Did Sir Arthur Conan Doyle conspire to deny Fletcher Robinson recognition for devising the plot and supplying much of the local detail for “Hound of the Baskervilles,” one of Sherlock Holmes’ greatest adventures? A new book makes the charge and also “claims to have found circumstantial evidence that Conan Doyle may have murdered his former friend when he became worried that the deception might be exposed.” – Sunday Times (UK)
Tag: 09.10.00
EGGERS SUED BY FORMER AGENT
Author Dave Eggers, author of the bestselling memoir “A Heartbreaking Work of Staggering Genius” is being sued by his former agent. The suit contends that Eggers “broke his contract to pay a 15 percent commission on sales of the book and any future sale of movie rights. (Eggers has been maintaining that he is not interested in a movie deal.)” – Inside.com
LOSING THE WAR
It seems like recording companies and the entertainment industry are winning their battles with the new digital cowboys. But it’s not so: “What’s happening to the entertainment industry is the same thing that happened to the brokerage business when on-line stock trading appeared: An industry built on one business model feels fear when something new appears that threatens that way of doing business. The New Economy word for this kind of thing is ‘disintermediation’, and it’s breaking out all over thanks to the Internet.” – The Globe and Mail (Canada)
BARNES COLLECTION ON VERGE OF CLOSING
Pennsylvania’s Barnes Collection, which has one of the best Impressionist collections in the US, has blown through its $10 million endowment and has about six months left before it is completely out of money and has to close. “The Barnes cashed in the last of its endowment a year ago after running up a $5.3 million cash deficit in the last three years, tax filings show.” – Philadelphia Inquirer
IS BRITISH THEATRE RACIST?
Minority theatre is vanishing in Britain. “So much so that many writers, actors, technicians and directors are driving mini cabs, or have gone into teaching or some other occupation. Some of the best have left the country. It is worth noting there is not a single non-white artistic director in any theatre in the UK. What we have is an industry that is institutionally racist to its very core, yet congratulates itself on being super-liberal.” – The Observer (UK)
THE CAT’S NOT IN THE HAT
The much anticipated “Seussical” the musical in tryouts in Boston right now is having a rocky time. Maybe it’s an obscurity of purpose? The show “was clearly created with the hope of tapping into the changing demographics of Broadway, a shift mainly brought about by three factors: the culture’s obsession with youth, a nostalgia craze among baby boomers with children and an appetite for pricier family entertainment fueled by the robust economy.” – New York Times
OKLAHOMO
- So what is it about musicals that makes them ‘gay’? After all, heterosexuals have been known to watch them. Even male heterosexuals. There simply aren’t enough queens in the world to account for the viewing figures of The Sound of Music. – The Independent (UK)