The fun continued as we rolled into the last full day of the 17th International Sons of the Desert convention – Saturday, June 19, 2010. Our time together had felt like it had just begun and we were already winding down. Nevertheless, I was determined to make the most of the day ahead. There weren’t any planned activities for the morning, so Jimmy, David, and I decided to head over to Old Sacramento and check out the California State Railroad Museum when it opened at 10am.
This facility houses 21 restored locomotives and railroad cars. I’m not big into trains, but it was fun to browse the joint for a while. One passenger train that you could tour actually vibrated, simulating the feeling of movement down the tracks. There was a guy dressed in period attire that professed to be an honor of one train, showing us the cover of Time Magazine that he was on. In a moment of complete dopiness, I thought that it was the actual guy, before I realized that he was just speaking in character. On the upper level, a train bridge was constructed. And there was a really keen toy train model exhibit, with tons of pieces donated by Tom Sefton, who was at one time a member of the Sons of the Desert.
Ready to enter the California State Railroad Museum, as you may have guessed
Table for one!
With the Western Pacific No. 913 – which ran a freight and passenger service from Oakland to Salt Lake City from 1939-1960
On the bridge overlooking the museum
On the streets of Old Sacramento on the way back to the hotel
Jimmy and I headed back a little bit early because I wanted to catch the 11am presentation from Irv Hyatt on the Hollywood Victory Caravan. We saw a batch of rarities from the tour including color home movie footage, newsreels, photos, and audio interviews. Irv is currently working on a book about Laurel and Hardy’s U.S. tours, and he has been kind enough to tell me that he was partly inspired by me and the work that I had done in researching some of their local tours in Dayton.
After the presentation, I had somehow lost track of everyone, so wandered into Old Sacramento by myself. I ran into David who was approaching from the opposite end of the tunnel leading into the area. We had a light lunch at the Old Sacramento Sandwich Company, which cooked up a mean hotdog and provided Sun Chips.
An official Old Sacramento hotdog
Back at the hotel, David and I reported to The Laurel & Hardy Fun Factory banquet room for the trivia contest, hosted by Henry Sorenson and John Duff. Henry had told me that I was the only person at the convention who had been on two winning teams – in 2002 and 2006. In addition, both of my former teammates from the 2006 convention were going to be here, so we should consider reclaiming our title.
So David and I – along with Peter van Rooij, currently living in Indonesia, re-formed our team. In the last competition we had used the name Swiss Miss To Bed We Will Go – combining all of our tent names. This time we opted to use one of the ‘wrong answers’ we gave during the last competition – The Sanford Arms (What was the name of Ollie’s apartment complex in Block-Heads? The correct answer: The Elite Arms). I knew that our chief competition would be the same competition we had four years earlier – Dave Greim and the team that he was leading. In fact, the day before we had exchanged some trivia with him at dinner and it was clear that he was pretty brushed up, whereas I wasn’t at all.
The future of the Sons: Steve Wichrowski and Christopher Chubb get ready to head into the trivia contest
The Sanford Arms
The first few questions that we got were not only weighted in the 1940’s films, but all originated from the film A-Haunting We Will Go. Embarrassingly, even though that was the name of my tent for nearly 15 years, I missed two of them. I thought that we were doomed. Then Greim’s team, the New England Conglomerate, missed a question. I kept my ears perked to see if they might miss a second one as we began a streak of getting the rest of our answers correct. When they were asked the name of the restaurant from You’re Darn Tootin’, Dave’s teammate Carol Rugh belted out “The Pink Pup Cafe!!” WRONG!
Henry delivers a question – no doubt about the film A-Haunting We Will Go
Our contest of 2006 had come down to a tie-breaker with Dave’s team, each of us having a score of 9 out of 11. We were asked to name as many L&H films that we could that began with the letter ‘T’. So when it became clear that we would be facing another tie-breaker against the same time, I told my teammates to start thinking of all of the ‘T’ films and the ‘B’ films. And guess what. We got that same question once again…and aced it. We were the victors, despite the four questions that we got from A-Haunting We Will Go. Oh, but to balance it out, we were given the question about Ollie’s food selections from Any Old Port, an answer Dave Greim had just reviewed with us the night before. We were each given a certificate and three L&H books that we could distribute among ourselves.
Scrambling to include all of the ‘T’ films in the tie-breaking question
The winners with the trivia hosts Quizmaster John Duff, scorekeeper Mary May Vereen, and Quizmaster Henry Sorenson
This time they put our names on them
Next up on the agenda was Bob Satterfield’s presentation about Why Way Out West Is the Tent of the Stars. A few of his friends had arranged to get him out of the room before the start of the talk and give each attendee a Little Bob on a Stick (first introduced in Amsterdam) to wave when he took the stage. Cassidy helped out on this by telling Bob that Lois needed him because she was feeling ill – that she had perhaps drank a bottle of shampoo or something.
Little Bob makes an unwelcome return
The presentation itself was informative and fast-paced, covering tons of ground as Bob presented a slided show of the many celebrity guests the W.O.W. Tent has seen over the years, and ending the event with a batch of celebrity graves. After an hour, Bob’s seminar ended at 4:30.
