The City of Binghamton will celebrate the third annual Thirty-three Cecils Day over Labor Day weekend. Honoring the award-winning novel Thirty-three Cecils which is set in part in Binghamton, written by my buddy Everett De Morier.
The holiday began in 2021, when fan Mike Pedley drove hours to the Belmar Pub on September , the date when the novel’s main characters, Walker and Dutch, meet their fate and quietly raised three beers in their memory. Mayor Jared Kraham officially recognized the event and September 1 as Thirty-Three Cecils Day.
Readers have named pets after characters (Abercrombie), launched businesses (Gopher Ink Studios), brewed beer (Thirty-three Cecils Ale), and even inspired a signature cocktail (The Countess of Backward Clocks) served in local taverns. Fan art and now a children’s spin-off book (100 Cecils) show how this “small novel” has built a lasting community of readers.
The story is also headed to the screen. Sunset River Productions in Los Angeles has announced a two-part adaptation, with Hollywood legends Matthew Modine and Dustin Hoffman attached.
This year, Thirty-three Cecils Day introduces a new tradition, as Ev has made me very first Grand Marshal. I get to deliver the annual toast to Walker and Dutch at the Belmar on the evening of September 1. I tell people I got the honor because of my influence in Binghamton media, but really, I think it has more to do with all the beer Ev and I drank together in his Mather Street apartment when we were in our twenties.
That apartment, 1 Mather Street in Binghamton, which is across the street from the Belmar Pub was where Everett De Morier lived and became the fictional residence of Riley “Dutch” Dutcher in the novel.
Come join us on Monday (Sept 1st) 7:00 PM – 9:00 PM @ The Belmar Pub on Main st in Binghamton in celebrating the art of storytelling and the heart of Binghamton, and raise a glass to the novel that has become so much more than a story.
Also Ev will be at a Book Signing @ Barnes & Noble in Vestal on Sunday (August 31) from 12:00 PM – 3:00 PM
Tejay
