August-October 1995 Volume 28, Number 6 Contents: Meeting Notice Annual Banquet Locations Tour Last Meeting Film Program Looking Back Birthdays

Meeting Notice

In 1933, President Franklin Roosevelt said, "The only thing we have to fear is fear itself." That same year, Stan Laurel said, "He who pilfers your good name steals trash." Now, sixty years later, the Way Out West Tent proudly announces that you have "nothing to fear" because the next WOW meeting will take place on Tuesday evening, August 29, 1995. So bring "your good name" (leave your trash at home) and come on over to the Mayflower Club located at 11110 Victory Boulevard (west of Vineland Avenue), in North Hollywood. The doors open at 6:30 PM and the meeting begins at 7:30 PM. The Famous Fabulous Fisher Franks will be looking for a home in your tummies and the Marvelous Mayflower Bar will turn your liquid requests into drinkable dreams. So, come one, come all to the next WOW meeting on Tuesday evening, August 29, 1995.

Way Out West Annual Banquet

On Saturday evening, October 28, 1995, the Way Out West Tent's 28th Annual Banquet will be held at the Hollywood Roosevelt Hotel in Hollywood. At 6:00 PM the cocktail hour will begin, with dinner being served at 7:00 PM. Some of the invited guests include Peggy and Lassie Ahern (Our Gang), Billy Benedict (Great Guns), Julie Bishop (Bohemian Girl), Frank "Junior" Coghlan (Our Gang), Ellen Corby (Script girl at Hal Roach Studios), Jay Dare (L&H costumer on Dancing Masters and the Bullfighters), Dorothy Deborba (Our Gang), Marianne Edwards (Our Gang), Edith Fellows (Our Gang), Betty Goulding Saunders (widow of Alf Goulding), Phillip Hurlic (Zenobia and Our Gang), Eugene "Pineapple" Jackson (Our Gang), Mary Ann Jackson (Our Gang) Dick Jones (Our Gang, Babes in Toyland), Mrs. Eleanor Keaton, Sidney "Woim" Kibrick (Our Gang), Mildred Kornman (Our Gang), Leonard Landy (Our Gang), Mabel Langdon (Mrs. Harry Langdon), June Lang (Bonnie Scotland and Zenobia), Jacquie Lyn (Pack Up Your Troubles), Trudy Marshall (Dancing Masters), Jerry Maren (Our Gang), Billy Naylor (Our Gang), Monty O'Grady (Our Gang), Bob Overbeck (Roach Studios Special Effects), Anita Page (Hollywood Revue of 1929), Jean Parker (Flying Duces), Grady Sutton (Pack Up Your Troubles), Delmar Watson (Our Gang), and Fay Wray (who appeared in a short, directed by Stan Laurel). The availability of the celebrities is contingent upon their schedules and their health permitting.

An entree of chicken picata will be served, along with spinach salad, twice baked potato, vegetable du jour, basket of bread with sweet butter, and seasonal berries in a chocolate shell and beverage. A child's plate (for children up to 12 years of age) of chopped sirloin, salad, dessert and beverage will also be available

A screening of The Live Ghost, this year's banquet theme, will round out the evening of celebrity introductions, film clips, awards, and raffles. We are currently planning a Way Out West Celebrity Panel with the celebrities (who wish to participate) in a question and answer session. If you have a question for one of the celebrity guests mentioned above, please fill out the enclosed form and send it along with your reservations. In the interest of time, only questions asked on the forms will be asked and answered at the banquet. Please pick out one celebrity and one question so that all who wish to participate will be given a chance. The cost for the banquet will be $45 per person (including secured valet parking). A child's plate, for children ages 12 and under, is available for $15 per child.

Laurel and Hardy Locations Tour

On Sunday morning, October 29, 1995, the Way Out West Tent will lead a tour of Laurel and Hardy locations. We will depart from the Hollywood Roosevelt Hotel at 10:00 AM sharp. So, allow yourself time for parking and checking in on the bus. Among the locations visited will be the Music Box stairs, the Perfect Day house, Leave 'Em Laughing Main Street, the final resting places of Stan and Ollie, and much more. The cost for the tour is $20 per person. If you attend the banquet and the tour, then your cost for both will be $60 (a savings of $5 per person); Children 12 and under will be $30 each (a savings of $5 per child). As you know, the city is changing, and our L&H locations are disappearing. So, come on out and see them, while they are still standing.

