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

Bulletin 09.08.11.

Way Out West Tent back in business The Way Out West Tent of West Bromwich is back in business. We will be meeting on the last Wednesday of each month. We had our first meeting in July and the next will be on 31st August. The meetings and large screen film show will be held at The Wheatsheaf Public House, Carters Green, West Bromwich, B70 9QW. The pub's telephone number is 0121 553 422. My mobile number is 07759 670 901 Phil Ruston Germany revels Wolfgang Günther reports that on Saturday 24th September starting at 4.00pm the Laurel and Hardy Museum in Solingen will welcome a 45-piece brass band that studied Laurel and Hardy music for months in order to premiere a performance in a concert in the yard of the museum. On Tuesday 27th, the museum will co-organise an evening with the famous physics professor Metin Tolan. The professor will explain the science of physics with cuts from Laurel and Hardy films. Wolfgang says, "We expect a very interesting and funny evening, and a lot of people, so we will have his show in a school nearby." He adds, "On the next weekend, we shall have a cultural flee market, selling books, records and movie stuff to support the museum. Film find Steve Robinson saw an article in The Telegraph (03.08.11.) about the finding of a lost Alfred Hitchcock film. He says, "I wonder if they've got Hats Off!" The news item read: In a twist the Master of Suspense himself would have enjoyed, Alfred Hitchcock's earliest surviving film has been found languishing in a vault in New Zealand. All copies of The White Shadow, a silent film released in 1924, had been thought lost. Cinema historians call the discovery "priceless". Three reels containing the first half of the film had been stored deep in the bowels of the New Zealand Film Archive. The search is on for the other three. The director was 24 when he worked on what was billed as a "wild, atmospheric melodrama" starring Betty Compson as twin sisters, one angelic and the other "without a soul". At the time, silent Hollywood films were distributed worldwide and, while many prints were discarded and lost in the US, others survived abroad. The White Shadow owes its survival to Jack Murtagh, a projectionist in the English town of Hastings. After he died, it was sent for safekeeping to Wellington.   On the radio I managed to catch the last 30 minutes of a radio programme Double or Nothing (BBC Radio 4 Extra, 06.08.11.), presented by one half of The Now Show, Hugh Dennis. The subject of the show was double acts. Whilst there were some dubious inclusions, the 30 minutes dedicated to Laurel and Hardy were worth hearing. It was a repeat of a 2006 programme which focused exclusively on the UK and European tours. Glenn Mitchell took over the presentation of this section. There was a brief clip of John McCabe, plus lots of archive sound bites from the Boys. Two bits I had not heard before were very interesting, first an appeal by the Boys for support for a wounded servicemen's charity, done in a very serious and sincere mode. The second was a clip from a stage show in Norway, done in English, where Stan refers to Babe as "Gokke" one of the names used by European fans. If you missed it, you might be able to get it via the listen again option on the BBC website. The programme started at 9.00am and 7.00pm, but the Boys only took up the last 30 minutes. Dave Williamson The Laurel & Hardy Bowler Book Stan: Say, Ollie, I've just ordered that Bowler Book. Ollie: That's very good. I've heard that it's a very good book. Stan: Now, when I read it, I'll learn how to be a better bowler, and improve my bowling score. Ollie (looking at the camera): That book isn't about bowling! It's about bowler hats! Stan (with his hat off): But I don't need to learn about bowler hats. I've got one already. How about a book about top hats, instead? That way, I could learn to dance like that Fred Astaire fellow in the movies. Then I could put on the Ritz. Ollie: Now, why would you do that? A "Ritz" is a cracker! Stan: Gee you know a lot more than I do. Maybe I should just work on my bowling game. (Ollie looks at the camera, and the scene fades out).  Copyright 2011, by Super-Duper Spectacularly Astounding Productions, Limited (yes, very limited!) Happy returns It was young James Ross's birthday on 3rd August. He enjoyed a day trip with his family, but expressed anxiety to his dad Peter that he did not want to return to Glasgow too late to miss the meeting of the Call of the Cuckoos Tent. James is the tent's youngest member and the audience at the Panopticon sang "Happy Birthday" to him, to which he took a bow on the very stage where Stan Laurel made his début as a youngster in 1906.