Ollie at His Best For the New Year -- January 9th at The Mayflower ClubOllie at His Best For the New Year -- January 9th at The Mayflower Club
At The Mayflower Club on the evening of Tuesday, January 9th, we hope to be the first Sons' Tent in the world to honor Oliver Hardy's 126th birthday! As all of you know, Oliver Norvell Hardy was born on January 18, 1892, in Harlem, Georgia. For our first meeting of 2018, we will screen three Laurel & Hardy two-reelers and one full length feature. During our second break, we will sing "Happy Birthday" to Babe and serve two birthday cakes to celebrate his birthday. Unfortunately, the North Hollywood Fire Department won't allow us to put 126 candles on the cakes, but sometimes you can't get everything you want.
In our first two-reeler for the evening, Our Wife (1931), Ollie and his girlfriend Dulcy (Babe London) want to get married. However, when Dulcy's father (James Finlayson) makes it known that he is against the marriage, Ollie and Dulcy decide that they will just elope. Ollie asks his best friend and future best man Stan to help him and Dulcy sneak out of her father's house. Besides Finlayson and London, Charley Rogers plays Fin's butler. Later in the film, Ben Turpin and Blanche Payson appear as a Justice of the Peace and his wife.
In two-reeler, Towed in a Hole (1932), Stan & Ollie sell fresh fish door to door from their old truck. In the opening of the film, the Boys seem to be doing okay with their business, but then Stan gets an idea. In his own unique way, Stan tells Ollie that they would make a lot more money if they cut out the middle man and caught their own fish from their own boat. Surprisingly Ollie agrees. The problem is that the Boys don't own a boat. So they go to a junk yard and buy a really rundown boat, that has to be repaired to even move the boat from the junk yard. Billy Gilbert plays the junk yard's owner.
In our last two-reeler for the evening we will screen Them Thar Hills (1934). When Ollie is advised by his doctor to vacation and relax in the mountains to help cure his gout, Ollie makes the big mistake of letting Stan make all the arrangements for their vacation. Everything seems to be going fine, until the Boys stop by a "deserted" mountain cabin. Billy Gilbert plays Ollie's doctor. Charlie Hall and Mae Busch play a married couple that have run out of gas on the same mountain road where Stan and Ollie stopped.
Our Laurel & Hardy feature for the evening will be Saps at Sea (1940). In the film, Stan and Ollie work at a horn factory, where they tune horns all day. After Ollie has a nervous breakdown at the factory from all the noise, Ollie's doctor (James Finlayson) recommends that Stan should take Ollie on an ocean voyage. He also recommends that on the voyage Ollie should drink plenty of goat's milk. The Boys decide to rent a boat and live on it, without ever untying the boat from its dock. Then their new goat, Narcissus, changes their plan. Charlie Hall, Ben Turpin, and Richard Cramer also make appearances in the film.
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 be sold at The Mayflower Club Kitchen. Refreshments will sold at The Mayflower Club Bar. Don't miss our first meeting of the year! See you January 9th.
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2018 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 cakes, condiments, 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 listed in the column to the right.
Please make your checks out to "Way Out West Tent" and mail those checks to Lori McCaffery, 4313 Woodland Avenue, Burbank, CA 91505 or bring your checks 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.
Dwain Smith
We would like to take a moment to mention the passing of Dwain Smith of New York. Dwain served as the Correspondence Secretary for the entire Sons of the Desert Organization for many years. If you first found us by writing a letter to an address in New York asking if there were any tents in Los Angeles, Dwain was probably the person that wrote back to you. He had attended all of the International Conventions, including two in Los Angeles. Thanks for those at our last meeting who signed the condolence cards for Dwain's daughters, Barbara and Penny. Dwain was a "one of a kind" friend to the Wileys. We'll miss him.
Notes From Our December Meeting
At our December meeting we screened Big Business, There Ain't No Santa Claus (Charley Chase), Below Zero, Laughing Gravy, and Bedtime Worries (Our Gang). We had a good crowd in number and enthusiasm. Bob Duncan and I did all the toasts for our December meeting. For our 2018 January meeting, we hopefully can go back to having our members help with doing the toasts. You guys do better toasts! Thanks to all our members who signed Jim MacGeorge's get well cards. I sent the cards to Jim and right away he telephoned me to thank you for the good wishes. He sounded good on the phone. Hopefully he will be able to join us again real soon.
The Burbank Temporary Aid Center
Many thanks to all your donations of food and cash to help the The Burbank Temporary Aid Center, in their time of need. I want you to know that they were very appreciative of your generosity. You guys really stepped up. Thank you.
International Convention
The next International Sons of the Desert Convention will take place this summer in Cincinnati, Ohio. Right now, there are twelve Way Out West members registered for the event. We would really like to see a few more faces representing our tent. The convention will take place July 12-15, 2018 and will feature Laurel & Hardy related films, a trivia contest, games, an author's lecture, and a costume banquet. There will also be general sightseeing and a riverboat cruise. To register, please visit the convention website at: www.laurelandhardy2018.com
