Volume 30, Number 4
Contents:
Final Details for
the June Anniversary Celebration
Time is Running Out to Sign
Up!
Last Chance --- Don't Miss
Out
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Volume 30, Number 4 Contents: |
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This is an old issue of the Brushwood Gulch Gazette, which has been archived for reference purposes. Although some links have been updated, the text of this archived newsletter remains unchanged. Please keep in mind that these articles have NOT been updated to reflect changes that may have occurred since they were originally printed. Return to the index of archived issues. |
If you are signed up for any of our anniversary events, you'll want to take note of the following times and starting locations.
On Saturday, June 28th, the tour will be leaving from the Wyndham Garden Hotel at 10:00 am. As a bonus, the "Then and Now" Pratfalls will be available for a special price of $5. Please be downstairs at the front entrance at 9:45 am for check-in. You may park your car in the hotel parking lot free of charge for the day. The bus should return at approximately 3:00 pm. This will give you time to change into your "dress up" attire for the banquet that evening. For those of you not staying at the hotel, the public restroom on the first floor will be available for changing your clothes. The cocktail hour for the banquet will commence at 6:30 pm.
The order of events on Sunday, June 29, will be slightly different than previously stated. We will first conduct the walking tour, followed by a plaque dedication, a group picture, the bus portion of the tour, a meal, and the film screenings. The events themselves have not changed. The walking tour will start from the parking lot behind Stellar Hardware, located at 3833 Main Street, in Culver City. But please, do not park in this lot or your car may be towed! There is a public parking lot about a block away, on Culver Boulevard (across the street from the Culver Hotel). After leaving the parking lot, just walk across Culver Boulevard and head down Main Street. Halfway down the block, on the left side of the street, is a short alley that leads to the parking lot behind the hardware store. Please be in the lot behind Stellar Hardware by 9:45 am, in order to check in. At 10:00 am, we will begin with a walking tour of Culver City. Please be sure to include time for breakfast before the tour begins, because only snacks will be available on the bus portion of the tour. As on Saturday, Pratfalls will be available.
If you are a guest at the Wyndham Garden Hotel, a bus will depart the front of the hotel at 9:45am, to take you to the starting point for the walking tour. Please make sure that you allow time for breakfast and are downstairs in time, so that you do not miss the bus, as it will be the only one transporting you to the starting location that day.
This is your last chance to sign up for the Way Out West Tent's 30th Anniversary Celebration in Culver City. Due to overwhelming demand, the buses for both the Saturday and the Sunday tours are just a few people away from being filled to capacity. Once these spaces are gone, you will be put on a waiting list, until there are enough people to fill another bus. Tickets for the Saturday night banquet are also going fast; once it sells out, there won't be space to accommodate additional guests. So don't wait ... if you don't want to be left out of the fun, send in your registration immediately! The form is included on page 4.
In celebration of our thirtieth anniversary, our tent will host a celebration June 28-29th in Culver City ... the birthplace of Laurel and Hardy! By now, you've undoubtedly heard about the events that will take place. This is the last notice you will get about the upcoming festivities. So if you haven't signed up, what are you waiting for?
On Saturday, June 28, our first event will be a tour of L&H locations around Los Angeles. This will include the stairs from The Music Box and Hats Off!, the train yard from the beginning of Berth Marks, the Pottsville Station from the end of Berth Marks, the downtown office building from Liberty, as well as the graves of Stan Laurel and Oliver Hardy. Several homes of the boys and their co-stars will also be seen along the way. We will also see Hollywood Boulevard and the theater where "This is Your Life" was broadcast. The tour will begin at 9:45 am and end approximately 3:00 pm. A sack lunch will be provided during the tour. The price is $25 for members and $30 for non-members.
That evening we will have our Thirtieth Anniversary Celebrity Banquet at the Wyndham Garden Hotel. Because 1997 marks the Diamond Anniversary of the film Way Out West (60 years) and the Pearl Anniversary of the Way Out West Tent (30 years), the theme of the banquet will be Diamonds and Pearls. Celebrity guests will be in attendance. They will be available for autographs and questions during the cocktail hour, which will begin at 6:30 pm.