Last Meeting

The meeting of July 11, 1995, was officially underway, after the singing of the Sons of the Desert song and the toasts to the boys and company. Joining us for the evening was Leonore Canon, whose father was Hollywood's first public relations man and also worked with D.W. Griffith. Our film program began with Charley Chase in The Caretaker's Daughter, followed by Stan and Ollie in The Chimp, Sugar Daddies, Scram, and the feature for the evening, A Haunting We Will Go.

Film Program for August 29, 1995

A Hasty Marriage
Released December 19, 1931. Starring Charley Chase, James Finlayson, Lillian Elliott, Gay Seabrook, and Eddie Dunn. Eddie Jenkins has eyes for Fin's daughter. Fin does not approve, even though Eddie is his boss. Charley, in the meantime, needs to get married in a hurry, because a job that he has applied for only hires married men. After finding out that the job has already been filled, a frustrated Charley boards a streetcar with Eddie, Fin, Fin's daughter, and Fin's wife. A fight ensues with Charley somehow coming out the winner. Billy Gilbert makes a cameo appearance.

Berth Marks
Released June 1, 1929. Starring Stan Laurel, Oliver Hardy, Pat Harmon, Charlie Hall and, Baldwin Cooke. Vaudevillians, Stan and Ollie, are train bound to Pottsville. After accidentally causing the other passengers to engage in a clothes ripping melee, the boys get all tangled up with one another while changing into their pajamas in their upper berth.

Be Big
Released February 7, 1931. Starring Stan Laurel, Oliver Hardy, Anita Garvin, Isabelle Keith, Baldwin Cooke, and Charlie Hall. The boys are almost on their way to Atlantic City with their wives, when Ollie gets a phone call from a "lodge" buddy. The buddy tells Ollie that a stag party in honor of the boys is taking place that night. Ollie pretends to be sick and sends the wives on ahead, to Atlantic City. He promises that he and Stan will meet them in Atlantic City in the morning. The boys spend the evening involved in a boot mix-up routine, never get to the party, and, of course, their wives return. This was Anita Garvin's last L&H film until 1938.

County Hospital
Released June 25, 1932. Starring Stan Laurel, Oliver Hardy, Billy Gilbert, William Austin, and May Wallace. Thanks to Stan's clumsiness, a recuperating Ollie is discharged prematurely from the hospital. While waiting for Ollie to be discharged, Stan accidentally injects himself with a sedative filled needle. With Stan driving, the ride home is quite an experience.

The Bullfighters
Released May 18, 1945. Starring Stan Laurel, Oliver Hardy, Richard Lane, Ralph Sanford, Diosa Costello, Carol Andrews, Margo Wood, and Hank Worden. Now living in Mexico, Richard K. Muldoon remembers the two men who sent him to prison and promises revenge on them. The two men are the boys, who are detectives in Mexico, looking for Larceny Nell. Muldoon and his partner, Hotshot Coleman, have booked famed matador, Don Sebastian (an exact double of Stan), for a bullfight. When Sebastian doesn't show up on time, Stan and Ollie try to fool Muldoon...unsuccessfully.

Looking Back

85 years ago

• September 22, 1910. The British steamship, the "Cairnrona," leaves Southampton, England for America with the Fred Karno Troupe aboard. Twenty year old Stan Jefferson is with the troupe. On October 3, 1910 the troupe opens at the "Colonial Theatre" in New York, performing in "The Wow-Wows."

80 years ago

• August-October 1915. Babe Hardy appears in The Dead Letter, Avenging Bill, and The Haunted Hat for Lubin Pictures; Ethel's Romeos for Casino; and the three part The New Adventures of Wallingford for Pathe.

75 years ago

• August-October 1920. While at Vitagraph, Babe Hardy is in front of the camera in The Decorator, His Jonah Day, and The Backyard.

70 years ago

• September-October 1925. Director Stan Laurel guides James Finlayson in Unfriendly Enemies and Moonlight and Noses for Roach-Pathe.
• September-October 1925. Moonlight and Noses (mentioned above) and Our Gang's Your Own Back Yard both have actress Fay Wray in the cast. Fay Wray later became known for her starring role in King Kong.

