The name Roy Seawright probably doesn’t mean much to the average Joe. But to me in 1986, he was a super-celebrity, having worked with Laurel and Hardy at the Hal Roach Studios as a special effects man. He was responsible for aiding Stan Laurel in igniting his thumb in Way Out West, smoking his thumb in Block-Heads, and wiggling his ears in Blotto. He helped design the special effects so that Laurel and Hardy could play their own sons in the film Brats and appear to be one-third the size of their parental counterparts. Since these films meant so much in my life, this made Mr. Seawright a huge celebrity and a highly desirable autograph in my eyes.
I had actually met Roy Seawright at the 1980 Hollywood Sons of the Desert convention and had him sign my little blue autograph book (see here), but after that I had had no further communication with him. As my interest in both L&H and autographs was flourishing in the Spring of ’86, I was extremely excited when I found out that Roy Seawright had not only sent along an autographed Christmas card to our Towed in a Hole Tent Grand Sheik Carl Ahlm, but had actually telephoned Carl as well. This prospect thrilled me and I knew that I simply must write to Seawright.
The prospect sounded good, but Carl was reluctant to give me his address. He had been sworn to secrecy by the folks who supplied it to him – namely one Bob Satterfield. I told Carl that I could simply ‘sneak’ the address off a letter from Seawright and that I would never reveal the source to that celebrity ganglord Satterfield. Of course the irony here is that I would soon meet up with Bob myself and he would be more than gracious in supplying me with both celebrity addresses and autographs that he would obtain for me. But for now, this Satterfield was a fly in the ointment.
Nevertheless, I obtained the address. I composed a nice letter to Roy Seawright – being certain to include my phone number within the letter – and mailed it off on May 27. This followed some other requests to celebrities from the previous week. I had sent Dickie Moore some Our Gang lobby cards on 5/22, which he signed and returned on 6/4; I sent Yoko Ono a record sleeve on 5/23 and she returned a different one on 6/27 – as seen here; and I sent Richard Nixon and Hal Roach each letters on 5/23 and they both went unanswered.
But back to the topic at hand…I received my response from Roy Seawright on June 9. He signed all three notecards that I sent to him and sent along one of his Christmas cards from the prior holiday (see above with a photo from his 80th birthday party). In addition, he sent along nine photocopies of magazine articles and photos, each one with handwritten notes on the back describing the photos. And of course, not long before that arrived, I received my phone call from Roy Seawright. At that point in my life, I may as well have been receiving a call from the President of the United States. As an Ohio boy, I just wasn’t too used to brushing with fame – especially in a one-on-one conversation scenario. We chatted for a good 15 minutes, and of course I then called everyone I knew to let them know what had just happened. It was an incredibly nice gesture from an incredibly nice man.
A copy of an article about Roy Seawright from a 1936 issue of Photoplay magazine
Photo of Roy with his inscription on the back of the photocopy
I would go on to have occasional communication with Roy Seawright over the next couple of years, receiving two more Christmas cards, at least one note, and one additional phone call on September 26, 1986. A little over two years after our initial communication, I finally got the chance to meet up with Roy Seawright again – this time at his home in Hermosa Beach…but that’s a tale for a different time…
Autographs of 1986 will continue…
Yes, Roy was one of the greats. I’m not at all surprised that he was so gracious to you. He and his wife Bunny were always so happy to make time for me and several Sons of the Desert pals. I have about 20 minutes of Super 8 sound film of him talking about working at Roach’s, and hours of tape. He was a great interview–he had a retentive memory and was articulate, even eloquent. I *hope* I have a copy of that Photoplay article around here–I recognize it but I’m not sure I have one. Thank you for reproducing it here!
Randy Skretvedt
January 30th, 2008
Hi Randy,
Did Roy Seawright ever talk about how he animated the wooden soldiers in Babes in Toyland? It is an extraordinary sequence. How he did get all those soldiers to stand and be able to be moved frame by frame?
Tony Laudati
July 25th, 2013