Laurel and Hardy Society Sons of the Desert Way Out West Tent Los Angeles
  Home     Gazette     Archive     Volume 51-Number 6 Search   Help  

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.

Final Way Out West Meeting For 2018 - New Date: Tuesday, December 11

As I write this newsletter, it's hard to believe that in less than a month, 2018 will be history. How time flies! Hope all of you had a great year. I'm excited about the up coming New Year. On the Laurel & Hardy side, early reviews look like the new Stan & Ollie film might be the film that we've all waited for a lot of years. I'm looking forward to seeing the film. I still hope we can get a group together to see the film on or close to when the film premieres on December 28th. If you're interested, let me know at info@wayoutwest.org so I can keep a list. I'm also hoping that the film will get more people to be interested in Sons of the Desert and watching Laurel & Hardy films. Wouldn't it be great to have a Laurel & Hardy renaissance. Maybe I'm getting too excited, but we'll see what happens.

To start off our film program for the evening, we will screen The Brave Tin Soldier (1934). This sentimental color cartoon is based on Hans Christian Andersen's "The Steadfast Tin Soldier." As an added treat, the cartoon also includes cameo appearances from Laurel & Hardy and many other Hollywood stars from the thirties.

In their short, The Fixer Uppers (1935), Stan and Ollie try their luck selling Christmas Cards "door to door." Their troubles begin when they meet a distraught wife (Mae Busch), who tells them that her husband (Charles Middleton) just doesn't pay enough attention to her. She thinks if she could just make him "a little jealous" she would get a lot more attention from him. The Boys offer to help her.

Our next film for the evening is the Boys' classic silent short, Big Business (1929). In just two reels, the Boys (with help from James Finlayson) show us all the ways to be unsuccessful if you want to sell Christmas trees "door to door." Big Business proved to be so popular that the film was entered into the United States National Film Registry for preservation in the Library of Congress!

For our last short film of the evening we will screen Tiembla Y Titubea (1930), the Spanish language version of Below Zero. In both versions of the film, The Boys are struggling street musicians playing outside in the cold, until they find money in a wallet in the snow. Then the Boys are befriended by a policeman, who the Boys invite to lunch. Tiembla Y Titubea is about seven minutes longer than Below Zero and has a different beginning, added gags, and an over all different feel to the film. Though the dialog in the film is completely in Spanish, English subtitles are printed throughout the film that we're screening, so you won't have any trouble understanding what everyone is saying. Stan and Babe learned to speak their Spanish for the film phonetically. Though Laurel & Hardy didn't pronounce their Spanish well, they got along okay because, after all they were comics doing comedy!

Finally, if our film program won't get you to join us on Tuesday night, we have one more person to offer. That person is Jim MacGeorge. How can you top that?

The Mayflower Club is located at 11110 Victory Boulevard in North Hollywood. Doors open at 6:30 p.m. Our meeting starts at 7:15 p.m. "Fisher Franks" (100% beef hot dogs) with your choice of chips will sold at The Mayflower Club Kitchen. Refreshments will be sold at The Mayflower Club Bar. Hope to see you December 11th at The Mayflower Club. Have a Happy New Year!

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


Food For The Needy

Christmas is a time of the year to receive, but even more importantly, it a time to give from the heart. This year again we will be donating to The Burbank Temporary Aid Center. They were founded in 1974 and are a Food Bank providing help to needy families. They "provide to individuals, families, the working poor, crime victims, senior citizens and the homeless with short term emergency assistance that they need to live with dignity." We are again asking each of our members to bring at least two food items to our December 11th meeting, and if you forget we will ask you for a cash donation of at least $5.00. Easy open can goods of fruits, vegetables and soups are most welcome, as are cereals, boxed instant potatoes, boxed stuffing, boxed Mac & Cheese, cereals, rice, pastas, pancake mix, syrup, canned chicken and tuna. Please, no ramen or exotic specialty foods. Thank you once again for your continued generosity.


2019 Dues Are Due

The annual dues for Way Out West Tent Memberships are due each January. We need your dues to be paid on time, so we can continue to cover our expenses for renting The Mayflower Club, purchasing hot dogs and condiments, cakes, and postage to mail our newsletters. Your dues will cover admission to all five regular meetings and a discount for our Special Event. Rates are the same as 2018: $30 for a single membership, $45 for a couple membership, and $50 for a family membership.

Please make your checks out to "Way Out West Tent" and mail those checks to Way Out West Tent, PO Box 1918, Burbank, CA 91507 or bring your checks to our December or January meetings. Mailing your check is preferred, so we can avoid long check-in lines at our December or January meetings. Thanks for your continued support of our Tent.


Notes From Our October Special Event

For our Special Event in October, we decided to do something a little bit different. Rather than have a banquet, like we've done so often in the past, we decided to have a dinner of hot dogs with buns and a choice of just about every side dish you could imagine. We had beans, macaroni salad, potato salad, chili, grated cheese, chopped onions, sauerkraut, pepper rings, and several types of chips. After we did the toasts and song, we screened Me and My Pal (1933). Following that, we screened the first trailer for Stan & Ollie and later Bob Duncan led an interesting discussion about the trailer. Our other two films for the evening were Come Clean (1931) and Laurel & Hardy's Laughing '20s (1965). Thanks to Rick Greene, Ali Sykes, Bob Duncan, Randy Skretvedt, Norm Klemz, and Jayne Barnhart for helping me with the toasts. All in all, I think our 2018 Special Event turned out pretty well. Thank you!