Snippets
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Fakes Dave Tomlinson writes, "The facts so far… a total of 21 fake autographs on eBay in the last 8 weeks, all on vintage autograph book pages with minor but consistent abnormalities. Of these, 14 have the Laurel and Hardy vignette stickers of which 11 have now been closely investigated and have all been proven to be modern day inkjet printed copies. A ring of three eBay sellers has been selling these. The main perpetrator is from Dudley in the West Midlands. At the time of writing, refunds are being pursued for 14 autographs with 11 having been made. Of the other 7 autographs, three did not sell on eBay, one is being reviewed, and three buyers are unknown." Log onto http://www.laurelandhardy.org/buyerbewae2.htm for a full report. SonDayz 2008 cancelled The Jitterbugs Tent in the Netherlands is sad to announce that it had to cancel the SonDayz planned for August. The organisers write, "Too many of the Sons who signed up have spent most of their money on their holidays and on the International Convention." The list of participants was too small to do the things they had planned, but they say, "We are going to look for a new date to organise an alternative SonDayz, cheaper than the one we promised." Forum
Member of the Year 2008
The Laurel and
Hardy Forum Member of the Year 2008 is
Michael Ehret from Germany. The judges
say, "In the opinion of the judges,
talented drummer Michael has made an
outstanding contribution to the forum,
sharing with us some truly outstanding
images which many of us haven't seen
before. Michael will receive a little
goody bag and a coveted Laurel and Hardy
Forum Member of the Year Oscar. As always,
it was a tough decision as all of our
members are worthy of the
title." Bacon Grabbing curtailed Due to circumstances beyond my control and which I will not elaborate on the St Helens and Wigan meetings of the Bacon Grabbers Tent are cancelled for the foreseeable future. The Manchester meetings will continue and we will still be providing the projection facilities for the Come Clean Tent of Widnes. Neil Evans on the Laurel and Hardy Forum Fantastic donation to Ulverston statue Gino Dercola forwarded this message from Anton Huyps, who was on the organising committee of the 2008 International Convention in the Netherlands: "As you know, we had a raffle at the convention. We made about 1,600.00euros. The Perfect Day Tent added to it, so we sent £1,500.00 to Eric Woods for the statue in Ulverston." Laurel and HarDay 2007 footage Gary Winstanley writes, "I won't be releasing a DVD of the annual Laurel and HarDay this year. However, I have put the footage from 2007 on YouTube for all Sons to enjoy. Because of YouTube's time restraints, I have uploaded it in three parts. You can easily link to all three parts by visiting www.samfilms.co.uk (click the Laurel and HarDay section)." Or these are the direct links. . . Part 1: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=HuZonz0Dwjc Part 2: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=t_xh70_8jlA Part 3: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=SAMerShGLw8 Fire! Fire! Fire! You may have heard the story of fires at convention venues. The Station Hotel in Vegas (1992) and the cruise ship Carnival Ecstasy (1996) suffered fires in the same week and when was this? July 2000, the very week we were in Tacoma (at the Seatac convention)! I believe both may have started in a laundry. I may have a slight error in this report but it's basically correct. Steve Robinson |
and Bishop Auckland statue
Artist Bob Olley travelled to China to work on his design. A foundry in the province was chosen to cast the design because of its reputation for efficiency and quality. Workers finished the statue, which will stand in Bishop Auckland, despite the site being damaged in the quake. Stan Laurel, who was born in Cumbria, moved to the town when he was a baby and attended the local grammar school. Wear Valley District Council commissioned South Shields artist Bob Olley to design the £37,000 statue as part of the town's Theatre Corner improvements. Mr Olley had previously visited the Sichuan foundry, owned by friend Lu Huagang, and was impressed by the speed and scale of its work. He travelled to China to complete his sculpture and returned to the UK while the workers cast the design. They were adding the finishing touches when the earthquake hit. Mr Olley said: "It was five nerve-wracking days before an e-mail from Lu said that although the works had suffered some damage, he, his family, the workers and Stan were OK. But the Chinese are remarkably unshakable and determined. After three weeks the statue was on the dockside at Shanghai awaiting shipment." The 5ft 9in (1.8m), 400kg statue completed its 11,000 mile journey to Bishop Auckland. Stan Laurel was born in Ulverston, but moved as a baby to Bishop Auckland, where he was baptised at St Peter's Church and schooled at King James Grammar. He moved to the USA in 1910. |
