Continuing with the Sons of the Desert convention in Georgia…After our long, sweaty day in Harlem and our cool, brisk swim, it was time for the next item on the agenda: the Laurel and Hardy trivia contest. Since I have long prided myself on my L&H triva knowledge, I now enter the contest whenever possible. Beginning in 2000, the contest became a team-of-three effort, whereas beforehand it was a solo competition. I assembled my crack team of buffs the first morning of the convention. Amazingly, although I have been in all four of the team trivia challenges, I have never had a single common teammate.
Since we skipped the high school play in Harlem earlier, we were the only ones on time for the contest. The others hadn’t arrived back into Augusta yet, so our small group hung around looking like we were overly-anxious to get started. My partners in the contest were David Rodriguez, a long-time friend and former competitor when we were both vying for the trivia championship of 1988, and Peter van Rooij, a friend from the Switzerland tent. We named our team Swiss Miss To Bed We Will Go, a combination of all of our tent names. The sexual implication was lost on most. Our trivia Quizmasters were Henry Sorenson and John Duff.
The contest consisted of six teams, among them the obligitory British and German teams, the Way Out West team with Big Jimmy (above left), the team with Mike Senig and Ed Greim (right), and a team that had one member who would strike himself whenever his team missed a question (below left). Clearly we had some stiff competition.
Despite an initial lead, some of the other teams began to catch up and pull ahead, a fact that was aided in no small way by two teams getting the exact same question that we had already correctly answered (The Rainbow Club!!)
In the end, we were tied up with the Greim/Senig alliance and were forced into a tie-breaker. Henry tricked me by opening up the question “Several Laurel and Hardy films began with the letter B“ – to which I immediately began scribbling down the names of all of the “B” films. Then he concluded the question with “…but we’re not going to ask you any of them. Instead name all of the films that start with the letter T (excluding the word The).”
Not to keep you in suspense, we won the contest. We came up with all of the T films in 60 seconds except for one (That’s My Wife, for the record). This was my second team victory. Now, not to seem ungrateful for the win, but I had always wanted one of those Mr. Clean statues that used to be awarded in the early days of the contest. Instead all I got was some flimsy certificate awarded with no fanfare whatsoever. Not that winning a Laurel and Hardy trivia contest needs to put me on the evening news, but I was flabbergasted that I received a huge trophy and the prestigious traveling Stan Laurel shield for my dumb luck at winning the Pee-Wee contest, but for this – something I was proud of – nada.
Hands down, the weiners.
Note that our names were never added in.
Immediately following the trivia contest was the celebrity panel. Next up, read about Jean Darling and Payne Johnson.
Nice picture of you.
Jackie
July 6th, 2008