Laurel and Hardy Society Sons of the Desert Way Out West Tent Los Angeles
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The Brushwood Gulch Gazette is the newsletter of the Way Out West Tent. It is published six times a year, shortly before regular tent meetings. Members receive the complete printed edition in the mail. The online edition features most of the articles found in the printed version, minus photos.

Laurel & Hardy And Kids at The Mayflower Club on August 10th

When Hal Roach and his staff cast roles for children, they always showed a good eye for selecting kids who had natural talent and on screen congenially. The kids in Roach films rarely seemed like they were kids acting. They always came off as real kids. Join us the evening of Tuesday, August 10th, to see "The Boys" alongside some of these real kids. As an added attraction, there is a good chance that Mildred Kornman, one of the last surviving actors from the Our Gang film that we are screening will be with us. We have also invited Marjorie Campbell, who is in the L&H short that we screening, to join us.

We will start the film program off with the silent Thundering Fleas (1926). Unbeknown to Farina (Allen Hoskins), an entire Flea Circus ends up on the back of his dog Magnolia. Farina takes Magnolia all over town as the fleas jump off onto everyone they meet. They end up at the home of his friend Mary (Mildred's sister Mary Kornman), where her sister (Martha Sleeper) is about to be married. Mildred Kornman plays the little sister of Our Gang member Scooter (Scooter Lowry). Besides Babe (as a policeman), see if you can spot Charlie Hall, Charley Chase, James Finlayson, and Stan Laurel's double, Ham Kinsey.

In Their First Mistake (1932), Stan convinces Ollie that all of Ollie's martial problems with his wife Arabella (Mae Busch) will stop, if Ollie adopts a baby. Will Stan be right for once? Marjorie Campbell plays the cute adopted baby in this short.

Our film program will conclude with Pack Up Your Troubles (1932). In this Laurel & Hardy feature, Stan and Ollie are drafted into the Army. When they go off to war, their buddy Eddie is killed in action. Since Eddie was a single parent, Stan and Ollie vow to find Eddie's parents, so his orphaned daughter can have a good home. They don't know exactly where Eddie's parents live and only know that Eddie's last name was Smith. The late Jacquie Lyn plays Eddie's daughter.

The doors at the Mayflower Club will open at 6:30 PM. The meeting will start at 7:15 PM. The Mayflower Club is located at 11110 Victory Boulevard in North Hollywood. Fisher Frank Hot Dogs and assorted chips will be sold at the Mayflower Club Kitchen. Your choice of drinks will be sold at the Mayflower Club Bar. Free cake will be served on our second break. See you Tuesday, August 10th!

Click here for a map to the Mayflower Club...


October 2010 Locations Tour Announced

Way Out West's Special Event this year will be held on Saturday October 23rd. It will be the second part of last year's location tour, as we will visit the locations that we didn't get to last year. We will also visit Stan and Babe's graves, plus we will again go to everyone's favorite location, The Music Box Steps. Registration forms will go out to all members who receive newsletters around the middle of September. Concurrently, registration forms will be available on our tent's web site. Please sign up, as soon as you can, space is limited. We had to turn people away last year. Lunch will be included in our registration fee, which we hope will be the same as last year.


Laurel & Hardy at Cinecon 46

This coming Labor Day weekend (September 2-6), Cinecon 46 will once again screen rare films at the Grauman's Egyptian Theater on Hollywood Boulevard. Stan Taffel, our "Keeper of the Celluloid," says that they will screen Charley Chase films and more Hal Roach films than ever before. Also for Laurel and Hardy fans, Tyler St. Mark will do a program on the last film footage of Stan Laurel that will be a part of the Laurel and Hardy German television special that was previewed at the Sons of the Desert International Convention in Sacramento in June. For ticket information, a schedule of films to be shown, and a lot more information go to cinecon.org/cinecon_inhollywood.html or see Stan Taffel on August 10th.


Old Town Music Hall in November

In November, there are plans in the works to have a joint meeting with all of the Sons tents in the Los Angeles area at the Old Town Music Hall in El Segundo. Over Thanksgiving weekend, they will be screening an all Laurel & Hardy film program. We will probably try to get together on the Saturday afternoon matinee. Details and admission cost are still being worked out. If the meeting is a go, we will put information on our web site around the middle of October.


Notes From Our Previous Meeting

At Stan Laurel's birthday meeting, we started the evening off with the screening of the rediscovered trailers for Beau Hunks, Frankenstein, and Dracula. They were short in length, but were interesting simply by the fact that trailers in those years were made up only of scenes not in the final films. I'm also sure that Stan would get a laugh if he knew that Frankenstein and Dracula movies would be shown at his birthday meeting. We also screened Dirty Work, Come Clean, and A Chump at Oxford, to show how Stan could completely get the best of Ollie. After we sang Happy Birthday to Stan, we had birthday cake.

We were also surprised and delighted that Dick and Betty Jones and were able to join us for the meeting. As every WOW member knows, Dick appeared in Babes in Toyland and was the voice of Walt Disney's Pinocchio. Dick also appeared in many classic films, such as Mr. Smith Goes to Washington, Destry Rides Again and Virginia City, just to name a few. He also appeared in a lot of early television westerns.

Thanks to Stan Taffel, Amy Condit, Dave Greim, Melanie Thompson, Ken Runyan, Bob Duncan, Victor D'Agostino for helping me with the toasts and song.


From the Grand Sheik

It has been a few weeks since the Sacramento Convention ended. Having been to all the Sons of the Desert International Conventions since they started in 1978, I think I am qualified to know a good Convention when I've been to one. The Sacramento Convention was a good one. Kris, Jimmy III, and I all had a great time. The hotel was in a good location. There were plenty of things to see in easy walking distance (the Capitol and Old Sacramento to name a few). The banquets away from the hotel were in interesting places (The California Automobile Museum and the Aerospace Museum of California). The pace of the Convention was just right. There was plenty of time to just to talk to people. Kris and I finally got to have a long conversation with two Sons that have also been to all of the Conventions. Maybe because there were so many members from Way Out West and Early to Bed who were able to go to the Sacramento Convention, we felt comfortable. But probably it was because over the years, we have found that Sons are nice people to be around. Click here to check out day by day what happened at the Convention. It was a fun Convention. Kudos to Rebecca Kane and Irene Velasquez for a great Convention.