Laurel and Hardy and the Sons of the Desert are at the heart of Bowler Dessert magazine and Bowler Dessert Online
Bulletin
05.12.09.
Due to the issues on the
Laurel and Hardy Forum over the last week, the
Forum is extending voting for the Website of the
Year by one week. So, we'll have until 5pm
(Pacific), 8pm (Eastern) on Thursday, December 10th
(1.00, Greenwich, Friday, Dec. 11). Please vote!
Bowler Dessert Online is one of the
nominated sites. Laurel or
Hardy typeface On the Norwegian
website http://www.dafont.com/laurelorhardy.font,
Eric Willoughby found a font called Laurel
or Hardy. The font consists of two
variations &endash; lower-case (Laurel)
and uppercase (Hardy). The site says,
"It was originally designed as a logo-type
for our little design agency in Oslo,
Norway. It is based on a strict pattern of
vertical thick and thin lines accomplished
by shifting between uppercase and
lowercase glyphs, eg "desiGN". If
requested we will build punctuation and
numerals. For now this is merely a display
font. This is shareware, hence please
share a sample screenshot of your
publication if you apply this font in your
work; we would love to see it." Cinémathéque
Française Jason Liddiard tells us
that the Festival at the Cinémathéque
Française starts on
9th
December. He says,
"I'm looking forward to seeing the Boys on the big
screen - first time since Saturday morning
pictures! Contact La
Cinémathèque française, 51,
rue de Bercy, 75012 Paris. Tel 0171 193333
http://www.cinematheque.fr. Men o' War
Tent at Christmas Men o' War
Tent say that their meeting on 12th
December is
"A full programme of 'winter' shorts guaranteed to
raise the Yuletide spirits! Big Business
(the traditional silent short for Christmas),
Tit For Tat (sequel to Them Thar Hills
which was shown at the October meeting),
our very own 'tent film' Men o' War, and
then after Dirty Work what else but Come
Clean?" Go to
http://sites.google.com/site/menowartent/home. Central
greet Our friends
at the Laurel
and Hardy Central
website came up with this terrific
greeting. Silents
are golden A unique
thing happened on 28th November in Belfast. No, it
wasn't that the Christmas meeting of the Another
Fine Messers went without a hitch - that would be
too much to ask for. It was that more than thirty
Messers came to the Pavilion to watch Laurel and
Hardy, and that is exactly what they did -
watched. Technical
problems left us without sound, and so, after a
nervous discussion about what we should do, Keith
and I grabbed the bull by the horns, put Keith's
best feet forward, and showed The Finishing
Touch in pure silence. No music and no sound
effects: just Stan Laurel and Oliver Hardy on
screen. Amazingly, the laughter gradually built,
even though we were just watching the images on the
screen. By the end of the film, everyone was
laughing, as Babe swallowed yet another mouthful of
nails, Edgar got covered in glue and roof tiles and
the Boys played football with the bonus money
before getting into a rock-throwing fight with the
unfortunate owner of the house. Thankfully
our sound problems were solved and we were able to
continue the night with Below Zero and
Laughing Gravy, but being in a room full of
people laughing at Laurel and Hardy - with
absolutely no sound accompaniment - is something
that will stay with me for a long time. Gerry
Dunne
The
Laughing Gravy Annual The
Laughing Gravy Annual is an essential part
of Christmas. Among the many stories this year are
two items which we especially want to share,
written by John Ullah. . . The book
will contain interviews with people who met him,
plus various anecdotes, rumours and memories
about him from his family. I promise
you a fascinating tale of a young man from Ward
End who would appear in silents, then talkies
and then TV with some of the biggest stars of
the day. Did you know, for example, that Charlie
appeared in the original King Kong (with Fay
Wray) as well as the classic 1939 The
Hunchback of Notre Dame (with Charles
Laughton and Maureen O'Hara)? OK - he was only
an extra in those films, but what an exciting
time he lived through. The book
will also cover Charlie's early days in
Birmingham and his return visit to his home city
in 1937. Now, due
to other commitments, Steve doesn't have as much
time to dedicate to the site. We really needed
someone to develop Laughing Gravy's own area.
After putting out an appeal, we are happy to
announce our new webmaster, Daniel Mobbs. Daniel
is very enthusiastic to take on this role for
us. He has lots of creative ideas for sprucing
up the website and has already started work on
it. A big "thank you" to him for all his
efforts.
European
Conventions When and
where were the European Conventions? The list is as
follows, including the next one! Ellen Davie
RIP Gordon Davie's
mum, Ellen, died very suddenly on
Wednesday morning, 2nd December. We offer
our sympathy to Gordon at this very sad
time. Ellen had become a regular attender
at the Blockheads Tent's Christmas parties
especially and will be sadly
missed. Did you
see? Did you see the news item
on Scotland Today (BBC1, 03.12.09.) of the
twins Ollie and Alfie? Ollie was born weighing
three times as much as Alfie. Pity Alfie wasn't
Bert or Ollie wasn't Stan. Dean
McKeown Flashback to
1988 Go to YouTube on the
Internet and punch in "Let them know 1988". You
will see Grand Sheik Steve Bartley (on drums), with
the cast of Brookside on Children in
Need in 1988, performing Let Them Know.
Steve says, "If you wait long enough you can
catch a glimpse of me wearing my Laurel and Hardy
T-shirt. Various members of the cast commented on
it and expressed their love of the Boys, especially
the late Bill Dean (Harry Cross)." On Saturday 28th
November, we went up to Ulverston just for
the day. Janice and Tom Hawton and Graham
Bishop were booked into the Virginia House
Hotel for two nights. John Ullah, Mandy
Finney and her mum were staying in the
Stan Laurel Inn. We met Janice, Tom and
Graham in the Rose and Crown at lunch
time. There was no sign
of any damage or front gardens full of
rotting furniture in the town. But when I
checked earlier in the week, there were
two streets, well out of town, down near
the Glaxo works, that were flooded
out. The town was
absolutely stacked out, much busier than
on previous visits. It was very difficult
to get down any of the streets with
stalls. Janet and I had a wander round in
the afternoon. The weather stayed dry but
cold. There was snow on the tops of the
fells and the Hoad Monument was covered in
scaffolding. We met at the Stan Laurel Inn
for 7.30pm, where Janice had booked a
table for ten. That was just as well, as
they were packed. We met up with Lucy,
Marion, Mark, John, Mandy and Pat and had
a nice meal. Dave
Williamson Unidentified
revellers in Ulverston, captured by the
North-West Evening
Mail
Website
of the Year
After nearly three years of painstaking research
(well it was painstaking to me), there is light
at the end of the tunnel. My book on Charlie
Hall will be called This is More Than I Can
Stand, and after three years it's more than
I can stand as well!
Some years ago the Laughing Gravy Tent purchased
the domain name sotd.org as our gift to the
association. Steve Smith did a great job of
setting up the website and linking it to other
Sons' sites around the world.
More on Gracie
Notwithstanding those two rather nit-picking criticisms, many people are unaware of the Monty Banks/Laurel and Hardy connection, even in the Sons of the Desert, so it was nice for it to be brought to our attention.
Grahame Morris
Some time in the run-up to our Bournemouth convention, Dave Wyatt put on a silent movie festival at the Pavilion, with organ accompaniment from Donald MacKenzie, which inspired us to repeat this idea for the convention. One of the films Dave showed was Chasing Choo Choos, a very funny and exciting train chase excerpted from a Monty Banks feature, made especially enjoyable by the great accompaniment).
Steve Robinson