Way Out West Tent
Oasis #5 Los Angeles, CA
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The Way Out West tent held its 33rd
anniversary banquet on Saturday, October 21, 2000 at the
94th Aero Squadron in Van Nuys. A social hour gave everyone
a chance to greet one another before the dinner, which
consisted of chicken dijonaise, Caesar salad, roasted
potatoes, vegetable medley and a dessert of chocolate mousse
pie.
Vice-Sheik, Jimmy Wiley, began our
program by leading us all in the singing of the Sons of the
Desert song. WOW Toastmaster Bob Duncan then offered a
tribute to the late Tony Hawes by dedicating the traditional
toasts to his memory as we all raised our glasses to Stan,
Babe, and the rest the of honored Hal Roach stars.
Long time member Bart Williams was next
at the podium, as he performed a satire of "The Night Before
Christmas"...which received a great response from the
audience. Stan Taffel followed with his own original "Lost
Last Interview with Stan Laurel" made up of questions from
Stan and answered by Stan Laurel with sound clips from the
boys' films. Stan also shared a video musical tribute to
Our Gang that he created.
Earl Kress then took us on a trip down
memory lane with a look back at the Sons of the Desert's 2nd
International Convention, better known as Hollywood '80. We
had a chance to view some slides and video clips from the
Real People television program, news clips, and local
television interviews. For those of us who attended
Hollywood '80, it was a wonderful to relive those memories
and for those who were not there, it was a great chance to
see what really happened 20 years ago.
Introductions of our celebrities
followed. One of the highlights featured the comedy of Jim
MacGeorge, who was joined later with Sons of the Desert
Co-Founder, Chuck McCann. Their entertaining moments
included a Laurel & Hardy routine with a rendition of
"Trail of the Lonesome Pine."
This year's Way Out West Tent's Lifetime
Achievement Award went to Our Gang's Tommy "Butch" Bond, who
attended with his wife Polly and his son, Thomas, Jr. Edith
Fellows also received the WOW tent's Lifetime Achievement
Award for 1998. We had planned to present it her at the
1998 banquet but due to scheduling concerns, we were not
able to present her with the award until this banquet. We
updated our traditional "Honolulu Baby" award by renaming it
the "Honolulu Buddy" award. This year's recipient was Our
Gang's, Gordon "Porky" Lee. Also attending the banquet were
L&H costumer, Jay Dare, Lois Roberts (widow of prop man
Thomas Benton Roberts), Trudy Marshall (The Dancing Masters),
Our Gang's Dorothy "Echo" Deborba, Margaret Kerry (Peggy
Lynch), Leonard Landy, and Delmar Watson. The Way Out West
tent's worker awards were presented to Stan Taffel (Why
Don't You Do Something To Help Me? award), Earl Kress (The
Good Egg award) and the Furthest Traveled award went to
David Morley from England.
The raffles followed next that produced
several happy winners. The evening came to a close as we
screened the Laurel & Hardy feature, Pack Up Your Troubles.
We want to extend a special thank you to
all of the tent workers who contributed their time and
effort to make this banquet a success: Lori and Colin
McCaffery (Check-in duty, centerpieces and Hollywood '80
photos), Bob Satterfield (celebrity contact), Bob Duncan
(toasts, 1940's music and raffle prizes), Earl Kress
(Hollywood '80 preparation), Jayne Barnhart and Neal Pinyan
(raffle sales and prizes), Jimmy Wiley, III (banquet
program), Tom and Debbie Hopkins (raffle prizes), Stan
Taffel (video projection equipment, Our Gang video tribute),
Jimmy Wiley, Jr. (slide projection equipment), Kris Wiley
and Janet Duff (sales table), Dorothy Barnhart, Steve
Nelson, Alan Barasorda, and Gloria Brigante for their all
around help. All of your help was very much
appreciated.
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