Chicago Area's First Screening of Essanay's Sherlock Holmes This Wednesday (And It's Free)

Still image from Univ. of Minnesota's Holmes collection

We've posted before about the long-lost silent movie Sherlock Holmes, filmed in Uptown a century ago at Essanay Studios on Argyle, and recently rediscovered and restored.  It will be playing at the Chicago International Film Festival in October.

But want a chance to see it first?  For free?

Still image from Univ. of Minnesota's Holmes collection

It's happening this Wednesday, September 9th, when the Northbrook Public Library will hold the Chicago area premier of this 1916 classic, brought to the screen in 1915 with the full support of Holmes creator Arthur Conan Doyle.  William Gillette, a well-known actor who portrayed the detective more than 1300 times on stage, made his only movie appearance in Sherlock Holmes.  The rediscovery of a print of the film in a French film vault in 2014 was likened to finding one of film's Holy Grails.

Musical accompaniment for the movie, which runs 116 minutes, will be provided by jazz and silent film pianist David Drazin.

The movie will screen twice, at 1pm and 7:30pm, in the library's first floor auditorium.  The Northbrook Public Library is located at 1201 Cedar Lane and is located about 0.4 mile from Metra's Milwaukee District North Line's Northbrook station (upon arriving at the station on Shermer Road, if you walk toward the big white water tower, you can't miss the library. It's only a couple of blocks northwest of the station).  More information is here.