65 years ago

• September 6, 1930. The Laurel-Hardy Murder Case is released. The film is also shot in Spanish, German and French. The foreign versions, which are longer than the English version, contain a Berth Marks reworking, as Stan and Ollie take a train to the Laurel mansion.
• October 4, 1930. Charley Chase's first three-reeler, Dollar Dizzy, is debuted. It showcases L&H supporting players, Edgar Kennedy, Thelma Todd, James Finlayson, Dorothy Granger, and Charlie Hall.
• October 11, 1930. Our Gang's Teacher's Pet is released. It marks the first appearance of June (Pardon Us) Marlowe, as Miss Crabtree, and Matthew "Hercules" (later Stymie) Beard. Baldwin Cooke (Perfect Day neighbor) and Gordon Douglas (Saps at Sea director) appear as caterers. "Good Old Days," the Our Gang theme song, is first heard in this short. The country road where Miss Crabtree picks up part of the gang, was the same road used by the boys in The Hoosegow.

60 years ago

• August 6, 1935. Laurel and Hardy's final two-reel short, Thicker Than Water is released.
• October 5, 1935. Billy Gilbert (The Music Box) and Muriel Evans (Pack Up Your Troubles) co-star with Charley Chase in Nurse to You.

55 years ago

• August 22, 1940. The boys perform live at the Golden Gate International Exposition on Treasure Island, in San Francisco Bay, doing the sketch "How to Get a Driver's License."

45 years ago

• Filming begins on the boys' final feature, Atoll K.

40 years ago

• October 9, 1955. "This is Music Hall," a BBC television variety show, presented a recorded sequence with the boys sending their best from America. Their sequence was recorded in California on September 29, 1955.

35 years ago

• August 6, 1960. Tough guy, Rychard Cramer, best remembered in Scram and Saps at Sea, died in Los Angeles, at the age of 71.

Sources for Looking Back are:
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
Laurel and Hardy-The British Tours by A.J. Marriot
The Laurel and Hardy Book edited by Leonard Maltin
The Charley Chase Filmography by Joe Moore, Robert Farr, Richard Roberts, & Steve Rydzewski

Birthdays

 
August
   5   Ellinor Vanderveer       The Hoosegow
   6   Robert Mitchum           The Dancing Masters
   8   Carl "Alfalfa" Switzer   Our Gang
   9   Allen "Farina" Hoskins   Our Gang
  10   Jack Haley               Pick a Star
  11   Jean Parker              The Flying Deuces
  16   Lucien Littlefield       Dirty Work, Sons of the Desert
  19   Charlie Hall
  23   Jean Darling             Our Gang
  26   Richard Currier          L&H Film Editor
  27   James Finlayson
  27   Thomas Benton Roberts    Two Tars
  30   Julie Bishop             The Bohemian Girl
 
September
   2   Chuck McCann             S.O.D. Co-founder
   3   Wally Albright           Our Gang
   3   Alan Ladd                Great Guns
   4   Pete Smith               A Tree in a Test Tube
   4   Mantan Moreland          A Haunting We Will Go
   8   Darwood "Waldo" Kaye     Our Gang
  12   Dickie Moore             Our Gang
  12   Billy Gilbert
  15   Jackie Cooper            Our Gang
  16   Tommy "Butch" Bond       Our Gang
  17   Ben Turpin               Our Wife, Saps at Sea
  18   Robert Blake             Our Gang, The Big Noise
  19   Joy Lane                 Our Gang, Babes in Toyland
  20   Billy Bletcher           Babes in Toyland
 
October
   1   Charley Rogers           A Chump at Oxford
   2   Spanky McFarland         Our Gang
   2   LeRoy Shield             L&H Music Composer
   2   Lois Roberts             Mrs. Thomas Benton Roberts
   3   Leo McCarey              L&H Director
   3   Charles Middleton        Beau Hunks, The Flying Deuces
   4   Buster Keaton
   9   Jim MacGeorge            Stan Laurel impersonator
  10   Arthur Housman           Our Relations, Scram
  11   Mickey Daniels           Our Gang
  17   Art Lloyd                L&H Cameraman
  19   Daphne Pollard           Our Relations, Thicker Than Water
  20   Charley Chase            Sons of the Desert, On the Wrong Trek
  25   Gordon "Porky" Lee       Our Gang