Greenbriar Back In The Hound's Grip

Sherlock Holmes The "Hip, Junkie Cop"

Here's a breath-taker ad from that classy decade that was the 70's. It was a best of times, but also a worst, in terms of oldies repositioned as relevant to then-fashion. With the drug culture in full swing, what was more natural than to propose Sherlock Holmes as its lead apostle? Hound Of The Baskervilles may have been in and out of circulation for a while, but "not seen legally in the US or Canada on TV or theatre for over 30 years"? In fact, Hound had been in tube syndication since 1956, with a few breaks as it bounced among distributors. Our Channel 8 in High Point unleashed Hound for its Shock Theatre on 4/27/68, which would have been the first time I saw it. "The highly censored motion picture struggled out of Hollywood" says ballyhoo at left, and who among bell-bottomed patronage would argue? I'd have likely, and happily, fallen for such ruse along with the rest.

A Comparatively Staid Ad From 1939, But Note
How It Also Centers The "Needle" Line

The idea that Hound Of The Baskervilles bore content "not good for public consumption" was icing on countercultural cake for trade these houses hoped to lure. Participating venues were located in the Baltimore vicinity, most having been built as multiplexes in the early 70's (the Rotunda opened in 1974). Anyway, that's four 35mm prints of Hound in play ... wonder how many were generated overall ... do readers recall seeing Hound theatrically around this time? I'd not call 1939's Hound "poignant," but it's enjoyable. Sherlock Holmes as "the first hip cop" is ripe fruit to contemplate, but was he so hip as then-TV's Baretta, or Starsky and Hutch? We can hope Baltimore attendance found him so. "Junkie cop" seems a severe appellation, but like Freaks at the wedding banquet, I can imagine crowds at those twin or more crackerboxes chanting One of us, One of us ... when Holmes called Quick! for his needle. Wonder who dreamed up this ad copy. Probably someone that had successfully programmed movies in college. There were all sorts of tricks to making relics seem new for kids looking to fill an evening. Curiosity was always there for antiquity that somehow spoke to contemporaries --- so what if Baltimore's engagement played loose with truth in advertising? Hound Of The Baskervilles was probably never such fun as with these audiences.