William Janney was the dramatic leading man in Laurel and Hardy’s 1934 feature film Bonnie Scotland. Never mind that his scenes as the romatic interest to starlet June Lang were more-or-less distractions to the boys’ comedy in the picture – that’s not his fault. He was there working alongside the boys and that’s enough to thrill any film buff including me. Other than his work with Laurel and Hardy, his film career mostly entailed bit parts and b-pictures, but I am still thrilled to say that I once was able to meet William Janney.
Our encounter came on August 2, 1980 at the Meet the Celebs session of the Sons of the Desert Hollywood ’80 convention. In fact, he was my first autograph on my last day at the convention. I never got the chance to meet William Janney again, but I was able to secure some autographed photos of him later on. I got my first one from Bob in 1986 and later Janney was kind enough to sign a graduation wish to me (at bottom) for a book of photos that Bob put together for me and presented to me at the Las Vegas Sons convention in 1992 – about five months before Janney passed away.
Meeting my first celeb of the day – William Janney. My future friend Bob Satterfield is on the extreme left in what surely must have been our first photo together. At least I think that’s him!
My graduation wish from William Janney
The celebs of Hollywood ’80 will continue…
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