Bulletin July 2008

Play in Ulverston We are reminded that any Sons visiting Ulverston over the Carnival Weekend have the opportunity to catch the play Stan Laurel: Please Stand Up! by actor and writer Bob Kingdom. The show will be at the Coronation Hall on Friday 4th July at 8pm. Tickets are priced at £10. Festival in Georgia The Oliver Hardy Festival Committee continues to work on plans for the Festival, which is scheduled this year for 4th October, with a special reception for all Sons on Friday evening, 3rd October. I hope that Sons make an effort to attend - it's always a fun time. Gino Dercola Laurel and Hardy Archive The new Laurel and Hardy Archive on the Internet went live in the middle of June. Russell Babidge said, "We are putting up a Beta version for the next few weeks, but this will give you a chance to see how the Archive will build and work. The Archive will build with one or two films a month being added, with stills, scripts, contracts, letters, music cue sheets and much more. The first film is Men o' War (1929)." Go to www.laurelandhardyarchive.com. Podcast competition The Laurel and Hardy Forum is running a competition on its Podcast. It is your chance to win a new book. Click on http://laurelandhardyforum.com/forum/viewtopic.php?t=6099. A night at the races I went to the Doncaster Races '50s Night on 6th June and amongst the lookalikes were Gary Slade and Rob Graham as the Boys, who entertained the crowd with magic and mayhem. How does Rob do the fork-bending trick? John Burton Potteries There will be no tent meeting of the Midnight Patrol (Potteries) Tent in July or August. However, Grand Sheik Antony Mitchell-Waite says, "On Monday 11th August we are having a film show, Q&A, mini-talk, memorabilia display, raffle etc for the registered charity Meir Heath Windmill Preservation Group. They are hoping to raise £100 to preserve an old windmill!" There is free parking, a bar, sales stall etc. You can pay at the door, £2.50 per adult, £1 per child. Tel 01782 317521 for more details. Bonnie Scotland Tent May meant there could be only one film shown. Well, we're allowed to watch more than one, but you know what I mean. Anyway, Sons of the Desert was the feature. We also watched We Faw Down and Their Purple Moment. Blobology was back among the raffle prizes. Joe won it, and generously handed it back for the next month's raffle. Janice Hawton Line dancers Jean Russeth sent us a photo of line dancers: Dougie's presentation Gordon Davie spotted the photograph below in the Summer 2008 issue of Permission to Speak, Sir!, the magazine of the Dad's Army Appreciation Society. John Clegg is shown presenting Grand Sheik Dougie Brown with the prize for being the member who had travelled the furthest to the club's meal in May. John played Mr La-di-dah Gunner Graham in It Ain't Half Hot Mum! by the same writers as Dad's Army. The event was held in Bressingham, Norfolk, near to where many of the Dad's Army scenes were filmed.  Bonnie Scotland DVD I won a brand new DVD of Bonnie Scotland on eBay. I paid £11 for it. The print is first class and I enjoyed every moment, including the great extras (with three clips from The Hollywood Revue of 1929). It is a shame that you can't buy this DVD here - it's a German import. You lucky German Sons! Well done, Warner Brothers and thank God that it's Region 2. It is a shame that Warner didn't do the box set as they would have done a better job than Universal. Nick Rich Buy a fez £4.99 (including p&p) from http://www.jokes-online.co.uk. The address is World of Fun, 2 St Edmunds Terrace, Hunstanton, Norfolk, PE31 6RH. Tel and fax: 01485 532016. E-mail: info@jokes-online.co.uk. Focus on Dave At the June meeting the Blockheads presented Grand Vizier Dave Walker with a silver quaich to mark his official retirement from his post as projectionist. Dave has been showing films since the tent was formed in 1984 and only stopped when we switched to DVD earlier this year. We estimate that he has shown between seven and eight hundred films in that time. The quaich is inscribed "Dave Walker Blockheads projectionist 1984 - 2008". Then underneath is the heartfelt cry from members of the audience at the beginning of each meeting: "Focus!" Gordon Davie The meeting on 15th June marked the official retiral of Dave Walker as the Blockheads projectionist and, to mark the occasion, we presented him with a silver quaich. Thanks go to Dave for his devotion to duty down the years and we hope he continues to enjoy the films for many years to come. The tent is presently resting over the summer and meetings reconvene on Sunday 7th September at the Edinburgh City Football Cub, Baxters Place, Edinburgh. Charlie Lewis SHORTS Paul Brodie has broken his leg and it is in plaster in the style of Edgar Kennedy. Paul says, "It's a sure-fire fancy dress winner!" Dave Oyston is off to the USA this autumn and intends to be a "greeter" from England when his good friend Bill Roth holds the inaugural meeting of the Their First Mistake Tent at the Old Colonial Theatre in Phoenixville, Philadelphia on 27th September. Our good friend and fellow Son known as "The Occupier" was seventy years old on 20th May. He is getting married shortly and we send him hearty congratulations. Jason Seymour has a Laurel and Hardy song on www.myspace.com/surferjay2. Nick Rich writes, "In the Stamp Centre in the Strand in London they had an autograph of Stan Laurel for £550 - with just Stan, not Ollie." John de Santo has nearly completed his fourth So, What. . . film book. This one is about Those Great Ladies of Film, featuring fourteen of them from Mabel Normand to Ida Lupino, on the changing roles and status of women as not only actresses but as writers, directors, and producers. Publication is expected in September or October. John is already working on Book #5. Humph Humphrey Lyttelton, chairman of the brilliant Radio 4 programme I'm Sorry, I Haven't a Clue, died on 25th April and an order of service was provided at his funeral on 6th May. On the programme were some wise words, written by Humph himself, which could be a motto for the Sons of the Desert! "As we journey through life, discarding baggage along the way, we should keep an iron grip, to the very end, on the capacity for silliness. It preserves the soul from desiccation." Grahame Morris For sale Nick Rich still has for sale the Laurel and Hardy super 8 film titled Chaos on the Highway. It is approximately 50 ft of film and the price is £25. He also has for sale the book The Comedy World of Stan Laurel at £150. The book is a 1975 first edition hardback autographed by Lois Laurel. Contact Nicholas D Rich, 5 Pococks Bank, Four Elms, Edenbridge, Kent, TN8 7PR. Or e-mail Nick.