The Notorious Canary Trainers

A Scion of the Baker Street Irregulars

The Madison Sherlock Holmes society known as the Notorious Canary

Trainers was founded in April, 1969, by Sherlock Holmes’ enthusiasts in the Madison area.

The group began its existence as the Amateur Mendicant Society of Madison, and kept that
name for several years until it found out that another group elsewhere already had
established informal “rights” to the use of that title.

The Amateur Mendicant Society was an organization investigated by Holmes in 1887, and
which “held a luxurious club in the lower vault of a furniture warehouse,” according to the
story, “The Five Orange Pips.”

According to the first issue of the AMS newsletter, A Case of Identity, issued in 1971:

“The Holmes addicts of Madison…wished to form a group of devotees, led by Mr. Ira Fistell,
host of Radio Station WKOW’s “Nightline” program, who became our first president and has
since moved on to Milwaukee.”

Fistell also was the first recipient of the group’s main award, the Mycroft trophy (a form of
recognition no longer presented). Fistell later left Milwaukee for Los Angeles, where he
continued to work in radio hosting talk programs as late as 1995, and perhaps even longer.
The newsletter no longer is published, and the call letters WKOW no longer are used by what
is now WOLX.

According to Thomas Boykoff, longtime leader of our monthly case studies, the
organization’s founding was prompted by Fistell’s asking questions on “Nightline” about
various elements of the Sherlock Holmes stories. Because of the response those questions
generated from callers, there appeared to be enough interest in the Canon to justify an
organizational meeting.

According to the first newsletter, “There were approximately fifteen charter members, of
whom five are still with us, including the present president (Miss Joanna Overn) and vice
president (Mrs. Donna Kopecky).”

The group eventually decided to submit a request to the the leading American Sherlock
Holmes organization, the Baker Street Irregulars, for formal recognition by that group. But
as they were to learn, the Amateur Mendicant Society was a name already in use by another
group. Since BSI discourages duplicate names for organizations it recognizes, BSI in 1975
proposed the name the group uses today.

An organization recognized by BSI is called a Scion, although BSI membership remains

invitation only. No current members of the Notorious Canary Trainers are members of BSI.

The name Notorious Canary Trainers is based on a brief reference in the Sherlock Holmes
story called “Black Peter” and now found in the collection, “The Return of Sherlock Holmes.”
Dr. Watson remarks at the beginning of this chronicle:

“In this memorable year (18)95 a curious and incongruous succession of cases had engaged
his (Holmes’) attention, ranging from his famous investigation of the sudden death of
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Cardinal Tosca – an inquiry which was carried out by him at the express desire of his
Holiness the Pope – down to his arrest of Wilson, the
notorious canary-trainer, which removed a plague spot from the East End of London…”

What’s a canary trainer? It could be someone who trains canaries. Another

explanation is that it’s someone who teaches operatic singers.

Although Arthur Conan Doyle never found any notes in the files of Dr.
John Watson which reported any additional details about Wilson and his
crime(s), Doyle’s son, Adrian, later addressed the matter in “The
Adventure of the Deptford Horror” in his “The Exploits of Sherlock
Holmes.” (It is in that story that we are told that Wilson’s first name was
Theobold.) Nicholas Meyer also published his account, called “The
Canary Trainer,” in 1993, citing a “missing manuscript” located by a
computer in the bowels of a major university “where it had collected dust
for over half a century.”

The group first held its meetings in downtown Madison at the Community Center. Later,
meetings moved to the Wisconsin Union (Room 221), to members’ homes for parties and
picnics, an antique shop, and eventually the Canterbury Booksellers and Coffeehouse at 315
W. Gorham. In July 1996, the group began meeting at Barnes & Noble West Towne because
a larger meeting area was needed. We moved to the Booked for Murder bookstore on
University Ave. starting with our September 2008 meeting.

In January 2000 the group began holding an annual

dinner (sometimes a luncheon) with program early
each January to commemorate the anniversary of
the birth of Sherlock Holmes. January 6 is widely
recognized by Sherlockians around the world as his
most likely birthdate. For the first 10 years these
events were held at J. T. Whitney’s brewpub at 674
S. Whitney Way. When that established closed, the
event was moved in 2011 to Pedro’s West.

For years the group had a Web site – its first and to
date only -- at
http://communities.madison.com/canary, but it
disappeared in April 2010 when the Web site host
switched “platforms” to one which did not meet
our needs.
This group of Notorious Canary-
Trainers members and guests marked
Sherlock
Holmes birthday anniversary in 2006.

In April 2006 we began the tradition of allowing members to choose a “canonical name” for
use within the group. Names usually are those of characters, events, or locations found in
the Sherlock Holmes’ accounts.

The Group Today

Meetings of the Notorious Canary Trainer are open to the public. Meetings are held today on
the same schedule as in the beginning -- the third Sunday of the month, although they start
an hour later than the original meetings -- now beginning at 3 p.m. (and continuing to 4:30
p.m.) If there is a conflict
with a particular meeting date, the fourth Sunday usually is substituted.

We also meet between meetings via message postings on our Yahoo Group, established July
2, 2001 at http://groups.yahoo.com/group/nct1969 Anyone can join the group by following
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the instructions at the link. (If you choose not to join, you still can receive message postings
by subscribing; send an email to nct1969-subscribe@yahoogroups.com)

NCT membership is free. For those interested in being recorded as a member, leave your
name, mailing address, and phone number with the meeting leader at any of the monthly
meetings or send it to nct1969-owner@yahoogroups.com or to Mike McCoy, One Hiawatha
Circle, Madison, WI 53711.

May 25, 2011