Laurel and Hardy and the Sons of the Desert are at the heart of Bowler Dessert magazine and Bowler Dessert Online
Bulletin
09.11.11.
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Marion Grave in hospital again I had a telephone chat with Lucy Cubin last night (8th November) regarding Marion's latest hospital treatment. Poor Marion is going back into hospital in North Wales yet again on Thursday 10th November. The plan is to do some looking around [full details omitted] the hip region and the prospect of a 7 hour operation is looming. Sounds a bit horrid! Anyway, poor Lucy is a bit distraught and of course Marion is a bit concerned so let's do what we can to support them as best we can. A card and flowers etc would be a lovely thing, or a visit if not too difficult? Marion Grave will be residing on Powis Ward at:- The Robert Jones and Agnes Hunt Orthopaedic and District Hospital C'mon gang, do your best. Fraternally
yours, Hat auction Christmas is around the corner. You may have a spare £8000 to spend on that special gift for the Laurel and Hardy fan in your life. Why not buy one of Stan's very own bowler hats? Christie's auction house in London will be auctioning this hat on 23rd November. See www.nuttynutnewsnetwork.com for more information on the sale. Dean McKeown Tom McGrath's
play in York Martin and I
(members of Blockheads Tent, Edinburgh)
attended the Laurel and Hardy play
in York on Tuesday 2nd November. We had
chosen that evening as there was an
after-show discussion. I think this was
the seventh version of the play we have
seen. Stan was played by Martin Barrass,
who is popular with York audiences. He
usually plays the gormless character in
the Christmas pantos, which is why I
think he was chosen. Ollie was played by
Andre Vincent. The set was the
most technical and inventive I have seen;
they tend to be sparse. The stalls had
been floored over, with the space being
used to house ladders and a long work
table which went up and down. The theatre
was "in the round" with audience at the
back and front of the stage - Andre and
Martin were excellent at playing to both
sides. An addition was
Ethel the chimp who came in handy to deal
with doors and windows that were jammed!
At the after-show discussion, someone
thought she was a distraction, but we
thought she added to the
humour. The physical gags
were good - this was the messiest I've
seen, involving lots of wallpaper
paste! The actors set
out to give an impression of Stan and
Ollie rather than a replica. They
were very good at changing from
the main characters to play, for example,
Stan's first wife Mae or Hal
Roach. Andre had a
pleasant singing voice, and they both
danced very well to At the Ball, That's
All. The pianist and
musical director Christopher Madin was
excellent. He had a real skill for
describing the scene in music. At the after-show
discussion I thought we were the only
Sons, but Martin was at the football in
York and was approached by a Sheffield Son
who had been there. Unfortunately
there are no plans to tour the production,
which is a pity as all the team had put in
such a lot of work to make the play
such a success. Christine
Craig  Vote for Babes Website http://www.radiotimes.com has a poll for readers to vote for "The best Christmas film of all time". Babes in Toyland (1934) is one of the suggested titles. Fave teams Almost 6000 movie buffs voted in a poll centring on, "Who's Your Favourite Pre-1965 Movie Comedy Team?" at the MovieFanFare.com blog site. On 3rd November, 2011 the results revealed that Bud Abbott and Lou Costello ran neck-and-neck with Stan Laurel and Oliver Hardy to top the list. "The poll was very close for a few days after we first posted it," said Ed Weiss, general manager of Movies Unlimited. "But the comedy teams of Abbott and Costello and Laurel and Hardy eventually pulled away from the rest of the pack. The fact that so many people voted for these dynamic duos shows that movie fans take their comedy seriously." Fans of the site are known to be hardcore movie collectors who prefer older classics to the newer films of today. |
Laughing Gravy
Tent
It's a game I'm a huge Laurel and Hardy fan. We have just released a retro-style iPhone game called Doodle Driver, and we were able to license Leroy Shield's music (four songs) from Laurel and Hardy and Our Gang films. If you or any family members have an iPhone or iPod touch, you may want to check it out! Here's the link to the game on iTunes: http://itunes.apple.com/us/app/doodle-driver/id455670996?mt=8&ign-mpt=uo%3D4. Drew Ramsey
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A hold-up at the publishers has put back
the appearance of John Ullah's book on
Charlie Hall.