The Terrible Catsafterme

After the vodka exposure from the night before, it was nothing short of a miracle that I was able to get up, get ready, and make my way downstairs to the lobby at 9:30am to meet up with The Wileys and David for the breakfast buffet at the Cafe in the Park restaurant in the hotel. But somehow I did… and with that, kicked off the final full day of the Sons of the Desert International Convention in Manchester, New Hampshire on Saturday, July 21, 2012.

Post wild night breakfast with David and the Wileys

Chuck McCann enters the breakfast area with a possible spy hot on his trail

After we shoveled down our breakfast, Jimmy, David, and I decided to visit the Currier Art Museum. This was a suggested place to visit and our name tags got us into the place for free. Although there were shuttles to get there, we opted to walk in the nice, warm weather. This was really the only item on the agenda that morning as the formal schedule didn’t begin until 1:30. The three of us browsed the museum for nearly two hours, taking in the many works of art and various exhibits. Not long before we left, we made a pit stop at the museum restaurant for a soda, and I played the flirtatious game of ‘daily edition and a coffee’ with the cashier.

The Currier Museum of Art – sadly no relation to Richard Currier of L&H fame

The Letter by Emile Meyer… which we referred to as The Lettaah!

Jimmy and I take the low road in the museum

The Seine at Bougival by Claude Monet

Woman Seated in a Chair by Pablo Picasso

Life imitates art

 

Portrait of Dr. Walter Landor by Gilbert Stuart, the artist who painted the George Washington portrait that wound up on the dollar bill

The three of us left the museum around 1:15 and embarked on our walk back to the hotel. Along the way, besides running into other Sons such as Bob and Co. & the Roger, we also happened upon a Ben & Jerry’s where it was far too tempting to not stop in for a cupful of ice cream.

 A fine moment with David that recalls our 2006 food shoveling extravaganza

When we finally arrived at the hotel, we saw that the 1:30 Putting Contest had already begun about 30 minutes earlier. I opted to go to the room and relax for about an hour, so I skipped not only the golf, but the Pee-Wee contest as well. It had been many, many years since I hadn’t participated in that, and most certainly the first year since I had won my first place trophy in 2006.

I resurfaced for the Historian’s Panel that ran from 3pm-5:30pm. This was somewhat of an ‘ask the experts’ that was meant to focus on the History of the Hal Roach Studios between 1914 and 1934. On the panel were Cole Johnson, Mark Johnson, Lou Sabini, Annette D’Agostino Lloyd, and Michael Agee. The discussion was quite long naturally, but contained some informative, even if at-times long-winded discussion of the challenges that have been faced in releasing Laurel and Hardy material to the home-video viewing market. Agee in particular focused on some future releases that he has planned. I’m anxious to see some of these come to fruition.

After the discussion that raged for over two hours, I was ready to engage in some more upbeat and lively conversation, which began at the Cocktail Mixer in the foyer outside the banquet room. Here we got to get our first glimpses of the many creative costumes that Sons were wearing in honor of their favorite Hal Roach Studios character. We mingled for nearly an hour, before adjourning into the main banquet room for the All Things New York banquet.

This was the first and only dinner banquet in the hotel, and it was hosted by the New York Founding Tent. The turkey and vegetable dinner was quite good. The New York tent provided the entertainment that included the stand-up comedy of Bob Greenberg, with Jonathan Smith joining him in a Laurel & Hardy impersonation, a few embarrassing songs, the introduction of Chuck McCann, and as the centerpiece an full re-enactment of a Howdy Doody Show hosted by Jack Roth. I have no doubt that this would have been more entertaining to the baby boomers who grew up watching the show. But as it was, it was very difficult to see from our table, so I kept myself busy by preparing a New York Egg Cream drink.

The show went on with a very lengthy auction hosted by Marshall Korby. Bob drove George Cook to raise the bid on Charley Chase’s Masonic membership card by several hundred dollars. Real smooth, George. The show ended around 11pm, with the show, the auction, and the announcement of the winners of the costume contest.

Our table at the New York banquet

Enjoying a wax apple at dinner

One of the more interesting costumes that strolled by our table

So tempted to continue the food shoveling tradition

The winners of the costume contest: Rich and Ellen Kaplan

Clarabell the Clown as portrayed by Dan Tremblay

Bob Greenberg, Steve Wichrowski, Irv Hyatt, me, and Jonathan Smith. Irv was the winner of the burnt Wichrowski jacket, which eventually was revealed to be a replica.

The thirteen Sons members who have been to every one of the 18 Sons of the Desert conventions: William Hamill, Roger Gillette, Kevin Mulligan, Glenn Campbell, Rick Lindner, Big Jimmy Wiley, Kris Wiley, Bruce Church, Marcia Opal, Steve Cesareo, Dwain Smith, Steve Wichrowski, Kathy Hess

With pal and fellow Ohioan Gene Sorkin

Gene was high bidder on this piece of signed Fernando Llera artwork

With tablemates Jette and Torben Moeller from Denmark

The Wiley clan

Young Bobby, heir to the throne to become the next Sons All-American boy

With trivia guru Kay Lhota

With Howdy Doody and Jack Roth. Howdy is on the far left.

Jeffrey Weissman is wearing an original Sons fez and making memories with my wax apple

Further exploits of Jeffrey and the wax apple

As good as bed sounded by 11pm, I opted to attend the “Ice Cream in Your Pajamas” soiree, even though I was fully clothed. Ice cream sandwiches were provided, and the movie was The Devil’s Brother. Just as I was easing into the film, the sound on the projector gave out, prompting a group from the peanut gallery to improvise ‘silly’ dialogue MSTK3000-style. I found it mostly unamusing, so David and I excused ourselves to the lobby where we hung out for a couple of hours just yakking away the final hours of the convention.

Bob at the pajama party

Late night talks with David and me apple

I eventually made it back to our room, finding Bob fast asleep, as well as a sign on the door indicating that our room had been quarantined. To give you some sense of how exhausted I was, I simply couldn’t make heads or tails of the sign and what it could have potentially meant, so I just eased on into the room and fell back into a deep slumber that felt as if it had had a long time coming.

The convention was drawing to a close, as was the entire two-and-a-half week trip.

In the next posting, we’ll wrap it all up neatly…

This entry was posted on Monday, January 21st, 2013 at 6:25 am and is filed under 2010's - Early, Laurel and Hardy, Vacations. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.