Nancy Beiman: Artist, Animator, Sherlockian

Nancy Beiman,
a.k.a. Red-Headed League
For allmost 20 years Ms. Beiman was an Artist/Animator with Disney Studios (Burbank, CA)

Ms. Beiman is now a college professor, teaching animation and art in Savannah, Georgia.

She and our Denmark conntection, Stackhurst, cook up some of the most interesting Sherlockian dishes, some to eat, some literary...(Editor's note)

DISNEY STUDIOS: How It All Began (1939)
Oswald, the Lucky Rabbit / Early Prototype

At the invitation of Nancy Beiman (animator, illustrator, director) at Disney Studios in Burbank, CA, we were able to pay homage to one of our long-time heroes: Walt Disney. Few are privileged to see the working side of Disney. Most are treated to the finished product at Disneyland, DisneyWorld, or at the movies. This insider's tour was accomplished in May, 1999, after successful business meetings from Wednesday through Friday afternoon.

I was ready to play!

Nancy has an interesting insight into the often misunderstood connection between Oswald, the Luck Rabbit and Walt Disney.

"As I mentioned before, Mickey Mouse did NOT start as Oswald the Lucky Rabbit. Oswald was Walt's first successful character. But since the name was chosen (from a hat, supposedly) by the producer, Charles Mintz, Mintz was able to fire Disney and hire his artists away, along with the character, when Walt asked for more money to produce his cartoons. The result? Disney created his own character and vowed never to work for anyone else again. Mintz's Oswald series continued into the thirties but the character was never popular after the coup."---Nancy Beiman

See the Official Disney Studio History: HERE

A prolific writer as well as an accomplished artist/animator, Nancy Beiman spices up our WelcomeHolmes
list, as well as the Hounds of the Internet list, with her singular interpretations of canonical material. Read
on below for a look into the mind of "Red-Headed League", also affectionately known via email as
"peachdoggie". That's another story entirely!

(submitted by Jim Hawkins, a.k.a. Grimesby Roylott)

AN EXAMPLE OF NANCY'S SHERLOCKIAN SCHOLARSHIP

'We give you best, Holmes. I believe you are the devil himself.'
"Not far from him, at any rate," Holmes answered with a polite smile.
-----THE MAZARIN STONE

This is the second Canonical story in which Holmes is accused of being the Evil One, (the other being the suggestively-named and brilliantly-analysed-in-this-forum THE DEVIL'S FOOT.) Holmes actually agrees with Count Negretto Sylvius' accusations here. Inquiring redheads want to know why.

I accordingly repaired to my library and referred to that excellent compendium, THE SEVEN DEADLY SINS, a collection of essays by Angus Wilson, Edith Sitwell, Cyril Connolly, Patrick Leigh Fermor, Evelyn Waugh, Christopher Sykes, and W.H. Auden. The foreword is by Ian Fleming. Surely these experts would be able to offer information that would explain Holmes' mysterious statement.

Sherlock Holmes, with his usual brilliant powers of observation, was able to deduce his ultimate destination by simple dispassionate analysis of his own behaviour in previous cases. He manages to commit all seven deadly sins, thereby (according to the Catholic faith) assuring his damnation. Here is an admittedly incomplete listing of some of the evidence in the case; astute Hounds will doubtless find many more.

ENVY: Holmes sneers at his predecessors and mentors, Dupin and Lecoq, in STUDY IN SCARLET, considering them very inferior to himself. He also bridles when referred to as the "second" greatest detective in the world (after Bertillon.) All of his rivals are French, thereby lending a chauvinistic air to his attitudes. Despite the fact that Holmes himself claims a French grandmother, Mycroft never does. This assertion could be a simple manifestation of Holmes' envy of the deductive talents of his Gallic rivals.

PRIDE: See above. Watson also describes Holmes as 'vain as a girl' when it came to flattery or praise of his abilities. This sin may seem somewhat mitigated by the fact that Holmes regularly allows Scotland Yard to take credit for his cases (at least the successful ones; what about the failures?). Apparently this, too, is a manifestation of pride, since Holmes delights in showing up Lestrade and the other detectives, who are the only audience he cares about. He has nothing but contempt for Watson's writings and insists he could do better.

COVETOUSNESS: Three words: THE PRIORY SCHOOL. It is also not recorded whether Holmes ever returned the Blue Carbuncle to the Countess of Morcar, thereby allowing the honest and industrious Commissionnaire Peterson to claim the thousand pound reward. It would appear that the stone resided ever afterward in Holmes' 'museum', contradicting his earlier promise to return it to the countess, and allow Peterson (who clearly could use the money) to collect the reward. Holmes also covets Irene Adler's photograph, which has expressly been left for the King of Bohemia in SCAN.

