in East Haddam, CT. overlooking the Connecticut River... was a kind of a early version of the "Neverland Ranch." It is now part of Gillette Castle State Park.