Laurel and Hardy and the Sons of the Desert are at the heart of Bowler Dessert magazine and Bowler Dessert Online
Bulletin
22.10.11.
UK DVD releases but nothing new Universal has released a set of ten dvds, of ten Laurel and Hardy feature films in black and white and colour, in a box resembling a suitcase. The films are all present in the previously released, familiar, 21-disc box set, but this new box lacks the extras and half of the shorts. Not recommended, therefore. Laurel & Hardy Christmas Special, due for release on 14th November, is a DVD with Below Zero, Big Business, The Fixer-Uppers and Laughing Gravy. All but Big Business are included in the black and white and colourised versions. Again the disc contains nothing which you do not already possess if you have the 21-disc set. Also repackaged, but not new, are two sets of DVDs with a total of six 20th-Century Fox feature films.
A good
month October has been
a good month for me. At the Britannia
Panopticon Music Hall in Glasgow on 5th
October the Call of the Cuckoos Tent
concluded our sixth season of Laurel and
Hardy film shows, open to members and the
general public alike. It was a
particularly lively audience who enjoyed a
novelty Betty Boop cartoon with strong
Laurel and Hardy connections. I was back at the
Panopticon (as a spectator) for a
presentation of short comedy silent films
on the 8th of the month. This time
Lawrence Dunn (with help from James Beyer)
included in his amazing selection of rare
curiosity items a short with Stan Laurel
and one with Oliver Hardy. The live
accompaniment of the four-piece orchestra
Gladstone's Bag (complete with sound
effects) was an absolute treat. Gladstone's Bag
will be back at the Panopticon on
Saturday
2nd
November
with a presentation of Dr Jekyll and Mr
Hyde (1920), starring John Barrymore.
The supporting programme will have Stan
Laurel in the parody Dr Pyckle and Mr
Pryde (1925). The show starts at
7.00pm. On 19th October I
took Mr Laurel and Mr Hardy on a return
visit to the Age Concern club in Largs,
where the on-screen antics were
appreciated by around fifty
members. Willie
McIntyre Temperate tents Phil Ruston tells us that there is still a shop in West Bromwich that has the original hand-painted sign of the Rechabites on the building. Wikipedia informs us that the Independent Order of Rechabites was a Friendly Society founded in England in 1835 as part of the temperance movement to promote total abstinence from alcoholic beverages. Always well connected in upper society and involved in financial matters, it gradually transformed into a financial institution which still exists, and still promotes abstinence. The Independent Order of Rechabites is named after the nomadic, abstaining Rechabites of the Old Testament. A branch is known as a "tent", since the biblical Rechabites lived exclusively in tents. Each tent was ruled by a High Chief Ruler, assisted by a High Deputy Ruler, Corresponding Secretary, Sick and Tent Stewards, Inside and Outside Guardians, a Levite of the Tent and a number of Elders. Phil says, "So close yet so very far from the Sons of the Desert." Council junkets? "Crazy £1.3m cost of council junkets" read a heading in the Daily Mail. It said, "Councillors spent at least £1.3 million in 2010/11 on events including wining and dining a Laurel and Hardy Appreciation Society and hosting the European Police Badminton Championships." The article made Janice Hawton angry and she wrote to the newspaper. Her letter was published on 10th October. She wrote, "I can assure you, there was no inappropriate quaffing of taxpayers' money. "I approached Renfrewshire Council to ascertain whether it would be possible for them to host a small drinks reception in our honour. There were several reasons for this request. There had been a successful UK Convention held in Paisley in 2001, and people were keen to return to the town. The host tent - The Bonnie Scotland Tent - meets on a monthly basis in the Tartan Rose in Paisley. We are the oldest surviving tent in the UK, that weekend seeing the tent celebrate our 35th anniversary. "There were eight nationalities represented in Paisley for the Convention. The Watermill Hotel was fully booked with Conventioneers, some staying in a local b&b used as an overspill. There was a highly successful walking tour of Paisley and, months later, I am still receiving positive feedback about the town. Some Conventioneers intend returning to Paisley with their wives in the near future, and only a few days ago, one of our American friends was back staying at the Watermill Hotel in order to attend our latest Tent meeting. "As a result of our Convention, there was money ploughed into the local community, to say nothing of the charitable donations made to, among others, Shopmobility Paisley, Erskine Hospital, Alzheimer's Scotland and The Waverley."
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Barbara Kent
RIP Silent
film star Barbara Kent died on 13th
October in Palm Desert, California. She
was 104 years old. She appeared with
Oliver Hardy and James Finlayson in No
Man's Law (1927). After
she had left acting Barbara rarely gave
interviews or even acknowledged that she
once had a film career.
On the radio On Radio 2 on 16th October, guest host Barbara Windsor did a brief section on comedians with a note on Laurel and Hardy. She played The Trail of the Lonesome Pine. Purple moment During Jon Lord's keyboard solo on the Deep Purple bootleg Final Truckin' album, he plays the Cuckoo Song. Stephen Barlow |
