Volume 27, Number 1
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Volume 27, Number 1 |
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This is an old issue of the Brushwood Gulch Gazette, which has been archived for reference purposes. Although some links have been updated, the text of this archived newsletter remains unchanged. Please keep in mind that these articles have NOT been updated to reflect changes that may have occurred since they were originally printed. Return to the index of archived issues. |
We're opening the door for ' 94. Come on in and spend the year with us. Yes, you can go home from time to time, but you better come back and join us. We'll begin on Oliver Hardy's birthday...January 18, 1994, Tuesday evening. We'll be meeting again at the Mayflower Club, located at 11110 Victory Boulevard in North Hollywood (west of Vineland Avenue.) The doors open at 6:30 PM, and the meeting will start at 7:30 PM. The Famous Fabulous Fisher Franks will be in and out of hot water, finding a way to travel into your tummies, and the Marvelous Mayflower Bar will be launching liquids into glasses for your pleasure. Remember, Tuesday evening, January 18, 1994, at the Mayflower Club. Hope to see you there.
We'll start the year off remembering the birthdays of Oliver Hardy and Hal Roach. Our first short will be a Larry Semon comedy, The Paper-hanger's Helper (1925), that features Babe Hardy. Next, we'll run a clip from Frank Capra's Riding High (1950), where Oliver Hardy made a short but memorable cameo appearance. This will be the first time in a long time (maybe the first time ever ! ) we've shown this at a W.O.W. meeting. Next will be an early Hal Roach production, Mighty Like a Moose (1926), starring Charley Chase. The boys will follow in two silent shorts, Double Whoopee (1929) and That's My Wife (1929). We'll wrap up the evening with the feature Fra Diavolo with the boys, Fin, Thelma Todd, and Dennis King (1933.)
It's the first of the year and time to pay the piper. Since we don't have a piper, then it's time to pay your dues. The dues have gone up for the first time in 20 years (bad news), but we are adding one more meeting to the schedule (good news). The new prices are $28 for a single membership, $44 per couple, and $48 per family living at the same address. The cost to receive the newsletter for one year will remain the same at $5; there is no additional charge for those with full paid memberships. The door charge for a single meeting will be $7.50, beginning with the 1994 January meeting.
The meeting of December 7, 1993, started off, as always, with the Sons of the Desert song and the toasts to Stan, Ollie, and company, and yes, even a toast to Santa Claus. After some announcements by Lori "Mama Hen" McCaffery, we introduced our celebrity guests who joined us for the evening. Eleanor Keaton (Mrs. Buster Keaton) was in attendance, as was Jay Dare, who worked at the Roach Studios as a set dresser and at 20th Century Fox as a costumer on two of the boy's features. Jay also brought a display of some of his memorabilia of the boys that included stills of the wardrobe modeled by Stan and Ollie from The Dancing Masters.
The Way Out West Tent membership was very generous this season (as always) in their donations of canned goods to the Maud Booth Family Center. A very special thank you goes out to all of our members.
The film program began with Charley Chase starring in The Chases of Pimple Street, which featured L & H supporting players, such as Arthur Housman (Scram), Wilfred Lucas (Pardon Us), Gertrude Astor (Come Clean), and Hattie McDaniel (Zenobia). Next, the boys starred in Laughing Gravy, followed by their cameo appearance in Charley Chase's On the Wrong Trek. After a short break, a Flip the Frog cartoon (courtesy of Mike Rogers) had a couple of Laurel and Hardy characters doing a scene at the studio. The program wrapped up with the boys starring twice in Our Relations. The meeting came to an end after the film, as did our fun for 1993.
By Lori McCaffery
As the new year begins, I'd like to thank some of the members who helped make the Way Out West Tent work. (God help me if I leave anyone out).
The Wiley Family, Kris and Jim, run the sales table as often as not. No small job packing and unpacking all that stuff for each meeting. Jimmy provides the technical expertise at banquets and other special events.
Jayne Barnhart is constructing the world's thickest scrapbook, something we've never had for the tent. It comes with her to every meeting. Take a look at it sometime on the check-in table. Dorothy Barnhart also mans the sales table with the Wileys.
Scott James and Mike Rogers are our excellent projectionists. John Duff lugs all the equipment back and forth, and provides many of the films, along with those donated to the tent by Al Bender, a member we don't see enough of. Al also donated projection equipment and many, many raffle prizes. Unable to attend, he always thinks of us.
We all know the Fishers and their Famous Franks, but do you know they also buy all the supplies and cart the serving pans back and forth each meeting. All of the profits go to the club.
Bob Satterfield is our celebrity liaison, and without him we'd have precious few celebs at our special events. And he drives 3 hours each time he comes to a meeting-which isn't often enough, but we understand.
Michael Agee has donated a complete set of his videos and music to the tent, and makes releases available to us before the general public.
Jack Taylor in Seattle shares his birth and death-date info with us, as do several other tents.
Randy Skretvedt provides special event programs when we honor a certain star, and serves as general trivia expert for questions I can't answer for the many who write in.
The Mayflower is very generous in providing us a bartender, even though we almost never meet the bar minimum (c'mon guys, drink up!). Ms. Selby is unfailingly patient with our changes and scheduling snafus, and we feel truly at home here. They've never raised our rental, and for that we are very grateful.
We also thank our faithful celebs like Jay Dare and Harvey Wasden, who attend just because they like us, not because they're being honored. They enrich our meeting.
Last, but not least, we thank Bill Patterson who got the idea for the Way Out West Tent those 26 years ago and still has the urge to attend meeting.
I thank you all for letting me do what I do. I derive great satisfaction from the nuts and bolts of keeping the thing going. It's not a job, it's a joy.
75 years ago:
70 years ago:
65 years ago:
60 years ago:
55 years ago:
35 years ago:
Sources for Looking Back are:
The Laurel and Hardy Book, by Leonard Maltin
Laurel and Hardy-The Magic Behind the Movies, by Randy Skretvedt
The Little Rascals-The Life and Times of Our Gang, by Leonard Maltin
and Richard W. Bann
January 1 Matthew "Stymie" Beard Our Gang 3 ZaSu Pitts On the Loose 12 Patsy Kelly Pick a Star 14 Mary Ann Jackson Our Gang 14 Hal Roach 18 Oliver Hardy 18 Norman "Chubby' Chaney Our Gang 20 Mae Busch L & H regular 20 Rolfe Sedan Double Whoopee 30 Wilfred Lucas Pardon Us, A Chump at Oxford February 10 Jimmy Durante Hollywood Party 10 Alan Hale, Sr. Our Relations 11 Anita Garvin Stanley From Soup to Nuts 11 Angelo Rossitto Babes in Toyland 14 Jack Benny Hollywood Revue of 1929 14 Trudy Marshall The Dancing Masters 15 William Janney Bonnie Scotland 25 Dick Jones Our Gang 26 Tiny Sanford L & H regular 27 Reginald Gardiner Flying Deuces
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