GLUTTONY: This may seem a tall order for Holmes, but here I quote directly from the essay by Patrick Leigh-Fermor: "What torments can match the agony of a chainsmoker short of tobacco?...This is the only sin that turns us into monsters...Always remember that outside every thin man lurks a fat one trying to climb in." Holmes the sensualist indulges in vast quantities of filthy shag tobacco, copious quantities of alcohol, and moderate yet eminently improper quantities of cocaine, morphine, and opium. (In TWIS he mentions visiting the opium den 'for his own purposes.' What OTHER purposes are there for visiting such a place when not on a case?) His reuse of the plugs and dottles of tobacco dried on the mantelpiece would merit damnation in and of itself.

SLOTH: There are repeated incidents where Holmes 'occasionally spends several days at a time' in bed. He also maintains that he would have made 'an excellent loafer.' Watson repeatedly sees him lying about, not moving out of the Baker Street rooms. This is probably the least of Holmes' sins, but it is a deadly sin nonetheless.

LUST: This may seem a tall order, but what of Milverton's housemaid? Holmes, in the guise of Escott the itinerant plumber, enters Milvertons' mansion through the maid's window , and with the maid's help, in the dead of night. The girl even ties up the guard dog to make it easier for him to enter, presumably by climbing the wall. The implication was that Holmes did this more than once. If he only 'needed information', he need only have gotten into the house by this deliciously romantic manner ONCE. He actually gets engaged to her in seven days. Could he be mixing business with pleasure here? It would be extremely unlikely that the girl would let him leave the room immediately upon his arrival, even if she was trying to please him by giving in to his demands of a tour of the house. He would have first had to give in to *her* demands...that 'short engagement' shows that Holmes did, indeed, have many talents of which Watson was completely unaware. I need not elaborate on the scandalous way this particular affair ended. Chalk up another notch for Old Scratch vs. Mr. "Escott" Holmes.

ANGER: There are so many examples of this in the Canon that it would seem unneccessary to list them here, but I think some mention of Holmes' rather shabby treatment of poor Watson would be in order. In THE DISAPPEARANCE OF LADY FRANCES CARFAX Holmes chews Watson out for his poor work, even though Watson has done an extremely capable job of detection. It is possible that Holmes is jealous (see ENVY). He also loses his temper with Watson in THE ABBEY GRANGE for the same reason. And so, Holmes himself must agree with the Count that his excesses in all seven of the Deadly Sins must necessarily mark him as a likely future subject of the Lord of Misrule. If any further evidence is needed, there is that damnable 'joke' at the end of THE MAZARIN STONE!

--Redheaded League--

Nancy focuses on Sherlock Holmes

Red-Headed League drawing Holmes A Study in Sherlock -- with New Props

From: peachdoggie@worldnet.att.net

Yes, you heard it right. The Walt Disney Studio had 'Sherlock Holmes' as their latest subject for Bob Kato's Gesture Drawing Class on Monday last.

Gesture Drawing is designed for animators; we are asked to draw the model's poses and characteristic actions. We work from a clothed model, usually in character as a famous figure from history or the classics.

Holmes was an obvious choice (he's the greatest silhouette of the past hundred years, with the possible exception of Mickey Mouse).

The class was taught in the Southside Building, known as the Hat Building to initiates. It has a large blue Sorcerer's hat on the roof, and is a hard place to miss. My workplace is two miles to the north in the old Skunk Works from McDonnell Douglass-a building that is the only place I've seen where the BUILDING is announced as containing carcinogenic materials.

At any rate, I took our shuttle bus to Southside and made it to the class after a meeting. It was full up--and everyone was busy drawing the model.

This was an older gentleman with a white moustache who bore more than a passing resemblance to Sir Arthur Conan Doyle, though he was thinner. He seemed more appropriate a Watson than a Holmes, though he had brought a deerstalker, calabash, and one boot. (He had misplaced the other which led one cartoonist to have him busily searching for it in the drawing.) I suppose you could really say that his 'game was afoot'.

I did a few drawings and then started to 'work away' from the model, drawing him in the same pose, but younger and more like a Steele illustration. Bob Kato was amused by both this drawing and by the fact that the Doyle family contained so many cartoonists.

I then did a drawing of an indignant Holmes pulling his Inverness close around him as I held up a magnifying glass instead of a pencil to 'take his measure.'

The model peered at me doing this one.
"Is that Miss Marple doing the sketch?" he said.
"That's me."
He didn't change his opinion. Maybe I should change the caption. I finished off by doodling a couple of caricatures of Basil Rathbone and Jeremy Brett and then had to skedaddle to catch the shuttle back to the Skunk Works and my 'serious job'-- drawing a banana slug in a pirate suit.
--Nancy Beiman

Dear Jim:
I have just posted this to HOUNDS-L.

