Oliver Hardy Birthday Party at The Mayflower Club on January 14thOliver Hardy Birthday Party at The Mayflower Club on January 14th
Are you ready for the new year? Are you ready for the new decade? Are you ready to join us at The Mayflower Club for our January 14th meeting to celebrate the 128th birthday of Oliver Norvell Hardy? I hope you say "yes" to at least the third question and join us at The Mayflower Club for our first meeting of the year to celebrate Ollie's birthday. We're screening Towed in a Hole, Chickens Come Home, and The Flying Deuces. We'll serve free birthday cake on our second break.
Our short for the evening will be Towed in a Hole (1932). When the film opens Stan and Ollie are selling fresh fish door-to-door by truck. When Stan gets the idea that they could make more money if they got a boat and caught their own fish, Ollie agrees. When the Boys buy an old rundown boat from a local junk yard owner (Billy Gilbert), all their troubles begin.
In their three reeler Chickens Come Home (1931), Ollie's life seems to be going great. He is a successful business man, has a beautiful wife (Thelma Todd), and is a candidate for mayor. Even Stan seems to be an able employee in the film. Then a woman from Ollie's "past" (Mae Busch) pays Ollie a visit and all hell breaks loose. James Finlayson plays Ollie's butler and does a lot of great double-takes. Chickens Come Home also was filmed in Spanish. It was not dubbed, but was a totally separate film called Politiquerias (1931). In both films there were a lot of party scenes and you won't believe one of the Spanish scenes (which is not in the English version). We'll screen both films back-to-back.
Our feature for the evening will be The Flying Deuces (1939). While traveling in France with Stan, Ollie falls in love with an innkeeper's daughter, Georgette (Jean Parker). Ollie doesn't realize that Georgette is just flirting with him. When Georgette rejects him, Ollie is so distraught that he decides "to end it all" and take Stan with him. In the nick of time, the Boys are talked out of suicide by an officer of the Foreign Legion (Reginald Gardner). When the Boys decide to join the Foreign Legion all the fun begins. Charles Middleton is the Legion Commandant and James Finlayson has a small part as a Legion jailor.
The Mayflower Club is located at 11110 Victory Boulevard in North Hollywood. Door open at 6:30 p.m. Our meeting starts at 7:15. "Fisher Franks" (100% beef hot dogs) with your choice of chips will be sold at The Mayflower Club Kitchen. Refreshments will be sold at The Mayflower Club Bar. Free cake will be served at our second break. See you at The Mayflower Club on Tuesday, January 14th. Don't miss a great night!
Click here for a map to the Mayflower Club...2020 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, cake, and postage to mail our newsletters. This year your dues will cover admission to all of our six meetings. At this time, we are NOT planning to have a Special Event meeting. Our Annual Dues are unchanged from last year. Rates are listed in the column to the right. Please make your checks out to "Way Out West Tent" and mail those checks to the address in the right column, or bring your check to our January meeting. Mailing your check is preferred, so we can avoid long check-in lines at our January meeting. Thanks for your continued support of our Tent and thanks to all of our members who paid their dues.
Thank You Guys
Thanks to member Frank Salzberg for his very generous donation of stamps for our newsletter mailings and Victor D'Agostino for his cash donation for our newsletter mailing.
Food For The Needy
I'm happy to announce that the Burbank Temporary Aid Center has thanked us very much for all the food and $40.00 in cash that we gave them in November.
Raffle For UCLA L&H Film Preservation Fund
I'm also happy to announce that we raised $200.00 from our raffle we had in November for the UCLA L&H Film Preservation Fund.
Notes From Our December Meeting
At our December meeting, it was Henry Brandon Night! First Rick Greene, a close friend of Henry, took a little time to reminiscence about Henry. Then we screened a collection of film clips that Rick collected from Henry's long and talented film career. It was a great presentation. If any of you want to know more about Henry's film career, get the book Henry Brandon - King of the Bogeymen authored by Bill Cassara and Richard S. Greene (both members of our Tent). The book was published last year by Bear Manor Media. Next we screened Our Gang Follies of 1938 (where Henry was the manager of Alfalfa - The King of Crooners). Before we screened Babes in Toyland, our feature for the evening, we introduced our longtime Way Out West member, Payne Johnson. If you don't know Payne, believe it or not he played Jiggs the Pig in Babes in Toyland! It was really great to see and talk to him again! All in all, our last meeting turned out swell!
Convention Deadline
If you are thinking of attending this year's International Convention, you will receive a $50 registration discount if you pay before January 31. The 2020 convention will take place June 10-14th in Providence, Rhode Island. Conventions consist of film screenings, trivia contests, games, touring local attractions, and other socializing. Laurel & Hardy fans from around the world will be in attendance, and we expect a good turnout from Way Out West. Registration Forms are available online at 2020lhconvention.com
