Scarlet Street (magazine) - History

History

Scarlet Street spawned from a limited-distribution newsletter created by community-theater actor, playwright and Sherlock Holmes devotee Richard Valley, who was inspired to publish his views on the Granada television series The Adventures of Sherlock Holmes-- in particular, the home video releases of the program, which began distribution by MPI in 1990. His contact with MPI and their enthusiasm regarding Holmsian fandom led to a decision to change the format from newsletter to full-fledged fanzine. (Years later Valley would be contracted by MPI to compose liner notes for their DVD collection of the Granada series, as well as for their releases of the Basil Rathbone Sherlock Holmes film series.)

The 1991 premiere issue of Scarlet Street was a black-and-white photo offset publication with a print run of about 500. Like many fanzines, it contained a combination of genre essays and articles, photos and original artwork. Articles were written by Valley, his friends and fellow film fans. Issues were sold by mail order and at movie conventions, and sold out quickly. Encouraged by the response, Valley (as editor, with colleague Jessie Lilley as publisher) continued producing issues on a semi-regular basis.

With articles and interviews by respected genre authors, and increased circulation through nationwide distributors, Scarlet Street arguably transcended the fanzine appellation into magazine status, adding color covers and glossier interior content.

Scarlet Street reached its tenth year of publication with its 40th issue in January 2001. The magazine’s final issue was Number 55, published in June 2006. Editor Richard Valley died after a two-year battle with cancer on October 12, 2007.

In January 2008, several of the magazine's staffers announced their intention to publish a new magazine "in the tradition of Scarlet Street," entitled Scarlet: the Film Magazine. The new magazine debuted in June 2008.