I wrote it with my Danish Colleague, 'Stackhurst'. Feel free to investigage the evidence for yourself! --Redheaded League (Nancy Beiman)
(Editorial Note: 'Stackhurst', also known as Mia Stampe, the webmaster for the Danish Sherlock Holmes Society, is also a member of WelcomeHolmes)

Stackhurst and Redheaded League are pleased to announce the online publication of their first collaborative paper-- the result of an international investigation into the true, shocking circumstances surrounding the 'Scandal in Bohemia.'

Much of the new information concerning this problematic case became public only recently with the release of formerly classified documents from several former Iron Curtain countries.

We are confident that there is ample evidence from these sources and many quotes from Dr. Watson's writeups of the cases to prove our theories.

When you have eliminated the impossible....
go to http://www.gfy.ku.dk/~ams/sh/russian.htm and find out what remains!

--Stackhurst who did six impossible things before breakfast, including logging in tireless hours at the computer assembling the HTML text and the superb illustrations,

--Redheaded League, who is known as "RED" for good reason and who will send the entire lengthy file in plaintext to all Hounds who cannot access an HTML text.

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AN EXAMPLE OF NANCY'S SHERLOCKIAN SCHOLARSHIP 'We give you best, Holmes. I believe you are the devil himself.' "Not far from him, at any rate," Holmes answered with a polite smile. -----THE MAZARIN STONE This is the second Canonical story in which Holmes is accused of being the Evil One, (the other being the suggestively-named and brilliantly-analysed-in-this-forum THE DEVIL'S FOOT.) Holmes actually agrees with Count Negretto Sylvius' accusations here. Inquiring redheads want to know why. I accordingly repaired to my library and referred to that excellent compendium, THE SEVEN DEADLY SINS, a collection of essays by Angus Wilson, Edith Sitwell, Cyril Connolly, Patrick Leigh Fermor, Evelyn Waugh, Christopher Sykes, and W.H. Auden. The foreword is by Ian Fleming. Surely these experts would be able to offer information that would explain Holmes' mysterious statement. Sherlock Holmes, with his usual brilliant powers of observation, was able to deduce his ultimate destination by simple dispassionate analysis of his own behaviour in previous cases. He manages to commit all seven deadly sins, thereby (according to the Catholic faith) assuring his damnation. Here is an admittedly incomplete listing of some of the evidence in the case; astute Hounds will doubtless find many more. ENVY: Holmes sneers at his predecessors and mentors, Dupin and Lecoq, in STUDY IN SCARLET, considering them very inferior to himself. He also bridles when referred to as the "second" greatest detective in the world (after Bertillon.) All of his rivals are French, thereby lending a chauvinistic air to his attitudes. Despite the fact that Holmes himself claims a French grandmother, Mycroft never does. This assertion could be a simple manifestation of Holmes' envy of the deductive talents of his Gallic rivals. PRIDE: See above. Watson also describes Holmes as 'vain as a girl' when it came to flattery or praise of his abilities. This sin may seem somewhat mitigated by the fact that Holmes regularly allows Scotland Yard to take credit for his cases (at least the successful ones; what about the failures?). Apparently this, too, is a manifestation of pride, since Holmes delights in showing up Lestrade and the other detectives, who are the only audience he cares about. He has nothing but contempt for Watson's writings and insists he could do better. COVETOUSNESS: Three words: THE PRIORY SCHOOL. It is also not recorded whether Holmes ever returned the Blue Carbuncle to the Countess of Morcar, thereby allowing the honest and industrious Commissionnaire Peterson to claim the thousand pound reward. It would appear that the stone resided ever afterward in Holmes' 'museum', contradicting his earlier promise to return it to the countess, and allow Peterson (who clearly could use the money) to collect the reward. Holmes also covets Irene Adler's photograph, which has expressly been left for the King of Bohemia in SCAN. GLUTTONY: This may seem a tall order for Holmes, but here I quote directly from the essay by Patrick Leigh-Fermor: "What torments can match the agony of a chainsmoker short of tobacco?...This is the only sin that turns us into monsters...Always remember that outside every thin man lurks a fat one trying to climb in." Holmes the sensualist indulges in vast quantities of filthy shag tobacco, copious quantities of alcohol, and moderate yet eminently improper quantities of cocaine, morphine, and opium. (In TWIS he mentions visiting the opium den 'for his own purposes.' What OTHER purposes are there for visiting such a place when not on a case?) His reuse of the plugs and dottles of tobacco dried on the mantelpiece would merit damnation in and of itself. SLOTH: There are repeated incidents where Holmes 'occasionally spends several days at a time' in bed. He also maintains that he would have made 'an excellent loafer.' Watson repeatedly sees him lying about, not moving out of the Baker Street rooms. This is probably the least of Holmes' sins, but it is a deadly sin nonetheless. LUST: This may seem a tall order, but what of Milverton's housemaid? Holmes, in the guise of Escott the itinerant plumber, enters Milvertons' mansion through the maid's window , and with the maid's help, in the dead of night. The girl even ties up the guard dog to make it easier for him to enter, presumably by climbing the wall. The implication was that Holmes did this more than once. If he only 'needed information', he need only have gotten into the house by this deliciously romantic manner ONCE. He actually gets engaged to her in seven days. Could he be mixing business with pleasure here? It would be extremely unlikely that the girl would let him leave the room immediately upon his arrival, even if she was trying to please him by giving in to his demands of a tour of the house. He would have first had to give in to her demands...that 'short engagement' shows that Holmes did, indeed, have many talents of which Watson was completely unaware. I need not elaborate on the scandalous way this particular affair ended. Chalk up another notch for Old Scratch vs. Mr. "Escott" Holmes. ANGER: There are so many examples of this in the Canon that it would seem unneccessary to list them here, but I think some mention of Holmes' rather shabby treatment of poor Watson would be in order. In THE DISAPPEARANCE OF LADY FRANCES CARFAX Holmes chews Watson out for his poor work, even though Watson has done an extremely capable job of detection. It is possible that Holmes is jealous (see ENVY). He also loses his temper with Watson in THE ABBEY GRANGE for the same reason. And so, Holmes himself must agree with the Count that his excesses in all seven of the Deadly Sins must necessarily mark him as a likely future subject of the Lord of Misrule. If any further evidence is needed, there is that damnable 'joke' at the end of THE MAZARIN STONE! --Redheaded League--
Nancy focuses on Sherlock Holmes