Invitations have been extended to: Peggy & Lassie Ahern (Our Gang), Billy Benedict (Great Guns), Tommy "Butch" Bond (Our Gang & Block-Heads), Anthony Caruso (Jitterbugs), Frank Coghlan (Our Gang), Jay Dare (L&H Costumer), Dorothy "Echo" DeBorba (Our Gang & The Stolen Jools), Edith Fellows (Our Gang & Fra Diavolo), Betty Goulding Saunders (wife of Alf Goulding), Phillip Hurlic (Our Gang & Zenobia), Eugene "Pineapple" Jackson (Our Gang), Dick Jones (Our Gang & Babes in Toyland), Eleanor Keaton (wife of Buster Keaton), Sidney "Woim" Kibric (Our Gang), Leonard Landy (Our Gang), Lois Laurel Hawes (daughter of Stan Laurel), Peggy Lynch (Our Gang), Jim MacGeorge (Stan Laurel impresionist), Chuck McCann (Oliver Hardy impressionist), Trudy Marshall (Dancing Masters), Billy Naylor (Our Gang), Monty O'Grady (Our Gang), Bob Overbeck (Special Effects artist at the Roach Studios), Buddy Rogers (The Stolen Jools), Delmar Watson (Our Gang), and Marie Windsor (Fighting Kentuckian). As always, celebrity attendance is contingent upon health and scheduling status of each guest.
Dinner will follow at 7:30 p.m. The program will contain a look back at our tent's history, which includes over 100 celebrity members and the Second Sons of the Desert International Convention in 1980. There will be a raffle and our annual awards, as well as a few surprises. The evening will conclude with the 60th Anniversary screening of Way Out West. The price is $35 for members and $40 for non-members.
On Sunday, June 29, the celebration will continue with a special walking tour of the downtown area of Culver City. Here, everywhere you turn seems to be a filming location! This includes the gutter seen in We Faw Down, the hospital from County Hospital, the Culver Hotel from Putting Pants on Philip, and the street where Edgar Kennedy stopped the boys in Leave 'Em Laughing. Other locations from Bacon Grabbers, Hats Off!, Two Tars, Liberty, Angora Love, and Duck Soup will also be toured on foot. And don't forget your camera, because there will be a lot of great photo opportunities.
The walking tour will be followed immediately by a special plaque dedication in downtown Culver City. Then, we will begin the final portion of our tour. Buses will take you to homes seen in Big Business, Perfect Day, and Hog Wild. We will also visit the site of the Hal Roach Studios and see the former MGM studios along the way.
Following the tour, we will gather at the Sagebrush Cantina and Restaurant. A meal will be served, followed by a screening of many of the same films whose sites you will have visited earlier in the day. And remember, this is all taking place just a few blocks from where the films were made! The walking tour will begin at 10:00 am. The price is $35 for members and $40 for non-members.
THIS JUST ADDED! In addition to the other locations, we will also have a chance to visit Holy Cross Cemetery in Culver City. This is where such notables as Edgar Kennedy, Zazu Pitts, Art Lloyd, and Robert McGowan were laid to rest. You'll be surprised by some of the other movie legends that are also found there.
The Wyndham Gardens Hotel, also in Culver City, will serve as the central hub for this celebration. Rooms are a special price of $69 per night (plus tax, with single or double occupancy). The newly refurbished hotel has all of the features you would expect from a first-rate establishment, including a restaurant, bar, pool, and library area. Non smoking rooms are available and it is walking distance to a major shopping mall. There is also a free shuttle between the hotel and Los Angeles International Airport (which is about ten minutes away). For reservations, please call the hotel directly at (310) 641-7740; be sure to mention you are with the Sons of the Desert celebration in order to receive the special rate.
An event like this has not been offered in over 17 years and will probably not be offered again. If you love Laurel and Hardy and wish to meet the people they worked with and see where they made their magic, this is a really special opportunity. We hope to see you there.