Outside the formative teen years, ‘84-’85 brought about the introduction of two things that would draw a teen girl into the painful embrace of fandom: Ghostbusters and Sherlock Holmes. It’s odd that two completely different genres of media would end up being the cornerstone of this essay but there’s a saying in the Ghostbusters fandom: “You can pair the Ghostbusters with anything.” Anything. I’ve seen it done. Not to mention that the Ghostbusters themselves are connected with Sherlock Holmes in a The Real Ghostbusters episode that aired in 1989 called “Elementary, My Dear Winston” that pairs the Ghostbusters with the spirits of Holmes and Watson to stop Moriarty from absorbing evil from modern day sources so he can transform into a real corporeal villain.
So see, it really isn’t that far of a jump. But gigantic hounds you say? That part is easy, the terror dogs from the original 1984 Ghostbuster movie. A comment was made on Twitter regarding the Hound of the Baskervilles and terror dogs, a follow up comment was made about Ivo Shandor and the cult of Gozer and the next thing I know I’m getting pulled into a rabbit hole.
I took the original theory: “Wait ... an ancestor of Ivo Shandor designed Baskerville Hall to Cult of Gozer specs?” and went from there. First, let me give you a little backstory into just who Ivo Shandor and Gozer were so you understand exactly why this is a rabbit hole of twinkie sized proportions. (I’ll also explain that).
According to Doctor Egon Spengler PhD, Doctor Ivo Shandor was both a physician and architect by trade during the turn of the century. He was the subject of controversy in 1919 for performing too many “unnecessary surgeries” on patients leading to him quitting medicine altogether and instead focusing on his architecture. In 1920, Shandor decided the world was too sick to survive and began forming a cult for the worship of Gozer. Gozer is a Sumarian god of destruction. To call upon Gozer was to bring about the end of the world. Something Shandor was eagerly attempting to do. The attempt failed and after 1920 both Shandor and his cult just disappeared. Nothing was heard of Gozer until 1984 when Dana Barrett accidentally summoned the minions of Gozer, Vinz Clortho and Zull, in her kitchen one evening.
(The twinkie is an analogy Dr. Spengler uses to explain just how much psychokinetic energy was in the New York area in 1984. Dr. Spengler estimated the twinkie’s size to be thirty five feet long and weighing about 600 pounds)
Going into the Ghostbusters Wiki page and other pages that discuss Ghostbuster Lore, I discovered that the Shandors have been into restoration and architecture since the late 1800’s.
An ancestor, Wolf Van Shandor, was a Dutch painter and sculptor. It can be easily suggested then that he was the person who spearheaded what would become the Shandor architectural firms. According to the Hound of the Baskerville and the Sherlock Holmes wiki pages, Sir Hugo Baskerville was the owner of Baskerville Hall during the mid 17th century. So while Sir Hugo would have never met Ivo, there is a very good chance that Baskerville Hall could have been commissioned to Wolf Van Shandor. As Van Shandor was also deeply into the spiritual and mystical, it stands a very good chance the Shandor family have been Gozer worshippers since the beginning.
The property on where Baskerville Hall is located, Devon, was, in 43 BC, tended and inhabited by the Celts, specifically a tribe called the Dumnonii. During that time, the Dumnonni had dealings with the Sumeraians via corduroy roads around Europe and what would become the UK.
Gozer was originally worshiped by the Hittites, the Mesopatamians and the Sumarians around 6000 BC. It is absolutely possible that during these travels and trades that Gozer worshipping could have migrated to the Dumnonii. Gozer, God of Destruction, would have been feared and possibly turned into that tribe’s devil until Wolf Van Shandor discovered the true meaning behind Gozer and began his own research and eventually worship of the Destructor.
Van Shandor’s art, plus his newly founded obsession to honor his new god, would have taken root in the construction of Baskerville Hall, and according to the manuscript read by Dr. James Mortimer in The Hound of the Baskervilles, Hugo Baskerville was a “most wild, profane and godless man” (Doyle 581). With Sir Hugo’s lust for the profane, the connection would’ve been complete.
Baskerville’s curse, uttered on the great table after discovering the escape of the young woman from the village he had kidnapped, is said that he “cried aloud before all the company that he would that very night render his body and soul to the Powers of Evil if he might but overtake the wench” (581) . Now, it is assumed that Baskerville meant the Devil, but if the construction of the the hall was left in the hands of a Gozer worshipper, to be built in very exacting specifications, it is possible that who Baskerville met on his journey to retrieve the young woman was not Lucifer but Vinz Clortho, demi-god and loyal minion of Gozer who gave to him one Terror Dog to chase down the young maiden in exchange for his body and soul. Anyone who has read this story knows how that turned out for Sir Hugo Baskerville.
I could leave it here, the original question answered.
However, there is every possibility that Ivo Shandor, physician and architect, who was born in the time of Sherlock Holmes and Sir Henry Baskerville came upon poor Sir Henry and Dr. Mortimer while they were in London preparing for the long voyage to restore Sir Henry’s shattered nerves. Ivo might have heard a bit about why they were travelling and managed to extract the entire terrifying story from Dr. Moritmer as I doubt Henry Baskerville would have been inclined to repeat his tale. Shandor, knowing his family history, and preparing to start his own cult of Gozer worshipers in the States, could have taken a trip to Devon to see Baskerville Hall for himself, and recognized the architecture as being from the family’s blueprints to develop a temple to Gozer. This information he would have taken with him to the States in the late 19th century, where he began a medical practice until he was run out in the early 20th century and formed the Dark Church of Gozer in 1919 which turned into the Cult of Gozer in 1920.
The rest...is Ghostbuster history.
So yes, it is entire plausible for the Shandor’s and the Baskervilles to have met, for a Terror Dog to have, in actuality, been the gigantic hound, and for an ancestor of Ivo Shandor to have designed Baskerville Hall specifically to attract Gozer and his minions.
Credit goes to Arthur Conan Doyle’s The Hound of the Baskervilles, the Ghostbuster Wiki page and The Baker Street Wiki for the deep dive information as well as Brad Keefauver and Rob Nunn for starting this deep dive and dragging me into it.
No comments:
Post a Comment