Red-Headed League drawing Holmes	A Study in Sherlock -- with New Props
From: peachdoggie@worldnet.att.net Yes, you heard it right. The Walt Disney Studio had 'Sherlock Holmes' as their latest subject for Bob Kato's Gesture Drawing Class on Monday last. Gesture Drawing is designed for animators; we are asked to draw the model's poses and characteristic actions. We work from a clothed model, usually in character as a famous figure from history or the classics. Holmes was an obvious choice (he's the greatest silhouette of the past hundred years, with the possible exception of Mickey Mouse). The class was taught in the Southside Building, known as the Hat Building to initiates. It has a large blue Sorcerer's hat on the roof, and is a hard place to miss. My workplace is two miles to the north in the old Skunk Works from McDonnell Douglass-a building that is the only place I've seen where the BUILDING is announced as containing carcinogenic materials. At any rate, I took our shuttle bus to Southside and made it to the class after a meeting. It was full up--and everyone was busy drawing the model. This was an older gentleman with a white moustache who bore more than a passing resemblance to Sir Arthur Conan Doyle, though he was thinner. He seemed more appropriate a Watson than a Holmes, though he had brought a deerstalker, calabash, and one boot. (He had misplaced the other which led one cartoonist to have him busily searching for it in the drawing.) I suppose you could really say that his 'game was afoot'. I did a few drawings and then started to 'work away' from the model, drawing him in the same pose, but younger and more like a Steele illustration. Bob Kato was amused by both this drawing and by the fact that the Doyle family contained so many cartoonists. I then did a drawing of an indignant Holmes pulling his Inverness close around him as I held up a magnifying glass instead of a pencil to 'take his measure.' The model peered at me doing this one. "Is that Miss Marple doing the sketch?" he said. "That's me." He didn't change his opinion. Maybe I should change the caption. I finished off by doodling a couple of caricatures of Basil Rathbone and Jeremy Brett and then had to skedaddle to catch the shuttle back to the Skunk Works and my 'serious job'-- drawing a banana slug in a pirate suit. --Nancy Beiman
Dear Jim: I have just posted this to HOUNDS-L. I wrote it with my Danish Colleague, 'Stackhurst'. Feel free to investigage the evidence for yourself! --Redheaded League (Nancy Beiman) (Editorial Note: 'Stackhurst', also known as Mia Stampe, the webmaster for the Danish Sherlock Holmes Society, is also a member of WelcomeHolmes) Stackhurst and Redheaded League are pleased to announce the online publication of their first collaborative paper-- the result of an international investigation into the true, shocking circumstances surrounding the 'Scandal in Bohemia.' Much of the new information concerning this problematic case became public only recently with the release of formerly classified documents from several former Iron Curtain countries. We are confident that there is ample evidence from these sources and many quotes from Dr. Watson's writeups of the cases to prove our theories. When you have eliminated the impossible.... go to http://www.gfy.ku.dk/~ams/sh/russian.htm and find out what remains! --Stackhurst who did six impossible things before breakfast, including logging in tireless hours at the computer assembling the HTML text and the superb illustrations, --Redheaded League, who is known as "RED" for good reason and who will send the entire lengthy file in plaintext to all Hounds who cannot access an HTML text.
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