Laurel and Hardy and the Sons of the Desert are at the heart of Bowler Dessert magazine and Bowler Dessert Online

Bulletin 07.07.11.

Journey of a lifetime A recent programme on BBC2 chronicled a family's journey to the new Laurel and Hardy Museum in Cumbria. Travels With My Family was transmitted in June and showed the journeys of four different families which marked turning points in their lives. Liam meets his heroes Entering the museum At the statue One of the families was the Hennesseys from Scotland. The mother and father were taking their two sons Liam and Lewis to Cumbria to visit the Laurel and Hardy Museum to celebrate Liam's sixteenth birthday. Liam has autism and, despite behavioural problems, was being encouraged by his parents to become more independent. Whilst having a great fear of going shopping on his own or of travelling on a bus, Liam had no problem when arriving at the museum and was the first up the stairs and into the treasure trove of memorabilia. He has an encyclopaedic knowledge of Laurel and Hardy's films and was able to quote large tracts of Laurel and Hardy dialogue to the museum staff. Ian Jones McGrath play in California From 31st August till 2nd October, the Falcon Theater in Burbank, California, will be presenting the play Laurel and Hardy written by Tom McGrath. This play débuted in Milwaukee, Wisconsin, last year. This new production will be directed by Dimitri Toscas. For more information, click here. Finding them Bob Morrison saw the above drawing of the Boys in Puzzler Wordsearch 2. A puzzle was devoted to Double Acts and "Stan", "Laurel", "Oliver" and "Hardy" were hidden in the grid. Making Stan The Sunday Post (26.06.11.) had almost a full page prompted by the publication on the new book The Making of Stan Laurel. Other newspapers had similar articles. Bowler Dessert will have a full review. More Hat Facts The Hat Facts (Part 2) by Tyler St Mark has been added to the Nutty Nut News Network. Tyler explains, "To fully appreciate 'the hat facts' of Laurel and Hardy, one must comprehend the era they derived from and why hats were so important back then. Understand the sensibilities of those times and you will know why Stan and Babe (Hardy) wore so many different hats both on and off the screen, and why they chose derbies for their characters and not, let's say, top hats or fedoras." Probus Club Willie McIntyre talked about Laurel and Hardy to the Probus Club in Largs on 5th July and showed a couple of shorts to a receptive crowd of around sixty.