• There are no membership requirements other than an interest in the tenants at 221B Baker Street.
• There are no membership dues.

Dinner meetings are held quarterly. Meeting dates and information can always be found on this website and in e-mails sent to members. To join the e-mail list send a note to Peter Blau.

Drinks and dinner at our meetings are Dutch treat.

There are no business meetings, no board of directors, no treasury. There were four founding officers, but three of them have died and one has vanished. No replacements have been named.  

There are numerous committees, such as the Committee on Quizzes, the Committee on Victuals and the Committee on Commercials. However, these committees never meet and their membership is unknown.

Members are often found at other Sherlockian goings-on, such as plays, films, talks, and gatherings of mystery lovers. The Committee on Things Like That keeps members up-to-date on these opportunities via this website and announcements at meetings. Many members participate in a number of Sherlockian groups.

CONTACTS:

Black Peter - Peter Blau  

Webmaster - Alan Rettig

Technical Guru - Bob Howard  

A Lodge will be held on Friday, June 23, 2017

Hyatt Regency Bethesda

7400 Wisconsin Avenue, Bethesda, Maryland

Our Program

Alan Rettig
"A Scandal in Manhattan"
Sherlock Holmes a victim of foul play on the Great White Way

The game's afoot at the Red Circle--or at least the game show is!

With Alan Rettig as our guide we'll travel back to the innocent age of the 1950s and the big money TV quiz shows that were all the rage--and perhaps we'll discover that things weren't so innocent after all. We'll look at what happened on The $64,000 Question when an Air Force captain and his wife tackled the subject of Sherlock Holmes. Then we'll see how some of today's Sherlockians and Holmesians fare with the same questions. Finally, we'll explore the national scandal that rocked the television world and eventually brought down all the big money TV quizzes of the day. Were there serious crimes worthy of the Master's talents? And were there clues to the mischief right there in those Sherlock Holmes questions? Or did it all boil down to prime time and misdemeanors?

When Alan Rettig was a teenager living in northern New Jersey he haunted the New York City TV studios, including the ones where the infamous game shows were produced. He did it not so much to see the quizzes but to learn about TV production, a field that fascinated him. Even though some of those studio visits resulted in seeing little more than the south ends of northbound cameramen, he did wind up spending a career writing, shooting, directing, editing and producing film and video. Alan is also past president of CINE, the foremost US awards organization for short and documentary films, where he still serves as a Distinguished Juror; he has served on the juries of more than a dozen international film festivals; and he has won some 30 national and international awards for his own production efforts.

Alan has been a Sherlockian since he was a kid, when his favorite uncle gave him a copy of the Canon. He's been a member of the Red Circle since the 1970s and takes pleasure in being its founding webmaster which, as Peter Blau is quick to point out, does NOT make him an officer of the organization.

So come join us as we turn back the clock to the time when television was young and Sherlock Holmes was the man of the hour (or the half-hour, anyway).

PLUS

We can't have a program about quizzes without having a quiz of our own! 
So the Adventure of the Evening will be

"The Adventure of Wisteria Lodge"

Please bring one or two questions (with answers) based only on the story.  The Committee on Quizzes will select the most malevolent and diabolical questions. Wordplay and double entendre are encouraged, and the winners will receive the customary trivial but heartfelt prizes from the "I have eight of these" shelf in the Blau vaults.

Our Meeting Place

 Hyatt Regency Bethesda

The Hyatt is located at 7400 Wisconsin Avenue in Bethesda, where Wisconsin crosses Old Georgetown Road / East-West Highway. It is directly above the Bethesda Metro station. For those who come by car, convenient parking is available at the Bethesda Center Garage, at the northeast corner of Edgemoor Lane and Woodmont Avenue, with garage entrances from both streets. Parking is only $1.00 per hour, but be sure not to park in a three-hour-only space. Take the elevator to the Skywalk, which connects to the hotel. See the event schedule in the lobby for the name of the meeting room and proceed thither.

Dinner will cost $40.00, including tax and tip, and as always, payment in advance is neither required nor requested. Since dinner will be served buffet style, there is no need to make advance menu selections, but reservations need to be made by Wednesday, June 21.

Menu

Reservations

                                                      The deadline for reservations is Wednesday, June 21
                                              Please contact Peter Blau at 301-229-5669 or peter@redcircledc.org

Read Notes from March 10, 2017 Meeting
Read Notes from December 9, 2016 Meeting

Read Notes from September 23, 2016 Meeting
Read Notes from June 4, 2016 Meeting
Read Notes from March 18, 2016 Meeting
Read Notes from December 4, 2015 Meeting
Read Notes from September 25, 2015 Meeting
Read Notes from June 26, 2015 Meeting

Read Notes from September 19, 2014 Meeting

Read Notes from March 14, 2014 Meeting

Read Notes from December 6, 2013 Meeting

Read Notes from September 6, 2013 Meeting

Read Notes from June 21, 2013 Meeting

Read Notes from September 14, 2012 Meeting

Read Notes from June 15, 2012 Meeting