Everyone assembled in front of the hotel at 5:15 to catch the buses that transported us to the Aerospace Museum for the evening’s Hollywood Victory Caravan banquet. It had been a refreshing change to get out to some interesting locations to have our evening meals and entertainment. Of course, being from Dayton, there wasn’t much of interest in this rather small museum that I hadn’t seen before at the more massive Dayton Air Force Museum. I did enjoy the Morphis simulator ride, not because it was good, but because Nadine had warned me as David and I boarded along with her that it would jostle you around so much that you would be forced to ‘cuddle with your neighbor’.
Outside in the airplane area of the Aerospace Museum of California
Among the planes at the museum. A Dayton boy such as myself won’t find much fascination here.
I sat at a table with the Wileys, David, Kathy Luhman, Kathy Hess and Ray Karch, who performed a few of his magic tricks for us. Don Neely’s Royal Society Jazz Orchestra provided the music for the evening and we had a great buffet – the best meal of the convention. Winners of the golf, pee wee, and trivia (that’s us) contest were announced. Club 13 – the elite group of individuals who have attend every one of the 17 conventions – gathered to toast with champagne. As usual, I got to drink Kris’ glass. For the record, both Jimmy and I have been to 14 conventions, so we have a ways to go.
Another bonus was having Phyllis Coates, who played Lois Lane in the first season of The Adventures of Superman, with us. This was the fourth occasion that I had the pleasure of meeting her, following seeing her in 1992, 1997, and 2007. There was also a special sneak preview of an upcoming documentary about Stan Laurel, capped with a screening of the last known film take of Stan at his apartment in Santa Monica. Overall, it was a great banquet and a nice way to end our final night together.
David, me, Jimmy, and Rick Lindner at the Hollywood Victory Caravan banquet
With Dwain Smith – Grand Old Man of the Sons (not official title)
With convention hosts Becky Kane and Irene Velasquez
With Bart Williams and Phyllis Coates
With Lana Paulhamus and Mary May Vereen. Mary May is the daughter of Hal Roach prop specialist Thomas Benton Roberts, who appeared in Laurel and Hardy’s Two Tars
After the trivia contest defeat, Pvt. Gen. Ed Greim joined the Navy…to forget and be forgotten
The Sanford Arms take their bows
The 13 individuals who have been to every convention
Drinking the mystical beverage of the exclusive Club 13
Ray Karch entertains us with his delightful dinnertime illusions
We went back to the hotel on the buses at 10pm and again gathered in the hotel bar with David, Bob, Kathy Luhman, and the Duffs for some more wine and late night laughter and frivolity.
Late night chowderflopping with Janet, Bob, and Kathy
The next morning, we had our traditional Honolulu Baby breakfast buffet and Passing of the Pineapple to the next convention hosts, Manchester, New Hampshire’s On the Loose Tent. Raffle winners were announced and Tommy and Lucy put on a little close-up magic show. The breakfast was scheduled to go until noon but was over by 10:30…much too quickly. I circled the room saying goodbye to some great friends who I won’t see again for at least two years, snapping pictures with some of my favorites.
Jimmy was presented with the “Solid Gold Reel Pal” award for his assistance with various media at the convention – including the setup and design of the convention website
The passing of the pineapple, with one person representing each convention (although many were a stretch), to Steve and Carol Rugh
Christopher Chubb inquires as to whether Jimmy’s award is really solid gold
Lori assists Lucy as she performs a magic trick for the masses
Farewell breakfast with Nadine
Bidding Lois good tidings
So long to Cassidy and Lucy
See ya’ around, Gene Sorkin, who ‘grew up’ in my tent before starting his own
Another fabulous meeting with Phyllis Coates
Catch you at the next one, Stan Laurel impersonator Bill Leavy
It was time to head home. David, Jimmy, and I went up to my room to transfer the pictures I had taken with his camera to my laptop, while Bob waited impatiently in the lobby to take me just five miles north to the airport. My flight was scheduled to leave at 2:53pm, and I got there around noon – so I had a while to wait. Fortunately I found that the Sacramento International Airport had free wi-fi service.
Frontier airlines was also kind enough to check my bag for free since they had a crowded flight. Although I did get an exit seat, I had to sit next to a tobacco-chewing young fool who tried to buy beer with cash on the first flight. We got to Denver at 6:15 (losing one hour) and left at 7:10, leaving me just enough time to get some McDonalds in the airport. Thankfully, no one was next to me on the second flight, which arrived in Dayton at 11:43pm. Dad picked me up and took me back to my car at his place.
I got home around close to 1am, ready to dive into the repairs to the water heater and my car battery that awaited me. It seemed to always suck coming home.
2010 will continue…
Return to the beginning of the convention here…
Return to the beginning of the Northern California road trip here…
To see clips of my interview and portions of the trivia contest (I am in the last two videos), click here…
The Hotel made available a shuttle for only $12. You could have had them shuttle your ass over to the airport later and not had to wait at the airport and I could have been half way home! And you would not have been in convenienced any. And it was 12 miles in the wrong direction, not 5! Make it 24 miles out of my way! UGH!
Bob
September 1st, 2010