Laurel and Hardy and the Sons of the Desert are at the heart of Bowler Dessert magazine and Bowler Dessert Online
Bulletin
11.01.10.
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Pools Britannia
The Daily Mirror (04.01.10.) had a four-page insert about football pools under the heading of Pools Britannia. There were several photographs of winners through the ages, some of them with celebrities presenting the cheques. Lucky Edward Cross in 1947 not only won the pools, but met Laurel and Hardy in the process. I have not seen this photograph before, so it was almost as good as winning the pools! Roger Robinson
Ulverston calendar A 2010 Ulverston calendar will raise funds for the town's ongoing regeneration and is available in Ulverston shops. The calendar features pictures taken by local photographer Allan Wilson and includes Ken Dodd's unveiling of the Laurel and Hardy statue last year. His Master's DVD John Burton saw Laurel and Hardy on a flyer from HMV.
Spotted by Jean Poulain
Sweetheart I was listening to the excellent Russell Davies programme on 2nd January on Radio 2, an informal history of the popular song and composers. That night's programme was about the year 1910 and my ears did a double-take (it's a good trick if you can do it) when a song familiar to all Sons of the Desert and forever associated with our own Oliver Norvell Hardy came on, namely Let Me Call You Sweetheart. It was written in 1910 and, in a throwaway line, Russell said that it was reputed that the model for the sheet music was Virginia Rappe, the woman whose false allegations led to the infamous court case which destroyed Fatty Arbuckle's career. Despite him being found not guilty, Arbuckle's name was forever tainted." Grahame Morris
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Did you
see? The Story of
Slapstick (BBC2, 26.12.09.) was a new,
appreciative look at the art form which
started so many screen comedians on the
road to success. Many stars were in the
spotlight, but Stan and Ollie were revered
and frequently held up as respected
exponents of slapstick. Willie
McIntyre Did you see
Living Famously (BBC2, 26.12.09,
first shown in 2002)? I was somewhat
dismayed by the mention of Babe's
"first-ever film" as They Looked
Alike, as, by my reckoning, this was
his 40th movie, mid-1915. I thought
Outwitting Dad was the undisputed
1914 début title. I also
noticed the repeat of Spike Milligan's
mispronunciation of the Boys' Swedish
name, as "Helvan and Halvan", which is
incorrect. There is no such exact word in
Swedish as "Helvan", although if it
were taken as ungrammatical it could be
accepted as "hell", which is "helvet". The
correct name is "Helan och Halvan" ("The
whole and the half") and I notice on
Bowler Dessert Online it is given
as "Helan og (och) Halvan". The
conjunction "og" occurs only in Danish,
and is literally foreign to Swedish. The
Swedish for "and" is "och", which in
speech is usually contracted to simply "o"
(pronounced "aw"). In fact the letter "g"
rarely occurs in Swedish, and it is always
"hard", as in "geese", with the letter "j"
providing the "soft" version. The situation is
even worse in the programme A Tribute
to the Boys: Laurel and Hardy (1992),
where it is given as "Helan och Helfen". I
don't know of any word in Swedish with
that form ("Helfen") other than in Ancient
Icelandic, which, again, means "the
hell". Here endeth the
Swedish lesson. Eric
Willoughby Did you see
Wallace & Gromit - A Matter of Loaf
and Death (BBC1,
28.12.09.)? Wallace's delivery van
had the same in-car stereo system as in
the Boys' car in Busy Bodies - a
turntable operated by pulling a
string. In The
Simpsons (C4, 05.01.10.) Bart escapes
from a juvenile detention centre
handcuffed to a girl. They go to a
blacksmiths to have the handcuffs removed
but find a long queue of convicts ahead of
them also waiting to have their cuffs
taken off. At the front of the queue are
Stan and Ollie dressed in their Second
Hundred Years prison outfits. Dean
Carroll Stan and Ollie
made a brief appearance on The
Simpsons, Series 21, Episode 9.
Grandpa Simpson is telling how he used to
shine shoes at Springfield Union Station
and how the Tinseltown Starliner always
stopped every Monday and the stars got out
to stretch their legs. Among those
featured were Clark Gable, Frankenstein
and Shirley Temple. The episode only aired
in America on 3rd January. It is the
second time that Laurel and Hardy have
appeared in The
Simpsons. Dean
McKeown Barrow and Boys Non-league Barrow Football Club made it to the third round of the FA Cup and was rewarded with a money-spinning, away tie at Sunderland on 2nd January. Amazingly 7,200 Barrow fans made the journey to Sunderland and there was a good article in The Times about the club, which included the following paragraph: They reckon 12% of the town's population will be in Sunderland. Cheap laughs may be had over this. Barrow is one of those northern towns that arouse instant mockery, generally from those who have never been there. It is easy to sneer that 7,200 people must be grateful to flee a remote place whose principal product is nuclear submarines, a town where shops and pubs are closing rapidly and the local cultural landmark is the Laurel and Hardy Museum in nearby Ulverston. I wish I could say that Barrow had the last laugh but they lost 3-0. Still, the money they earned will keep the club going for a while. Grahame Morris Not so lonesome
On 4th July 2009 at The Swinging Sporran pub in the centre of Birmingham (which is, incidentally, opposite a Tony Hancock memorial) there was an all-day music event. Run by the Punks Alive Collective, it featured many bands in a wide variety of styles, all of whom could, in some way, be described as punk. Early on in the proceedings, around 1.00pm, I started watching a chap play solo, just him singing and playing guitar. He explained that his band, Flat Back Four, were due to have played but their van had broken down that morning when setting off from St Helens. Undeterred, he, Ste Lingard, and his mate Ossie caught the next train to Birmingham to play the gig. He played a great set, by far the best all day, and at the end was asked by the sound engineer to play a couple more songs as the next act had not yet arrived. This he did, and then "one more" was requested. Ste's reply was, "I can't do any more unless someone knows the words to The Trail of the Lonesome Pine". Of course this is when I offered my services and a moving duet was performed. No recordings of this are believed to exist although it was described at the time as "heavenly", or at least like nothing on earth. A picture does survive (above), taken by Ossie, with me on the left. Anyone wishing to hear Ste's band should go to www.myspace. com/flatbackfour. Andrew Boswell |
This is what Grand Sheik Graeme Green got up to during the cold spell.
